Hive 5 November Tutorial- HST Block for Alicia

Hive 5 November Block for Alicia

Credit for this Tutorial goes to Rochelle of Hive 4 who made this tutorial in February 2021

This month we are making a modern HST block from Steph Jacobs Designs 2019 HST block of the month. The original block and tutorial can be found here:

https://www.stephjacobsondesigns.com/2019/01/modern-hst-block-of-month-january-2019.html

For fabrics I'm looking for black and white only.  You can use solids, tone on tone and/or small modern prints that still read white or black (please no large prints and no batiks). If you use solids, use both a black and a white solid, if you use prints, use both a black and a white print. I'd like to alternate solid blocks with printed blocks in the final layout (if you have any doubts on your fabrics just go ahead and use solids, those solid blocks will be just as helpful since I have to make quite a few for a king).

Here are a few things I pulled from my stash:

You will need:

8 - 5" black squares

8 - 5" white squares

You'll make a total of 16 HSTs, trimming to 4 1/2" (unfinished).  I love my Quilters Magic Wand for marking HST lines 

I don't think I need to go through the HST making process but if you do need help, Bloom Heart Quilts has a great tutorial and several HST methods. I chose to make my HSTs the old fashioned way (2 at a time),  if you like to make 4 or 8 at a time - feel free to use your preferred method.  Please iron all seams open throughout, this will make my life much easier when I am quilting 

Most HST cheat sheets say to use 4 7/8" for a 4 1/2" unfinished block but I like the warm and fuzzy feeling of using a larger size and then trimming down. Using the 5" square I did not have much trimming to do.

Here is the layout for your HSTs, I had to keep going back to my photo to make sure the layout was correct.

 I sewed the first two and last two blocks of each row together.

Then completed each row.

With all the rows complete, I attached the top two rows and bottom two rows (sorry no photo here but I think you get it). Also, if your block doesn't look quiet right, rotate it and see if it then matches.  Previously, this was a bit confusing.

And finally sew the last center seam and you're done! Your block should measure 16 1/2" (unfinished).  A nice big, simple block! Please let me know if you have any questions.