Hive 4, November 2016, Tutorial for "Winged Square"

Hello everyone. My name is Julia and I'm happy to have spent the year sewing with all my hive mates.  I've been sewing since I was a kid and quilting for maybe four years.  I've been surprised at how much fun quilting can be.  This is my second year doing the Stash Bee and I adore it. Occasionally I discover odd gaps in my stash (I found out I don't have much green fabric).  Looking through my stash is also encouragement to only keep fabrics I love and to focus on using fabric rather than acquiring it.

My color scheme is hot pink/fuchsia and orange.  I'm inspired by beautiful Indian textiles particularly saris.

The block is called "Winged Square" and I found it as a bee block on another person's blog.  Their blog post is here: http://duringquiettime.com/2012/02/winged-square-block-tutorial.html

For this block feel free to use prints or solids but please no batiks.  I really like fabric with text on it, Cotton & Steel and Tula Pink if you happen to have any.  Make this as scrappy as you want to.

For the background please use white, light grey or low volume fabric. The center block can be any multicolored print that has at least some orange and pink in it.

This is my stash pull.  The bottom left shows some of the background fabrics and the bottom right is fabric I'll use for center squares.

Tutorial Time
I found that my piecing went more smoothly when I starched the background fabric.  You can skip that step if you prefer.

Background fabric:

• Two 4 1/2 inch squares
• Twelve 3 inch squares

Orange fabric:

• Six 3 inch squares

Pink Fabric:

• Six 3 inch squares

Center Square:

• One 4 1/2 inch square

1. Time for a HST party! Take the 3 inch background squares and draw a line diagonally across each one.

2. Pair the background squares with the pile of orange & pink squares and pin together

3. Sew a 1/4 inch away from the center line on both sides. Take your pile of units and cut along the diagonal line

4. Go to the ironing board and press your seams to the colored side.

5.  Trim each unit so that it is a lovely 2 1/2 inch square HST.

6.  Now it's time to sew the HSTs into rows by color. Each row has four HSTs. Press the seams of one row to the right. Press the other row to the left.  This will allow you to nest your seams.

7. Sew the two rows of pink HSTs together. Then sew the two rows of orange HSTs together.

8. Because nesting seams is great, press the seams of the pink rows up and the seams of the orange rows down. Set these aside.

9. Now sew the remaining HSTs into rows that are two HSTs across.

10. You are going to press seams to allow for nesting.  So press the seams of one row to the right. Press the seams of the other row to the left.

11. Sew the rows of pink HSTs together into a square. Then sew the rows of orange HSTs together into a square.  Press the pink seams up and orange seams down.

12. Joining the various units together as shown in the picture below.

I found that the top & bottom rows to the middle is tricky because of multiple seams causing bulk. I lined my blocks up carefully and pinned it at every intersecting seam.  I made sure to check that all the points lined up. Then I sewed slowly to help make sure nothing shifted and carefully pressed the block from front and then from the back.

ETA: 11/13/16 23:40 
OOPS! I made a mistake in the original layout photo. 
The version below is correct.

13. Admire your block.  It should be a 12 1/2 square (unfinished).  Don't square the block. I'll do that myself.

Thanks so much,  Julia