Square Roots

 

A simple, yet effective design, this one from about 1820-1840

from the New Jersey project.

I've used variations on this pattern several times. Here's one from my book

Making History done in William Morris reproduction prints.

The block is a basic square in a square, published with names in the 1930s but much older than that. It's #2375a in the old BlockBase and the new BlockBase+. But what makes the quilt above work so well is the shading trick, alternating color emphasis, a design technique called counterchange.

What's dark in one block is light in the next.

And if you are successful you get a secondary pattern

of a star.

Quilt from about 1890-1925

With three shades the star becomes more prominent.

I have been drawing it up in EQ8 in my Ladies Legacy Civil 

War era fabrics from Moda....

Inspired by this antique from an online auction.

But when I look at the shading on this one I realize it's even simpler.

A pattern so basic it doesn't have a name. Nobody

ever published it so it's Unnamed and Unknown in BlockBase+

But at least it's in there.

Certainly quilters made it with or without a published pattern. 

This one maybe 1900-1920?

Once again a simple shading change makes a more complex design

and a more interesting quilt.

The unnamed X blocks are all shaded the same but rotated. And the alternate squares are shaded in dark and light rows. Think in rows.

Took me a while to figure that out in EQ8.

10-inch Layer Cakes cut into 4 triangles with two cuts will

give you a finished block about 9 inches. (I'm guessing.)

Well then I saw this red, white and blue fragment on eBay.

Looked familiar but it's not what I first thought.

Once again it's a simple block alternated with a plain

square shaded counterchange fashion 

It's NOT in BlockBase+.

Rats. But if it were it would be #1000 as a set for a simple four-patch on point...

Block maybe 1900-1940?

...which once again is so basic nobody ever published a pattern

so it's not in BlockBase (where it should be #2380.5)

What next?

Ladies' Legacy is perfect for this pattern with all its red, white and blues.

All the four-patch blocks are shaded the same but rotated in

rows. The plain, unpieced squares are dark in one row, light in the next.

Pretty simple, pretty cool.

Now I keep saying "simple" but if you are thinking of making these square-in-a-square blocks
you need to be careful to get your points to line up at the block seam. It's easy to blunt them. A challenge but it will be good practice in points.

See a post I did a while ago on these two block designs:

https://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2019/12/square-in-squarediamond-in-square.html

Other patterns we've done for Ladies' Legacy.

Look for Patriot Dream Quilt Pattern by Wendy Sheppard.

And Squared away by Nova Birchfield for It'sSewEmma.