Hive 1 January Block for Diana

 

Hi Diana,

Making this block was super fun, thanks for the tutorial. I hope the colours are what you imagined!
The block very exactly meassures 16.5" so I hope it'll work for you.

Have a great time sewing your quilt,

Kathrin

Hive 1, January Block for Diana

 

Hi Diana,

The blocks are slightly short on the hight, despite my best efforts. I left the solid squares over-sized, that's why they look worse on the pictures, as they are.

Hope they'll be okay for you. 

I will pop them in the post box this evening, so they should start their journey to you on Monday.

Happy sewing,

Rita

Hive 1 Block for Diana

Hi Diana, Thanks for the tutorial, I enjoyed making this block! I however needed more discipline than what I am used to to make ends meet, ha!ha!ha!. Your choice of color and your expert touch will make this a beautiful quilt for your (lucky) nephew. Take care, Marie

Hive #5 January Tutorial - Patriotic Stars for Heather

Happy New Year, Hive 5!  I have what I hope will be a fun, easy block for us. I love stars and have wanted to do a RWB quilt for a long time.  We are going to make big sawtooth stars with your own choice of a center.

For colors, think any fabric that reads like any red, white and blue flag…American, British, Australian.

It can be low volume, printed, batik…whatever.  As long as it reads “traditional” R(deep,dark) W(not cream or gray) and B(dark, navy). I love prints with other colors, like the Joel Dewberry print, just have it play a minor role.

All the backgrounds for the outside star should read white.  The points of the stars can be blue or red, your choice. I used the tutorial here, No-waste Flying Geese @ Happy Quilting, to make 4-at-a-time, no waste flying geese.  I cut my starter fabrics:

White: 9-1/4" square

Points (Red orBlue): 4 - 5" squares

I also cut 4 - 4-1/2" squares white for the corners of the larger star.

I did find when making the points that I needed to trim a little off of the colored long side so that unit was 4-1/2" wide:

The inside of the star is an 8” block of your choice. It can be as simple or as complicated as you choose. Think 4-patch, pinwheel, economy, Xs and Os, etc. I have a brainstorming list if you need more ideas.  The colors of the inside block should read the same RWB but can be organized however you choose.

When assembling, I pressed toward the flying geese.

When you’re done you should have a 16-1/2” (unfinished) sawtooth star with a unique 8” center.

Hive 2 January Tutorial - Variation on courthouse steps

Happy January!  We're going to make a variation on courthouse steps this month!  I'm slowly making a quilt of each color, and this year the color is green.  This quilt will be gifted to a friend whose baby is coming in March, but they decided not to find out the gender.

FABRICS
You'll need a white center and then an assortment of greens. 
*For the white, please use a white-on-white or solid white.
*The greens should read as green, see the examples below.
*Batiks and solids are welcome, novelty prints are not. (I realized last year that everyone has a different definition of what novelty means to them.  To me, a novelty print is a print with something ("a noun") on it that is the focal point.  A few nouns are exceptions because they're so common: leaves, flowers, stars, and hearts.  Geometric shapes are not novelty prints: polka dots, squiggly lines, etc.  If the noun is arranged in a pattern or are a similar color to the background such that the noun is not really the focal point, that is fine too.) 

 

CUTTING
The only exact instruction I have for cutting is to cut the white fabric to a 6" square.  (It will be 5.5" after the other strips are added to it.)  The greens will need some strips of between 2" and 3.5".  The darker strips will need to be a little longer as they will be going on the outer part of the block.

SEWING
This is put together like a traditional courthouse steps block, although all the strips in a square will be the same color.  

Start with your lightest green and add it to two sides of the white square.  The exact strip width doesn't matter, but should be between 2" and 3.5" and should be the same for both pieces.  Press the seams toward the outside green piece. 

Add the other two sides of the lightest green.  They should also be the same width as the previous strips. Press toward the outside.  I often check after each border and make sure everything is still square.

Continue adding boxes in the same manner until you've reached 16.5".  The boxes should go from your lightest green to your darkest green.  If you need to sew two strips (of the same fabric) together to make a strip long enough, that is fine. If your last box width needs to be smaller than 2" or a little bigger than 3.5" that's fine; I often have a hard time with the dimensions of the last strip because the math never seems to work out easily.

I'm planning on cutting these in quarters, although I haven't decided the final arrangement yet.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

Hive 1 January Tutorial - Ziggy Block

 Hello Hive 1 and Happy New Year!

I am so excited to kick things off this year with a relatively simple block. It's actually a block that has been done before on Stash Bee about 6 years ago. It's called the Ziggy Block:

It was a free pattern that was originally found here, but the blog it links to no longer exists so I had to recreate it. Luckily, it's just made up of squares and half-square triangles so it was easy to do. 

This quilt is going to be a gift for my 26-year-old nephew whose favorite color combo is dark blue and silver. I wanted a bit more depth of color to the quilt so for my blues, think navy, jewel tones, and medium blues. Please avoid light blues. Solids and tone-on-tones are great, patterns that read blue are good, but no novelty prints, please. 

Since sliver is hard to come by with fabric, I'm opting for light grays and low-volume prints that read as gray/light gray. 

A Note About Seam Allowances and Pressing:

When sewing, please use a true 1/4-inch seam allowance. When you get into the world of scant 1/4-inch seams in a bee with 11 people, one person's scant seam is different from another person's and it can make things challenging. So please check your seam allowances and measurements ahead of time. 

For me, unless I specifically note a pressing preference, I'm fine with you pressing your seams however you choose in order to get the best block possible. 

Tutorial

I had an abundance of precut charms (5" blocks) in my stash so I wanted to try and use some of these up. If your stash allows for many different fabrics, that's great. If you only have 2 different blues or 1 gray, just use that. I'm easy. :)

Squares - 

BLUE: Cut (4) 4.5" squares and set aside

GRAY: Cut (4) 4.5" squares and set aside

Half-Square Triangles (HSTs) -

I use a specialty ruler (the Clearly Perfect Slotted Trimmers) to trim my HSTs so I was able to use my 5" charm squares to make my HSTs. For most people though, you are going to want to use slightly bigger squares, about 5.5", and then trim the HST down to 4.5".

BLUE: Cut (4) 5.5" squares

GRAY: Cut (4) 5.5" squares

Here is how I make my HSTs, but if you prefer a different method, please use that.

On the back side of your gray squares, draw a diagonal line from corner to corner. 

Pair up your gray squares with your blue squares, placing them right sides together. Sew a 1/4-inch on both sides of your drawn line and then cut ON YOUR DRAWN LINE.

Press your block open and trim it down to 4.5". Remember to trim off the little dog ears. 

Repeat this process for all 4 sets of HSTs and then lay out all of your blocks like this:

Now it's time to sew them all together, but here is where I get picky. I'd like you to sew them in 4 patches like below. The reason I do this is that the longer the stitch line, the easier it is for the accuracy to be off.

Then, once you have the 4 patches done, you'll sew these all together to get your finished block. For these last 3 seams, I'd like you to press the seams OPEN to reduce the amount of bulk.

Here is what your finished block should look like:

It will be approximately 16.5" but don't worry if it's a little off. Don't trim anything. I will take care of that when I go to put them all together.

Thank you so much for sewing with me this month and I can't wait to see all of the wonderful blocks you make.

~ Diana @Red Delicious Life

Hive 3 January Tutorial - Scrappy Heart Block for Robin Sue

Happy 2022!  

Let's Make It Scrappy!

I'm excited to start the year with this scrap buster block.  I like to cut my scraps into a variety of sizes - 2" 2.5" 3" 3.5" 4",4.5" 5" and strips.  This way I'm ready for scrappy sewing.

The block I finally settled on is the Scrappy Heart block by Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom

The author of this block does an excellent tutorial, although, you might have to scroll down to find it.

Colors:  Your Choice!  I am requesting that you use "happy" colors and that your fabrics are all in a similar color.

Here are my fabrics used.  I had to pull my low volumes from my 3.5" box & cut down to size.

• 5 - 3" your choice of color
• 5 - 3" low volume or white
• 20 - 2.5 your choice of color
• 6 - 2.5 low volume or white

As you can see, I have duplicates of some fabrics - I didn't want to cut into other fabrics.  Lazy, I know!

Match 3" color with 3" low volume/white.  These are for the HSTs.  

Mark corner to corner

I put a scrap under the needle before I sew HSTs

Sew 1/4" away from marked line

Make sure you sew on both sides of the line

Cut on the line

Press open (my personal preference) and trim to 2.5"

Lay out pieces to make the heart.

Sew using 1/4" seam.  I sewed in columns and then sewed the columns together.  

There is no right or wrong way.  

After I connected the columns, I pressed seams open.  Then pinned the rows and sewed.

I snipped the connecting threads, then pressed open all seams.

I'm planning to sew more scraps into these heart blocks.  Can't wait to see yours!

♡RobinSue

Hive 4 January 2022 Tutorial - Plaidish blocks for Helen

Hello ladies

We have finally left 2021 behind (ooo it was a doozie of a year wasn't it?) and we are now in a nice new fresh year, 2022. Let's hope it is a good one.

This year I would like to make a king sized Plaidish Quilt so I will need a whole lot of blocks.

This is the one I made in 2021 as part of the Plaidish SAL.

The pattern is designed by Erica of Kitchen Table Quilting and you can order the free pattern here: https://www.kitchentablequilting.com/2019/06/plaid-ish-scrap-quilt-and-tutorial.html

Scroll down and you will find an Add To Cart button - do that and receive the download.

It is an easy quilt to make and can be in so many colour ways - check out the hashtag #plaidishquilt - it will be so hard to choose.

This time I would like a charcoal, mustard/gold and soft aqua quilt. 

This is the chair in my bedroom that is the colour inspiration:

Here is my fabric pull along with the kona colours of Charcoal, Curry & Aqua for reference. 

I am asking you to make me one block and you can choose which one A, B or C.

The pattern consists of three repeating blocks:

Block A 10.5" square in my colours 

Cut 

4 charcoal squares 5" by 5" 

1 aqua square 1.5" by 1.5" 

4 mustard/gold rectangles 1.5" by 5" 

Block B 8.5" square in my colours

Cut

4 aqua squares 4" by 4"

1 charcoal square 1.5" by 1.5"

4 mustard/gold rectangles 1.5" by 4"

Block C 8.5" by 10.5" in my colours

Cut

4 mustard/gold squares 4" by 5"

1 mustard/gold square 1.5" by 1.5"

2 charcoal rectangles 1.5" by 5"

2 aqua rectangles 1.5" by 4"

If using any directional fabrics within the blocks, please try to orient them all the same way - e.g. the one above the music and the motif on the top left run the same way.

The blocks are constructed the same way, they are just different sizes. You can either press to the dark or press seams open, I have pressed mine open. Please use a scant 1/4 inch seam.

Here are the three different blocks side by side. 

You can see in the pattern that the C blocks are used in both rows, with it upright in one row and on it's side in the other row. Hence the comment about needing to orient directional fabrics the same way in the block.

Please don't go too black or too light with the charcoal and please avoid some mustards that have a green tinge to them.

The aquas are quite soft and not too blue or green.

The fabrics can have other patterns/colours on them as long as they are mainly the 3 colours.

Reach out to me if you require more guidance on how to put the pieces of the block together. I figured you were all experienced quilters and so would be able to do that part OK. 

I hope you all enjoy making these blocks for me. And some of you are tempted to join the SAL for Plaidish in February on IG with @jessicaquilter #plaidishqal. I will be joining in making more of these blocks.

Thanks and happy sewing.

Finished Quilt - Hive 2

 Here is my finished quilt from February 2021 with blocks made by Hive 2. I feel happy that I received the blocks and finished it in the same calendar year! Looking forward to participating again in 2022!

Hive 1 Block for Marie

Thank you for the great tutorial, Marie! I had a lot of fun with this one - it was my first time doing "improv" for the two diagonal squares! Can't wait to see your pink quilt when it is finished.

Enjoy!

-Julia D.