Long Checkerboard Quilt Tutorial

This Long Checkerboard Quilt Tutorial started out as another quilt until I started to look at the pattern and wonder, “what if I adjusted…?”

Here is the Long Checkerboard Quilt.

And here is the original quilt.

What’s the difference you ask? Well, take a closer look at these two blocks.

The original pattern is made with squares, and this Long Checkerboard Quilt Tutorial is made by stretching out the checkerboard into longer rectangles.

These rectangles measure 8” by 12” when finished. I really like when it works out to have multiple fabrics from same line in a quilt. I get a little thrill when those blocks end up next to each other. This is Grunge Hits the Spot by Moda in Cobalt, Freesia and Plum.

While all of my directions today are for the blocks to be placed together vertically, so that they are 8” by 12”, these blocks can be made and then the quilt put together with the blocks in a horizontal alignment, so that they are 12” by 8”. I’ll probably circle back to this block pattern in the future and put together a baby quilt in this way because I like it just as much as the quilt I ended up making with the vertical blocks!

I love the creativity of coming up with new quilts. New blocks. New tutorials. I also really like putting the same pattern together in different ways. This shows the variety of what can be done to make a quilt look new.

First, basic block building tutorial. But make sure to read all the way through to find the cutting directions to make Long Checkerboard Quilt blocks of any size.

The original baby size Checkerboard Quilt was made from 2½” strips. This Long Checkerboard Quilt Tutorial has larger blocks, that measure 8” by 12” when finished, and started from 3½” strips. In this photo, the thinner strips to make the smaller square are blue and white, while the wider strips to make the larger rectangle block are purple and white.

Here is another view of the two blocks.

How to Make a Long Checkerboard Quilt Block

Cut strips of fabric 3 ½” by WOF. As long as your Width of Fabric is at least 40” you will be able to make these blocks. Each color/white fabric pair will make two blocks. 21 strips of color fabric (each fabric used just once!) and 21 strips of a handful of white-on-white prints make up this quilt. There are 42 blocks total, put together in six rows of seven blocks. The final quilt measures 56” by 72” which I think is PERFECT of a cuddly couch quilt.

Sew a colored strip and a white strip together along the long edge, using a ¼” seam allowance. Press towards the darker fabric. For photographs to match these steps, check out this quilt tutorial. While the original strips are a different width in this tutorial, the rest of the directions are the same.

Cut the long strip in half, making sure before cutting that both halves are at least 20” long.

Sewing in the opposite direction to the last step, sew the two halves together, using a ¼” seam allowance and again press towards the darker fabric.

I recommend sewing all steps with the white fabric on top and the colors against the feed dog. It’s good to have consistency when sewing such long strips to help the whole quilt lie flatter once the blocks go together.

Sub-cut the strip set into 8 units that are 2½” by 12½”.

Use 4 of these units, turn them to vertical, and alternate direction to create the checkerboard look, to lay out the Checkerboard Quilt Block.

Pin all seams and sew these units into pairs.

Sew the pairs together to make a Long Checkerboard Quilt Block.

It does not matter if you make your blocks with a colored rectangle in the upper left corner or a white rectangle, but whichever you choose, make sure to make all blocks the same way.

Repeat to make as many blocks as you need. Make more blocks for a larger quilt, or less blocks for a smaller quilt. Remember, every pair of fabric strips will make two blocks.

Making the Quilt Top

Lay out blocks in either a vertical or horizontal orientation, as many blocks per row and rows per quilt as needed to make the size quilt you desire. This quilt is 6 rows of 7 vertical blocks and measures 56” by 72”.

But really, the original pattern can be manipulated to make this Long Checkerboard Quilt Tutorial, or one of almost any block dimensions.

No matter what size quilt block you use, or how you put the quilt together, or even what size you make your quilt, make sure to take some great photos!

I recently got to visit Glacier National Park in Montana for the first time, and I took along four quilts to photograph.

How to Adjust this Tutorial to Make Blocks of Other Sizes

Because this quilt block is made by sub-cutting the strips into 2½” units it will always be 8” wide. That’s because a cut size of 2½” will finish in the quilt at 2”. These checkerboard strips are 4 fabrics wide (white, color, white, color) and 4 X 2 = 8.

But, the height of these blocks manipulate pretty easily! It’s just a little bit of math. Less math than many of my quilt tutorials. And, if you don’t want to do the math, you can cut your strips at 3½”, make a pretty Long Checkerboard Quilt, and just ignore the option to have taller blocks.