Hive 1 September tutorial

Hello my name is Katie and I blog over at Karma Willow Designs. I am native to NC where I live with my husband and out 5 cats. In real life I work for the state employment agency in a little town called Mt. Airy (that's Maybery for those of you that have seen The Andy Griffith Show). My passion for the longest time was scrap booking until I started quilting, same kind of craft but different medium and I haven't looked back. My history with quilting has been life long helping some of my aunts as a child but my passion developed about 10 years ago when I took my first quilting class.  

As Queen bee this month I racked my brain as to which blocks I wanted you all to make. I picked the Scrappy Crossroads block for you all to make, There is an excellent tutorial on The Dream Quilt Create blog, these are great for using up scraps and so I hope everyone enjoys making them.   

I had started this post a while back and was going in a much different direction with my colors -- once i made one block I knew I needed to be true to my color tastes. My initial block was nice but really not me -- when I showed it to my husband he thought it was to send to someone else so I revamped and came up with the color pallet below. 

When pulling out fabrics think shades of Navy, Blue, teal, orange and gold (maybe touches of dark purple) -- I really like the inspiration photo below . These blocks will be scrappy, so I would like for everyone to use a variety of colors in each block but do keep the fabrics modern and tonal.

To give you an idea of what this looks like in fabric form I have pulled a sample from my stash to show off.  (you will need 48 2 1/2 inch squares for each block)

The constant will be the creamy off white for the 8 4 1/2 inch squares. Snow by Kona is what I used but anything comparable is great (the bella solid equivalent is off white) -- please use a solid.

So I made a few blocks and really like where this is going and can't wait to see what everyone adds -- finish at 16.5 inches square. 

I am in 2 bees currently that will be making these blocks and with the blocks I am making I am shooting to have an over sized throw for my couch, big enough for snuggling and watching movies.

So my question for this month is ---- What is your must have quilting tool or tools? For me it's several pair of little scissors (usually scattered all over my sewing room), Wonder clips, my sew steady table and my cordless Panasonic iron.