Hive 1 September Friendship Star Block for Caitlin

 Don't mind the floral background. Hope you like this one. Will get it in the mail tomorrow. 

 

Jai 

Hive 1 Friendship Star for Caitlin

 

I loved making these! Thank you for the color freedom; lots of input on one of them from my five-year-old. We had fun! They’ll be on their way to you tomorrow. 

 

Hive 1 Friendship Star for Caitlin

Here are the two stars that I made this month.  I am making a quilt for my daughter that is made up of a number of pinks so I had some extra squares already cut and was inspired to use them for this project!  Hope they work with the rest of the quilt.  They will be in the mail today.

Beth

Hive 1 September Friendship Stars for Caitlin

 

These were super fun to do and I love a good scrappy star. Can't wait to see your finished starry blanket. 

Hive 1 September Friendship Star Block for Caitlin

 

Hi Caitlin,

HSTs and myself are not on friendly terms, nonetheless, I managed to get some Friendship Stars out of them. 😁

These blocks go on their way to you today.

Happy sewing,

Rita

Frienship Stars for Caitlin

Hi Caitlin,

I hope these blocks work well for you and find their place in your collection of "Friendship Stars"!

Happy Quilting!

Marie

Hive 1: 2025 September Friendship Star for Caitlin

 

I loved how quickly this came together. The color is a bit off in the photo. I like when there is freedom to pick whatever. Thank you for allowing us to showcase colors and scrappy. 

- Tasha

Hive 1: 2025 August Book Block for Abby

 

I am a little behind on the August block for Abby, but I really was looking forward to this block. I love the blocks that allow you to tie in your personality and hold stories. This block holds my favorite color, my love of cats and nature, fairytales, one of the first 4 fabrics I ever bought when I started sewing/quilting when I was 16, a raid of my fussycuts box, a fabric designer that pivoted my entire view of the hobby, my first cut into a fabric that was the first time i bought fabric 'just because' and not because I had something in mind, and a recognition of me being honest with myself about who I am and is ok to be. 

I hope you enjoy your new 'reads' and the stories each one holds! 

-Tasha

Hive 1 2025 Finish: Starry Night Quilt

 

From block of the month to finished in under 6 months--that's a Stash Bee record for me! 

This was such a fun finish. It was my biggest quilt yet that I've done on my new-to-me longarm, and my first with wool batting. I know the block itself wasn't everyone's favorite, but I will definitely repeat the concept of the assembly--some pieced blocks, some scrappy background. It makes for a nice overall effect, and much quicker to collect all the needed blocks!

Thank you Hive 1 and crashers for making this with me! 🌟🌟🌟

-Julia

Hive 6 September 2025 Block Tutorial

In your best Monday Night Football voice . . .

Are you ready for some IMPROV??  Of course you are because this is really easy improv and remember, it’s supposed to look wonky!!  

This block is an adaptation from the book, Cultural Fusion Quilts by Sujata Shah—with her permission.  She came to our guild a couple of years ago and I fell in love with her approach to quilting.  I had lost my sew-joe and her kind, encouraging and soulful presentation set me right.  All she asked for this permission is that when posting we tag her on instagram @therootconnection and her book #culturalfusionquilts.

We’ll be making two blocks with opposite color placement.  I’d love to see your brightest/lemony greens and grays.  All I ask is that there is strong contrast between the green and gray..  Here’s my color pull:

As you can see—lemony green is a thing!  

Cutting:

Cut one strip of each fabric (green and gray) 5 1/2” wide and 20” long.

Stack the fabric strips RIGHT SIDES UP

*Before you make the improv cut, it helps to press the stack to get the strips to stick together for the cut. 

Place the stack on your cutting board, aligning edges and corners and then slice the stack lengthwise with a gentle curve.  

*It helps to start the slice for about two inches and then hold the bottom edge to keep the stack in place.

Sew the green slices to the gray slices. If you’ve never sewn curves before—no worries.  This is a very gentle curve that doesn’t need to be perfect in any way.  Start with the convex strip on the bottom, match the concave piece at the top edge, sew a few inches then match the edges again, repeat until the whole strip is pieced.

Press—it is totally ok to use a little persuasion with the iron to get things flat.

Place the pieced strips units on the cutting mat and trim this long piece to 4 1/2” wide.  In this trimming, 

I do a straightening cut on both sides of the strip then you can decide which side or both sides to trim down more depending on where you like the color and curve placement.  THERE IS NO RIGHT WAY!!  Just, your way!!  Live it up a little!!

Next, trim the strip sets into 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 units.

Arrange the units into 2 whirligig blocks.  Reverse the color placement for the second block.

Sew the units into a block. Each block should measure 8 1/2”. 

Press however you like!  TA DA!  

Hive 5 September 2025 Tutorial - Rainbow Scrappy Chain Blocks for Erin

 Hi All!

It has been a little rainy around here over the past few days, so I wanted to brighten things up!

This is a fun block to make with the scraps you have laying around! 

This tutorial is based on the Scrappy Chains block by Cynthia Brunz

                    See her tutorial ---> here

We're going to change up the colors for a fun twist!

Soon you’ll have a ‘chain” of white/low volume squares

running through a rainbow of scraps.

COLOR INSPIRATION

Interesting Low Volumes

        White/gray-based low vol fabrics

        Fun/interesting prints are welcome!

Bright & Cheerful Colors

You don't need to stick to exactly these colors

         Plan to pull some clear bright colors

          Use your scraps! your colors don't have to perfectly match on either side of your lv square

COLORS TO AVOID:

    Red, Brown, black, muted colors, pastels

PRINTS TO AVOID:

    Christmas, patriotic, sports, batik

CUTTING LIST:

Low volume/white

(6) 2.5" x 2.5”

Pink -

(1)  2.5" x 10.5" rectangle

Purple

(1) 2.5" x 10.5" rectangle

Orange - scrappy, different fabrics for cuts

(1)  2.5"x2.5" square

(1)   2.5" x 8.5" rectangle

Blue - scrappy, different fabrics for cuts

(1)  2.5" x 2.5" square

(1)   2.5" x 8.5" rectangle

Yellow- scrappy, different fabrics for cuts

(1) 2.5" x 4.5" rectangle

(1)  2.5" X 6.5" rectangle

Green- scrappy, different fabrics for cuts

(1) 2.5" x 4.5" rectangle

(1)  2.5" X 6.5" rectangle

Lay out your fabrics, creating (6) strip sets with white squares between matching color strips

The white squares should form a diagonal “chain” going up from left to right

Strip Sets

Pink 2.5" x 10.5" +  low vol 2.5" x 2.5” 

Orange 2.5" x 2.5" + low vol 2.5" x 2.5”  + Orange  2.5" x 8.5"

Yellow 2.5" x 4.5" + low vol 2.5" x 2.5”  +  Yellow 2.5" X 6.5"

Green 2.5" x 4.5" + low vol 2.5" x 2.5”  + Green 2.5" X 6.5"

Blue 2.5" x 2.5" + low vol 2.5" x 2.5”  + Blue  2.5" x 8.5"

Purple 2.5" x 10.5" + low vol 2.5" x 2.5” 

Order your strip sets from left to right

Pink → Orange → Yellow → Green → Blue → Purple

low volume squares should rise "up"

from bottom left (pink) to top right (purple)

Sew low volume and color strips into strip sets

Press toward your color fabric

Sew strip sets into double strip sets (seen below)

Sew together your double strip sets to create your final block!

now

I hope you had a nice time!

Feel free to tag me @3normous on instagram if you're planning to post there

I am very excited to see the bright and fun blocks you make!

Erin - 3normous

Hive 4 September Block for Vasudha

 

This is my first time participating in a Bee of any kind! It had been a great experience making all your blocks, learning new techniques, and connecting with such a warm and friendly group of quilters.

September is my turn to be the queen! I would like your help in finishing a quilt I started in 2022. I started making blocks from Steph Jacobson's 2021 HST Block of the Month. This was the BOM for my guild for 2022. I have made several blocks but I would like to make a larger quilt than originally planned and most importantly, I would like more variety of fabrics than my stash alone can provide.

Block Pattern: Any block from Steph's 2021 HST Block of the Month. Steph has 16 blocks in the BOM. You can make any one block from this list.

HST Size: Large HSTs in the blocks should be 4" x 4" finished (4.5" x 4.5" unfinished). Small HSTs in the block should be 2" x 2" finished (2.5" x 2.5" unfinished). I am not including a tutorial for making HSTs. There are so many on YouTube and other blog posts. Please let me know if you need a link. 

Block Size: Some blocks are 16.5" x 16.5" and some are 12.5" x 16.5". Pick your block.

Fabrics to use:

Color 1 (white in the pattern): Any medium blue solid. My stash mainly has Kona cotton solids. I've used Kona Pacific, Turquoise, Oasis, Water and Paris Blue. Any medium value solid in the blue or turquoise/teal families are good.

Color 2 (black in the pattern) for 4" HSTs: Any low-volume print or blender that mostly reads white. See examples in my block and my sample fabrics. This is where I am looking for a wide variety of fabric for a scrappy but low volume look. Some of them are almost grey and some are blue. That's ok as long as they are low volume. Avoid warm colors like red, pink, green but small amounts of these colors are ok as well. Please don't stress over this. Anything in your stash is good. 

Color 2 (black in the pattern) for 2" HSTs: Any fabric - solid, blender, textured or prints that is medium yellow/gold. 

I would like a single solid blue but a variety of low-volume white prints. At least 3-4 different fabrics will be great.

Also, in some of my sample blocks, I've (unintentionally) switched color 1 and color 2. If this happens to you, that's ok as well. No need to remake the block :-) Here are some sample blocks:

Hive 2 - September Tutorial - Prairie Flower Block

Welcome to September! Here in the Texas Panhandle we've had nice rains earlier this year, followed by a warm summer. Across the prairie you can find the most beautiful wildflowers this year. Here are a couple of photos that I have chosen for the inspiration of this month's block. 

We'll be making a Prairie Flower block inspired by a quilter I very much admire, Joanne Brozinski. And we'll be using the pattern Scrappy Star Quilt Block. 

Joanne used all sorts of fabrics for her blocks. The central star "flower" would be a kind of scrappy look with the entire flower sewn of different shades/prints of a related similar color. So, if you have oranges, you'd choose any complementary shades/prints of oranges from your stash. Each star can be any of the bright colors as suggested from my fabric pull below:

The background fabric for the block can be any number of low value fabrics, even very small nature inspired novelty prints. What I'm looking for is a contrast between the background and the brighter, central star "flower". They can be soft, floral prints with pastel, white or very, pale ivory background. Please no tans.  I really like the variety of soft prints that Joanne used. You probably have some fabrics in your stash that will work just fine. Here are some of the fabrics I pulled from my stash:

 

Directions for cutting and sewing the block:

1. The block measures 12 1/2″ square, and will finish to 12″.  You may find that a "scant" 1/4" seam will be useful to have your block measure to 12 1/2". You will need:

• 8 – 2″ squares {star/flower fabric}
• 1 – 3 1/2″ square {star/flower fabric}
• 8 – 2″ x 5″ rectangles
• 4 – 5″ squares
  
  
  
2. Draw a line (on the back side of the fabric) diagonally across all the 2″ squares.  I like to use a water soluable pen, then I can spray the marks away with distilled water before ironing.
   
   
   
3. Place the marked squares on one end of each of the 2″ x 5″ rectangles.  Half of the diagonal lines should point left to right, the other half right to left {as shown in the image below}.  Stitch along the lines.
   
   
   
4. Measure 1/4″ from the line toward the short end of the rectangle…
   
   
   
5. …and trim the corners away.
   
6.  I like to press four of the corners toward the 2" square and the other four pressing toward the rectangle. This will allow you to "nest" the seams when you sew the sets together, as shown below. 
   
7. Sew the rectangles together in pairs with the point of the printed fabric in the center.
   
   
   
8. Press the seams open to reduce bulk. (In this photo you can see how the triangle seams are pressed in opposite directions as mentioned in step #6 from above.)
   
   
   
9. Repeat until all the star points are sewn.  Arrange the points and 5″ squares around the 3 1/2″ square as desired and sew them together into three rows.
   
   
   
10. I pressed my seams for the top and bottom rows toward the 5″ squares, and for the center row towards the 3 1/2″ square.  This will allow your seams to nest nicely.  When sewing the points to the 3 1/2″ square, I like to sew with the point fabric on top {still right sides together} so I can stitch right through the center where all the colors meet. In the photo below I have marked where I want sew so that I don't lose the "point".
    
    
    
11. Join the three rows together in the same manner. I pressed the top and bottom rows toward the center. Now you’ll have the finished star.
    

I hope you enjoy making this block. 

Here's the link for the pattern. Scrappy Star Quilt Block