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 Crazy Ann **&

Most of the blocks below are asymmetric, but not all are strictly pinwheels.

As always, click on a block to go directly to its description.

Dove in the Window
Lend & Borrow
Women's World
Lend & Borrow
KCS
Flamingos in flight
Victory
Arrowhead Puzzle
Brackman
Pinwheel Square
Crazy Ann
Crazy Ann
Gutcheon
Perpetual Motion

See also:
Big Dipper
Potted Roses
Coming soon

Dove-in-the-Window

Dove-in-the-Window
Dove-in-the-Window
Dove in the Window
Finley, 1929
Ruth Finley, in her 1929 book Old Patchwork Quilts, attributed the name of this block to a country tradition of boring holes under the eaves of the barn to accommodate pigeons, which were the farm boy's pets.

Dove-in-the-Window would also work well as a scrap quilt.

Lend & Borrow

Lend & Borrow
Lend & Borrow
Malone
The version at left is from Maggie Malone's 5,500 Quilt Block Designs. She cites, among other sources, Woman's World magazine.

Lend & Borrow

Lend & Borrow
Lend & Borrow
Kansas City Star
1933

Rocky Glen/The Lost Ship/Indian Meadow/Little Saw Tooth/Lost Ship

This block usually goes by Lend & Borrow; its first publisher under that name was the Kansas City Star (1932).

Our graphic is in the colors recommended by the Star's quilt columnist, Evelyn Foland, who added, "The entire quilt is always made of the pieced blocks when this pattern is used."

Prior to that, Ruth Finley, in 1929, called it Rocky Glen and The Lost Ship.

Flamingos in Flight





Flamingos in Flight
Flamingos in Flight
Cabot
1938
Nancy Cabot's Chicago Tribune column featured this intriguing block in 1938.

The pattern is made from four Lend & Borrow blocks arranged as we've shown below. Each block is set at a 180-degree turn from its neighbors.

It makes for such an interesting, emphatic diagonal pattern as a whole quilt that we almost included it with our diagonal blocks.



Flamingos in Flight is made of four Lend & Borrow blocks

Victory





Another layout in dazzling patriotic colors
Victory
Stone,
1906




Victory
Victory, one of Clara Stone's 1906 blocks, is without ancestors or progeny, and it is one of the more inventive and interesting designs we've seen. It doesn't seem to fit a standard grid: We traced the block to arrive at the graphic at left.

As much as we like the idea that the block celebrated the end of a war, it did not: 1906 was a normal year. Patriotic colors are not required.

We think, too, that the subtler shades make the design pop out a bit more than our red, white, and blue version.

Arrowhead Puzzle

Arrowhead Puzzle (Brackman)
Arrowhead Puzzle
Brackman
This block is from Aunt Martha booklet #3614, according to Barbara Brackman, who included it in her Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Blocks. The block was published about 1963, per Jinny Beyer's Quilter's Album.

Pinwheel Square







Pinwheel Square Pinwheel Square
LAC, #231
1897 Another block from the Ladies Art Company, published as #231 in 1897, and the starting point for several other block designs covered below.

Crazy Ann





Crazy Ann in just two colors




Crazy Ann (Finley)
Crazy Ann
Finley, 1929
Twist & Turn/Follow the Leader/Crazy Anne

Crazy Ann is a simpler version of the LAC's Pinwheel Square(#231); it lacks diagonal seams from the inner to the outer squares.

The whole quilt for the original two-color block is so muddy that we added a few more shades.

The block is from a 1929 book by Ruth Finley: Old Patchwork Quilts: And the Women Who Made Them. Finley found the first three names listed above; the other we owe to the Kansas City Star.

We have no idea where the original name came from. We suspect it was a 13-year-old boy. If so, Ann pwned him big time.


Crazy Ann

Crazy Ann
Gutcheon, 1973 Crazy Ann (Gutcheon) Of the many color combinations quilters have used to gussy up Pinwheel Square (above), one of the most interesting is the four-color version called Crazy Ann.

Author Barbara Brackman credits the design to The Perfect Patchwork Primer (Gutcheon, 1973).

As a whole quilt, the block creates a candy-cane windowpane. We like it a lot.

Perpetual Motion





Perpetual Motion Perpetual Motion
Cabot, 1936 The Chicago Tribune published this block by designer Nancy Cabot in 1936.