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Quilt Notes: BlOWING IN THE WIND is unique to Maggie Malone's 5,500 QUILT BLOCK DESIGNS, included in her "Four Patch" section (#2101), and likely designed by Malone herself, especially as it is not attributed elsewhere, nor is the block listed in any of the other major compendiums. The design is interesting in its construction — a large diamond set inside an octagon, the diamond then cut away to produce the pinwheel like form. A very simple pattern really, and yet entirely unique, with no other block that could be located that might imitate it.
Although a very different design, the inset of a pattern within an octagon does appear in VICE PRESIDENT'S BLOCK, however (honoring Millard Fillmore and illustrated in the Ladies Art Company Catalogue (LAC #298) in the, late 19th c.. See also Nancy Cabot's rendering left, clipped from the Chicago Tribune (July 8, 1934).
In addition, the general idea of an octagon overlaid with a pinwheel can be seen in COLONIAL PAVEMENT and KANKAKEE CHECKERS, also JACK IN THE BOX or MYSTIC MAZE.
As regards the piecing of BLOWING IN THE WIND, see the illustration upper right, with diagonal bars set along the sides of the diamond and which then connect (magnificently!) in the tiling pattern as illustrated below.
FOLLOW THE LEADER might also work well as a companion for this pattern, not only as an octagonal block, but because it seems to express the same vague sense of being turned or tossed in the wind, almost like the flapping of flags. Finally, more patterns drafted as octagons at this site would include:
RISING SUN (with Zinaida Serebriakova)
GRANDMA'S SURPRISE
PIGEON TOES (see the tiling pattern)
GEORGETOWN CIRCLES
CRAZY ANN
CHINESE COIN
TOWERS OF CAMELOT
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BLOWING IN THE WIND