Tessellations 2: Four-Sided Shapes

BlockBase #131a

Hit and Miss

I've been sorting my single-shape pictures, using BlockBase numbers.

They tell me any quadrilateral will tessellate or tile, meaning you need only one pattern shape to cover the surface.

The basic quadrilateral is a square--- So basic I forgot

to give it a BlockBase number under one-patch quilts.

BlockBase #2286b

Postage Stamp or Trip Around the World

But I did give them a separate section with pattern classified by

shading rather than shapes.

BlockBase #2276-2299

From Cindy's Antiques shop

From the RickRack blog

BlockBase #2286c

There are many ways to shade a quilt of squares.

From Rocky Mountain Quilts

Not in BlockBase

The trouble with indexing quilts of just squares---

when do they become a regular old block pattern---a four patch or a nine patch like the one above?

Moving on......

Screen shot of four-sided shapes from BlockBase

I started the four-sided category with rectangles and focused mostly on shading and placement.

#131a

The common early-20th-century throw of wool tailor's samples.

This is often called Stacked Bricks today.

Any rectangle, whatever the proportions, will tessellate.

19th-century quilt from Rocky Mountain Quilt Shop

Color variations on shading pattern

BlockBase #132b

19th-century quilt sold at Skinner's Auctions

Early-20th-century Hit and Miss

Late-19th-century charm quilt.

No two pieces alike?

1 piece; 2 fabrics

Names for #132b I found in print when I wrote the original Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns about 1980:

• Old Garden Wall
• Streak O'Lightning
• Zig Zag
• General Sherman's Quilt (?!)
• Depression Quilt

I suppose a Depression Quilt meant a functional,

tied throw made of old clothes.....

Pattern on the diagonal from about 1900. 

I didn't give it a BlockBase number

1930's Amish quilt from Stella Rubin Antiques

Blockbase # 132c

More 4-sided tessellations later.