Hive 1 June Economy blocks for Nicole

 

Hope you enjoy these animals (and one sunflower)! I've had a scrap of that sloth print for ages, and this is the last of it--glad it's found a home in your quilt. 🦥 -Julia

Hive 1 June 2025 Economy Blocks for Nicole

 

I accidentally trimmed the astronaut block a little too much; I hope it still works! 

 

Economy Block for Nicole - June 2025

 Completed blocks for Nicole. 

Jai

Economy Block for Nicole - June 2025

I love a good fussy cut! It was nice to be able to do the block without paper piecing, too. 

Will get them in the mail next week. - Tasha

Hive 1 June Economy block

 

Hive 1 June Economy block

This was a fun block and I am glad that I got it done early in the month!

Beth

Hive 1, June, Economy Block for Nicole

 

Hi Nicole,

I liked making these! Matching up the colours to the feature fabrics was really fun. However, my stash of 'fussy-cuttable' fabric is sadly limited. hope these are what you were looking for. If no one else makes more than 4, consider the second set 'angel blocks'. They will go on their way to you today.

Happy sewing,

Rita

Hive 1-Economy Block for Nicole

Hi Nicole,

I remember this tutorial from last September! 

I hope you find my selection of bananas, spools of thread and owls amusing. 😆😆😆

Have a great time piecing these together!

Marie

Hive 4 June Block Tutorial

Improv mini-circles

I am looking for smallish improv 'quarter' circles.  I am considering a circle to be one block and I'd like to put them together into circles from these quarter blocks.  

The blocks should finish at 3.5 inches.  

https://www.shecanquilt.ca/2017/01/improv-circles-2016-fal-tutorial.html

I’m looking for each block to have a grey background and analogous colors from the color wheel.  Analogous colors is a group of three or more colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel.  This scheme can create a harmonious effect as these colors naturally work well together:

For example:

Grey, Orange and yellow

Grey, Green and blue

Grey, Pink and purple

Here is what I chose:

You can use solids or prints, and prints can have other colors as long as they read mostly the primary colors.

I like pastels, but they can be bolder too.  I’m not fond of batiks or juvenile prints. The Grey needs to tie everything together. The four blocks can be all the same color families or all different.

Some tips working with these small circles:

1. Make everything bigger than it needs to be and cut it down.  The strips need to be bigger than 1/2 inch because you will lose 1/2 in in the seam allowances.  

2. Clip the rounded pieces a little bit before you sew, this will make sewing the turns easier:

These end up being so cute!!!

-Jennifer

Hive 3- June Tutorial - Space Block for Bonnie

 

Hi, Everyone! My name is Bonnie and this is my third year participating in Stash Bee. If this post looks familiar, that's because it is a re-post of my last year's post... with some minor tweaks. I have not yet assembled the beautiful blocks I have already received, so there is opportunity to add more!

The Plan:

With your help, I would like to create a space-themed sampler quilt. I have found that I absolutely love samplers, because I love making lots of different types of blocks, trying new patterns and techniques, and putting them all together like a puzzle. So for this quilt, I’d love it if you could make ANY block(s) you want that fits the theme. Think stars, constellations, planets, spaceships, black holes, eclipses, suns, meteors, comets, aliens (if you can figure out how to make me a xenomorph, we will be friends forever, haha), moons, galaxies, or anything else you can think of. Use whatever techniques you’d like. Straight piecing, curved piecing, big pieces, tiny pieces, FPP, EPP, applique, crumb piecing, string piecing, seriously whatever. Be as creative (or not) as you want to be. I’d like it to be more “adult” and a little less "juvenile." So please keep that in mind. Words/phrases could be okay, too, assuming they still fit the theme. The pattern itself does NOT have to be space-themed. If you hate stars, try a circle (for a planet) or a row of flying geese or something for filler. Stick to the color palette and I'm sure I'll still love it.

Colors & Prints:

I’m envisioning BOLD, BRIGHT colors against a BLACK background for maximum “poppage.” I made that word up, but you get it, yeah? Contrast is key! Try to avoid dark, muted colors for the accents. Take a look at my inspiration collage below. Notice that there is not any green, which is shocking because green is my favorite color. Please avoid green (😭).

 

While I also LOVE botanical prints, I don’t feel they are in keeping with the theme, so please avoid florals, leaves, trees, and the like (also😭). Blenders, geometric designs, stars, dots, etc. would all be appropriate prints for this. Novelty science prints COULD be okay, but please use your best judgement re: whether they read adult or juvenile. I got a block last year with a little space man and I LOVE it. If you think you have something really fitting, but worry about the appropriateness, feel free to ask!

Background: Please use white on black prints, black on black prints, bold colors on black prints, or solid black prints for the background. Please make sure they read black and not gray or navy.

Celestial Spacy Stuff: I’m super eloquent. Please use Maroon, Coral, Firey Orange, Yellow, Teal/Turquoise, Blue, Purple, Magenta, White, etc. Please NO green or red. If you’re doing something made of metal, like a spaceship, please stick to realistic-looking greys. As you can see below, I have too much fabric I like basically everything, including batiks, metallics, etc. So don’t worry yourselves overmuch-- Just avoid florals and other botanicals, red/green, and juvenile novelty prints.

Update on this section ^: I got a surplus of orange and yellow blocks last year, so I'd love to see more white, teal, blue, coral, pink & maroon. Some of the fabrics in the below picture turned out to be not so suitable (specifically the dark blues and purples- if you choose to use blue or purple, please make sure it's bright and will contrast well with black!)

Pressing

Please press to one side (if you can stomach it). It's just my preference. Thank you!

Go Forth and Create...

...If you feel inspired. If you're not sure what you want to do and could use some ideas, scroll to the bottom where I've listed tons of free theme-y patterns and tutorials. If you hate this open-ended stuff, keep reading and make one of the blocks from my two tutorials below.

Tutorials

Now for those of you who prefer to not be given free reign and would like to just be told exactly what to do I have written up a couple of simple star block tutorials. I envision lots of stars in this quilt, so stars of all sorts are welcome.

OPTION ONE – FRIENDSHIP STAR

This is just a nine-patch with a few Half Square Triangles (HSTs).

Cutting:

	FINISHED SIZE
SQUARES	3” Block	4.5” Block	6” Block	7.5” Block
BLACK background	(4) 1.5” (2) 1 7/8”	(4) 2” (2) 2 3/8”	(4) 2.5” (2) 2 7/8”	(4) 3” (2) 3 3/8”
COLOR or WHITE	(1) 1.5” (2) 1 7/8”	(1) 2” (2) 2 3/8”	(1) 2.5” (2) 2 7/8”	(1) 3” (2) 3 3/8”

 These instructions use the traditional method of making HSTs, but many stars use multiples of four, so the 4-at-a-time technique where you sew all the way around the square and then cut on both diagonals or the 8-at-a-time method that I’ve personally never tried may be more your speed. You can also make the HST Squares 1/8” larger and just trim more if you don’t mind the waste. My favorite method is to use the essential triangle tool by Bonnie Hunter. Use whatever method you’re comfortable with!

Make the HSTs:

Put two squares right sides together. Draw a line from corner to corner. Or be super rebellious like me and just lop those babies in half and risk bias stretching when you sew them. I hate taking my seam guide off my machine if I don’t have to.

 

 

If you prefer to follow the “rules” go ahead and sew ¼” from the line on each side of the square and THEN cut on the line. Please press to the dark side. It is the only way you can save your friends. Apologies go out to all of the open-seam supporters and anyone who doesn’t like Star Wars.

Trim to the appropriate size, which is the same size as the plain square blocks.

Lay out the squares and HSTs and then sew into rows. Please press toward the squares (away from the HSTs).

Sew the rows together with nesting seams. Please press away from the center.

 

Voilà!

 

OPTION TWO – OHIO STAR

This is just like the friendship star, but with Quarter Square Triangles (QSTs) aka Hourglass units instead of HSTs.

Cutting:

	FINISHED SIZE
SQUARES	4.5” Block	6” Block	7.5” Block	9” Block
BLACK background	(4) 2” (1) 2 7/8”	(4) 2.5” (1) 3 3/8”	(4) 3” (1) 3 7/8”	(4) 3.5” (1) 4 3/8”
COLOR A	(1) 2”	(1) 2.5”	(1) 2.5”	(1) 3.5”
COLOR B	(1) 2 7/8”	(1) 3 3/8”	(1) 3 7/8”	(1) 4 3/8”
COLOR C	(2) 2 7/8”	(2) 3 3/8”	(2) 3 7/8”	(2) 4 3/8”

See my spiel on HSTs (also relevant for QSTs) in the option 1 tutorial.

Make the HSTs:

Follow the method listed above in Option 1. You should be pairing a black background square with a C Square and a B square with a C square. 

Press toward COLOR C or away from Color C, just be consistent with all of them. In this case I pressed AWAY from Color C.

Put two HSTs right sides together. So that the seams nest and Color C triangles are opposite each other. 

Again draw a line from corner to corner, perpedicular to the seam. Sew ¼” from the line on each side of the square and then cut on the line. Or be rebellious 😉. Please press towards the side with the black background triangle or be fancy and spin the seam. Trim to the appropriate size, which is the same size as Color A squares.

Lay out the squares and QSTs and then sew into rows. Please press toward the squares (away from the QSTs).

Join the rows together by nesting the seams. Please press away from the center.

 

Fin!

Free Patterns/Tutorials

For those of you who are down with this challenge, but have NO idea where to start (I get it, I’m super indecisive myself), below are some FREE patterns for star blocks and theme-y stuff that might inspire you:

If you fancy STARS:

•         Fast Flying Geese Sawtooth Star by Amy Smart @ Diary of a Quilter https://www.diaryofaquilter.com/fast-flying-geese-sawtooth-star/
• Tiny Wonky Star by Emedoodle of Mommy’s Nap Time http://mommysnaptime.blogspot.com/2011/02/tutorial-tiny-wonky-stars.html
• Bright Hopes Star Blocks by Fresh Lemon Quilts https://www.freshlemonsquilts.com/journal/solstice-stars-series-another-star
• Double Option Stars by Melanie Rudy @ Quilters Enjoy Color http://quiltersenjoycolor.blogspot.com/2013/09/double-option-stars.html
• Scrappy Rainbow Star by Melissa Corry of Happy Quilting http://www.happyquiltingmelissa.com/2012/12/scrappy-rainbow-star-tutorial.html
• Sun Block from APQS https://www.apqs.com/free-quilt-pattern-sunrise/
• Rocket Star Block by Sherry at Powered by Quilting https://poweredbyquilting.com/2019/05/03/rocket-star-quilt-block/
• So many star blocks here: https://www.generations-quilt-patterns.com/star-quilt-block-patterns.html#Blocks
• Several star blocks here @ Piece N Quilt https://www.pieceandquilt.com/2015/05/30-days-of-sewing-quilt-blocks-star.html
• Wombat Quilts has a TON of free FPP star patterns here and they are all SOOOO cool: https://wombatquilts.com/free-paper-piecing-patterns/

If you’re partial to PLANETS / MOONS:

•         Scrappy Drunkards Path by Center Street Quilts https://www.centerstreetquilts.com/drunkards-path-scrappy-circles-quilt-with-free-tutorial/
• Simple Circles by Andy @ A Bright Corner http://www.abrightcorner.com/2017/07/simple-circles-quilt-coming-up-roses.html
• Circles & Half Moons Afire by The Quilter’s Planner https://quiltersplanner.com/how-to-piece-circles-free-half-moons-afire-quilting-pattern/
• Full Circles from Yvonne @ Quilting Jet Girl https://quiltingjetgirl.com/2016/02/09/sewing-full-circles-tutorial/
• Dance With Me Applique from Quilting Daily https://www.quiltingdaily.com/quilt/dance-with-me-free-circle-applique-quilt-block-quilt/
• Improv Circles from She Can Quilt https://www.shecanquilt.ca/2017/01/improv-circles-2016-fal-tutorial.html
• Eclipse by AGF https://www.fatquartershop.com/eclipse-quilt-free-pdf-pattern

If you’re fond of SHIPS and STATIONS:

•         Star Wars ship/deathstar FPP patterns by Quiet Play – I especially love the geometric versions. https://payhip.com/b/YFVv
• Fandom in Stitches has some neat FPP Star Wars ships/stations if you scroll down a bit http://www.fandominstitches.com/2010/03/star-wars.html
• UFO Block by Monica Curry https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WOVjsMWPhip8ndUMTRoy5gt960zMqy4L/view
• FPP Rocket over at Handicrafty Sisters http://handicraftysisters.blogspot.com/2011/06/paper-pieced-rocket.html

If you’re a fan of other SPACE-Y THINGS:

•         Comet from Ruby Star Society (This is obviously way too big so you’d have to be comfortable scaling down and cropping) https://www.fatquartershop.com/comet-quilt-free-pdf-pattern
• Some cool blocks here that can fit the theme: https://quiltinspiration.blogspot.com/2022/09/free-pattern-day-rainbow-quilts.html
• This twisted log cabin looks pretty complicated if anyone is up for a challenge https://www.quiltingboard.com/tutorials-f10/twisted-log-cabin-t81954.html
• Snail Trail Block from FQS https://www.fatquartershop.com/snail-trail-quilt-block-free-pattern
• This Tula pattern is neat (One of the body portions, not the head) https://www.fatquartershop.com/serpentine-quilt-free-pdf-pattern
• Spiral Flying Geese https://www.freequiltpatterns.info/free-tutorial---spiral-geese-mini-quilt-by-janice-zeller.htm
  

Bonus Content

And finally, if you're still with me, while searching for all those tutorials above I found this cool article for about Karen Nyberg: http://quiltingdigest.com/one-of-these-blocks-was-made-on-the-space-station/

More about retired Astronaut / Artist Karen Nyburg: https://karennyberg.com/artist/

THANK YOU ALL, I AM SO EXCITED FOR ALL THE HAPPY MAIL!

💚 BONNIE aka @gingerbreaddscraps