Quick and easy 3 fabric block

Hey Everyone, welcome back to Stash Blasting Wednesday.

Last weeks block, Up and Down was so much fun that I decided to find another easy and fast block for this week. This one doesn’t look quite as fast but is because it can be strip pieced. Along with some chain sewing, several blocks can be knocked off in no time.

The block is called Mountain Quilt Block. I also found this block in EQ7 (Electric Quilt 7) – a great resource for quilt blocks – hundreds of them in there which sometimes makes it very hard to choose one. I am going to change the name  of this block, though but I won’t tell you until the end of the post what I am changing it to.

Once again I went to my stash and pulled out some fabrics which have been sitting around for quite a while. In fact, I bought these on a trip to Saskatoon from Australia a few years ago along with a Turning Twenty pattern – sadly neither have been used. Today is the day to use the fabric, or at least some of it. I was only able to buy bits – half metres and fat quarters mainly – of everything but enough to create something with this block.

This design requires 3 fabrics per block. One fabric needs to be light and the other two need to contrast either in value, a medium and dark, or in colour such as with complementary colours. These are some of the fabrics I had to choose from.

An easy three fabric quilt block to choose fabrics for

Fabric choices

Cutting Instructions for an 8″ Block

Note: these amounts will make 4 blocks

Cream Fabric

  • Cut ONE (1) 2 ½″ x 20″ strip
  • Cut ONE (1) 4 ½″ x 20″ strip

Blue Fabric

  • Cut TWO (2) 2 ½″ x 20″ strips

Burgundy Fabric

  • Cut ONE (1) 2 ½″ x 20″ strip
  • Cut ONE (1) 4 ½″ x 20″ strip

Note: for a 12 inch block cut the strips at 3 ½″ and 6 ½″.

A quick and easy three fabric block with fabrics cut and ready to sew

Fabric strips cut and ready to sew together

Building the Block

Note: all seams are a ¼″ unless otherwise stated

1. Sew a 2 ½″ blue strip to the 2 ½″ cream and burgundy strips.  Press the seam towards the blue strip.

Quick and easy 3 fabric quilt with 2 ½″ strips sewn together

The 2 ½″ strips sewn together

2. Sew a 4 ½″ cream strip to the blue and burgundy unit made in step 1 placing the cream along side the blue. Press the seam towards the blue fabric.

Quick and easy 3 fabric block with three strips sewn together

Sew the cream strip to the blue & burgundy

3. Sew a 4 ½″ burgundy strip to the blue and cream unit made in step 1 placing the burgundy along side the blue. Press the seam towards the blue fabric.

Quick and easy 3 fabric block with second strip set sewn together

Second strip set made

4. Square off one end of the strip set from step 2.

quick and easy 3 fabric blocks trip set squared off

Square off strip set

5. Sub cut the strip set into 8 – 2 ½″ rectangles.

quick and easy 3 fabric block with strip set sub cut

Strip set subcut into 8 rectangles

6. Repeat steps 4 & 5 for the strip set from step 3.

Quick and easy 3 fabric block with second strip stet sub cut

Second strip set sub cut into rectangles

7. Lay out 4 rectangles as the photo shows below – 2 from each strip set.

quick and easy 3 fabric block consists of 4 rectangle units

Lay out 4 rectangles per block

8. Sew the rectangles into pairs. Press the seam in one direction.

Quick and easy 3 fabric block with rectangles sewn into pairs

Sew the rectangles into pairs

9. Sew the pairs together to make the block. Press the seam in the same direction as step 8. One completed block which measures 8 ½″ at this point.

Quick and easy 3 fabric block complete

Completed block

Here are the 4 blocks configured together.

quick and easy 3 fabric block with 4 together

Four blocks together

And with green.

Quick and easy 3 fabric block with green fabric for the centre

And now with a green centre

I think the blocks look more like puzzle pieces and they should be called Puzzled Mountain but then again they kind of look like an electrical grid of some sort as well. This is another one of those blocks that can have a few different layout options with each option looking unique and different.

Another quick and easy block to create a quilt out of this summer. It would make a great cuddle quilt donation to your guild.

Happy Quilting!

Jen Transparent Signature

 

 

 

 

 

Disclosure Note: I buy and use the products mentioned in this post and write about them without influence from the designer or any other commercial interests. I have included links to the products on Amazon.com and may receive a small commission if you purchase from these links. This doesn’t cost you any more to purchase these items but it does help me maintain this website, so I hope that you will please use these links.

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