Hive 8 March block tutorial!

Hello lovelies of Hive 8! I’m Sylvia, and this my fourth (!) year in the bee. I just keep coming back for more.

My choice this year is for a churn dash block, but if you don’t like this block… well, keep reading, because you don’t have to make the whole thing! :)

Fabrics

Background: Please use a solid white (my samples use Kona White, but anything similar will do). If you don’t have a solid white, or you really hate white, a solid cream or very light purple background fabric works too, as I’m planning to have a few blocks with a slightly different background in this quilt.

Main fabric: Purple! Just about anything will do, but please be sure that it reads as purple from a distance, especially once it’s cut up. I would prefer if you were able to keep it from veering too far into the red, but use what you have!

OK, on to the block. We’ll be making churn dash blocks that finish at 6.5”, but there’s a twist: you don’t have to make the whole block.

 Here’s a picture of the anatomy of a churn dash. As you can see, it’s based on a nine-patch block.

So basically, you can replace as many segments of the churn dash as you like with your solid background fabric. (But I will also need full churn dash blocks, so if you don’t want to replace any, that’s awesome too!)

Cutting

These instructions are for the full churn dash block. Please continue to the bottom for how to replace segments!

Background:

1 square 2.5” x 2.5”

2 squares 3” x 3”

4 rectangles 2.5” x 1.5”

Purple:

2 squares 3” x 3”

4 rectangles 2.5” x 1.5”

Sewing

Please press all your seams to the side, rather than open, as some of my quilting ideas involve stitches in the ditches!

On the back of your 3” x 3” light background squares, draw a diagonal line. 

Place each on top of one the purple squares and sew ¼” on either side of the line.

Cut in half along the line you drew, and press towards the dark. Trim to 2.5” x 2.5”.

Sew together sets of purple and background rectangles along the longer side, and press towards the dark.

Assemble the block, with your 2 1/2" square in the middle:

Press seams as in the diagram below:

To replace segments

For segments you choose to replace you will need a 2.5”x 2.5” square instead of the segment. If you are omitting adjacent segments, feel free to replace them with a single piece of fabric. Here are some examples of layouts, with measurements of replaced fabrics. Seriously, anything goes!

It’s been a thing so far this year, and I too would love a signature block, if you feel like including one. It can be anything, like a leftover HST or other segment from the churn dash, or just a scrap of fabric with your name and location written on it.

Thank you all so much, and I can’t wait to see what you come up with!