Description
A quilt block that looks round — without a single curved seam.
The Snowball is one of patchwork's cleverest optical illusions. Small triangles are sewn across the corners of a square, "rounding" it into an octagon. Step back from a whole quilt of them, and the blocks seem to become soft circles — like snowballs — even though every seam is perfectly straight.
Snowball blocks can be found in quilts from the 19th century, and the design was especially loved by Amish quilters, whose bold, plain-coloured quilts showed off its simple geometry beautifully.
It also made its way into the newspapers that spread quilt patterns across rural America. In 1930 the Kansas City Star published a simple variation under the name "The Marble Floor", and Nancy Cabot's popular quilt column printed versions as "Snowballs" and "Octagons". Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns records still more relatives, including Susannah and the delightfully named Signatures for Golden Memories.
❄️ Did You Know?
That big plain centre wasn't just for show!
Groups of quilters often used the generous open space in the middle of the Snowball to write or embroider their names and messages. These signature blocks went into album quilts given as wedding, anniversary or going-away gifts — which is how a pattern ended up with a name like Signatures for Golden Memories.
The Snowball truly comes alive when it is paired with other blocks. Set alongside nine-patches, the little corner triangles join up into chains and secondary patterns — the much-loved Snowball and Nine Patch combination.
🧵 A Little Heritage
Like the Churn Dash and the Bear's Paw, the Snowball comes from a tradition of naming blocks after the everyday world around the quilter. Our stamp celebrates the Snowball's playful side, bringing together a checkerboard of squares, crisp corner triangles and a little on-point centre in one design.
We've captured this cosy classic as Volume 4, Stamp 11, giving you another little piece of quilt history to add to your Heritage Quilt Society collection.
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