Hive 9: September Tutorial | QST Candy Chains

I can hardly believe it’s September already. Where did the year go?

Me & Billie

So, I'm Allison. I live in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with my husband and our dog, Billie. We have been living in Florida for a little less than three years - prior to this we lived in Europe, in London, for many years.

I have been quilting for almost four years. I love modern and improv styles most, but I like to try pretty much everything. I am currently President of the South Florida MQG. As well as quilting I like to do other crafts like hand embroidery, lino block printing, screen printing... anything that makes a mess! Sometimes I remember to blog about it at savagepink.net.

Well, hive mates, I test sewed a lot of different blocks trying to decide what do this month. And you know what, I changed my mind at the VERY last minute and sewed up a new block on the 31st. I’m finally happy and I hope you will enjoy making this block.

Two blocks together

This block took me about an hour and ten minutes to cut and sew (minus fabric pulling… that is totally random, isn’t it?). The final block will be 14 inches.

Fabric Choices:

You will need four fabrics:

• Three color solids or prints
• One low volume background

Don’t stress over fabric choices, do your best to do the following, but just have fun.

• For the colors, please use blue, green, pink, purple, orange or yellow. Please choose one of these colors, and three different solids or prints in that color. So three blues, or three greens, but not a mixture of blue and green in the same block.
• For the low volume, I would appreciate it if you used a white based fabric (rather than beige or a color) if possible.
• Fabrics I’d prefer you to avoid would be novelties, holiday, and batik.

Cutting instructions

From fabric A, B, and C (each of your color prints/solids)

• One x 6 inch square
• One x 5 inch square

From your low volume background fabric

• Three x 6 inch squares

Now you are ready to piece!

• Regular ¼ inch seam (not scant)
• Neutral thread (white, off-white, medium grey)
• WS = wrong side
• RSF = righ side facing
• HST = half square triangle
• QST = quarter square triangle

Let’s go!

Step 1: On the WS of each of your 6 inch background square, draw a diagonal line from one corner to the opposite corner.

Step 2: Match each of your 6 inch background squares to one 6 inch color square, RSF. Sew a ¼ inch seam on either side of your diagonal line.

Step 3: Cut along the diagonal line to create two HSTs. Press open, to the color side.

Step 4: Take two HSTs, and on the WS, draw a diagonal line from one corner to the other - across your previous seam, from the background corner to the opposite color corner.

Take the two matching HSTs and pair them, RSF, with the colors facing opposite each other (color facing background), and placing the square with the diagonal line on top of each pair.

• Nest those seams tightly together, especially in the middle. This will create a perfect QST.
• Pin either side of the middle of the seam.
• TIP: when you sew, place the top seam towards the needle - if your presser foot edges the fabric slightly towards the nested seams, it will help you make that perfect junction.

Step 5: Sew a seam ¼ inch from either side of your line.

Step 6: Cut the HSTs in half along your drawn diagonal line = four QSTs!

Step 7: Trim the HSTs to 5 inches square. There are two ways to do this.

• If you have an HST ruler (I love the Quilt-A-Day one), bust that baby out! It’s the jimmy jam for this!  Just align your horizontal seam on the 5 inch line and your vertical seam on the vertical center line, and trim.

• If you'd like to use a regular square ruler (6 inch would be handy, but anything bigger than that will do as well), just open up the QST and press, then align the diagonal guide on your diagonal seam line. Find the 2 ½ inch intersection and place that directly over where your points meet in the center. Trim the right and top. Rotate the QST and align the intersection in the middle again, and trim the remaining two sides.

Step 8: Line up your QSTs with your matching five inch color blocks, as in the photo.

Step 9: Sew a QST to each side of the five inch color block.

TIP: When you press your seams from this part, press them both in the same direction, which will make it easy to nest seams in the final step.

Step 10: Sew the three rows together. Nest the seams to match up your center squares!

Step 10: Press, and trim any stray threads.

Step 11: Celebrate!

Your finished block, once squared up, should be 14 inches. You can leave the block untrimmed if you like.

I hope you enjoy making this block. If you have any questions, just post them here or drop me an email. I look forward to assembling your blocks with mine into a beautiful quilt!

Thank you so much!

Allison