Four-Patch Quilt Blocks Strip Piecing Tutorial

Like this? Click or tap to share it

Four-patch quilt blocks

When you want to make a lot of four-patch quilt blocks from the same two fabrics, strip piecing is the way to go. It’s fast, it’s accurate, and it’s easy. It’s also a good way to make use of a precut jelly roll of 2-1/2″ strips. Here’s an illustrated guide to strip piecing a set of four-patch blocks.

You’ll need a set of four fabric strips cut from the two fabrics you want to use to make the blocks. One set of strips should be darker, and the other one lighter, to give the finished block its distinctive checkerboard look.

 Step by Step Instructions

  1. Start with two light strips and two dark strips. blank
  2. Lay the light and dark strips with right sides together, like this: blank
  3. Sew the paired strips together along their long sides, using a scant ¼” seam allowance. I usually mark the 1/4″ mark on my sewing machine with blue painter’s tape. This really increases the accuracy of my piecing. Try it!
  4. Press the seam to the side with the darker fabric. Pressing to the darker side keeps the seam allowance from showing through the quilt top when you’re finished. blank
  5. Lay the two sets of strips with right sides together and opposite fabrics together, nesting the seams together as tightly as you can. blank
  6. Use a rotary cutter and a cutting ruler to cross-cut the strips into units the same width as the fabric strips you started with. If your original strips were 2½”, for example, cut the strips into 2½” units. blankIf you look at the units from the side, you should see that the center seams are “nested” or locked together, with the seam allowances pointing away from each other. blank
  7. Sew the two units together alone one of the long sides. You may want to use a bamboo skewer or a stiletto to keep the seam allowance from getting folded the wrong way under your machine’s feed dogs. blank
  8. Press the center seam to one side. blank
  9. Square up the block, and there you have it — a finished four-patch quilt block. Well done! blank

Similar Posts

12 Comments

  1. Hi Christine,
    Thanks for the four patch block strip-piecing tutorial.
    Being a learner quilter, this will help immensely
    when I attempt to give it a go.
    Cheers!!

    1. Hi Mattie,

      You can’t find Quilts for Beginners because we no longer offer it for sale. We unpublished it with a lot of sadness and an even greater amount of happiness because A Beginner’s Guide to Quilting, its much improved and greatly expanded daughter, just came out this month. You can buy A Beginner’s Guide on Amazon using the link in this comment, and of course we’ll enter your name in our giveaway for two signed copies we’re giving our blog readers this week.

  2. I love the disappearing four patch quilt block. I will try it so that it will appear that I am an experienced quilter.

    Thank you so very much
    Ladi

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.