Free Old Fashioned Straw Flowers Quilt Block Pattern

Today let's create a Straw Flowers quilt block! It's a lovely, old fashioned block that still looks great in today's fabrics.

Fabric Requirements for a 12" Finished Straw Flowers Quilt Block:

• Light/Ivory: 4 - 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles, 4 - 2.5" squares, and 6 - 3" squares
• Medium/Tan: 8 - 2.5" squares, and 6 - 3" squares
• Dark/Purple: 4 - 4.5" squares

Sewing Directions:

Half Square Triangle Strip Units:

Step 1:

Using the Light/Ivory 3" squares and the Medium/Tan 3" squares, sew together 12 Half Square Triangle units as shown in the picture below. Trim/square up the units to 2.5" squares. You can find the tutorial for piecing a basic Half Square Triangle at https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-basic-half-square-triangle-block

Step 2:

Next you will sew together three of the Step 1 units as shown in the picture below. Press the seam allowances toward the Medium/Tan fabric as shown.

Step 3:

Repeat Step 2 for a total of four units as shown below.

Modified Birds in the Air Units:

Step 4:

This unit is similar to the Birds in the Air quilt block. The only difference from the Birds in the Air block is the use of a Half Square Triangle instead of the Light/Ivory 2.5" square. You can find a more detailed tutorial for making this unit at https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/birds-in-the-air-quilt-block-pattern.

First sew together a Light/Ivory 2.5" square to a Medium/Tan 2.5" square and press the seam allowance toward the Medium/Tan fabric as shown in the picture below.

Step 5:

Next sew another Medium/Tan 2.5" square to an adjacent side of the Light/Ivory 2.5" square and press the seam allowance toward the Medium/Tan fabric as shown below.

Step 6:

Mark a diagonal line from corner to corner on the back of a Dark/Purple 4.5" square and match it up with a Step 5 unit. Sew along the marked line and then fold the Dark/Purple square along the sewn line, matching the corners, and press. From there you can trim away the excess seam allowance and refold to create the unit as shown in the picture below. Repeat Steps 4 through 6 for a total of four Modified Birds in the Air units.

Corner Unit:

Step 7:

Sew a Light/Ivory 2.5" x 4.5" rectangle to one side of the Modified Birds in the Air unit and press the seam allowance toward the Light/Ivory rectangle as shown in the picture below. 

Step 8:

Now you can sew a Step 3 Half Square Triangle strip to the Step 7 unit and press the seam allowance toward the Half Square Triangle strip as shown below. Repeat Steps 7 and 8 for a total of four Corner units.

Putting It All Together:

Step 9:

Almost done! Lay out the four Step 8 units as shown in the picture below.

Step 10:

From here the Straw Flowers block goes together like a basic Four Patch block. First sew the units into two rows as shown below.

Step 11:

Press the seam allowances in opposite directions so that center intersection will lay flat.

Step 12:

Sew those two rows together and...

Press the seam allowance. I don't know if you can tell from the picture below, but I've pressed using the twirl/furl/tweak method. You're finished!

Conclusion:

I enjoyed piecing this block together. It was a bit more difficult with multiple seam intersections, etc. but looks good from the front (and that's what counts)!

Layout Ideas:

This first example is just the basic block like I've made in the tutorial.

Here I've added in a simple sashing and cornerstone layout. I think it makes the quilt less busy than the first example.

Now back to the basic layout but substituting another color (green) for some of the tan.

And substituting another color (light purple) for the green in the center of the block.

In this example I've added the sashing and cornerstones back in.

You know me - I had to do a couple of scrappy examples. This one is where each corner unit is a different color combination.

And this one has each block being a different color combination. I did keep the dark purple the same in all the blocks to give a sense of unity to the layout.

I hope you've enjoyed this Straw Flowers 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