Easy Picket Fence Quilt Block Tutorial

Today let's sew together a Picket Fence quilt block. This beginner friendly block is really quick to create and can be arranged a number of ways for different looking quilts! There are also several other blocks that go by the same name - just to make it confusing. I've updated this post with some layout options toward the end. Let's get started!

Fabric Requirements for a 9" Finished Picket Fence Quilt Block:

• Light Print: 1 - 5.5" square
• Light Aqua Print: 1 - 5.5" square
• Yellow: 2 - 3.5" squares
• Aqua: 2 - 2" x 3.5" rectangles, and 2 - 2" x 5" rectangles

Sewing Directions:

Half Square Triangle Units:

Step 1:

Using the Light Print 5.5" square and the Light Aqua 5.5" square, sew together two Half Square Triangle units as shown in the picture below. Trim/square up the units to 5". You can find my tutorial for making half square triangles at https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-basic-half-square-triangle-block

Other Units (for lack of a better name!):

Step 2:

Sew an Aqua 2" x 3.5" rectangle to one side of a Yellow 3.5" square as shown in the picture below. Press the seam allowance toward the Aqua fabric. 

Step 3:

Now you can sew an Aqua 2" x 5" rectangle to an adjacent side of the Step 2 unit and press the seam allowance toward the Aqua fabric as shown below. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 for a total of two units.

Putting It All Together:

Step 4:

Lay out the Half Square Triangle units and the Other units as shown in the picture below.

Step 5:

From here the Picket Fence block goes together like a basic Four Patch block. First, you sew the units into two rows.

Step 6:

Then press the seam allowances toward the Half Square Triangle units as shown below.

Step 7:

All that's left is to sew the two rows together and...

Step 8:

Press seam allowances. You can see that I've used the tweak/twirl/furl method for pressing the seam allowance but you can press however you prefer.

Conclusion:

This block was fun and easy to sew together! I highly recommend this block for beginner quilters or anyone who needs a quick quilt to put together.

Layout Options:

I thought I'd put together some layouts because this is such an easy block and it would be nice to see what it looks like in a quilt.

This example is just a plain layout.

In this option, I've rotated every other block and a nice star and cross design appears.

In this one, I substituted the dark aqua with the background color and made this soft-colored version.

Here I've put the dark aqua with the peach in the half square triangles.

Then I put the original block on point and got a totally different look.

I hope you've enjoyed the Picket Fence block and layouts. 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/. 

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