Quilt Tutorial: Storm at Sea Quilt Block

This quilt tutorial is part of the “Salt and Sand” blog hop. Get out your suntan lotion before you visit the participants at the bottom of this page. There will be virtual ocean breezes, pretend sand between your toes, and maybe an imaginary wave or two.

How to Make a Storm-at-Sea Quilt Block

Well, as it turns out, there are two types of Storm-at-Sea blocks. The original seems to have been designed by Eveline Foland for the Kansas City Star during the newspaper circulation wars following the depression. (That’s actually when most quilt blocks were designed and/or named.) Here is that block:

Storm at Sea Quilt Block

As you can see, it has two borders, like the picture on the left below.

Each type of block makes a unique design when used in multiples. Here is my Pinterest board showing the variety of different Storm at Sea colorations.

The Storm at Sea block consists of two blocks in different sizes:

the Elongated Triangle
This block is used as a border block for the center Economy block
Quilt Tutorial: Storm at Sea Quilt Block - the Economy Block
There are two different sizes of the Economy Block used to help create the Storm at Sea quilt block. This is the economy block.

I found a number of different methods of making this block, but I am only going to show you a few on this page. I will do another tutorial next month. Here are links to other sites that offer information on the other methods.


Using Accuquilt to Make the Storm at Sea Quilt Block

Accuquilt is a machine that uses dies to precisely cut fabric. It’s a relatively expensive machine – I always tell people to watch for sales. There are literally hundreds of dies of all sorts of shapes and sizes.

My favorites tend to be the applique motifs. Just pre-fuse the fabric and run it through the cutter.

They also come in boxes called Qube’s which contain all the sizes you would need for straight cuts. This is a terrific time saver – and hand saver, particularly if you have trouble gripping a rotary cutter or keeping fabric from moving while cutting. You can cut up to six layers at a time.

The Storm-at-Sea die is a Block on Board (BOB) die. That means that all the pieces you need to make a block are in one die. This particular BOB die is quite large.

a picture of The Accuquilt Die

It only makes the block without the second sashing border in a 9″ size, but it is easy enough to double up on the fabric you need to add that border. This would make it a 12″ square block. The instructions that come with the package tell you how to cut and position the fabric you need for one block.

a picture of The Accuquilt Die

If you don’t have an Accuquilt cutter

Read over this section anyway. Accuquilt is merely cutting the template pieces for you. If you don’t have an Accuquilt but would still like a ruler template, I recommend the Marti Michell #8065 Template Set which will help you cut the exact sizes you need for other sizes of blocks.


a picture of The Accuquilt Die
You can see how long this die is – and my dinosaur die on the floor!

Making the Elongated Triangle (or parallelogram)

the Elongated Triangle
This block is used as a border block for the center Economy block

the Elongated Triangle

Start by sewing the half-rectangle pieces to opposite sides of the center parallelogram. The Accuquilt die has the edges already clipped so you have an exact stitching line with no dog ears. Despite this, I struggled with this block. It just didn’t look right to me. I kept going though.

Quilt Tutorial: Storm at Sea Quilt Block - the Elongated Triangle

Here is the second seam, which you sew AFTER the first two pieces have been pressed. Now it looks really odd. But when you fold it over and press it, it all straightens out.

Making the Economy Block

Quilt Tutorial: Storm at Sea Quilt Block - the Economy Block
There are two different sizes of the Economy Block used to create the Storm at Sea quilt block.

An Economy Block is actually a Square-in-a-Square block that has been set on point a second time.

the Economy Block
First you make the square-in-a-square center
the Economy Block
Then you add the other four corners.

Another benefit of the Accuquilt die is that your blocks always end up perfect, so there is no need to square them up. All you need to do is press.

Quilt Tutorial: Storm at Sea Quilt Block
I am becoming fond of my wool pressing mat.

Paper Piecing the Storm at Sea Block

Honestly, I think paper piecing the elongated triangle is actually one of the easiest and most accurate ways of making it. If you have Electric Quilt, you can easily print the size template you need. Let me show you. Click here to download a practice template.

One caveat: I am not a professional paper piecer. This is just a quick overview. For more details read The Seven Deadly Sins of Paper Piecing.

Foundation piecing is a method of sewing fabric to paper or fabric. It’s a little tricky because you have to place the fabric right sides together on the front using placement lines that are on the back. You either look through the paper (a bright light is helpful) or you make really large seams and trim them later. That is what I did.

After you have sewn the two pieces of fabric together along the placement line on the back, you go to the front and flip the smaller piece over the seam and press. You really should trim at that point, but I forgot. No matter, you CAN go back and do it later, but it’s not as easy.

Here’s a tip: always use a very small stitch and a large needle when paper piecing. It will help to perforate the paper so it pulls away easier when you are done.

I started with the paper template, a 4-1/2″ x 8-1/2″ dark blue rectangle and (4) 3-1/2″ x 6-1/2″ light blue rectangles, which turned out to be much too large. Better safe than sorry, though.

Paper Piecing Preparation

I placed the dark blue rectangle right sides up on the back of the template. I guessed at the placement of the light blue and pinned along the sewing line. When I looked at the front fabric, I saw that my guess was good and I made my first seam.

The first seam of paper piecing
This shows the first seam.

The next step is to flip over the light blue on the front and press. As you can see, the light blue piece I used was too big.

Paper Piecing Second Seam

I added the piece to the opposite side, then I cleaned up the edges of the block by cutting along the sides of the paper template. This is the point where I should have folded the light blue and the paper out of the way and trimmed the seam allowance to 1/4″ but I did not. Instead, I sewed on the other two corners.

Here’s another tip: instead of using really, really thin pins, consider using a water-soluble glue stick to hold your pieces in place.

Paper Piecing a block

Then I pressed the block again, cut the light blue even with the paper template, ripped off the paper from the back, and remembered that I was supposed to trim the seams. Argh! No matter, it can still be done. You just have to pick out a few threads where one seam crossed another.

Quilt Tutorial: Paper Piecing
I love rulers that have a clearly defined 1/4″ seam, like the QIAD Fussy Cut Ruler.

And here is that block, under the Accuquilt block. (Yes, they are different sizes.) If you are going to do a whole Storm at Sea quilt with paper piecing, I would recommend that you print your templates on water-soluble paper. It is *so* much easier than ripping paper and possibly weakening seams.

Quilt Tutorial: Paper Piecing

Two More Methods for Making the Storm-at-Sea Quilt Block

Will be revealed on April 20th.

Have another tip to offer? Send it to me or reply below and I will add it here.

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20 thoughts on “Quilt Tutorial: Storm at Sea Quilt Block”

  1. I love the Storm at Sea block and have made a couple, but pretty much by rotary cutting. Also, I make my blocks huge so I don’t have to work so hard. I call it a Tsunami, haha! I think it’s a beautiful design.

  2. Love the storm at sea quilts! A moment of confession though I have never made one..

  3. This was a great tutorial for Storm at Sea…thank you! Someday I’ll be giving this a try with my Accuquilt Storm at Sea cutter. Thanks for hopping with us!

  4. Great tutorial for the Storm at Sea in various methods! I have the BOB for Storm at Sea that I need to use to complete a long-neglected UFO. Thanks so much for sharing!

  5. My masterpiece quilt (in my opinion) was a Storm at Sea variation for my Navy son. I loved doing it in grays and navy blues with a red and black compass rose block – he was a navigator. It’s a design with so many possibilities. I’ve been looking forward to seeing what your research found!

  6. Having those AccuQuilt dies for the Storm at Sea was brilliant. Thanks, too, for helping us see all the work involved even with the cutter.

  7. I absolutely love Storm at Sea. All the different methods to accomplish it makes it so versatile! Thanks for sharing all the information.

  8. Thank you for the pattern for paper pieced diamond piece. That would make it a lot easier for me anyway. I love paper piecing.

  9. Such a detailed tutorial on the construction of this block is a wonderful gift. Thank You

  10. What a great tutorial! I did them with a group – thought paper piecing would help with accuracy – I was wrong. The die is the definite way to go. If you don’t mind, I’d love for you to link up at my tips/tutorials for the month…there is still time!

  11. Thank you for the tutorial and the links to other methods. I’ll check these out as the square in a square has always given me trouble.

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