Hive 10 - October Block

What is your name?  My name is Karen Holder and I live in Atlanta, GA. I'm originally from Connecticut and I'd love to move back (sometimes) but as my husband is from Florida, that's not happening.

Tell us about your family (Spouse, kids, grandkids, pets, etc.)  As mentioned, my husband is from Florida and we've been married for 7 years, with a long standing flirty relationship prior to our dating. We have two kids - Courtney, who's almost 6, and Patrick, who's almost 4. Courtney is in kindergarten and adjusting to life in the "big school" and Patrick's in preschool. It's nice to have them in school 5 days a week, allowing for more me time. 

Tell us about how you got interested in quilting. I originally started sewing after Courtney was born. I saw all the cute dresses on Etsy and thought, "$50 for that, I can make that." I borrowed a machine from a friend, that probably needed a major tuneup, bought some fabric and discovered that I couldn't actually make that dress and maybe $50 wasn't such a bad deal. I didn't buy the dress and then I sat on the machine for a year or so when my friends mom came over one day and gave me a sewing lesson and that was that.

How do you organize your fabric stash? This is pretty embarassing. I do have a dedicated sewing area in the basement. However, my kids aren't always down there and neither is my husband so I'm almost always sewing at the dining room table. Consequently, my stuff is EVERYWHERE. And I mean, All Over the House. 

Here is my cutting table, that's more of a dumping ground. 

The table on the left is my daughter's sewing table, but she also sews at the dining room table. And the one on the right holds my serger and more junk.

Here's my fabric closet. Solids on the middle shelf, prints on the bottom, holiday and garment fabric along the back wall (below.)

The guest bed (near the dining room table). Hopefully we won't have guests any time soon.

And the actual dining room table...

Who is/are your favorite fabric designers? I'm currently loving Lotta Jansdotter, Alison Glass, Katarina Roccella, Karen Lewis from Blueberry Park, Cotton & Steele, April Rhodes

What is one thing you have learned that you wish you knew when you first started quilting? Slow and steady wins the race. Or some such. You know, read the pattern from beginning to end, don't assume you know what to do, take your time. I could still benefit from these lessons. 

What is your favorite sewing/quilting tool and why should we all go out and buy it? I'm not sure I have a favorite. I, obviously, can't live without my seam ripper but I wish I was better at keeping track of it.

Who is your favorite fictional character and why? (Could be from a book, movie, TV show, etc.) I've always loved Calvin & Hobbes and kind of miss them. I remember growing up we had C&H books all over the house. I wonder what their take would be on life today.

On to my block... I'm going a bit off the radar here today and granting you a bit of creative license. 

As for colors, I'm really drawn to these colorways. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/81979655691345170/ or thishttp://www.pinterest.com/pin/81979655692386248/ or this http://www.pinterest.com/pin/81979655692386246/. These are all pretty similar but you get the idea. I'm thinking solids or tone on tone. Please stay away from batiks. You can use any and all of the colors from these color ways, as a matter of fact, the more in the block the better.

First: You're going to need 10-12 strips measuring 18" long and anywhere from 1-2.5" wide. Try and use all different colors but one or two repeat's are ok. Sew them all together (1/4" seam for the entire block) and when you're done, the block should measure roughly 18"x18" (I'd go no less than 16" square) square. 

This is where the creative license begins. You're going to cut the block up, pretty much any way you want. I went ahead and cut the block into 4's and then I rotated them.

And then I cut 2 of them again into triangles and swapped them around. 

 And then I cut 2 of those triangles again and swapped them around. 

Not pictured here, I cut the top right and bottom left into 4's and swapped them around and put it all back together. Depending on how you cut the blocks, you may need to trim them but I didn't. When you finish the block, don't trim it down to size just leave it as is. 

Thanks for making me a block! I can't wait to see what you come up with. 

-Karen