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Hourglass

Design with this block
Diagram of the Hourglass quilt block layout

About this block

This block places two large triangles in an hourglass shape, with a diagonal line of smaller squares crossing between them. It has a documented publication history: it appeared in Wallace's Farmer magazine in 1929, credited to designer Emma Tyrrell, who was working from a quilt already nearly fifty years old at the time she submitted the pattern, meaning the design itself likely dates to the mid-1800s even though the print record starts in 1929. Tyrrell's original description described the two triangles forming the hourglass shape, with the diagonal squares representing sand filtering through it.

Blocks that contain this block

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