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Tumbling Blocks Quilts Patterns [Traditional Methods and Modern Twists]

Tumbling block quilt patterns are interesting as they have a 3 dimensional look due to the blocks looking like they are tumbling down the quilt.

The quilt pattern has developed several variations over the years. The traditional blocks were hand pieced and quilted. It used a diamond shape in a repeating pattern. Now there are patterns you can buy that use the strip piecing method or the paper piecing method to assemble them.

Tumbling blocks quilt without a single Y seam

This pattern will show you how to join three strips of fabric in two contrasting colors into one strip with a single line along its length twice, then cut them up into adequate pieces that you’ll sew together to get a quilt with many cubes that have three sides visible and are all in different colors, arranged in rows as if they were tumbling down over each other.

individual tumbling block size is about 4 1/2 x 3 7/8 inches

pattern: Teresadownunder

Striped Tumbling Blocks Quilt

Here’s a minimalistic but amazing take on the tumbling blocks pattern, a quilt that uses just one color of fabric, striped gray, chopped up into rhombuses and stitched together so the stripes are oriented in a different way on each of the three sides of the three-dimensional cubes, giving them extra depth and making them more vivid.

by Purlsoho

Sewing Tumbling Blocks Patchwork

There’s something futuristic about this quilt that features tumbling blocks that are in purple, cyan, green, and blue hues, with clusters of blocks in similar hues that gradually combine in colors with their neighboring clusters, giving the quilt a look that could remind you of the Tron movie.

by Cleverchameleon

Learn cutting and piecing to make Tumbler Blocks

Here we have a pattern that’s educational, since it teaches you how to properly cut the fabric and assemble the pieces to make a single tumbling block that has a wide and short diamond on top and two opposing rhombuses at the bottom, then put multiple such blocks together into a quilt of any size.

Cool Blocks Quilt

You’ll think of a beautiful coral seabed when you look at this quilt that has nine rows with seven cubes made of patterned fabrics in a few hues of green, blue, yellow, and purple, surrounded by a deep blue frame with patterned squares in the corners that match in colors diagonally.

by Freespiritfabrics

Easy Tumbling Blocks ~ No “Y” seams!

No need to sew those troublesome Y seams to make this nice mini quilt that features a dark thin frame around the edges, a wide slightly brighter additional frame inside it, and a set of red and dark tumbling blocks in three rows in the middle of the quilt.

by Scrapatches

How to Make a Tumbling Blocks Quilt with No Y-Seams!

Here’s a pattern that is cheerful and optimistic thanks to its bright and positive colors of blue, yellow, and green that make the three-dimensional cubes set so the green and blue colors cover the top and bottom halves of the quilt, while yellow blocks appear in a cluster at the middle, as well as individual blocks spread randomly between the other blocks.

free pattern here 

Free Quilt Pattern: Tumbling Blocks Quilt

Reinvent the rainbow as a more subtle and pastel variation as you make this fun quilt that has twelve rows of tumbling blocks, each row in a different hue, from pink to yellow, blue to purple, and red to green, then all over again with slightly different colors but in the similar hues.

SIZE 45 ¾”W X 53 ¾”H

PATTERN HERE. DESIGNED BY MARSHA EVANS MOORE for Michael Miller fabrics

by Ilovequiltingforever

Tumbling Blocks Sunrise

This pattern will help you make a quilt that emanates positivity with its vibrant colors of blue green, yellow, and just a bit of gray so you can appreciate the other colors more, with the bottom row of blocks gray, then two rows of green, and the rest in blue, with a yellow cluster in the center and some individual yellow blocks around it.

Finished quilt size: 16 x 16 inches

Sewn entirely on machine and without any Y seams!

Pattern by Leah Day here

Tutorial: How to Sash Tumbler Blocks

Use up the fabrics with some depictions or images you aren’t a fan of in a creative way and slice them up into trapezoid pieces in identical dimensions, then join them alternating vertically into strips with thick bulging edges around each piece, and assemble those strips into a lovely quilt!

by Thepeonyteacup

Modern Twist on Tumbling Tiles

This modern variation of the tumbling blocks quilt is different from the classic kind in a few ways, first one is that the cubes are slightly wider and appear to be falling sideways instead of from the top, and second, the frame around the ten rows of cubes is made of many small alternating rectangles that match the cubes in colors.

Click here to get a FREE copy of the original Tumbling Blocks pattern from McCall’s Quilting February 2005 here.

Tumbling Blocks Quilt

Here’s a pattern that makes sewing a quilt with tumbling blocks easy and fun, since you just need to cut many diamonds in a few colors and much more gray and darker gray rhombuses, then stitch them so they form eight rows of cubes that all have gray sides and tops in alternating colors.

by Sizzix

Tumbling Blocks Raggy Quilt for a baby

This pattern will help you make the ideal quilt for your nursery and your little one, featuring the three most adequate colors for baby items, pink, light blue, and white, paired up to create the cubes with three differently colored sides, and decorated with fringes on the outer edges of each block that match in color with the cube sides.

by Free-quilting

3D Tumbling Blocks Quilt Tutorial

The pattern we have here allows you to bring the tumbling blocks design to the next level and make this amazing quilt that has big green, blue, purple, and pink 3D cubes with smaller identical cubes standing on their top sides, framed with a thin box made of narrow and long trapezoids in the colors of the blocks.

by Missouriquiltco

Newer methods using strip piecing with no set-in seams

video clip by Marci Baker showing one of the newer methods using strip piecing with no set-in seams

Learn how to make tumbling block pieces easily and swiftly, and create a splendid quilt along the way with this pattern that features a large grid of vibrant cubes that look like they’re falling over and match in colors diagonally, going through the entire rainbow spectrum with each diagonal row.

Non-traditional tumbling blocks patterns

Below you will find the following templates and instructions. No matter which method you choose, make sure you are in line with the basic principle of placement of light, medium and dark fabrics. This is vital for the success of the design.

Here’s a pattern that will teach you how to make three kinds of tumbling blocks that are far from the classical type, one of them is square with notched corners and a hollow square in its center, with diamonds around the central square, the other is a complex gem with diamonds and squares in different colors inside it, and the last is a square windmill made of contrasting half-square triangles.

by All-about-quilts

You’ll have a lot of fun when you sew either one of these patterns with designs that trick the eye and seem as if they aren’t two-dimensional. Did a specific one catch your interest already? Share your thoughts and experiences with everyone in the comments and remember to subscribe to the mailing list for fresh updates. Enjoy your new visual illusion quilts!