Hive 8- September Block Tutorial

What is your name?

My name is Heather Southwell. 

this would be me ;)

Where do you live?

I live in Saint Marys, GA about 30 miles north of Jacksonville, Fl my hometown.

Tell us about your family (Spouse, kids, grandkids, pets, etc.)

I am married to the love of my life, Justin, and we have one very awesome child together, Coleman Douglas,4.  Our house and yard  is also home to 2 America bulldogs, Winnipeg and Tater , 4 hens that seem to love roosting on my back porch even though they have a perfectly good coop, 2 Bee hives that make the best honey you ever tasted, and a fish we call baby, she used to have a mate named Mister but he went the way of the toilet bowl.   

the hubster playing with his bees

my baby and me

I like to draw my dog as a wizard.

Tell us about how you got interested in quilting.

Though I've been sewing pretty much since girl scouts, quilting really caught my fancy when I found out I was pregnant with Coleman, and like a lot of my peers I was determined to make him everything handmade. I ended up falling in love with the hobby and here we are 5 years later :)

 The Strawberry  Pac Man mini I made for the resent strawberry swap hosted by our very own Jamie!

My And Sew On BOM quilt. Very proud of this baby:)

Darth Vader pillow cover. A fairly recent birthday gift

one of my current WIP's, fairy tale books for baby 

How do you organize your fabric stash? (Picture appreciated)

I organize by Color or Type/Designer when it comes to fabric I really do have way to much but then " she who has the most fabric wins" right! 

the fabric hoard 

work space 

Pretty notions!

Who is/are your favorite fabric designers?

Well I'll pretty much always waste my money on Lizzy House and Denyse Schmidt, but I'm also pretty partial to Suzy Ultman, Michele Brummer-Everett, Sarah Watts, and Rashida Coleman-Hale.  Denyse And Rashida seam to have a great since for making "go with anything" or basics type lines and the others have a way with Novelty prints that just make me crazy for them. These ladies are definitely my favorites and while I have a pretty nice stash for each of their various lines I rarely sew with them :(  it's just to hard to cut into them. I also really like Japanese Fabric they come up with the craziest things to put on fabric!    

meet Lizzy

and Denyse( personally i think this collection is in serious need of some Hadley!)

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

hrrm, Well I guess it would be proper pressing, and how to get a proper 1/4" seam. I think these two things would of made my first few quilts go a lot better and they would not have as many broken seams now. Most of my quilts are heavily used by my family and the earliest ones while still well loved definitely show a lot of defect. 

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

Ok, so I have 2 that I can't live with out (other than the typical cutting mat,rulers, rotary cutter combo):

1. glue sticks! I like to use Elmer's washable school glue purple glue sticks. I use it the same way a lot of people use liquid glue and I don't have to search around for that special tip.  I started using them when I started paper piecing last year and I've since found a plethora of other uses for them, from perfectly matched points to making binding. 

I like Glue:) also Frixon pens are awesome but they really do get beat out by glue and wonder clips in my book.

2. Clover wonder Clips, I absolutely love these little gadgets! they can't completely take over for pins, but if you find your having a problem with shifted seams, try them, since they clip on and sit flat on the bottom unlike a pin which distorts the fabric when you put it through and they are indispensable when binding my quilts. My very favorite things to uses them for are matching the seams for paper pieced blocks and bags or clothing where your matching up curved or dimensional seams, but just like the glue I find other ways to use them all the time! 

wonderful wonder clips! I just got the pink ones:) 

Who is your favorite fictional character and why? (Could be from a book, movie, TV show, etc.)

I'm gonna say Fry From Futurama. He's a bit of a dim whit with sparks of genius but he never lets him self get beat down by his failures, he just gets up and tries to be better the next time. He's loyal to a fault and always willing to help out others especially those closest to him. You know he's going to make huge mistakes and ruin things but you just can't help but love his spirit. He's a lovable loser and who doesn't love an under dog :)

The Tutorial:

For my block we will be making the Modern Maple using this tutorial  from ModernHandcraft.com

I will be putting this quilt together with my husband in mind, who is a HUGE Georgia Bulldogs fan and in love with Canada, particularly Vancouver, BC and their winter sports ;) he's a bit of a reminiscer and I have heard his recount on his snowboarding trips to Whistler  many, MANY times (I really feel for our future grandkids!) 

Any who, the point is we will be pulling our color scheme and inspiration from these two favorites of his! 

For the Maples I would like you to pick a print or solid in a true red shade. Think candy apples, red wagons, stop signs, excetera... 

For the background please pick a print or solid in a white or light grey shade (kona ash is about the shade I'm looking for) Try to pick prints that have very little color so that the fabric will read white or grey, which ever you choose.

things to note when picking your fabric: 

• This quilt will be made with my husband in mind so nothing too feminine or flowery.
• Geometric is always good for masculine and gender neutral quilts.
• He likes gardening, bees, cars, BBQ, and football.
•  He's a chef by trade so food and cooking are a huge part of our lives.
•  GA team colors are Red and Black with White and Grey often used as accent (I will be adding a stronger black presents into the sashing)and the Canadian flag is Red and White.

What You will need to cut for your block

  From Red:

• 1- 2" x7" rectangle
• 1- 7.25" square
• 3- 4.5" squares

   From Background:

• 1- 7.25" square
• 2- 4.5" squares

I want to have a few low volume maples to mix in and calm the bright red.

Step 1: now that you have all your squares cut take your two 7.25" squares and lay them one on top of the other, right sides facing, and sew a 1/4" seam around the outside edge.  

Then Cut From corner to corner to create 4 HST. 

side note: I find it helpful to starch my squares well right after sewing the seam and before cutting.
Since these are bias HST  it helps to keep them from going wonky after I cut and press them.

Press to the red side and Trim to 4.5" square. 

Step 2: For the Stem

 take one of your 4.5" square of background fabric and cut it corner to corner at a 45 degree angle. you should now have 2 triangles.

finger press a crease at the center point of your 2"x 7" red rectangle and along the long side of both your background triangles. match the creases and pin. one for each side of your stem piece. 

using a 1/4 seam, sew your triangles to each side of the stem. Press out from stem piece. Find the center of your stem and trim unit to 4.5" square. 

 Step 3: Putting Your Block Together

unit arrangement for block 

Sew your three rows together, press seams to the opposite side from the one above it. this is so we can nest our seams.

seams pressed to opposite side of the one above it.

Sew your rows together, nesting with the seams from the row above it. I am using my glue basting method, but you can use whatever method you like best. 

apply a small amount of glue right at the nesting point of your seam,
then press them firmly together to lock in place

this is the amount of glue I use. just a small smear over the seam. 

Once you have all your rows together iron flat and your all done!

if you've done your glue basting right you should have perfect points!
that's my favorite part:)

blocks should finish at 12.5" square.

Thank you everyone for helping me with these! It's sure to be something my family treasures forever. I want to make it as big as possible so how ever many blocks you can make will be greatly appreciated. 

Happy Sewing,

Heather