Lesson #6 - The Rail Fence

Rail Fence is a very easy quilt block for beginners.  It is a perfect square, and made up of three trips sewn together, which you learned to do in the Rectangle lesson.

Even though this block is easy, it has a lot of design possibilities, depending on the direction that you turn the blocks.

In the picture at the top of the page, you can see that all the blocks are the same, yet they are turned at different angles.

The "stair step" layout is one example of the different patterns you can make with this very simple block.

The only thing you need to remember with this block is that it is a square.  You must cut enough length so that when the three strips are sewn together, you can cut down the length the same distance as the width.
The

If you are practicing with your 4-inch squares, you would cut them 1 1/4 inch wide.  When sewn together, they will have a width of 2 3/4 inches

1 1/4 + 1 1/4 + 1 1/4 = 3 3/4 inches
minus
1 inch (2 seams of 1/2 inch each)  = 2 3/4 inch final width

So for practice,  to make your block square, you would have to trim up your block to  2 2/4 inches wide.

Normally, when you make this block, you will make wider blocks and  adjust your length accordingly.

On to Lesson #7 -
The Pinwheel Block