Hive 6 tutorial for March

Hello everyone,  my name is Katie and i'm an avid quilter for nearly 20 years that blogs over at karma willow designs and can be found on instagram @karmawillow. I was new to making bee blocks last year and since things went pretty well so I decided that this year I would join up with 2 hives again. 

Coincidentally, When we got our monthly assignments I was near the beginning of the year in both hives so I am having both groups make blocks for the same quilt. My first month as queen bee was last month, and as a part of the Bee Hive we had to choose blocks from the collection hosted by Alyce last year, so this at least narrowed down the blocks to choose from. 

I decided that this year's bee blocks will be making up a quilt will be for my husband (since the one that he has claimed was one of my first ones and it is looking a bit shabby in spots). I'm going with the Wanta Fanta block with modifications to make it more man friendly. The pattern over there is great and when used in conjunction with my modifications this block is pretty quick to make, just remember when accessing the paper pieced part of the pattern you will need to print 2 copies of page 5 for each block you want to make. 

There is a lot of white in most of the examples I have seen and I knew that this would not work long term. 

He loves Purples, grey and white. So the first step to make this block more man friendly is to reverse the fabric placement -- in your blocks the background white pieces will be replaced with purples and the colored areas will be assorted low volume fabrics -- white on white and whites with grays or light grays. 

I pulled some fabrics out of my stash and scraps -- pretty much any purple will work for this quilt and I don't mind Batik fabrics but please limit other colors on the fabrics. 

For this block I also tried to think of a way to make it scrappy and I wanted more interest. I came across this quilt online that uses similar shapes and I really liked the nine patch effect in the centers.. 

This result can be achieved in the WF block by creating a 6.5 inch nine patch of 2.5 inch squares instead of using a solid 6.5 inch square that the pattern calls for. 

If you are not a fan of sewing the white corners on after making the 9 patch to create the snowball effect, this can be remedied by replacing the corners of your 9 patch with Half square triangle units. It's easy -- take a 3 inch square of purple and one of Low volume to create 2.5 inch HST units by drawing a line in the center and sewing 1/4 inch on either side. I like to use 3.25 inch squares and trim them down to ensure that my units are crisp. 

Careful fabric placement on the x units will result in the complete triangle effect on the points. I found using 4 different fabrics and labeling my paper templates helped keep me keep track of which pieces were going to meet up together on the final block. 

It'll be your choice as to whether to leave or remove paper before shipping. I don't feel that these blocks will shift as much as others I have made in the past. Here is my completed test block and I am very eager to see the blocks that you all come up with. 

I'm glad that I am making it something slightly different than the tutorial initially called for but I know that my husband is going to greatly enjoy this quilt when it's all put together. So far I have received a few of the blocks made in February and they are really looking great together -- I wanted a bigger group picture but I know several more of the blocks are hung up in transit right now. 

Since this will be for my hubby it's probably going to end up as a 7x7 layout, which means I'm going to have many of these to make myself so if you feel inclined to make an extra (or throw in leftover fabric) it will be greatly appreciated. 

Happy Quilting everyone.