Hive 3 - September Tutorial - Bright Diagonal Strings for Ruth

An easy block that works really well with leftover jelly roll, binding, edge bits, etc. It also only needs one round of pressing and is satisfying to trim.

The colors are inspired by my keyboard!

Teal/aqua, orange/yellow, and a low-volume white (preferably actually white, not cream). Solids, prints, low volume are all okay for the colored fabrics.

Cutting

Just a bunch of rectangles. I made a diagram to help you visualize and plan what can go where. We'll be making four of these simple blocks.

For one sub-block:

11.5" x 2" - white

10.5" x 2" - 1 orange, 1 teal

7.5" x 2" - 1 orange, 1 teal

4.5" x 2.5" - 1 orange, 1 teal

The most important length is the white, that's the reference point for trimming. The other lengths have a little extra for trimming security.

I've been doing the darker fabrics for the longer strips which gives nice contrast with the white, but don't sweat it too much.

Sewing

Start with your white strip. Fold in half along the long edge, pinch the fold to get a reference mark in the center. Do the same for the next strip: one of the 10.5" ones. Line up the center marks and sew together with a normal 1/4" seam. Continue in this same way with the corresponding color strips (7.5", then 4.5"). Then do the same thing for the other side of the white strip with the other color.

Pressing

You can just press all the seams open

Trimming

Line a ruler up diagonally with the corner against the center of the edge of the white stripe. Make sure it's aligned with the stripe using the 45 degree line and where the lines cross on your ruler markings.

Trim the corner. If you have an 8" square ruler it'll be pretty trivial from here, if not, we're basically doing the exact same method as how you'd square up and trim a finished quilt.

After trimming both white corners like that, you can just line your ruler up with the previous cuts to complete the other two corners. The final square ends up as 8"

 

Finish!

Make four of these blocks. Please don't sew them together so that I can mix them all around in the quilt for supreme scrapiness.