I know I’m a pattern designer and I am all about following instructions for quilts, but sometimes you just need a simple explanation on how to make a quilt. Patchwork? Yep, just lots of squares. Coin quilts? Just lots of rectangles! Easy peasy. The same can be said about Herringbone quilts! I worked up a tutorial several years ago on a different website, and knew it would be a great fit here as well.
Want to make a Herringbone Quilt??
For purposes of this tutorial, I’ll be using a 10″ stacker of In The Meadow by Keera Jobs for Riley Blake Designs. You can also use a variety of fat quarters, scraps, or yardage!
For best results in sewing the bias edges, you can starch the fabric before cutting. It reduces the possibility of stretching while you sew!
I cut my fabric into 3″ strips (you can cut them wider for a fatter herringbone, but with my 10″ squares I could get 3 strips from each square at 3″) by 10″. Now this is important: once your fabrics are all cut into strips, divide them in half: herringbone has strips in two directions so you’ll need two stacks of fabrics.
Cutting mats and rulers are super special- most have a 30 degree line on it, and this is what we are going to use for a nice herringbone pattern. Using one stack of fabric, I cut each print right side up at the 30 degree line, turned it 180 degrees and cut it again right side up at the 30 degree line. The cuts will make a nice parallelogram (hello, 4th grade geometry!). Then take your second stack of fabric and cut each print wrong side up on both sides, making the same parallelogram shape.
Once you’ve cut each stack, when you lay them out both right side up, they’ll mirror each other. Now it’s time to start assembling your columns!
I like to lay out the individual blocks first to make sure the colors distribute nicely and that similar prints aren’t too close, as well as making sure I’m going to get a nice size quilt in the end. Then, I take each column and sew them together, overlapping the ends by a 1/4″ seam allowance. I like to sew them together in sets, and then sew sets together.
Each time you sew the blocks together in their columns, make sure the ends overlap by that 1/4″, or the seam allowance will be off.
After your columns are sewn, sew them together into the quilt top- in this case, the seam allowances will line up together, no overlapping is needed. I pin them together at each seam so the points have a better chance of matching!
After the rows are sewn, you’ll need to trim the top and bottom to square up your quilt top, chopping the points off where seams meet. You could also leave the points and use bias binding to finish the quilt.
The end result is a stunning, simple, and adorable herringbone quilt, and made quickly too!
My quilt ended up measuring 40″ x 43″, a perfect little baby quilt.
Done and ready to gift to a little baby girl!
Here’s the original quilt I made so many years ago, using a few different fabric lines mixed together, based on Fat Quarters I had on hand.
Try it out! Happy sewing! 🙂
So pretty, thanks!
This is so beautiful Melanie! Can’t wait to make one! Thank you:)
Muito obrigada!!!
Love it. Thank you !
It’s so beautiful!! Love the colors!! Thank you for sharing!!
Would this work with a jelly roll? I have a favorite print in 2 jelly rolls and thought this would be so pretty in that pattern but I didn’t know if the jelly roll strips would be too narrow?? What do you think?
Thanks so.much
Kelly
Jelly roll strips would work too! There isn’t a rule for how narrow/wide the strips should be, or how long. It is a very versatile pattern that will work for all kinds of ratios for the herringbone pattern. I like to get the most I can from my fabric, so you can make your cuts to use up your WOF the best way possible. You can even mix in thin strips of sashing too, using the same cutting rules!
I love this . I am nervously about to try making this pattern for my soon to be grandson.
I was wondering about how you quiltedthe original. As you quilted along the zig-zag seam line did you just keep maneuvering/turning the quilt to do a continuous line?
Thanks for any help.
Marie
Hi Marie! For my original quilt, I did just stop and pivot (with the needle down) every time I reached an intersection. It went pretty fast, even with stopping and starting like that! I just used my walking foot and just kept the edge of the foot against the seam as my guide. I did that along each row and also down every column. Good luck with the quilt! I know your grandson will treasure a grandma-made quilt for a long time!
I like this design will make on fore sure
Your quilt if beautiful. How many pieces did you end up cutting? I want to do this is a pack of 13 fat quarters. About the same size as yours, maybe a bit bigger.
I was able to cut 3 pieces from each 10×10″ square (so, 126 pieces if my calculation is right!), and I didn’t end up using all of them. 13 FQs is plenty for a super scrappy quilt, with plenty of leftovers!
Hello,
How many yards did you use for the backing/binding?
Because I quilted this myself, I was able to use just 1.5 yds. A long arm quilter needs about 4″ extra around all sides so for the quilt this size it would need about 2 3/4 yds.
How many columns and rows did you make?
I know there were 7 columns, and rows were 16 or 17. I have already gifted the quilt so I can’t count! I just set out the pieces until I ran out 🙂
If I want to make a large quilt of this pattern. do I just make longer rows or would you increase the size of the blocks? How big of one can I make?
I would increase the block size, I made one bigger using bigger pieces and it turned out great! There isn’t a limit to the size, but one layer cake won’t yield anything much bigger than a baby size. A fat quarter bundle can produce at least a throw size! I haven’t done all the math to figure it out, but the method of construction would remain the same regardless of block size, or number of blocks used.
Thank you! And Bless you too! This is the first time this pattern has made sense to me, i am now feeling empowered to give it a shot! Thanks very very much.
Pat
So the top and bottom, you just trim across? How to you make a straight edge?
Yep! I lined up my ruler with the seam allowances and just cut across.
Thank you for this tutorial. I have a pattern for a herringbone quilt but it has me cutting my pieces more times than I felt was necessary and then sewing them together again (likely for using more color combinations). I wanted to use fewer colors and therefor fewer pieces. Your tutorial spelled it all out for me so I now know how to make the adjustments I want to.
To make a throw quilt can you use sheeting for a backing without batting and still do to patttern quilting or will it be to thin, and if you use batting does each piece get its own batting and piece of sheet and then just sew the pieces together, I want to make a queen size but its so big I dont know where to start. I love looking at the quilting patterns I have so much scraps I cant pass a material shop without buying a piece of material, thank you for showing me some designs.
I highly suggest putting a layer between- if batting is too thick, consider using flannel! Before you get into a big project like a queen size quilt, try working your way from a small project, like a table topper. Once you learn the basics of piecing and how to construct a quilt, then move up to a baby or small throw. If you still like quilting 😉 go for the queen size! But the most common error people make is biting off a huge project at the start, and then it becomes overwhelming and a burden instead of an enjoyable pastime. Pinterest has lots of results for small, beginning quilting projects, so take a look and see if you can find something you like that has good instructions!
Hi!
Right before you sew, when you lay the parallelograms on top of each other – right sides facing – it looks like you left a little of the corner peak out from underneath. Do you know how much of the corner you let peak out?
I’ve seen some tutorials for 60 degree triangles say you should offset the pieces by 1/8″, but I wanted to see if that’s what you’re doing here as well!
Thank you in advanced!
I’m not usually a herringbone fan, but this quilt intrigues me!! I wish you had included a picture of one or the other of them held out so we could see the entire thing…. It doesn’t seem like a really “in your face” herringbone design, but that may be because it’s folded or really close up in the pictures. I’m running out of hand-quilting thread 3/4 through an oversized queen project….with none to be found, evidently gone the way of toilet paper and sanitizer! So I’m thinking toward my next project….1st grandchild due in July will definitely need a quilt for Christmas!!
The overlap is a “scant” 1/4″, no need for smaller!
I’m a little confused about the size of the pieces. Can you tell me the dimensions? You mentioned you cut 3×10 inch strips but is there another cut in there somewhere? I’m assuming each strip has to be cut into thirds to get the 126 pieces that you mentioned but I don’t want to get it wrong..
I read over this several times but I just can’t find where it says. It’s beautiful and I can’t wait to try it!
The strips are 3″ x 10″ cut from each 10″ stacker, and then the corners are cut at the 60 degree angle. So, from each stacker piece you do get 3 pieces. The whole stacker makes a perfect baby quilt size, but if you want something larger, just keep adding those pieces! I haven’t done the quilt math for exact piece numbers 🙂
How many layer cakes for a lap/throw sized quilt?
Two different angles are stated—30 and 60 degree .
Which is it? I have 18 fat quarters that I just purchased and would love to try this pattern.
Two different angles are stated, 30 and 60 degree. Which one should be used? I just purchased 18 fat quarters that I would like to try with this pattern.
I have never seen a blanket like this before. Why did you call it herringbone quilt. I don’t know what it means or how to do it. Is it possible to tell me please.
Many thanks
The second picture from the top show Melanie cutting the piece on the 30 degree line.