BOM #9 - Wind Blown Square

This quilt block is known by several different names – Wind Blown Square, Windblown Star, Whirlpool, Balkan Puzzle, and Sea Glass to name a few.

The earliest mention of the block I could find listed the block name as Whirpool and was found in a quilt in Maine in 1778, but I was unable to locate a picture or location of this quilt. 

The Ladies Art Company published a quilt pattern catalog in 1897 which included 400 different block designs.  Many of the block names used in this publication are still with us today and some have evolved into different names by designers and publishers as well as regional names for the same design. This block design was listed as block #334 under the name Mosaic #6

 Ruby McKim published this pattern in 1931.  The block also shows up in the catalog of Nancy Cabot in the Chicago Tribune under the name of Balkan Puzzle and Windblown Star in 1933 and Flowing Ribbons in 1935.  It was also called Whirlpools in 1935 in the Birmingham News by Nancy Page.
In Nancy Cabot’s publication about the block under the name Windblown Star she did not have a lot to say except “it could be traced to a quaint, seaside town in Maine.”  Due to this description the block also became known as Sea Glass after the depression.

Today if you go looking for reference to Sea Glass quilts you will find everything under the sun except this design!  This name has been used for many different blocks and quilt patterns, a good example of how block names and designs evolve over time.