Hive 10 - February Block Tutorial

Oh my gosh, this is the longest tutorial ever! Clearly, I'm worried you won't understand my words at all! If you are confused with any of the instructions, please please feel free to email me and I'll try to clarify! :D

What is your name?
I'm Sarah. I've had a blog for a few years called Confessions of a Slacker Mom. Unfortunately it's not a quilting blog and it's sort of in... limbo/hiatus. :/

Where do you live?
I live in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Tell us about your family (Spouse, kids, grandkids, pets, etc.)
My husband is a hardworking, very very busy man who works way too hard! I have four kids, ages 13 (boy), 10 (girl), 6 (girl) and almost 4 (girl.) I homeschool my youngest two.

Tell us about how you got interested in quilting.
I made my first quilt on whim for my now-almost-eleven year old on her then-fifth-birthday. It was a mess, but I didn't know it! I wasn't instantly hooked though; I did a couple quilts a year for the next several years. Only since the beginning of 2013 has it been a full-blown, constant addiction.

How do you organize your fabric stash? (Picture appreciated)
I don't have a big stash (but I'm working on it!) so I'm going to give you an Instagrammed picture of a beautiful drawer of fabric I recently sorted out:

Who is/are your favorite fabric designers?
Oh, fabric. It's hard for me to choose a favorite designer! I love Carina Gardner (she was my neighbor until I moved!), Bonnie and Camille, Aneela Hooey, and Anna Maria Horner, Sarah Jane, and lots of others!

What is one thing you have learned that you wish you knew when you first started quilting?
Chain piecing was a huge lightbulb moment for me. ;)

What is your favorite sewing/quilting tool and why should we all go out and buy it?
My mom got me a rotating rotary cutting mat for Chirstmas and it's awesome!

Who is your favorite fictional character and why? (Could be from a book, movie, TV show, etc.)
Is it sad that the only characters who come to mind are from little girls' books? Gotta love Fancy Nancy! ;)

And now for the block!
The block I've chosen is a twist on a traditional block called Broken Wheels. I'm calling this block the Lilypad Block, can you guess why?

First, some color inspiration! This will be an analogous color scheme of blues to greens. I found the perfect inspiration quilt from On the Windy Side.

You can use a fat quarter of your chosen blue/green (I'll call it "colored" for simplicity), or you can use yardage/scraps, but I would like all of the blue or green fabric to be from one fabric. Solid or modern print-that-reads-solid is fine! For your background, use your favorite white such as Kona White or Bella White. You'll also need a bit of brown.

Quick note: I recommend you starch your fabrics using the tutorial from Pile O' Fabric. Don't go buy starch if you never use it, but I find it helpful.

Of the "colored" fabric:
1 - 3"x22.5" strip OR 2 - 3"x11.5" strips if you're using a FQ.
6 - 4" squares

Of the white fabric:
1 - 5.5" square
4 - 4" squares
1 - 3"x22.5" strip OR 2 - 3"x11.5" strips if you're using a FQ of the colored fabric

Of the brown fabric -
2 - 4" squares

you don't need as many white squares as I show... I'm not sure why I cut so many!

Take one strip of white fabric and one colored strip and sew them along the long edge, right sides together. Press your seams open. Just in case you missed that: press your seams open! I used a fat quarter so I used two shorter strips.

Open them and cut them into 5.5" segments. If you used one strip, you'll make three cuts in the strip, if you used two strips you'll cut each strip one time. Got that? :) Either way, you'll end up with four 5.5" inch units, and a bit of overage for just-in-case. I'll refer to these as the rectangle block further on.

Take the four white 4" squares and two of the colored squares and cut them in half diagonally.

Of the four remaining colored 4" squares, fold them in half once, like so, and fingerpress,

and fingerpress again the other way.

Open the square up.

Repeat for all four colored squares.

Take one of the white triangles and lay it right sides together on top of the colored fabric. We've cut the triangles large for easy trimming later, so line up the point of the triangle with the fold line of the colored square. Sew down the side of the square. Don't press yet.

Open up the unit, and place a second white triangle on the square on the opposite side. Line up the point of the triangle with the same line as before, and sew down that side of the square.

Press those seams OPEN. Don't get crazy with the pressing as we still need those finger pressed lines.

It's easiest to trim these triangle "ears" off now. Line your ruler up with the side of the square that hasn't been sewn yet, and trim off those ears.

It will give you this funky shape:

 Now you will add the brown triangle and the colored triangles on the opposite side. Line up the point of the triangle with the creased line that you hopefully didn't iron out. Sew together.

 then add your colored triangle, line up the point, and sew down that side. Press your seams OPEN.

 Ta-da! Your square in a square is complete. (Don't forget to make FOUR of these.) We're not done with the block yet, so keep on trucking. :)

 Now we'll square up this square to make it square. Sorry, couldn't resist. I followed Rita's tutorial here (steps 4-6) for accurately trimming square in a square blocks to 5.5."

Now you can line up your block like so. Please note the orientation of the SIS (square in a square) blocks, as well as the rectangle blocks! :)

We will start with the top row, and begin with the left side. Pick up the left-most SIS, and put a pin up through the exact point as shown.

Then you'll take the rectangle block, line it up evenly with the SIS block right sides together, and push the pin up, making sure it comes through precisely where the white and blue rectangles meet. This should be 1/4" away from the edge of the block.

Without moving this positioning pin, place a pin on both sides of the pin. You can now remove the center pin and sew the squares together. I like to sew with the SIS block on top because I want my needle to go one thread width away from that point we first pinned. Sew the SIS and rectangle block together and press the seams open. Repeat this procedure to add the last SIS block onto the top row. Press seams open.

Sew together the middle row. This one is easy. :)

Sew together the bottom row, following the same steps for the top row. Next you'll piece the rows together. Almost done!

Sewing the rows together follows almost the same steps as we did for the top row. The only difference is you'll start by pinning the center top block and middle rows then work your way out, pinning at each seam intersection. There are four seam intersections.

Repeat for the top/center rows to the bottom row. Press seams open.

If you used an accurate seam allowance, your block will be exactly 15.5" (If it's a hair small, just send it to me anyway.)

Okay, are you wondering why I called it the Lilypad block?

Once I add sashing and some brown corner post squares, you can see a secondary block called a shoofly block! With the blues and greens (and my original inspirations being called "Puddle Jumping" and "Spin Cycle") I had water on my mind.With the shoofly block in there, it made me think of a frog sitting on a lilypad, waiting to catch a fly. Okay, that's silly, but now you know why I'm calling it Lilypad! :)