How to make The Maine State Quilt Block – Journey of US State Quilt Blocks #14

This post is going to show you how to make the Maine State Quilt block with free templates and cutting directions.

Welcome to the 14th block in our Any Way You Want It – A 50 State Quilt Block Journey. We are introducing the Maine quilt block! To see our other State blocks (click here – State Quilt Block Journey)

In 1912 Hearth and Home solicited quilters to submit a quilt block that they thought represented their State, and they then published them and I am recreating these blocks for us to make!

The Maine Quilt block is a different kind of block than we have put together. We have curves, and we have small curves! I think people in the early 1900’s must have liked seams, because almost all of these State blocks have a lot of seams.

, How to make The Maine State Quilt Block – Journey of US State Quilt Blocks #14

The inspiration for the colors of my block are from the State Gemstone – Tourmaline. I love how the Pink, Blue and Green really show off the curves and points in this block.

Below I will show you how to put this block together and I have created a video tutorial for this block also. The video will show you how I assemble one quarter of the block and then put them all together to become the single 12 1/2″ square block.

How to make the Maine State Quilt block with free templates and cutting directions

Go grab the cutting directions and templates for this block below and let’s get started! The pattern includes cutting the templates and instructions on cutting the strips for your templates.

To Begin With

I have created a very detailed video on how to put this block together. I show how I put my curved pieces together without pins too. This entire block is made up of 3 smaller blocks, so that is how we break it down!

This is a three color block. I would suggest using complimentary but contrasting colors for this block. I tried to match colors of a Maine State Gemstone, Tourmaline, as much as I could with my Batik Fat Quarter Stash. I am in two Batik of the Month clubs and I have a lot of Fat Quarters to choose from!

Tips for this block before we start

A 1/4 seam is used on this block, a quarter inch sewing foot works great for this!
Cut your strips with the grain of the fabric. This will help prevent stretching the fabrics when sewing. We want the fabrics to keep their shape.
Use the templates and replace your colors so you know which pieces to cut from each color.
I would use the templates to cut the notches out of all our your triangle pieces, the rotary cutting instructions will show you how to cut the triangles.
Cut your pieces by the color of the fabric.
Sew your 9 patch block together with a skant 1/4“.

Step 1 -Choose Your Fabrics and Cut your Templates

The rotary cutter instructions that you have downloaded tell you how wide to cut your strips and to cut your triangles. It also tells you many of each template are needed in the block. This is where you will need to figure out how many you will need for your colors.

Take your fabric and square it up with the grain and cut your strips to the width needed according the pattern. The number of strips will depend on the width of your fabric.

I would suggest cutting your templates by color. Cut your pieces from the fabrics using the templates, because of the curved pieces. Cut all notches that are in the templates also. The templates will have dimensions for cutting strips for the templates.

Once your pieces are cut, then we can lay out the block. The entire block is made up these three smaller blocks.

Step 3 – Assemble the Pinwheel Center

Sew the dark and light triangles together along the long seam and iron towards the dark. You will now have four blocks to layout in a pinwheel pattern. Sew the blocks in each row together and iron towards the dark triangle. This will give you opposing seams to put together the two rows. Sew the two rows together with a 1/4” seam and iron to one side.

Step 4 – Assemble the Corner Units

At this point we will put together the corner units. We need to start with the curved pieces. I am going to direct you to my video where I show how I sew my curves. I didn’t pin the curve onto the center piece. I just lined up the edges as I was sewing. I felt this was the best way to do it with such a small curve.

Iron your curved pieces towards the outside. Next we will add the dark triangles to the blocks next to the curved pieces, and iron towards the triangle. Lastly add the light triangles, sew, and iron towards the light triangle.

Step 5 – Assemble the Center Units

The center units are similar to the Corner units. Sew the curved sides first at 1/4“, and then iron towards the curved piece. Once you have the two curved pieces sewn on, you may need to square it up to 3 1/4″.

Once you have curved pieces sewn and squared up to 3 1/4″, then we can add the triangles. Add two triangles on opposite sides, sew 1/4” and iron towards the triangles. Repeat for the last two triangles.

At this point we can take all our blocks and make sure that they are 4 1/2″ square.

Step 6 – Lay block out and assemble rows

Lay the block back out according to the pattern. Make sure that the dark triangles on the outer corners are pointing toward the center, and the curved pieces on the center units are pointing towards the center.

Start assembling the rows starting from the left, matching points and edges. Sew at a SKANT 1/4” and iron the top and bottom rows towards the outside of the row, and iron the inner row towards the pinwheel block. Repeat to add the third block in each row.

Next, we will sew the rows together and the seams will be nested. Add the top and center row, nest the seams, sew at SKANT 1/4” and iron towards the top row. Repeat for the bottom row, and iron towards the bottom row.