Some block patterns are interesting in and of themselves, others only take on their true character in interaction with other squares. Irish Chain, the pattern I’m working now, is certainly interesting on it’s own but becomes far more dynamic and complex in a set when you see how it interacts with the squares around it:

It makes me think of Elsie and all her brothers and sisters. Elsie had what was known colloquially as an ‘Irish twin’ (so close together in age that they were in the same grade in school), Gracie. They fought so much and so long about who was older that I’m not sure anyone really knew or cared in the end who was older.

Of my greatgrandmother’s 10 children 6 stayed in Veazie their entire lives, one moved a few towns away, one moved a few hours away but stayed in Maine. The baby, Warner ended up in Arizona and Cecil died in infancy. It was easy to think of them as a set. Especially my grandmother and her sisters. As they aged they all began to look more and more alike, they lived within 6 blocks of each other in the same small Maine town, they all had the same recipes passed down from their mother and they all loved the Red Sox. They all had their own personalities to be sure: Gracie was more motherly, Elsie was quite outspoken but would give you the shirt off her back, Mary was fun-loving and my grandmother could be a bit of a stick in the mud but I loved them all dearly.