Interested in doing a Quilty project with me? 

Today I have a cute and quick tutorial for a traditional hourglass quilt block for you. 

I’ve been putting things together for my awesome free quilt pattern that uses this technique and wanted to put it out there on the blog for everyone to use!

I always feel like I have to search down my favorite techniques on the internet and sometimes it takes longer to search for the technique than it takes to actually remember how to do it. 

So I’m starting to compile all of my favorite techniques for you guys to get them all into a single spot for you (and I) to reference them quickly whenever you need them. 

This technique is most certainly not new, I am in no way claiming to have invented this technique, however it is super handy and used more often than you’d think so I’m excited to write it out for you.

Required Supplies

Rotary Cutter
Cutting Mat
Two to Four different fabrics (This is my favorite online fabric store)
Pen
Sewing Machine
Iron

Step 1: Determine how your hourglass quilt block will look and cut the pieces

Hourglass blocks are used in a variety of ways.

From a simple hourglass block made of 4 hourglasses, to more complicated blocks like the points of a Missouri star block. 

Depending on what its being used for dictates how many colors you will need for your hourglasses. 

For this tutorial we are just going to put together a traditional hourglass quilt block so we will need three colors, white, and two additional colors. 

To start we will want to cut down the fabrics so we have one square of each color, and two squares of the white.

Cut all squares to a dimension of 6×6 inch squares. We will be aiming to end up with four 5×5 inch square blocks when we are done.

When you are done meet me back here 🙂

Step 2: Make half square triangles

Use a quick-piece half square triangle method to make four half square triangles using your four squares.

If you haven’t seen how to make a quick half square triangle using a 2 at a time techniques before, or just simply forget, be sure to check out my previous tutorial on it here for more details!

Draw a line down the center of both white squares from one corner to the opposite corner.

Pair each white square with a colored square and pin.

Then sew 1/4 inch on either side of the drawn line so it looks like the blocks below.

Using a rotary cutter and quilting ruler, cut the block right down the center on your drawn line. 

Open up to see your pretty new half square triangles!

Step 3: Press Seams 

To make the next step of going from half square triangle to hourglass block easier, we’ll have to press our seams. 

But we’ll want to do it in a specific way so we can nest them and give us the best chance of all four patches meeting perfectly in the middle to make the hourglass shape.

Press all four half square triangles to the side, and press them all toward the darker fabric. 

The dark fabric in the picture below is the what the front will look like, and the gold blocks below are showing the seam on the back.

Step 4: Nest seams and repeat

Take two of your four half square triangles (one of each color combination) and draw a line from corner to corner the opposite way compared to your first seam.

Pair your two HST’s with the drawn lines with a second HST without a drawn line. 

You can match up your colors, or use opposite colors for the next step, whichever you like better.

Nest the seams so they sit nicely right into each other and will line up perfectly when you go sew. 

Before you pin and sew, hold the center of the square with one hand and pull back a corner with your other hand. 

This will be how your hourglass will look when you make your final seam.

If the colors are not in the right parts of the hourglass you may have a seam pressed the wrong way.

Try pressing the seam of one block to the opposite side and try again. 

Once your hourglass looks like everything will be in the right place, nest those seam nicely and pin.

Sew a 1/4 inch along both sides of your second drawn lines and cut apart just like we did to make the half square triangles. 

Open them up and press to see the beautiful hourglasses!

Step 5: Size up

Working with triangles is tricky. 

You are working on the bias which is a fancy way of saying we cut the fabric in a way that makes it more likely to stretch.

Which often causes warping in your blocks.

To avoid warping throwing off your final block, for this tutorial, we cut the original blocks a little big.

So now that we have all the triangular work out of the way, we have plenty of wiggle room to trim our hourglasses down to size. 

Using a square quilting ruler, trim your hourglasses down to a 5×5 inch square.

To do this, find the mark that makes the center of a 5 inch square on your ruler and place that on the very center of your hourglass where all the fabrics meet. 

Carefully trim the two exposed edges.

Once the first two sides are done, flip your fabric around and repeat trimming the other two sides. 

If you find yourself doing this often, a mat that rotates makes this super simple so you don’t have to disturb the fabric between cuts. 

If you are looking for a rotating mat to add to your collection of quilting notions, or Christmas list, here’s the one I use. 

Step 6: Finish the Block

To finish up this block, take the four blocks and set them up in a square.

When you line them up, put a white edge next to a color edge.

Sew the vertical seams first and press your seams to opposite sides.

And for the last seam, nest your vertical seams and sew it up!

And there you go! A perfectly squared up hourglass quilt block.

And it wasn’t even hard to do.

Want a full project?  

You might now be asking yourself “What the heck do I do with this hourglass block now that I’ve made it”.

You’ve officially made one of the 12 blocks in one of my free quilt patterns!

The free pattern is a sampler quilt designed to practice many basic quilting skills and techniques all in one quilt and you’ve officially finished one of the blocks!

You can practice all the quilting techniques as you have time and when you are finished you’ll actually have a full quilt to show off!

The free quilt pattern will be coming out later this year, so if you want to know when it goes live, be sure to follow me on pinterest below!