Herringbone Quilt Tutorial

This Herringbone Quilt tutorial is one of those patterns that looks a little complicated, but really is very simple. 

I’ve seen this quilt in lots of different styles, and thought it looked difficult, until I looked a little closer.

You guys, it’s just half square triangles!  Really, it’s that easy.  No weird shapes or special templates or anything.  Just half square triangles!  Half square triangles can be abbreviated as HSTs, and you’ll see me use this term throughout this tutorial.

How to Make Half Square Triangles

This Herringbone quilt tutorial starts with how to make half square triangles. To make a half square triangle, start with two squares that are the same size.  Any dimension will work, you just need all of your starting squares to be the same size.  If you are looking to make a Herringbone Quilt just like mine, I used 3½” squares, but really, any size will do.  Honestly, if (when) I make another Herringbone Quilt, I’ll probably use larger squares.  If you are looking for a more detailed HST tutorial, check this one out!

Draw a line from corner to corner on the wrong side of the lightest square, and place the two squares right sides together.

Sew ¼” to the right of the line.  Repeat by turning the squares 180* and again sew ¼” to the right of line, as shown by dotted lines.  This is a great step for chain piecing, so that you aren’t stopping after every single square to turn it around.  Sew a bunch of them, one right after the other, then trim the thread and sew in the other direction.

Cut apart directly on the drawn line.  Press towards the darker fabric.  And voila!  Two half square triangles.  Easy peasy!  Keep your pairs together, to make the next step simpler.

For more detailed HST directions, check out this Half Square Triangle Tutorial.

How to Make Herringbone Blocks

The Herringbone quilt is made up of two blocks, that are sewn together into columns, rather than into rows like most quilt patterns.

To turn your half square triangles into these Herringbone blocks, you’re going to need a pair of HSTs.  Turn the bottom HST so that the background fabric (in this case, white) is on the bottom right.  Turn the top HST so that the background fabric is on the top left.  Sew the upper HST to the lower as shown in the graphic.

Now, if your quilt will have an even number of columns, repeat this step with half of your squares.

My quilt had an odd number of columns, so a little bit of math was required.  My quilt had 15 columns made up of 9 Herringbones each.  I don’t know if a herringbone is an actual unit of measurement, but hopefully you understand what I’m saying.  From here on out, I’m definitely using the Herringbone as a unit of measurement.   Here’s a graphic to help explain:

I chose to have this be my odd column herringbone, so I needed 8 columns (columns # 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15) of 9 herringbones, so I made 72 just like this gray one.

Reverse Herringbones

The steps to make the reverse herringbone are nearly the same, but not quite.  Start by counting the number of even columns you will have.  For me, it’s 7 (columns # 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14).  Whatever that number is, set aside that number of HST pairs, WITHOUT sewing them together.  I’ll tell you what to do with them in a minute.

To turn your half square triangles into these reverse herringbone blocks, you’re going to need a pair of HSTs.  Turn the bottom HST so that the background fabric (in this case, white) is on the bottom left.  Turn the top HST so that the background fabric is on the top right.  Sew the upper HST to the lower as shown in the graphic.

With your 7 pairs (or whatever number of even columns you have) set aside, sew the rest of your half square triangle pairs into reverse Herringbones, just like this pink one. For my quilt, I needed 54 total.

How to Make a Herringbone Columns

To make columns, sew your Herringbones to other Herringbones, and your reverse Herringbones to other reverse Herringbones.

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This is where those set aside HSTs are going to come into play.  Your odd columns, the ones made of first Herringbone, can be sewn together, as many Herringbones as needed to get the height you want.  For my quilt, that was 9 Herringbones.

To make the even columns from the Reverse Herringbones, sew 8 Reverse Herringbones together and then sew one of a HST pair to the top of the column, and the other half to the bottom of the column.  This way you have 8 complete Reverse Herringbones, and one that is split to the top and the bottom.  This offsets the shapes between the even and odd columns and is what gives the quilt the Herringbone shape.

Now, my graphic shows shorter columns, but like I said before, my quilt is 9 Herringbones tall.  Once all columns are made, it’s time to sew them together.

How to Make a Herringbone Quilt

Pin at every single seam allowance, and sew columns into pairs, and then sew pairs together to create the quilt top.

An Error in Every Quilt

And, because we all need reminders that I’m not perfect… make sure your backing is actually wider than your quilt top before basting and quilting.  So frustrating!  I really love the quilting that I achieved by quilting ¼” from all of the HST diagonals (the lines between color and white in the Herringbone), it made a nice chevron pattern across the back, and really secured the scrappy back. 

But, a couple of the strips (look closely, it’s the pink and dark gray strips) were just not quite long enough, and I had to go back and patch the backing before I could add the binding.

I work hard at keeping myself humble, can’t you tell? 

Amateur backing aside, it’s a pretty quilt on the front and I’m really happy with how it turned out!

I didn’t use strictly white fabric for my background fabric.  I had some stripes on white that worked nicely with the colors in the quilt, so I used that on all of my Herringbones, and white dot on white fabric for all of my reverse Herringbones.

Supplies Needed:

All of the directions that I’ve given so far have been non-specific about size and measurement.  You can make your HSTs from any size square, as long as all of your starting squares are the same size, you can follow all of the steps in this tutorial to make a Herringbone Quilt.

But, if you’re less fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants than that, and want specifics:  I used 3½” squares.  Why 3½”?  The striped fabric that I used for background was already cut that size from a mis-cut in an earlier project.

135 white 3½” squares

135 assorted colors 3½” squares

Make:

72 Herringbones

63 Reverse Herringbones

Finished Quilt:

Finished Size: 40″ by 48″

8 Odd Columns of 9 Herringbones

7 Even Columns of 8 Herringbones + 2 HSTs