Economy Block

About this block

This is a square-in-a-square design, a center square framed by bias-cut triangles, with construction that can trip up even experienced quilters since the triangle math and bias edges take a careful hand to keep from stretching. Sources differ on exactly when it emerged: some tie it to the 1930s and the Great Depression, when quilters stretched small fabric scraps into full quilts out of necessity, which lines up neatly with the "Economy" name, while others push its origin back to the early 1800s. Given that disagreement, the safest honest claim is that it was especially popular during the Depression era, whatever its original date.