Hive #2 January Block Tutorial 2015

Ladies of Hive #2 - Happy New Year!

I have a Valentine's Day wish to share with you. . .it is to drape myself in hearts and I'm enlisting you to help me out.  This is an easy block with the opportunity to showcase some amazing fabrics.

I will ask that you chose pink, red or purple as your heart colour, surround by low volume prints - as you can see I'm a little footloose and fancy free with the term low volume.  But it works and I entrust you to make the same decisions.

Each square is 4.5", the block should finish at 16.5" square.

The heart shape is comprised of 6 squares and 8 HSTs and please use your favorite method of creating HSTs to finish at 4.5".  I press to the dark side allowing me to use my bloc-loc to trim.

I pulled approx 20 different pinks from my stash, cut out some 4.5" squares and played around till I found the mix that was right.  I did some fussy cutting, but this is a great block for using up some of those left over charm squares.

Above is a picture of the heart fabrics that made the final cut, you can see the ones that didn't make it off to the sides - it breaks my heart that I couldn't use the skull fabric.

The skull fabric was the reason I made a pink heart to start with - but in the end it was too green and I wanted my other precious pinks to stand out.

I pulled scraps and smaller cuts of 10 different low volume prints - you'll notice that each of the LVs have pink in them, this is not a requirement, but it looks pretty sweet.  If you are short on LVs in your stash let me know and I will post some out to you.  Only two of the LVs aren't used to make HSTs. the bottom left and right corner.  Another opportunity to show case a 'wow' fabric or fussy cut.

I sewed my rows together, pressing the seams of the top row left and next row right to allow me to nest when joining the rows.  It's my preferred method for getting those seams to line up.

I press the final three seams open to spread the bulk.  Go ahead and press all your seams open if that is your preferred method, or use the one I outlined above.  Done!

So the question that I will pose to each of you on your up coming tutorials is to let me know what kind of a time traveler you would be?  Would you swing back to the 60s?  Maybe the 1860s are more your taste?  How about a stop along the Nile to see what the Pharaohs were up to?

Me?  I'd take a journey to the future, in fact to the final days of our life here on earth.  I'm a sucker for a really good ending!

Ladies, may your new year be filled with happiness, kindness and good health - a little adventure might be fun too!

Caroline
lalinsocal

Heart Block summary:
14 @ 4.5" squares in pink, red or purple (or an inverted heart would be fun)
10 @ 4.5" squares in 10 different low volume fabrics
Using one coloured square and one LV, create 1 of 8 HSTs finishing at 4.5"
Create 4 rows and then join those rows using the pressing guidelines as outlined above.
Clear as mud?  I'm ready for any and all questions/comments!