Setting a Rail Fence Quilt on Point

I took the traditional block Rail Fence Quilt Block and set it on point!

The Rail Fence Quilt block is beginner friendly, easy to make from jelly roll strips and super versatile!

A few years ago I wrote a Choose Your Own Adventure Tutorial with the rail fence quilt block as the basic block with lots of variations.

And now today, another variation!  This time, on point!

How to Make a Rail Fence Quilt Block

Start by sewing two jelly roll strips – 2½” – into a pair along the long sides.

Then, sew a third strip to the pair.

Sub-cut up to six squares from each strip set.

For this quilt, which measures approximately 42½” by 59½”, make 83 blocks total from 14 strip sets which use 42 jelly roll strips.

Jelly rolls typically have 40 strips, but 2/3 of a yard of coordinating fabric for binding will also have enough fabric for 2 additional strips to get you to the 42 needed.

For a larger or smaller quilt, make more or less blocks which may or may not work well with a jelly roll.

Setting a Color Palette (And Why It Matters!)

Before I get into the directions of how to put the blocks together on point to make the quilt, I’m going to walk you through how I picked my color palette and how it impacts the overall quilt.

I started with a gray fabric that had some purple raindrops on it.  Realizing I didn’t have enough of that one fabric, I pulled two more gray fabrics that were close in tone.  I wanted every block to have a gray strip in the center.

Obviously, I used purples since there were purple raindrops in one of the fabrics.

I still had some light blues pulled out from the Indigo Way Mystery Quilt from Quiltville so I thought I would see how they would work with the purples and grays.

Even though I’ve worked with darker blues a lot in the last year or so, I thought navy would work nicely with the lighter blues and purples.  That striped in the upper left will be the binding.

And finally, to round out the palette and ensure I had enough fabric to work with, I added a couple of teal blues to the mix as well.

Turning a Rail Fence Quilt on Point

Start with 83 rail fence quilt blocks.  All of mine have a gray center fabric, but there is no reason that the same colors mixed in the outer fabrics couldn’t also be used in the centers.

Set 13 blocks aside.  Place two blocks next to each other.  The block on the left has horizontal strips and the block on the right has vertical strips.

Sew the blocks together and press towards the vertical strips.  Repeat to make 35 pairs.

Using 13 pairs and the 13 blocks set aside previously, sew a single block with horizontal strips to the right side of the pair and again press towards the vertical strips.  These will be called triples for the remainder of the tutorial.

Sew 20 pairs together to make 10 sets of 4.  These will be called quads for the remainder of the tutorial.

Laying all the rows out together begins with three triples, each offset from the one above.

Continue laying out the three center rows of 11 blocks each by placing two quads next to each of the triples.

Sew two quads and a triple to each other to make each row of 11.

Sew the three center rows to each other, making sure to pin at each seam.

Working out from the center, on each side, place a row of 9, a row of 7, a row of 5, a row of 3 and a single.

Sew the blocks into rows and sew the rows together into the quilt top.

I prefer to baste and quilt before trimming away the excess triangles to square the edges. But really, it makes no difference if you trim first and then baste and quilt.

I quilted straight lines horizontally across the quilt.  I kept my lines a little denser than I normally would, so that I feel comfortable not quilting vertically too.