Spiderweb

About this block

This block is built from wedge-shaped "kite" pieces radiating out from a center point, most commonly constructed as a string quilt, meaning narrow strips of scrap fabric are pieced onto a paper foundation to fill each wedge before the whole block is assembled. The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds an antique Spiderweb quilt dated to the 1800s, presumed to be from New Jersey, confirming the pattern's roots as a genuine 19th-century design rather than a purely modern invention, though it's also become a popular scrap-quilting pattern in more recent decades through designers like Bonnie Hunter. String-pieced spiderweb designs also have a documented place in the celebrated Gee's Bend quiltmaking tradition of rural Alabama, where quilters used similar strip and string techniques to build bold, improvisational designs from limited fabric.