The Broken Dishes 5-patch quilt block is a very attractive 5-patch quilt block.  It is hard to find 5-patch quilt blocks.  This is a good one.  There is also a 4-patch that is called Broken Dish.   

The 5-patch Broken Dish quilt block is a little more difficult.  The easy thing about this block is that it can be made of all squares and half square triangles. The difficulty comes in sizing the center 4 blocks. 

Look at the top row in the picture to the left.  You can see the patches or grids are all the same size.  It is easy to see on the top row.  However, the next 3 rows do not fall within the grid lines.

Here is an easy way to do this block in a very scrappy way. 

If you plan for each grid to finish at 2 inches, your first row is easy.  All those squares (or your strip piecing) is cut at 2 1/2 inches.  On the 2nd row, the outer squares take up 2 inches each.  That leaves you with 8 inches for the width of your middle 2 half square triangle. The half square triangles will also extend down 8 inches.

Divide this in half, and you need to make 4 half square triangles that finish at 4 inches for the center of the block.

It is very confusing if you look at the grids in the small picture to the left.  It is much easies to see in the picture at the top.

Be sure and get the value right with the small squares. The outer perimeter of the block has squares in the corners and in the middle of the row.  The rest of the patches on the outside are half square triangles.

This is great block to use up small scraps.  This is one of those blocks that looks great when you use it for the whole quilt.