Dutchman's Puzzle Variation Quilt Block Tutorial
Today let's take a look at the Dutchman's Puzzle variation quilt block. This interesting variation has a star shape appear in the center, is made almost entirely of Flying Geese units, and uses partial seam construction. Additionally, when multiple blocks are sewn together, a star appears at all the junctions. Let's get started!
Fabric Requirements for a 12" Finished Variation of the Dutchman's Puzzle Quilt Block:
- Light/White: 36 - 2.5" squares
- Medium/Yellow: 8 - 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles
- Dark/Blue: 8 - 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles
Sewing Directions:
Flying Geese Units:
Step 1:
Using 16 Light/White 2.5" squares and 8 Medium/Yellow 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles, sew together eight Flying Geese units. You can find my tutorial for making a basic Flying Geese block at https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-basic-flying-geese-block
Step 2:
Repeat Step one substituting the Dark/Blue 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles for the Medium/Yellow rectangles.
Puzzle Units:
Step 3:
Here's where we start with the partial seam construction. It sounds difficult but it really isn't! Start by laying out two the the Medium/Yellow and two of the Dark/Blue Flying Geese units with a Light/White 2.5" square in the middle as shown below.
Step 4:
Next you can sew the top Dark/Blue rectangle to the center Light/White 2.5" square with a partial seam. You can see how I've only sewn about 1.5" of the seam in the picture below. I marked the sewing line with black so that it shows up better for you. Press the seam allowance away from the Light/White 2.5" square.
Step 5:
Now you can sew a Medium/Yellow Flying Geese unit to the left of the Step 4 unit as shown below. Press the seam allowance away from the Light/White 2.5" square.
Step 6:
Continue the process by adding another Flying Geese unit to the previous step in a counterclockwise manner, pressing the seam allowances away from the center Light/White square as shown below.
Step 7:
When you get to the end, finish sewing up that partial seam you started with and press the seam allowance away from the center of the unit as shown in the examples below. Repeat Steps 3 through 7 for a total of eight Puzzle units.
Putting It All Together:
Step 8:
Lay out the four Puzzle units as shown below. From here the Dutchman's Puzzle variation goes together like a basic Four Patch block.
Step 9:
Sew the Puzzle units together into two rows.
Step 10:
Press the seam allowances in opposite directions (or you can press the seams open - your points may show up better that way).
Step 11:
Normally, I don't pin when sewing but on this block I did have to pin where the points meet. If you prefer, you could also use a little dab of fabric glue at those spots. All that's left is to sew the two rows together...
Step 12:
and press the seam allowances! Here you can see that I pressed the seam allowance open and I think it helped bring out those points.
Conclusion:
This Dutchman's Puzzle variation block was fun to put together. It also gives you a lot of practice in making Flying Geese units! When sewing the Puzzle units together to form the block, there were a lot of bulky seams and I think pressing them open helps make the block look nice on the top. The block also gave me an excuse to use fabric glue and that worked really well!
I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial for this variation of the Dutchman's Puzzle quilt block. 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 quilt pattern called Chained Weathervane.
Happy Quilting!
Elaine
P.S. To print a PDF of this tutorial, check out the free app at https://www.printfriendly.com/. A reader and I tried it out and it worked great.
P.P.S. To figure out yardage for a quilt, check out this post: https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-much-fabric-do-i-need
P.P.P.S. For other Dutchman blocks check out https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/free-dutchmans-puzzle-quilt-block-tutorial and https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/flying-dutchman-quilt-block-free-tutorial