Hive #4 Feburary 2015 Tutorial

Hi everyone!
My name is Kathy and I live in Sydney Australia. I love colour, I love designing and I LOVE quilting!! I blog over at www.iamacraftykat.com and overshare a bit on IG (iamacraftykat).

My block:
(and please excuse the late night photos - I am trying to get this tutorial up quickly)
I designed this block in the ipad app Quiltography and I am hoping to make a "blokey" quilt (excuse me if I am using Aussie slang!). Each block measures 15.5" unfinished (so 15" finished) and I have chosen a very simple colour scheme - you can choose which colour block you want to make. 

 

For the colour scheme - please use a low volume fabric that is either white or cream in the background and either black, grey or navy based - I really want to make the main colours pop! For the main colours I would like everyone to use either a Navy OR a beautiful GoldenYellow/Mustard that is mostly one of those colours. I quickly pulled some fabrics from stash as examples.

 

 The yellow can be a bit tricky - it needs to stand out from the low volume fabric. A trick I have learnt if in doubt about the value of a fabric is to take a photo and then put a black and white filter over it. You can see in the below picture that the yellows definitely have a high enough value to stand out.

Tutorial:
For each block will need:

Low Volume fabric and Main Colour
For the strips:
3.5" x 12.5"
3.5" x 9.5"
3.5" x 6.5"
3.5" x 3.5"

For the HST:
3 x 4" squares

 

To make up the HST - Use a Hera Marker, Fabric Pen (or even a plain lead pencil) and draw the diagonal across your  low volume 4" squares. Take the main colour 4" square and put wrong sides together.

   

Sew a scant 1/4" seam either side of the line and then rotary cut down the centre. Press your seams to the darker side. Trim your HST to 3.5"

   

Layout your block as below and then sew your strips to the HST. Once each of the rows are done, I press my seams in alternate directions so when I sew the rows together I can butt up my seams. Sew your rows together and then your are done! I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

   

Question:

So my question to you all - what is your favourite way to design? Do you have a favourite app or program, or pen and paper? I have various methods - I love the ipad apps of Quiltography and Touchdraw! (one day dream of using EQ7) But I have been known to sit through meetings and accidentally start doodling on my notes.