Hive 11 - March Block Tutorial

What is your name? 
Hey y'all! I'm Lisa. (Flickr: Lisa in Georgia)

Where do you live?
I live in Suwanee, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, in the southeastern US.

Tell us about your family 
I have two grown sons in their 20s who have developed into wonderful young men. (If I do say so myself!) I was married for 32+ years to my college sweetheart. Last year he passed away after a fierce battle against brain cancer. I still miss him everyday and I'm still adjusting to my new normal. I'm definitely a work in progress!

Tell us about how you got interested in quilting.
My Mom is a fantastic seamstress/tailor and made all of our clothes when we were kids, including prom dresses and my wedding dress. She eventually started quilting and she taught me the basics of sewing. After college I bought a used sewing machine with the intent to use it only for home dec projects. I started sewing clothing for myself and my husband and have sewn countless Halloween and theater costumes. Fast forward to several years ago when I upgraded my sewing machine and made my first quilt after hearing about the Quilts for Kids program. I made a few quilts for charity and sewed a few as baby gifts for friends. Then I discovered the online quilt community and I was hooked!

How do you organize your fabric stash? 
I'm a very organized person but I haven't yet found a system that works for me. I store my scraps by color group in these containers I bought on sale at Michael's.

 

I keep other fabric sorted by color in larger plastic bins, but every time I dig through them I make a mess.

I'm also an avid knitter and I have a huge stash of yarn that argues for space with my fabric. Did I mention that I'm also into paper-crafting and have enough card stock, inks, embossing powders, embellishments, and rubber stamps to open a store!?!

Who is/are your favorite fabric designers?
I am drawn to so many fabrics, I'm not sure I have a favorite. I like Bonnie & Camille, Heather Bailey, Riley Blake, Denyse Schmidt, Sandy Halvorsen, Kate Spain, and so many more.

What is one thing you have learned that you wish you knew when you first started quilting?
I know it's been said before, but using good quality quilting fabric makes a big difference.

What is your favorite sewing/quilting tool and why should we all go out and buy it?
I must say I couldn't live without my rotary cutter and 24” ruler. Thanks to this bee, I've also just started glue basting and am surprised how much I like that!

Who is your favorite fictional character?
Kinsey Millhone from Sue Grafton's alphabet mysteries.  She is clever, strong, tenacious, and brave.

Time for the Tutorial

The block I've chosen for March is the Patchwork Wheel Block. I've been crushing on it since I first saw it and I know you'll breeze through it.

There is a great tutorial by Elizabeth found on her blog Don't Call Me Betsy. The color scheme I've chosen is all the colors of the rainbow! I'd like you to use a variety of print fabrics, if possible (a solid here or there is absolutely fine), that read red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, or violet. I'd like to make the quilt as scrappy as possible, with as many of the colors of the rainbow in each wheel, so don't hold back! No real rules, just veer away from pastels and print fabrics that have a lot of white in them. (I found that the block really popped when the print fabrics didn't have much white in them. I would like the solid fabric to be your favorite white. (I used Kona white.)





Here's my fabric pull for the prints. I pulled more prints than needed, but wanted some flexibility to play around with when putting the block together.

Cutting Instructions:

You will need to cut:

8 -  4.25” squares white fabric
8 -  4.25” squares various print fabrics
8 -  3.5” squares various print fabrics

Here's how I made my half-square triangles. (HSTs) Draw a diagonal line on each of your white squares. (I use the Quick Quarter Ruler and Dritz Mark B-Gone marking pen for marking my squares, but it certainly can be done without using those tools.) Pair each square of white with a 4.25” print fabric, right sides together. Keep the white squares with the line on top of each pair.

Stitch a scant 1/4” seam on both sides of the diagonal line.  I like to chain piece these pairs.

Cut each sewn pair along the diagonal line into two HSTs. Press each HST toward the print and snip off the ears. Trim each HST to a 3.5” square. 

Lay out your HSTs and 3.5” print fabric squares into this arrangement for the block

  

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Stitch pairs together, then stitch pairs into rows, then stitch your rows together into the finished block.

Easy-peasy! Your block will measure 12.5” square.

Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks in advance for sharing your creativity with me. I can't wait to see what your fabulous blocks will look like!