Irish Chain quilt, or Double Nine-Patch without border quilt, Harriett Theetge James

Exhibition Label:
"Geometric Abstractions: Quilts 1870 to 1990," Jun-2002, Samantha Schramm
This complex Double Nine-Patch design is carried out in a variety of white cotton prints and indigo blue patches. While most indigo prints in the early 20th century were the result of synthetic dyes, some quilters were able to obtain and incorporate the more expensive authentic indigo blues in their quilts. Some of these blue prints may be dyed with indigo.

The Nine-Patch block is one of the oldest patterns of U.S. quilts. The simple block yields a range of patterns from the simplest to the most complex, as seen in this example.