Celia's Pinwheel Square

About this block

This block is Celia Eddy's own variation on Follow the Leader, built on a 5-unit grid with narrow one-unit bands running horizontally and vertically through the block. That layout is a common way to construct what reads as nine sections overall, but unlike a true nine-patch, the resulting patches aren't uniform in size, giving the design more visual movement than a standard even grid. According to Eddy's Quilter's Block Bible, the parent design traces back to the Ladies Art Company, which published it in 1898 as "Pinwheel Square," one of the many geometric patterns the company sold by mail-order catalog in that era. Eddy's version keeps that same rotational pinwheel energy while reworking the construction into her own named block.