Another Chain and Hourglass Quilt Block - a Free Tutorial

This Chain and Hourglass quilt block is quick and easy to sew together and creates interesting designs when sewn into a quilt. There is another block also called Chain and Hourglass which you can find here: https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/easy-chain-and-hourglass-quilt-block-tutorial. The main difference is that this block is a Nine Patch block and the other one is a Four Patch block. Let's get started!

Fabric Requirements for a 9" Finished Chain and Hourglass Quilt Block:

• Light/Gray: 3 - 4.5" squares, and 8 - 1.5" x 3.5" rectangles
• Medium/Purple: 2 - 4.5" squares
• Dark/Green: 1 - 4.5" square, and 4 - 1.5" x 3.5" rectangles

Sewing Directions:

Hourglass Units:

Step 1:

Using two Light/Gray 4.5" squares and two Medium/Purple 4.5" squares, sew together four Hourglass units like the ones shown in the picture below. Trim/square up the patch to 3.5" square. This is the hardest part of this block and my tutorial at https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-basic-hourglass-or-quarter-square-triangle-block makes it easy.

Step 2:

Repeat Step 1 only use one Light/Gray 4.5" square and one Dark/Green 4.5" square to make two units. You'll only use one unit in the block so the other unit can be used in another block. You can see in the picture below that I used the tweak/twirl/furl method of pressing the seam allowances.

Roman Stripe Unit:

Step 3:

Using two Light/Gray 1.5" x 3.5" rectangles and one Dark/Green 1.5" x 3.5" rectangle, sew together a Roman Stripe unit. You can see in the picture below that I've pressed my seam allowances toward the Dark/Green fabric but you can press however you like.

Step 4:

Repeat Step 3 for a total of four Roman Stripe units.

Putting It All Together:

Step 5:

Layout the Hourglass units and the Roman Stripe units as shown in the picture below. From here the block goes together like a basic Nine Patch block.

Step 6:

Sew the units into three rows as shown below.

Step 7:

Press the seam allowances toward the Roman Stripe units.

Step 8:

Finally, sew the three rows together and...

Step 9:

Press the seam allowances away from the center of the block. All done!

Layout Options:

Here is a basic 4 x 4 layout.

In this example I've rotated every other block 90 degrees. What a difference!

The design below has sashing and cornerstones added.

Here's an on point layout with a change in color for some of the outer triangles.

The same on point layout but with sashing and cornerstones.

Of course I had to add in a scrappy version! Scrappy is almost always my favorite.

Conclusion:

This block was easy to sew and I really like the possibilty of using up some scraps in a quick block!

I hope you've enjoyed this Chain and Hourglass quilt block tutorial. If you liked this post and want to see more quilting tutorials like this, simply click here to sign up for my newsletter and also receive a free PDF.