How to make the Kansas City Star's Interlocked Squares block

Interlocked Squares block

Interlocked Squares was published in 1932 in the Kansas City Star*.  

I'm ridiculously proud of the diagram below.  Reason:  I figured out an easy way to make the block, and that's by putting in an extra seam (splitting "3" into "3a" and "3b").

The simplest way to piece this block is to split one of
 the #2 or #3 quadrilaterals into a triangle and a diamond.

Without that extra seam, you're stuck sewing really awkward acute angles where the pieces fit together -- when you join a piece 2 to a piece 3 in the diagram above. 

Instead, you can start with the center piece and build it log-cabin style.  That way you only have to do one weird-angled seam for the entire block.  The sequence is shown in this diagram: 

Sequence for putting together the parts of an Interlocked Squares block. 

There's a giant version of the block diagram on fieldguidetoquilts.com.  There's supposed to be a link when you click on either diagram, but just in case, it's here:

http://fieldguidetoquilts.com/9Recbar/9CWoven/9EWovenblockdiagrams.html   

You print out that diagram in any size you like, cut the pieces apart, and use them as pattern pieces.  You have to add a 1/4" seam allowance to each piece, just as quilters did back in the 1930s.  (There's actually a brilliantly simple way to do that, but it's going to have to wait for another post.)

Other instructions for the block are on the web in a couple of different variations. They either cost money, which means they don't belong on the fieldguidetoquilts.com site, or else they're not quite the same block.  Here are a few: 

• A "cathedral windows" style, which means that there are heavy black outlines around every piece.  https://equiltpatterns.com/Stained-Glass-Interlocked-Squares-Quilt-Block-Pattern

• Here's one that uses a special set of templates.  http://dancingstitcher.com/2011/11/18/tip-16-interlocked-squares-12-block-made-easy/

• Here's one with a fancy star in the middle:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/156609821/interlocked-squares-paper-pieced-quilt?ref=shop_home_active

• This one is free,  but it has a bunch of small blocks in the middle:  http://www.ludlowquiltandsew.co.uk/quilt-block-patterns/interlocking-squares-quilt-block/

• This one is also free, but it isn't quite the same block, and it has flying geese in the corners.  Still, it's supposed to be easy to make. http://www.amc-quilts.com/uploads/Interlocking_Squares.pdf

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*The Star, for whatever reason, does not enforce copyright on its blocks, although there are tons of books based on Star patterns at a company called Pickle Dish, aka "Kansas City Star Quilts" (pickledish.com).