Contrary Wife Quilt Block Tutorial

Today let’s look at the Contrary Wife quilt block. Now the one I’m going to show you how to sew is not the Contrary Wife block that shows up on the first page of Google if you do a search for it. In fact, there are several quilt blocks called Contrary Wife and I’ll probably be doing tutorials on them in the near future. It’s a fairly easy block with only Half Square Triangles, squares, and rectangles. Let’s get started!

Fabric Requirements for a 12″ Finished Contrary Wife Quilt Block:

Light/Gold: 8 – 3: squares, 4 – 2.5″ x 4.5″ rectangles, and 4 – 2.5″ squares
Medium/Orange: 2 – 3″ squares, and 8 – 2.5″ squares
Dark/Black: 6 – 3″ squares

Sewing Directions:

Half Square Triangle Units:

Step 1:

Using two Light/Gold 3″ squares and two Medium/Orange 3″ squares, sew together 4 Half Square Triangle units as shown in the picture below. Press the seam allowance toward the Medium/Orange fabric. Trim/square up the units to 2.5″ square. You can find my tutorial for making Half Square Triangles at https://quiltembroiderypdf.com/how-to-sew-a-basic-half-square-triangle-block

Step 2:

Now you get to repeat Step 1 only using the remaining six Light/Gold 3″ squares and the six Dark/Black 3″ squares to make 12 Half Square Triangle units. Press the seam allowance toward the Dark/Black fabric and trim/square up the units to 2.5″ square.

Pinwheel Unit:

Step 3:

For the center of the block, you’ll be making a Pinwheel unit using four of the Step 2 Half Square Triangle units as shown in the picture below. I pressed the seam allowances toward the Dark/Black fabric. The tutorial for making the Pinwheel can be found at https://quiltembroiderypdf.com/pinwheel-quilt-block-pattern

Step 4:

I pressed my Pinwheel using the twirl/tweak/furl method which you can see below. Isn’t that tiny pinwheel in the center cute?

Middle Units (for lack of a better name!):

Step 5:

Now you can lay out a Light/Gold 2.5″ x 4.5″ rectangle, a Light/Gold 2.5″ square, and a Step 1 unit as shown in the picture below.

Step 6:

Begin by sewing the Light/Gold 2.5″ square and the Step 1 unit together and pressing the seam allowance toward the Light/Gold square as shown below.

Step 7:

Now you can sew the Light/Gold rectangle to the Step 6 unit and press the seam allowance toward the Light/Gold rectangle as shown in the picture below. Repeat Steps 5 – 7 for a total of four Middle units.

Corner Units:

Step 8:

Next you need to lay out two of the Medium/Orange 2.5″ squares and two of the Step 2 Half Square Triangle units as shown in the picture below.

Step 9:

Sew the patches together into two rows just like a typical Four Patch block and press the seam allowances toward the Medium/Orange square as you can see in the photo below.

Step 10:

Now sew the two rows together to complete the Corner unit. Press the seam allowance as shown in the picture below. Repeat Steps 8 through 10 for a total of four Corner units.

Putting It All Together:

Step 11:

Lay out the Pinwheel unit, the Middle units and the Corner units in a typical Nine Patch fashion as shown in the picture below.

Step 12:

Sew the units into three rows as shown below.

Step 13:

And press the seam allowances. Here you can see that I’ve pressed the seam allowances away from the Middle units but you can press however you wish.

Step 14:

Sew the rows together and you’re finished!

Step 15:

Well, except for the pressing. Press the seam allowances in whatever direction you wish. You can see from the picture below that I’ve pressed mine toward the center of the block. This will help nest seams nicer when sewing blocks together.

Layout Ideas:

Here’s the basix 4 x 4 layout in similar colors to the tutorial.

And this is the same as above only with sashing and cornerstones added.

Of course I had to try a scrappy setting! In this example, I made an alternating block that is just the center pinwheel.

This version of an alternating layout is using the Contrary Wife block as the alternating block with a Dresdan plate block for the main focus.

In this example, I recolored the block so that the pinwheel is more pronounced.

This is an on-point layout using the same recolored block as above, coordinating colored sashing and cornerstones, and background fabric for the setting triangles.