Barb Fife used Jelly Roll precut strips
to piece this quilt from my Morris Apprentice print collection
from last year.
I wanted to find a name in my BlockBase program
for PC's. But when I looked it up I couldn't find the exact design.
It should be right next to BlockBase #1110, a four-patch made of two rectangles, but the published names only show a kind of stairstep shading arrangement rather than a pinwheel. All the published 20th-century names have to do with stairs.
Endless Stairs
London Stairs
Winding Stairway
I used a variation of Endless Stairs in my Grandmother's Choice sampler last May.
Endless Stairs by Becky Brown
And there are plenty of variations with three strips in each of the four-patches all numbered 1111 in BlockBase.
Barb said she tried the stairstep idea but preferred rotating the squares around to make a pinwheel. With the dark and white contrast it works quite well, creating a tessellated design where it's hard to figure out the block at first glance.
Did Barb invent a new pattern?
It's hard to believe no one ever did this simple design before---or at least published it with a name. But since Barb invented it she gets to name it. She's thinking about Spinning Sevens and planning to work out a pattern to sell.
UPDATE: I figured somebody had to have published this interesting shading. Mary Says Sew sez Jackie Robinson in her Tessellations book published it as "A Tess Called Edna." So I am giving it the BB#1110b
and crediting Jackie. If Barb publishes hers we will have two names.