Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Hive 3 October Tutorial- Sunflower Block

Hello everyone!!
My name is Liz Horgan and I live in northern New Jersey. I believe this is my 5th year doing the stashbee.
I had a tough time deciding what I wanted to ask you to do and finally settled on one of my favorite flowers--sunflowers!! They found a very special place in my heart when my mother passed away in 1989. One of my sister's friends sent a bouquet of sunflowers to my parents house. At a time of such sadness, it was the one thing that made me smile. Sunflowers always make me think of my mother, and bring a smile to my face and heart!
So, I follow Diane Knott of Butterfly Thread Quilting. She did a mystery quilt in 2014 which was a sunflower quilt. She gave me permission to use her tutorial for my blog.
Here's the link to her tutorial -  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6pQm-ISUMSUU3Q3ZW14UDlhOXM/view
And here's a picture of her finished quilt - isn't it beautiful! She does the steps of the tutorial in different order than I'm giving. She also uses an option of using tri recs ruler for the large triangle of the petal, but I'm giving instructions for a 4 1/4" square and cutting on diagonal once.

Diane's tutorial is for the full quilt and she did strip sets for the 4 and 9 patches, but since I'm asking you to make a sunflower block, I'm going to give instructions to use 2" squares. If you feel ambitious and want to make and send along a 9 patch for the cornerstones and/or cream/low volume for the sashing strip sets, I would be happy to have them!
Here's a picture of my finished block-

I used different yellows, but would like you to use all same fabric for your petals--mine is too busy! I'd like the your 4 patches to be scrappy though.
Here's some of the fabrics I picked from my stash-
For the block, you'll need the following:
Light cream/white background - 8 - 2" scrappy squares and 1 - 4 1/2" square.
Yellow/gold - 1 - 4 1/2" square and 2 - 4 1/4" square.
Medium/dark greens - 8 - 2" scrappy squares.
If you want to make: 
       9 patch cornerstones - 5 - 2" scrappy green and 4 - 2" scrappy light cream/white.
       strips set for sashing - 3 -  2 x 9 1/2" scrappy background strips sewn to make a 5 x 9" rectangle.
I'd like the yellows to be bright yellow/gold--any yellow that makes you smile!(I wasn't thrilled with my sunflower print)  Greens to be medium to dark, brown center to be medium, and the background to be white or light cream--I'd like the yellow/gold to stand out against the background.

First make scrappy four 4 patches with 2" green and cream squares. They should measure 3.5", If you want to make 9 patches for cornerstones, these use 2" squares also.

Next cut yellow fabric to make the petals by cutting the 4 1/2" yellow and background on the diagonal twice. Sew a yellow and background triangle together with the 90 degree angles against each other at the bottom. Please put the yellow triangle on the left as shown below. Press to the yellow Make 4.
Now cut the two 4 1/4 on the diagonal once and you'll have 4 additional triangles. I finger pressed the long side of these triangles and lined the crease up with the seam of the previous triangles and sew together. It's hard to see the crease in this picture. Make 4 and press to the larger triangle.
Trim these to 3 1/2" square. I lined up the 1 3/4" intersection on the diagonal line of my ruler where the 3 triangles meet, trimmed 2 sides, then turned the block around, lined up again and trimmed.

Make four petals.
Now use the 4 patches, petals and 3 1/2" brown square to make a 9 patch block. Just be careful with the placement of the 4 patches that the green is in the outer corners.
And sew together!
I hope this was clear and not too complicated. Thank you so much for helping me make a quilt that will make me smile, think of my mother, and think of you!! Please email me if you have any questions - eahorgan@gmail.com

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