Free Dutchman's Puzzle Quilt Block Tutorial

I can't believe I missed doing the Dutchman's Puzzle quilt block tutorial until now! It is a very old, very traditional pattern and, of course, goes by several other names. It appeared in the Ohio Farmer in 1894 as the "Wheel" and again in 1898 as the "Dutchman's Wheel". The Ladies Art Company called it "Dutchman's Puzzle" and that is what I believe is the most commonly used name for this block. This block is great for practicing Flying Geese blocks. Let's get started!

Fabric Requirements for an 8" Finished Dutchman's Puzzle Quilt Block:

• Light/White: 16 - 2.5" squares
• Medium/Teal: 4 - 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles
• Dark/Navy: 4 - 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles

Sewing Directions:

Flying Geese Units:

Step 1:

Using eight of the Light/White 2.5" squares and the four Medium/Teal 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles, sew together four Flying Geese units as shown in the picture below. You can find my tutorial for making Flying Geese blocks at https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-to-sew-a-basic-flying-geese-block I probably should have paid more attention to the direction of the text in this fabric but in the end, it turned out fine.

Step 2:

Now you get to do the same thing only using the Dark/Navy 2.5" x 4.5" rectangles instead of the Medium/Teal ones.

Corner Units:

Step 3:

Now you need to match up one of each of the Step 1 and Step 2 Flying Geese units as shown below.

Step 4:

And sew them together. You can see in the picture below that I have pressed my seam allowance away from the Dark/Navy Flying Geese unit but you can press which ever way you desire. Repeat for a total of four Corner units.

Putting It All Together:

Step 5:

Arrange the Corner units as shown below. From here the Dutchman's Puzzle quilt block goes together just like a typical Four Patch block.

Step 6:

Sew the four Corner units together into two rows as shown below.

Step 7:

And press the seam allowances as shown below.

Step 8:

Almost done! Sew the two rows together, and ...

Step 9:

Press the seam allowances. Here you can see that I've used the tweak/twirl/furl method of pressing. All done!

Conclusion:

I found the Dutchman's Puzzle quilt block easy to put together. It gives you lots of practice in making Flying Geese units too! I have seen this block done with only Half Square Triangles and that works too if you don't want to do Flying Geese.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial for the Dutchman's Puzzle quilt block. If you liked this post and want to see more quilting tutorials like this, simply click here to sign up for my newsletter and also receive a free PDF quilt pattern called "Chained Weathervane".

Happy Quilting!

Elaine

P.S. To figure out how much fabric you need to make a quilt using this block (or any other block for that matter) see the tutorial https://fabric406.com/blogs/fabric406-blog/how-much-fabric-do-i-need