Snail's Trail
Also known as: Snail Trail
A two-colour four-patch at the centre, wrapped in four rounds of ever-larger triangles that alternately set it on point and square it up; each triangle continues the colour of the piece it grows from, so light and dark arms spiral out like a snail shell.
Block Details
- Category
- Classic
- Difficulty
- intermediate
- Grid Type
- square-in-square
- Piece Count
- 20
- Tags
- square-in-squarefour-patchintermediatetraditional
- Also appears in
- Square in a Square
Construction Tips
Every round is a square-in-a-square step; keep the four-patch oriented the same way before each round so the arms keep turning in one direction.
Patterns that use this block
Free quilt patterns made from the Snail's Trail block. Open one to make it your own in QuiltLab.
Related Blocks
Storm at Sea
Square-in-a-square corners, long diamonds in the side rectangles, and a double square-in-a-square centre; repeated, the straight seams read as rolling curves.
Diamond in a Square
A large square set on point inside a square, framed by a wide border with contrasting corner squares; the layout of the classic Amish centre-diamond quilt at block scale.
Square in a Square
A square set on point, its corners touching the middle of each side, with four half-square triangles filling the corners.
Economy Block
An upright centre square framed by two rounds of triangles: the first round turns it on point, the second squares it up again, so the three squares nest at alternating angles.
Rising Star
A sawtooth star whose centre square is itself a smaller sawtooth star, drawn on an eight-by-eight grid.
Fifty-Four Forty or Fight
Four patches in the corners and centre with long, narrow star points on each side: the points sit on the centre four patch and reach out to the edge of the block.
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