Hive 2 July Tutorial- Pretty in Pink

Greetings Hive Mates!  I am excited to share the July block with you.  It's titled Pretty in Pink because the focus of this block will showcase bright/hot pink!  This will be an improvisational block so let your creativity fly. The final block will measure 16.5" unfinished square. 

The inspiration for my color pallet came from a blog post I saw on Laura Loewen's blog Quilt Fort Company . Here is a post on Instagram too.

I just love that bright magenta with all of the pink and dark gray!  Here are the colors from my stash. If you have hot or bight pink, this might be the focus for your block.  I added the bright yellow, light pink, and teal blue.  Please stay away from primary colors (regular greens, regular reds, regular blues), novelty prints, batiks, and browns.  This is the time to showcase neons and brights.  Solids are welcome, but not necessary.  Blacks and greys are encouraged, and if you have fabric with both black and pink in your stash, even better.

The first step in making the block is to cut 3 to 8 rectangles in various sizes with the colored fabrics.  Try to keep all your angles at right angles and avoid a "wonky" effect. The bigger the rectangles the less time it will take to make the block. If you don't have that much time 3 is great.  If you want an improv challenge make them smaller. (I didn't end up using all of these in my block). 

Each colored rectangle  will be framed in white. I'm using Kona white, you can use something similar. Cut several white strips which you will use to "frame" each rectangle. These can be various sizes from 2" to 5" wide. The longer strips are better, and will produce less waste, the smaller ones were my scraps. 

Using the white background strips, frame out several colored rectangles by sewing the sides on first, trimming, and then the tops (square up if necessary).  Press seams towards the colored fabric, and away from the white when possible. 

 

Join your framed rectangles together. You will have to add more white background, or trim background to make them fit.  This part is the fun part!  There is no right or wrong, no too much background, or no too little background.  Just make sure each colored rectangle is surrounded by white. (*hint - I press and square up frequently when doing impromptu blocks). Here was the process for my block.

Then...

Then...

Trim the finished block to be a 16.5" unfinished square.

I will add white sashing in various widths between the completed blocks. I'm excited to free motion all that white negative space when the blocks fit together!

Happy creating!  😍😍😍

-Jamie Quirk