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Block · Squares and four-patches

Snowball

A large light square with its four corners cut off, so it becomes an octagon.

Other names
Snebold
Known from
USA, from the mid-1800s
First known print
The Ladies' Art Company's catalogue of 1898 has the shape as Octagon (no. 198); the catalogue's Snowball (no. 104) is another block, of curves.
Origin
Unknown, as for most traditional blocks
Family
Squares and four-patches
Difficulty
Medium · Triangles, geese and other angles cut with a ruler
Grid
3 × 3 cells

History

The name Snowball has belonged to several blocks. At the Ladies' Art Company it is a block of quarter circles, and Carrie Hall had both in her collection of sample blocks, now at the Spencer Museum of Art: a Snowball of curves and one of octagons alternating with nine patches, exactly as here. Marie Webster has both Octagon and Snowball in her list of 1915.

The straight-cut snowball is older than the names. The International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska, has a Snowball from 1850–1870, probably from Tipton County, Indiana, with light and dark octagons taking turns, and a wool quilt from 1880–1900 in which the octagons cover the whole top.

How it is used

The block is sewn as a large square with a small square laid on each corner, stitched on the diagonal and trimmed. Set side by side, the cut corners meet in small diamonds.

It is best known alternating with nine patches, as in Snowballs and nine-patches. Barbara Brackman shows snowballs alternating with double four patches, stars and appliqué and writes that you could probably pair it with any block. She also points out that the snowball is based on the nine patch, not on a star.

Quilts with the block

Sources

The text is our own, written from the sources below. Photos of old quilts with the block are in the museums' collections.

  1. Book Ladies' Art Company: Diagrams of Quilt, Sofa and Pin Cushion Patterns (1898)
  2. Book Marie D. Webster: Quilts: Their Story and How to Make Them (1915)
  3. Museum Spencer Museum of Art: Carrie A. Hall, Snowball block
  4. Museum Spencer Museum of Art: Carrie A. Hall, Snowball block (curved)
  5. Museum International Quilt Museum: Snowball, probably Tipton County, Indiana, 1850–1870
  6. Museum International Quilt Museum: Snowball variation, possibly Indiana, 1880–1900
  7. Article Barbara Brackman: Two Block Quilts: Snowballs Plus (2017)
  8. Article Barbara Brackman: Early Snowfall in the Best of Morris Prints (2022)
All sources and thanks