Hive #4 - April Block Tutorial

What is your name?

Hi!! My name is Sally Keller! You'll see me all over social media as sallykeller814! (Yep, my birthday is August 14th!) You can get to know me and my wildness a lot better over at my blog at Sally's Angelworks!

Where do you live?

I live in the outskirts of Houston, Texas!! 

Tell us about your family:

I am blissfully married to Mr Gorgeous (just celebrated 22 years!!), and we have 4 homeschooled kiddos; Cora who is in college and is 19, Quentin who is 16, Emma - 14 and Lillian who is 12. We have two kitties, too - Penny and Carmel! You'll frequently see them on my instagram feed. I don't know what it is about kitties and quilting, but they go hand in hand for sure!!

{We do get a little crazy sometimes!!}

Tell us about how you got interested in quilting.

I have a dear friend who is a prolific quilter. She started babysitting my kids when my oldest was just a wee tot, and as I went to her house, we started scrapbooking together. Then she got me hooked into quilting. I've always had a love affair with fabric - quilting just gave me a really good excuse to hoard it!! ♥

How do you organize your fabric stash? 

I'm a basket-a-holic!! Current projects go in baskets, and pre-cuts go in other baskets. I also use my wonderful shelf to organize my stash by color.

Who is/are your favorite fabric designers?

I love Sweetwater fabrics from Moda, The Quilted Fish from Riley Blake, Stephanie Roth from Moda, Creative Thursday from Andover, and Bonnie and Camille and Kate Spain from Moda.

{quilting by Pam Quiltaholic Biswas}

What is one thing you have learned that you wish you knew when you first started quilting?

There are talented long-arm quilters that are out there to help you with your finishes!! You don't have to hold on to a quilt top for years and years before you quilt it!! Get it quilted this month!! (I'm all about finishing right now, can you tell???)

What is your favorite sewing/quilting tool and why should we all go out and buy it?

The Kwik-Klip is probably my very favorite quilting tool for pin basting. It saves your thumb and fingers when you are closing all of the pins on your basting!! I also cannot live without a sheep in my craft studio! (Not a real one, sillies!!) 

Who is your favorite fictional character and why? (Could be from a book, movie, TV show, etc.) Probably Mr. Knightly from Jane Austen's novel, Emma! He is honorable, handsome, and so sensitive! And he's not afraid to tell the truth!! Perfectly swoonworthy!! Almost as swoonworthy as my Mr Gorgeous!! :) 

Now onto the tutorial!! ♥

This month we are doing a block that I adapted from a traditional block called the Roman Stripe.

Please use your red scraps and low volume scraps to make this block! (If you want to make more than one, go for it!! :))

You will need:
* strips of red - 1 3/8" x 21" (I used 12 different strips).
* low volume strips - 3 7/8" x 21" (I used 4 different strips)
* squares of low volume - four  3.5" for the four corners
                                   
Create your HST:
Sew your strips together with three red strips on the top and a low volume strip on the bottom, so you have four sets of strips sewn together.

After your strips are sewn, take your ruler (or your 3.5" square ruler) and place your left top corner on the seam line between the red and the low volume fabric. Move your ruler where your 3.5" line is on the right seam line between the red and the low volume fabric. Cut around the whole ruler!!

Take your ruler off and turn your strip where the red stripes are on the top left side.

Place your ruler on the end and measure 3.5" from the left end and cut!! That is your first HST!!

Make 12 of these suckers! You should be able to cut three from each set of strips.

Arrange them with a pinwheel in the middle and star points on the sides, just like the above picture! Your low volumes don't have to match or be as symmetrical as mine seem to be! You can mix them up a little, as long as the red stripes go in the same direction as mine do! :)

This is a quick block but a really satisfying one for me! I am totally crushing on red this year!! 

Again, I'm okay with multiple blocks! and I'd love one little extra 3.5" low volume square with your signature done in a pigment ink (non-washable) to add to my fun backing (Micron pens are the best!!)!! (I'll add a pic to show what I mean in the next few days!)

Thanks so much for making these for me!! I can't wait to see what you guys create!!

Super Big Blessings from Texas!! ♥