One-patch, continuous, and border blocks

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These blocks are either

  • one-patches, meaning that only one shape is used for the quilt
  • border blocks, or
  • continuous blocks, which end in something other than a straight edge.

Clam Shells

Apple Core

Thousand Pyramids

The
Mowing Machine

Ocean Waves

Shadows

Tumbler

Tumbler
variation
(Finley)

Ribbon Border

The Rail Fence

The World Fair Quilt

Picket
Fence

The Rope Strands

Right Angles Patchwork

Inner City

Crazy Tile

Ecclesi-astical

Hex, Y,
and Tri


Clam Shells Clam Shells KCS, 1932 Shell Chain/Clam Shell/The Cam Shell Quilt/The Shell/Shell Quilting It's not the oldest name, but Clam Shells is the one that stuck to this one-patch block. It's from a 1932 Kansas City Star. Clam Shells was first published as Shell Chain in the 1897 Ladies Art Company catalog (#62). Ruth Finley, in her Old Patchwork Quilts (1929), called it Clam Shell. The rest of the block names -- from Home Art Studios, Q Book 130, and Nancy Page -- came along from 1933 to 1941. For details, check out Jinny Beyer's The Quilter's Album of Patchwork Patterns (2009). We haven't named a tutorial for making the block; they're easy to find on the web. We've posted a diagram, though. Click on the Make It! icon to see it.		Clam Shells

Apple Core Apple Core Kansas City Star 1933 Charm Quilt/Friendship Quilt When you cut and sew this block, you need to be extra careful to avoid stretching the fabric. Starching each piece in advance is a good idea. While this block was published in the Star in 1933 and in Hall's Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in 1935, the origin of its most often-used name, Apple Core, is lost somewhere in the past.		Apple Core

Thousand Pyramids Thousand Pyramids Finley, 1929 Joseph's Coat/Red Shields/Pyramids/ Triangles "Let no one imagine that these all-over one-patch quilts were easy to design," wrote Ruth Finley in Old Patchwork Quilts (1929). "They require the eye of a true artist both as regards color and form." Thousand Pyramids, like Honeycomb and Tumblers, is a perfect block for scraps. To a thrifty wife, a worn-out shirt meant finding a piece of cloth just big enough to make one little block. The block is also called Joseph's Coat (Doyle), Red Shields (Cabot, ca. 1935, Pyramids (Bruce Johnson), or Triangles (Khin, 1980). We thank Barbara Brackman and her Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns for the alternative names.		Thousand Pyramids

The Mowing Machine The Mowing Machine KCS, 1943 This 1943 block from the Kansas City Star is ideal for a scrap quilt, since each hexagonal block can be made up in lights and darks of a different color. It doesn't take much fabric to make a single block. We suspect that the mowing machine worked on fields rather than front lawns, but it could have been either. The lawn mower was invented in Britain in 1830, according to the Old Lawnmower Club, in Britain—14 years before Cyrus McCormick even got a patent for his McCormick Reaper.		The Mowing Machine Quilt

Ocean Waves border Ocean Waves Ladies Art Co., #182, 1897 The Ladies Art Company published Ocean Waves as #182 in 1897. The block was always intended as a border; the illustration showed ragged edges on each side of the block, and the finished size (if you bought the pattern) was six inches by twelve. It's basically a grid of right isosceles triangles in two colors. There is an Ocean Waves block pattern that puts this motif into an O. Click here to see: The border block, however, was always intended to be a border.		Ocean Waves border

Shadows border Shadows Hall, 1935 Carrie Hall, quilt researcher, stitched up one of these blocks for her collection of block designs, now at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas. Hall collected the designs in the 1930s. To show it as a border block, Hall's example was three triangles wide and two triangles tall.	Shadows border	Shadows

Tumbler Tumbler Tumbler Tumbler is a one-patch quilt that uses a single shape like the one at left. The proportions aren't set in stone. The option we've used is from Susan Clair (aka The Gourmet Quilter). Her tutorial here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxAPnYRbIVM uses blocks that taper from 5" wide to 3." There are plastic templates aplenty on the web.		Tumbler
The Tumbler The Tumbler (variation) Finley, 1929 Ruth Finley used the Tumbler version at left in her Old Patchwork Quilts: And the Women Who Made Them (1929).		Tumbler (Finley)

Ribbon Border Ribbon BorderRibbon Border Ribbon Border Ladies Art Co., #157, 1897 Beach & Boats Ribbon Border was block #157 in the Ladies Art Company catalog of 1897. Jinny Beyer's Quilter's Album tells us that Nancy Cabot, columnist at the Chicago Tribune, called it Beach & Boats in 1937. Ribbon Block Ribbon Border

Rail-Fence border Rail-Fence Finley, 1929Streak o' Lightning/Zig Zag/Snake-Fence/Dog's Tooth Finley's Rail-Fence is made entirely of triangles. The block and all its names are from Finley (1929) except for Dog's Tooth. For that name we thank Brackman's Encyclopedia; the book cites Ann S. Wooster's Quiltmaking (1972) as the source. The design is often called Streak o' Lightning, which is also the name of a very popular Log Cabin design.	A rail fence in California's Yosemite Valley. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia Commons


The World Fair Quilt The World Fair Quilt KCS, 1943 The Kansas City Star published The World [sic] Fair Quilt in 1943. The Star didn't show it as a border block, but it's so well suited for one that we thought it belonged here. We've reversed the dark and light colors to show the seams.		The World Fair Quilt

The Picket Fence Quilt The Picket Fence Quilt KCS, 1954 Like The World Fair Quilt, The Picket Fence Quilt is an ideal border block, although it was not published as one. When The Kansas City Star's Weekly Edition published it in 1954, the illustration didn't match the pattern piece printed along with it. The block at at top left is based on the pattern. The block at bottom left is based on the illustration. The Star pointed out that two settings were possible, one horizontal, the other vertical.	Picket Fence pattern: The legs are three times as long as they are wide.	Picket Fence illustration: The legs are twice as long as they are wide.

The Rope Strands The Rope Strands KCS, 1941 The Rope Strands appeared in The Kansas City Star in 1941. The rectangles were made from a single print fabric, and the long hexagons were a lighter solid. "Some other quilter might substitute red for print and fancy she saw cottage roof lines," the KCS added. It would work fine in place of a Streak 'o' Lightning, Rail-Fence, or Picket Fence Quilt -- or as a border, which is how we would use it.	The Rope Strands	Above, as a border block.

Right Angles Patchwork Right Angles Patchwork Saward & Caulfield 1882 Barbara Brackman's classic Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns includes this block, originally published in The Dictionary of Needlework (1882). That book was the work of Sophia Frances Anne Caulfield and Blanche C. Saward and was republished in 1972. The only difference between Right Angles Patchwork (1882) and Inner City, below, is that Inner City splits each piece into half-hexagons.		Right Angles Patchwork

Inner City Inner City Beyer, 1977 Windy City At left is a single Inner City block and the half-hexagon pieces that create it. The name is from Jinny Beyer's Patchwork Patterns (1977). The name Windy City appears without citation in Maggie Malone's 5,500 Quilt Block Designs (2003). The dark, medium, and light colors need to be placed as they are in the graphic for the block's overall effect to work.		Inner City

Crazy Tile Quilt Crazy Tile Quilt KCS, 1939 Our Crazy Tile Quilt graphic features the inexplicable color combination recommended by the Kansas City Star, which published this block in 1939. You'll notice that the block is made up of half-hexagons; the illustration in the Star was a hexagon like the one at left. Once it's in a full-sized layout, however, the hexagons disappear. You see, instead, a three-part shape that is like a six-color Inner City.		Crazy Tile Quilt

Ecclesiastical Ecclesiastical Ladies Art Co., 1897 The Ladies Art Company published this block in 1897, showing it as a square block. The name pegs the pattern as reminiscent of a church window, or seat cushion, or wallpaper, or moulding -- who knows? In any case, it makes for an elegant whole quilt made entirely of half-hexagons.		Ecclesiastical

Clam Shells

Thousand Pyramids

Ocean Waves border

Shadows border

Tumbler

The Tumbler

The Tumbler
(variation)
Finley, 1929 Ruth Finley used the Tumbler version at left in her Old Patchwork Quilts: And the Women Who Made Them (1929).

Ribbon Border
Ribbon BorderRibbon Border

Ribbon Border
Ladies Art Co., #157, 1897 Beach & Boats

Ribbon Border was block #157 in the Ladies Art Company catalog of 1897. Jinny Beyer's Quilter's Album tells us that Nancy Cabot, columnist at the Chicago Tribune, called it Beach & Boats in 1937.

The World Fair Quilt

The Picket Fence Quilt

Right Angles Patchwork

Inner City

Ecclesiastical

Clam Shells

Thousand Pyramids

Ocean Waves border

Shadows border

Tumbler

The Tumbler The Tumbler (variation) Finley, 1929 Ruth Finley used the Tumbler version at left in her Old Patchwork Quilts: And the Women Who Made Them (1929).

Ribbon Border Ribbon BorderRibbon Border Ribbon Border Ladies Art Co., #157, 1897 Beach & Boats Ribbon Border was block #157 in the Ladies Art Company catalog of 1897. Jinny Beyer's Quilter's Album tells us that Nancy Cabot, columnist at the Chicago Tribune, called it Beach & Boats in 1937.

The World Fair Quilt

The Picket Fence Quilt

Right Angles Patchwork

Inner City

Ecclesiastical

The Tumbler

The Tumbler
(variation)
Finley, 1929 Ruth Finley used the Tumbler version at left in her Old Patchwork Quilts: And the Women Who Made Them (1929).

Ribbon Border
Ribbon BorderRibbon Border

Ribbon Border
Ladies Art Co., #157, 1897 Beach & Boats

Ribbon Border was block #157 in the Ladies Art Company catalog of 1897. Jinny Beyer's Quilter's Album tells us that Nancy Cabot, columnist at the Chicago Tribune, called it Beach & Boats in 1937.