Originally Posted by marknfran
Originally Posted by squilter
I was moving some stuff today and found these, I acquired them in a box of sewing stuff at an auction several years ago and don't know a thing about them. Thought I would let you all see them.
I would get rid of the ones that look like Nazi symbols. Never know who you could anger. Have you seen any quilts made with that design before?
Some of those were known as "waterwheel" or other names, and before the Nazi era nobody thought of them looking like anything sinister. The swastika is actually an ancient Sanskrit symbol for good luck or something like that, and who knows how the Nazis happened to adopt it for their own use. It probably just indicates the blocks are pre-WW2, because that design certainly fell out of favor. Maybe you could use them in a quilt if you appliqued something over them to alter the look, or lop off the corners by piecing triangles onto them?