How to Sew a Ranger's Pride Quilt Block

By: Elaine Huff

Today we're going to learn how to sew a Ranger's Pride quilt block! This block is fairly easy to put together with a simple Pinwheel block in the center and a border that's applied using partial seam construction. There's an added bonus when you put the blocks together too (more on that later). Let's get started!

Fabric Requirements for a 12" Finished Ranger's Pride Quilt Block:

Light/Cream: 2 - 5" squares, 8 - 2.5" squares, and 4 - 2.5" x 6.5" rectangles
Dark 1/Brown: 4 - 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles
Dark 2/Red: 2 - 5" squares

Sewing Directions:

Half-Square Triangle Units:

Step 1:

Using the Light/Ivory 5" squares and the Dark 2/Red 5" squares sew together four Half-Square Triangle units. You can find my tutorial on making Half-Square Triangles at https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-basic-half-square-triangle-block Trim/square up the units to 4.5" square.

Center Pinwheel Unit:

Step 2:

You can find my tutorial for sewing a Pinwheel block together at: https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/pinwheel-quilt-block-pattern Here are the steps:

Lay out the Step 1 Half Square Triangle units and sew together into two rows as shown below.

Step 3:

Press the seam allowances toward the Light/Cream fabric as shown in the picture below.

Step 4:

Sew the rows together as shown below.

Step 5:

Press the seam allowances. As you can see in the picture below I've used the tweak/twirl/furl method of pressing, but you can press however you prefer.

Flying Geese Units:

Step 6:

Using the Dark 1/Brown 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles and the Light/Cream 2.5" squares piece together four Flying Geese units. You can find my tutorial for sewing perfect, no-trimming-necessary Flying Geese blocks is here: https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-basic-flying-geese-block

Border Units:

Step 7:

Sew together a Step 6 Flying Geese unit and a Light/Cream 2.5" x 6.5" rectangle as shown in the picture below. Press the seam allowance toward the Light/Cream rectangle. Repeat for a total of four Border units.

Putting It All Together:

Step 8:

Lay out the Center Pinwheel unit and the Border units as shown in the picture below. Make sure you get the Border units' orientation correct!

Step 9:

Now we get to start on the partial seam construction to put this block together. It's much easier to sew than it sounds! Sew the top Border unit to the Center Pinwheel unit, leaving a couple of inches free at the end that has the Flying Geese unit. You can see what I'm talking about in this picture and the next picture.

Step 10:

Press the seam allowance away from the center of the block as shown in the picture below.

Step 11:

Now you can sew the right Border unit to the Step 9 unit as shown below. Your seams should nest nicely so you get good points where the Pinwheel unit and the Flying Geese unit meet.

Step 12:

Press the seam allowance away from the center of the block as shown in the picture below.

Step 13:

Continuing in a clockwise fashion, sew the Border units to the Center Pinwheel unit and press the seam allowances away from the center of the block.

Step 14:

Finish sewing the Ranger's Pride block together by closing up that partial seam that you started with. See, that's not so hard.

Step 15:

Finish pressing that last seam allowance and you are done!

Yardage:

To made four blocks, you will need one 5" x width of fabric (WOF) strip of both the Dark 2/Red and the Dark 1/Brown fabric, and one 10" x WOF strip of the Light/Cream fabric.

Layout Ideas:

Here's the basic 4 x 4 layout using colors similar to the tutorial.

This is the same layout as above only scrappy.

This is a monochromatic 4 x 4 layout with narrow (1") sashing and cornerstones added.

This is an alternating layout where every other block is a modified version of the main block (I replaced the center Pinwheel unit with a cream-colored square).

This example is an on-point layout with narrow sashing and cornerstones in a complimentary color and cream fabric is used for the setting triangles.

This is another on-point layout and also an alternating layout. I modified the main block by replacing the center Pinwheel unit with an Economy Patch (square in a square in a square). I also modified the outer blocks by replacing the outer border unit with a plain rectangle. Once again the setting triangles are the cream fabric.

Conclusion:

I found the Ranger's Pride quilt block was fun to put together mainly because I was excited about the secondary Pinwheel that would appear when blocks were sewn together.

This block also makes an amazing scrappy quilt. I would use one background fabric and then just dig into my scrap pile (piles actually!!). The quilt has lots of movement with the two types of pinwheels.

I hope you have enjoyed this Ranger's Pride quilt block. If you like it and want to see more, just click HERE to sign up for my newsletter and receive a free PDF quilt pattern called "Chained Weathervane".

Happy Quilting!

Elaine

P.S. Looking for more pinwheel blocks? Take a look at this blog post: https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/20-of-the-best-pinwheel-quilt-block-patterns

P.P.S. Check out my Etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/shop/fabric406