Cat's Cradle

About this block

This block's name most likely nods to the children's string game of the same name, itself dating back centuries, since the finished pattern's crossing triangle lines echo the woven shape formed on a player's fingers. Names in quilting can be slippery, though: this same design has also gone by Birds in the Air and Grandmother's Choice, and its more recent popularity actually traces to a rotary-cutting ruler by Creative Grids, which brought the "Cat's Cradle" name back into wide use. Structurally, it's a nine-patch built almost entirely from half-square triangles, simple enough for a confident beginner but exacting enough that quilters often describe it as trickier to piece cleanly than it looks.