Free Jacob's Ladder Quilt Block Tutorial

By: Elaine Huff

Today let's sew together a 12" Jacob's Ladder quilt block. It's an easy block that has a lot of variations but today we'll look at one of the more basic designs. Let's get sewing!

jacobs ladder quilt block 

Fabric Requirements for a 12" Finished Jacob's Ladder Quilt Block:

  • Light/Ivory: 2 - 5" squares, and 10 - 2.5" squares
  • Medium/Peach: 2 - 5" squares
  • Dark/Green: 10 - 2.5" squares

jacobs ladder fabric requirements

Sewing Directions:

Half Square Triangle Units:

Step 1:

Using the Light/Ivory and Medium/Peach 5" squares, sew together four Half Square Triangle units as shown in the picture below. Press the seam allowance toward the Medium/Peach fabric. Trim/square up the units to 4.5" square. You can find a tutorial for making a basic Half Square Triangle block at https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-basic-half-square-triangle-block

jacobs ladder 1

Four Patch Units:

Step 2:

Next make five Four Patch units using the Light/Ivory and Dark/Green 2.5" squares as shown below. You will find my tutorial for making Four Patch blocks in all sorts of different ways at https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-basic-four-patch-quilt-block I pressed my seam allowances using the tweak/twirl/furl method.

jacobs ladder 2

newsletter signup

Putting It All Together:

Step 3:

Wow! This is going together quick! Lay out the Step 1 and 2 units as shown in the picture below. From here the Jacob's Ladder block goes together just like a basic Nine Patch block.

jacobs ladder 3

Step 4:

Sew the units together into three rows as shown below.

jacobs ladder 4

Step 5:

Press the seam allowances away from the Half Square Triangle units as shown in the picture below.

jacobs ladder 5

Step 6:

To finish up the block, sew the three rows together.

jacobs ladder 6

Step 7:

And press the seam allowances toward the center of the block as shown in the picture below. You're done!

jacobs ladder 7

Conclusion:

The Jacob's Ladder block went together super fast! There are so many variations of this block from using just a light and a dark fabric to turning the Half Square Triangles and/or the Four Patch units 90 degrees. You could really have fun playing around with this block.

I hope you've enjoyed this Jacob's Ladder 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 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