Stash Bee: Hive 11 - September

What is your name? Angela Gubler, also known as The Green Apricot

Where do you live? Just south of Atlanta, Georgia

Tell us about your family. I’m very grateful to have been married to a wonderful man for the last 7 ½ years. We have very busy lives between work, church and children, so we like to travel at least a couple of times a year to get away a little bit. We have seven kids between us. Only one boy, who happens to be in the middle of serving a two-year mission in Brazil. When we got married the kids were between the ages of 8-18, and six of them lived with us. With a dog. Since then we have very sadly lost the dog, but gained two SILs, three incredible grandchildren, and three granddogs, although it is probably a little extreme to claim the dogs. It's a great, albeit crazy and sometimes difficult, life.

Tell us about how you got interested in quilting. My first experiences with quilting were when I was a teenager. We tied quilts at church activities for people who were having babies, and once for a women's shelter. That was it. I was hooked on my two favorite things. Quilting and service. I played around with the idea of quilting for a few years, and then took my first class when I was pregnant with my first child (the only boy). That class was almost 22 years ago.

How do you organize your fabric stash? "Organized" is such a loose term, don't you think? Haha- I will put it this way- you may walk into my studio and think it isn't organized, but believe me, it is, and if you move anything, I might have to hurt somebody. Seriously, I do keep most of my fabric in two large PAX wardrobe units from IKEA. I fitted each with pullout drawers and shelving so that I could see the stash fairly easily, although I do have to stand on a stool for the top ones. Other than that, I still have a couple of plastic bins I am trying to whittle down and get rid of, and I also have lingering piles here and there that are WIPs. As for what order the fabrics are in, they are mostly grouped by either intended projects or style. For instance, there is a whole drawer of 3 Sisters by Moda (very traditional, I know), a drawer of batiks, a drawer of novelties, a drawer of moderns, etc.

Who is/are your favorite fabric designers? I know this is dumb, but I really don't have favorites. I love fabric. I love traditional. I love modern. I love it all. But, I do have an autographed poster of Kaffe in my studio.

What is one thing you have learned that you wish you knew when you first started quilting? That's a hard question because it really has been such an evolution, but I think proper binding is probably it. While I don't know that my binding is absolutely perfect now, but that's what bothers me most about my old quilts. (I have one that the binding is about 1/4" finished. I struggled with that one.)

What is your favorite sewing/quilting tool and why should we all go out and buy it? Any ruler made by Creative Grids. I love rulers. I have a hoard of them. And every time I pick one up that wasn't produced by Creative Grids, I think to myself "I wish Creative Grids made this ruler." They are well made, and I love the nonslip pads on them. I also love that they are marked well. They also make so many specialty rulers, and I haven't met one yet that I didn't like.

Who is your favorite fictional character and why? Most of my life, until just a few months ago, I would answer this question with Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables. You only have to know me a few minutes to know why this is true. Even though I don't have red hair. But, I have to say that after years of badgering by my daughters to read the Twilight series, I finally did a few months ago. I didn't love the movies, so I didn't think I would like the books, but I was totally wrong. Loved them. Now I think that Bella Swan is my favorite. Not very deep, I know, but real life is crazy enough, I’m okay with a little candy when it comes to my fiction.

So, I'm pretty excited about this tutorial. I love goofy hashtags, even though I know people think it's lame. I couldn't care less. I love them. Hence this block- Hijacked Hashtag. There are probably real patterns out there, but I thought of this one a few months ago and thought it couldn't be easier, so it would be perfect for Stash Bee. Look out, this block is addicting and easy- I made 4 in less than an hour.

My only rules-

1) Have fun and let go, but to be successful, read all of the directions first.

2) Use quality fabrics and 1/4" seam allowance.

3) Stick with neutral fabrics (greys, tans, blacks, creams, etc.), and the background should be lighter than the hashtag.

4) Do not, I repeat, do not, trim down your block. I will trim when I have all of the blocks and can see how much they vary in size. I hope to be able to have 10" unfinished blocks, so if you can keep that in mind, it would be great.

5) Use rotary cutting tools, but keep in mind that you aren't really worried about measuring as much as you are about cutting straight. While the cuts themselves must be straight, they do not have to be parallel to the edge of the block. In fact, I would prefer if there is a little wonk to your cut. This will scare the crap out of some people, but I promise, it will be okay.

For one block, you will need:

(1) 10" square of background fabric

(4) 3/4"-2" x 15" strips of hashtag fabric (careful not to cut them smaller or larger than the indicated sizes)

Block construction:

1) Using rotary cutting tools, make a vertical cut through the background fabric square about 2-2 1/2" from one edge. You may want to use a pin to mark either side of the cut so that if your pieces get turned around, you will know which is which.

2) Now that you have two pieces of background fabric, sew each one to either side of one strip of hashtag fabric by lining up top edges. (In making this block, always line up top edges.) Press seam allowances to the dark.