Hive 1 June Block: Simply Woven

Hi. I'm Sarah from Sarah Goer Quilts. I've had a great time making blocks for my hivemates this year and I'm so excited for it to be my month. I'd been thinking about possibilities and wanted to do something different than the color schemes in my current WIPs. So I decided on rainbows. This seems so timely now, due to last week's Supreme Court ruling. I was initially thinking that I wanted to do Raspberry Kiss blocks with a variety of different centers that I could arrange in a rainbow on the overall quilt. But then I realized that the large size on the tutorial was too big to fit 4 in a 16" block. I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to do a different size of the Raspberry Kiss. I ended up deciding that it would fail to take advantage of the opportunity for a terrifically scrappy project that could (or should?) come out of a Bee. So then I went on a hunt for something that would introduce more colors per block.

I found this finished quilt on Stash Bee (from Alison!). Here's her quilt. Isn't it a beauty!

So this month we're going to make these 12.5" unfinished blocks in RAINBOW COLORS! The tutorial for the block can be found on Moda Bake Shop.

Here's what you'll need:

two matching 4" x 8" background pieces
Please use something that reads as white: low volume black on white or grey on white, white on white, or solid white.

six 2.5" strips
Please use one of each color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. Try to stick with true rainbow colors that are saturated with color. I'm fine with prints that have other colors in them as long as the fabric clearly reads as one of these colors. Please avoid patterns that have too much white in them. I prefer prints (making sure they read as a single color) and blenders, but feel free to use solids as necessary. (Note: My sample is heavy on blenders, only because that is what's in my stash. And my blue is a little dark, but it was the best I could do for a true blue.)
The six strip lengths are 8", 9.5", 9.5", 11", 11" and 12.5". Cut these in any order. In short, your color placement within the block is up to you. FYI, The order I used was: red, blue, orange, purple, green, yellow.

The tutorial by Jess will take you through the process. To keep the strips you cut apart aligned as you insert each new strip, consider pinning. Please press your seams open. I suggest dropping your stitch length to 2.0.

Finally, here's my first block. Have fun!

Lastly, a question for you. Tell me about your WIPs. How many do you have? What's the oldest? How many do you actively work on at once? I have a million (okay, about 30) on my list at the moment. The oldest is from 2004. And I tend to make slow progress on many projects at once, while finishing the things that have some sort of deadline (like swaps).