The Cornerstone Quilt Block

The cornerstone quilt block was one of so many published in the Kansas City Star in the 1920’s and 1930’s.

This is one of the easy patterns, even for the beginner quilter.

Remember to think of the cornerstone quilt block as a nine patch grid. Each of the nine “mini” blocks need to be completed before you can finish the basic quilt block.

To complete one block for a sampler quilt:

Materials:
Fat quarter fabric in three colors
(dark pink, light pink and purple)
Batting
Backing

Step 1 - Use the rotary cutting techniques.
Cut 1 strip 2”x 22” from the dark pink fabric.
Cut 4 patches 3” square from the dark pink fabric.
Cut 1 strip 2”x 14” from the light pink fabric.
Cut 4 patches 3” square from the light pink fabric.
Cut 1 patch 3½” square from the purple fabric.
Cut 1 strip 2”x 8” from the purple fabric.

Step 2 - Sew the dark pink strip to the purple strip side by side. Press the seam allowance toward the darker fabric. Sub cut the strip into 2” units.

Step 3 - Using the remaining portion of the dark pink strip, sew the dark pink/purple units to the dark pink strip. Place 2 purple squares toward the top and 2 purple squares toward the bottom.

Sub cut the strip and squares into 3½” square units.

This will create the four corner mini block units.

Step 4 - Use the half square triangle method.

Place one 3” square of dark pink and one 3” square of light pink fabric, right sides together. Draw a line on the diagonal on the lighter fabric from one corner to the opposite corner. Stitch ¼” on each side of the marked line.

Cut on the drawn line with your rotary cutter or scissors to separate the square into triangles.

Fold open the square and press the seam allowances toward the darker fabric. Using your plastic ruler, trim the square to be 2”. Be sure to use the 45 degree angle on your ruler.

Complete 8 dark pink/light pink half square triangles.

Step 5 - Sew two dark pink/light pink half square triangles together with the pink triangles towards the lower center corners.

Complete 4 units to create the light pink mini block units.

Step 6 - Sew the dark pink/light pink unit to the remaining dark pink strip. Sub cut the completed strip unit into four 3½” squares.

Step 7 - To assemble the fair and square quilt block, sew row one - corner mini block, light pink mini block, corner mini block.

Be sure to check for the correct placement of the small purple squares and the light pink mini block units.

Step 8 - Sew row two - light pink mini block, purple square, light pink mini block.

Step 9 - Sew row three - corner mini block unit, light pink mini block, corner mini block unit.

Step 10 - Sew the rows together to complete the cornerstone quilt block.

Go to Free Quilt Block Patterns from the Cornerstone Quilt Block