The Spool Quilting Block

The spool block is a frugal, great begging quilt block. This block is an "oldie", and looks especially good with reproduction prints.

There are a couple ways to make this block.  One of the easiest ways is to make it with half square triangles and squares.

You can see from the picture that this is a 9 patch.  Using easy measurements, each section needs to finish at 2 inches.

So you would cut your squares 2 1/2 inches, and use one of the methods on the half square triangles page to make your half square triangles.

You could make this block another way and eliminate some of the seams in this block by cutting one big rectangle for the top and the bottom.  Since the block will finish at 6 inches, you would cut the rectangles at 6 1/2 inches.

Then you would put squares in the corners, sew across them diagonally, and fold them back.  See the Flying Geese instructions to review how to sew a square in at the end of a rectangle and fold it over and trim.

The completed block is at the top of the page.  Most of the quilts I've seen with spool blocks are made entirely of this one block.  The spools are usually all different, and alternate being placed vertically and horizontally.

The spool quilt block has a great vintage feel.  It is a great block to use for your first quilt, because it is frugal and easy to make.