Thursday, April 1, 2021

Hive 6 April Tutorial- Converging corners block

It is Kelly here from Hive 6. This is my 3rd year though I did take a break for a bit. When joining, I had always planned to use a tutorial I'd used in the past because I still need more blocks. ;)

I was originally inspired by this quilt found on From Martha With Love. Everything about it is just so pretty. And scrappy!



The block is based on the Converging Corners tutorial by Film In The Fridge. 

For my color palette, I pulled a mix of floral and geometric prints in tones like mint, coral, blush with some pops of gray, navy, gold, lime, orange etc. Think sherbets with a bit of pop. Please DO NOT use baby pastels or other really deep, primary colors like red as the dominant color. For reference, the majority of the fabrics I used in the initial pull were either Art Gallery's Arizona or Basic Grey's Fresh Cut lines. I also threw some Maude Asbury's Geofabulous and Brambleberry Ridge in there for kicks. A few of the prints even have some metallic gold in them! Obviously, those are old lines, but something similar. Basically, I love all Art Gallery stuff, Tula Pinks is fun. Anything with these similar colors. 

A mix of 8-10 fabrics will work well. No novelty prints, please. I know it is a bit of an eclectic mix but I like it. 


You will also need some neutral background fabric. Personally, I do not like bright whites and prefer ivory tones instead. I chose 4 fabrics to work with. One is a solid Kona in Bone and the rest are very low-volume prints. Just mix them up into the block. Please only use very low volume or solids in ivory, creams or off-white tones if possible. 



The tutorial by Film in the Fridge is probably best to follow. Her final block is only 12.5". Please add on to make these 16.5" by can either adding extra strips or make them slightly wider than she describes. I'll walk you through a few of the steps here anyway.



I am making two blocks for samples. The block is built much like a log cabin block. You'll need to pick a feature fabric for the center. I suggest making it any size between 3 - 6" square. Next you'll use the background fabric to build out your block to be around 8-10" or so. Please press your seams open as you go.



The next step is to continue building your block's corners by adding strips of fabric. I start in the bottom right then do the top left corner. The length of the first colored strip should be around 2.5-3.5" long with the remainder of the strip being the background color. Each ring of strips should get progressively longer. Vary of the widths of the fabric strips between 1-3" or so. Skinnier strips will require more to complete the block. Aim for 3-5 strips for each corner.


Keep working back and forth from bottom right to top left corner until your block is 16.5". Don't worry about trimming them down or squaring them up. Try to keep the center square roughly in the center but it doesn't have to be precise. Variety will make the quilt interesting.

When finished you should have a block that looks something like this:




Hopefully, this will be a fun block for you. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.


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