How to Sew a Ranger's Pride Quilt Block

Today we're going to learn how to sew a Ranger's Pride quilt block! This block is not hard 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/Ivory: 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:

Using the Step 1 Half-Square Triangle units, sew a pinwheel as shown below. You can find my tutorial for sewing a Pinwheel block together at: https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/pinwheel-quilt-block-pattern

Flying Geese Units:

Step 3:

Using the Dark 1/Brown 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles and the Light/Ivory 2.5" squares piece together four Flying Geese units. My tutorial for sewing Flying Geese blocks is here: https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-basic-flying-geese-block

Border Units:

Step 4:

Sew together a Step 3 Flying Geese unit and a Light/Ivory 2.5" x 6.5" rectangle as shown in the picture below. Press the seam allowance toward the Light/Ivory rectangle. Repeat for a total of four Border units.

Putting It All Together:

Step 5:

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 6:

Now we get to start on the partial seam construction to put this block together. It's not hard to do at all. 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 7:

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

Step 8:

Now you can sew the right Border unit to the Step 7 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 9:

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

Step 10:

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 as shown in the pictures below.

Step 11:

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 12:

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/Ivory fabric. 

In 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. Below I have a computer rendition of what a 4 x 4 quilt would look like.

I also think this would be 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