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Quilt Notes: In her ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PICED QUILT PATTERNS, Barbara Brackman illustrated MOSAIC SQUARES (#4037) in her section titled, "Miscellaneous (= doesn't fit into any other category) Blocks with Diamonds," and which also includes CUBE LATTICE and PATIENCE CORNERS (2), along with HANDS ALL AROUND, etc. Maggie Malone's 5,500 QUILT BLOCK DESIGNS simply adds it into her Nine Patch Patterns section (#1069). Because of the center square, it's easy to determine the nine-patch division, though such designs are not always so obvious.
In her notes, here and elsewhere, Nancy Cabot employs a wonderfully special idea, it's called, "quiltdom." It refers to the world of quilts, including all its aspects, but especially its design names/ideas, and their history. Cabot seems to have concocted the expression herself, somewhat playfully. It's particularly important here, though, because MOSAIC SQUARES could be interpreted, not only in reference to ancient patterns, but actually to "patchwork blocks" themselves, since every one of them is in fact just that, a square mosaic.
Cabot twice published different designs by this same name, but in her column for this version on June 2, 1936, she comments:
"A popular favorite among the pieced patterns from 1841 to the present time is the quaint and charming "Mosaic Squares." The clever use of prints set together to resemble the exquisite mosaics created by the ancients has been skillfully reproduced by the artists of quiltdom."
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MOSAIC SQUARES
