Hive 1 - April Tutorial - Half way Home

Hello Hive 1!

I'm Liz from Virginia and I'm your Queen Bee for the month.  I'm an affordable housing Architect and mom to a busy 4 year old.

I just recently conquered 2 of my biggest sewing fears by participating in a New York Beauty minim-quilt swap.  Those fears: drafting my own paper piecing pattern and curved piecing!  Joining a swap and wanting to impress my swap partner was the push I needed to dive in.  My next sewing fear is making a quilt for my hubby and you all are going to help me do that.  So for our question of the month; What is your biggest sewing fear?  What would help you overcome it?

For this month, I'd like you to make an improv 1/4  log cabin block.  See this free pattern from Robert Kaufman for the idea and directions:
http://www.robertkaufman.com/quilting/quilts_patterns/half_way_home/

Size: Please make either a 12x12 or a 12x16 block.  Your choice!

Colors: I'd like you to use neutrals similar to the RK example for the stripes.  For the dark stripes, medium / dark grey, black, chocolate brown, and navy blue are all ok.  For the light stripes, white, cream and light grey are all good.  These can be tone-on-tone, solid, or a small / medium scale pattern that still reads as a neutral color from a distance.  Please use a fully saturated yellow or orange for the center "hearth" square.

Fabric: I'm looking for fabrics that say "men's clothing." If you have a great fabric in your stash that is not a quilting cotton, I'm giving you permission to use it here!  I'd recommend you stick with woven fabrics that are a typical clothing weight (as opposed to knits, upholstery, etc.)  I'm planning to use some lawn, chambray, linen and a cotton/linen blend.  Avoid fabrics that are not machine washable though.  If you use one of these, pick a traditional quilting cotton for your other 2 colors in your block to help with stability during sewing.  You'll need between a fat 1/8 and a fat 1/4 of each stripe color.  If you need to work in some scraps of other fabrics, it's ok as long at the colors still fit the bill.

A word on improv piecing:  I like to use the grid side of my cutting mat and a rotary cutter without a ruler for cutting.  I alight the fat quarter / eighth with the grid, pick a line to cut on and then go for it.  If things get a bit off - no big deal - it's improv!  If free-hand cutting is too far out of your comfort zone, use a ruler but don't necessarily cut all parallel lines.  I like this tutorial for improv piecing, but there are many others out there: http://www.lovepatchworkandquilting.com/quilt-tutorials/quilt-school-improv-piecing

Cutting: Stripes should be about 1" to 3 1/2" wide - depending on your fabric length, you'll probably need 3-5 strips of each color.  Your center yellow/orange piece should be about 3" to 6" on each side.

Here are my sample block photos:

Fabric is cut

First few rows of stripes added

Trim extra seam allowance AFTER sewing seam - if needed

Finished square block - measures about 12 1/2" x 13" before trimming

Finished rectangular block - measures about 13" wide by 16 1/2" tall before trimming

I decided this one needed a white pinstripe inside one of the lighter stripes - sewed a leftover strip from another block to the light grey and then trimmed it up to leave 1/4" exposed in the final block.  Can you see the pinstripe in the block below?

I will arrange all pieces with the yellow/orange in the bottom right corner, so keep that in mind as you piece.  If you make a 12" x 16" block, it should be 16" tall.  Please send untrimmed.  I'll do the final trimming after I see all of the pieces together.

Thank you so much and Happy Sewing!!!
Liz Chapman