Meet the Album Family

Maude Laughlin chose the pattern Album Block for her contribution to the Malaga quilt.

In "The Romance of the Patchwork Quilt" Carrie Hall calls this Album Patch.

The original idea of the Album quilt was a gift for a bride-to-be.  A group of friends would get together and each would piece a block and embroider her name upon it.

Carrie Hall's Album block, Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas

Other names for this block are Arbor Window, Courthouse Square, The Crosspatch and Odd Fellow's Block.  Barbara Brackman's blog post has a good collection of Album block quilts.

It's a simple block to make but a challenge to get to the finished size that you require.  I had to make a few to get a 9 inch and a 6 inch block I was happy with.  The difficulty is the points at the seam allowance - you don't want to lose them when the blocks go together.

1880's orphan - points finish right at the edge

For a 9 inch block I cut the squares at 2.5 inches.  The setting triangles are 5 inch squares cut diagonally twice, and the corner triangles are 3.5 inch square cut diagonally once.

 Assemble the pieces in rows including the setting triangles, then add the corner triangles.  Trim to 9.5 inches and the squares should all keep their points.

This similar block is Nine Patch Checkerboard (Checkerboard, Old Mail, The Queen's Favorite).  I don't like cutting 7/8th or 15/16th, I like more sensible fractions, so I made the squares smaller and the setting triangles larger.  For a finished 6 inch block, the squares are 1.75 inches, the setting triangles are 4 inch squares cut diagonally twice and the corner triangles are 3 inch square cut diagonally once.  The block will have a wide margin and I think that suits the 1930s look.