Next Door Neighbor quilt block
The Next Door Neighbor quilt block is a great basic skill quilt block. Since it uses squares and half square triangle units, there isn’t much math involved other than counting how many types of pieces needed for each fabric. You will have to calculate what size to cut your pieces for the half square triangle units though.
Even though this block is a 16 patch, I would consider it set on a 2 by 2 grid because each quarter is basically the same except for alternating the center half square triangle piece fabrics. This means that it should work well as an alternate block with other blocks set either 2 by 2 or 4 by 4.
To calculate what size to cut your fabric pieces, I would call this a factor 4 quilt block using 4 fabrics. Here is a quick reference for making your own Next Door Neighbor quilt block.
| Factor | 4 | ||||||
| Fabrics | 4 | ||||||
| Half Square Triangle Method | *Special Ruler | ||||||
| Strip Width by Finished Block Size | |||||||
| Fabric | Piece | Quantity | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 |
| Background (light) | Sq | 4 | 1.5 | 2 | 2.5 | 3 | 3.5 |
| Background (light) | HST | 8 | 1.5 | 2 | 2.5 | 3 | 3.5 |
| Star (yellow) | HST | 8 | 1.5 | 2 | 2.5 | 3 | 3.5 |
| Corners & Center | HST | 6 | 1.5 | 2 | 2.5 | 3 | 3.5 |
| Center | HST | 2 | 1.5 | 2 | 2.5 | 3 | 3.5 |
* The special ruler method for half square triangles is cutting strips and using a side right triangle, a.k.a. half square triangle, ruler to cut the pieces from strips.
Happy Quilting,
Jeanne