Square in a Square/Diamond in a Square

Basic piecing in a patchwork fragment from about 1850.

From an online auction.

A square in a square block alternating with plain printed squares set on point.

Same pattern 30 years later

The pattern is BlockBase 2375, a square inside another square,

one set of triangles in the corners.

Names:

Triangle Design from Woman's World in 1931.

Broken Sash from several sources.

Today the vernacular name (what everybody calls it) is

Diamond in a Square

Basic patchwork as in this glazed wool quilt from the 

Connecticut Historical Society, dated 1815 by Lucy Arnold.

But really it is a square inside a square.

Dated 1832, from the New Jersey project

and the Quilt Index

If you alternate dark centers and light in the design idea called counterchange you get a familiar star effect.

Shenandoah Valley, Virginia

About 1840

End of the 19th century crib quilt

The pattern was popular with piecers between 1890 and 1920.

Side by side

Alternated with plain squares

Sashed with corner stones

Here shaded differently in opposite corners to give a different shape.

Fat sash and mini-blocks in the cornerstones

Another variation: set as a medallion in the way the Welsh do. This one

for sale at Jen Jones's shop

https://www.jen-jones.com/quilts/patchwork-quilts/product/diamond-in-a-square-welsh-patchwork-quilt

Welsh quilt in the Lyon County(Kansas) Museum

Amish quilt from a Skinner Auction

A design idea the American Amish probably picked up from

their Welsh neighbors in Pennsylvania.

We call these Center Diamonds

Quilt about 1810-1840, Ipswich Museum Collection

from the Massachusetts project and the Quilt Index

Americans were not too inclined to do this kind of grand-scale geometry until later.

The above construction is rather uncommon in chintzes and toiles.

You can, of course, go on turning and adding more triangles to make

a square inside a square inside a.....

BlockBase 

Same quilt as the 1850 quilt at the top of the page---a century later---

different prints.