Weathervane Quilt Block Pattern - a Free Tutorial

This Weathervane quilt block is the classic block done in three colors. It is an easy, quick block that is perfect for beginners. There are lots of variations of this block - one of which you can find here: Weathervane Variation. Let's get sewing!

Fabric Requirements for a 12" Finished Weathervane Quilt Block:

• Light/White: 4 - 3" squares, and 12 - 2.5" squares
• Medium/Blue: 1 - 4.5" square, 4 - 3" squares, and 4 - 2.5" squares
• Dark/Navy: 4 - 4.5" squares

Sewing Directions:

Half Square in a Square Units:

Step 1:

Using the Dark/Navy 4.5" squares and eight of the Light/White 2.5" squares, sew together four Half Square in a Square units as shown in the picture below. You can find the tutorial for making a basic Snowball block at https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-basic-square-in-a-square-block The only difference is that you only snowball two adjacent corners of the larger square.

Corner Units:

Step 2:

Using the four Light/White 3" squares and the four Medium/Blue 3" squares, sew together eight Half Square Triangles as shown in the picture below. Trim/square up the units to 2.5". The tutorial for a basic Half Square Triangle block can be found at https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-basic-half-square-triangle-block

Step 3:

Match up two of the Step 2 Half Square Triangle with one Light/White 2.5" square and one Medium/Blue 2.5" square as shown below.

Step 4:

Now you can sew the patches together like a basic Four Patch block. Repeat Steps 3 and 4 for a total of four Corner units.

Putting It All Together:

Step 5:

Now you can lay out the Half Square in a Square units, the Corner units, and the Medium/Blue 4.5" square as shown in the picture below. From here the block goes together just like a basic Nine Patch block.

Step 6:

Now sew the patches together into three rows as shown in the picture below.

Step 7:

Press the seam allowances toward the Half Square in a Square patches as shown below.

Step 8:

Now you just need to sew the three rows together as shown in the picture below.

Step 9:

All that's left is the pressing! Press the seam allowances toward the center of block as shown.

Conclusion:

The Weathervane was a fun block to sew - quick and easy and looks great!

I did move the patches around just to see what it looked like and here's what I came up with:

In this layout it's no longer a Weathervane but it's interesting. There's a star in the center and the Half Square in a Square units will make an interesting design when multiple blocks are sewn together.

I hope you've enjoyed this Weathervane 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