Monday, May 1, 2023

Hive 2 - May tutorial - square in squares

 Happy May!

I've been going through the rainbow, slowly making quilts out of every color.  The last color I have is yellow.  I was having a bit of a hard time with yellow, because I didn't know what neutral to put with it.  Nothing seemed to work: it's a light color like white, black will look like a bumble bee, grey didn't seem quite right, and I don't love brown.  But then it hit me: dark green.  It's not really a neutral, but will offset the yellow well.


Fabrics

For the fabrics, before we get into the specific colors, there are some guidelines.  Please stay away from novelty prints.  It turns out I have a different definition of novelty prints as others, but to me a novelty print includes something man-made.  Suns, flowers, leaves, hearts, geometrics are not novelty prints.  I love solids and would be happy to have you include them.  I'm also open to batiks.

Yellow: please choose bright yellows.  Slightly mustardy is ok, but try to stay away from the brown-yellows.  Please try to choose something mostly yellow or with white accents, staying away from other colors. 


Green: please choose dark greens, thinking deep forest.  Again, please try to choose fabrics that are all green or only have dark accents.  


Cutting

Each square should be made with the same fabric.  The center and outer squares (cutting instructions: yellow 2 & 3 along with green 2 & 3) can be the same fabric or different fabrics.  I did one of both.

Yellow 1:  (2) 2"x3.5", (2) 2"x6.5"
Yellow 2: (1) 3.5"x3.5"
Yellow 3: (2) 2"x6.5", (2) 2"x9.5"

Green 1:  (2) 2"x3.5", (2) 2"x6.5"
Green 2: (1) 3.5"x3.5"
Green 3: (2) 2"x6.5", (2) 2"x9.5"

Sewing

Layout the pieces like the picture below and sew together like a log cabin.  After the middle square is attached, the block should be 6.5" square.  After the last square is attached it should be 9.5" square.




I'll leave the ironing to your discretion.  If possible press towards the dark fabric, but if that makes some intersections too bulky than you can press toward the light fabric.  

Please do not sew the two blocks together.

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