Maple Leaf

About this block

This nine-patch block is built from half-square triangles and solid squares, with the stem formed by snowballing two corners of a single square rather than piecing it separately. According to Jinny Beyer's Quilter's Album of Blocks and Borders, it was first published by Practical Needlework around 1910, and a later grouped version with sashing appeared in a 1934 publication called Quilting. It shares its basic construction with a couple of close cousins, Apple Leaf and Tea Leaves, which use the same piecing but different color placement.