Hive 1 Tutorial for March: Evil Eye Block for Leah

I've been wanting to make an Evil Eye quilt for a while, but with the world being the way it is lately, it feels like it's much more urgent now. We could all use protection and luck, and I would love to get the group's help. Maybe you'll all be able to help me imbue it with some magic!

This design is very improvised. If you see the picture and go "ohh, I have an idea for how to make it!" then please just go for it. But if you could use specific instructions, read on. And if it drives you totally nuts, 1) please let me know and ask about anything that's unclear, and 2) feel free to quit after the first round or two if you need to. I'll be so happy to receive any eyes you're able to make for me, even if they don't make it out to the fourth round.

Colors:

I'd like colors to be in the general realm of naturally-occuring eye colors. Blue, green, purple, gray, brown, gold, etc., mostly. You'll need a dark and a light version of the eye colors, as well as a black and a white. Here are a bunch of fabrics I pulled to show you my thoughts. You should know that I'm not totally happy with everything in the above photo of eye blocks; I think the top right came out a little too zombie! (Too much red in the black center, too gray in the white.) But as long as you avoid my mistakes, there's a lot of flexibility in the colors. I'm happy with solids or prints. Your light color and dark color do not need to be the same color as long as each ring in the eye is the same fabric all the way around.

Cutting instructions:

Please note this will not have precise assembly instructions, and amounts of each fabric will vary depending on how you assemble and trim your block, and how large a square you start with. Strips need not be all one piece and I've given how much fabric I used in assembling mine; you may need a little more or less.

Black: one square of between 2.5 and 3.5"

White: strip of between 2 and 3" wide, about 36" long 

Light color: strip of between 2 and 3" wide, about 18" long

Dark color: strip of between 2 and 3" wide, about 36" long

Assembly:

Sew the light color strip to one side of the black square

Press and trim the strip off, taking off a corner of the square too. We're going for a non-square polygon in the center by the time we're done. I'll be happy with a pentagon, hexagon, really any shape as long as it's a little closer to a circle than a square. You'll be able to rotate the edge you cut to add it to the next side of the black piece. 

Continue pressing, trimming so you have straight (but not square) edges, rotating, and sewing the strip to remaining sides of the black piece. Lots more photos to come:

It'll be ok to trim the black too, if you think it needs it!

Or just sew the strip where you think it belongs, and trim behind your seam after. Continuing to cut corners to make the square a little more hexagonal...

Continue until you've completed your light colored border around the black!

Trim the edges so they're all straight and you're happy with the overall shape, but don't square it up: keep the hexagonal or octagonal or whatever shape you've gotten. 

Then follow all the same steps with the white, completely bordering the light color.

Trim the edges.

And repeat the bordering process one more time with the dark color.

And you're done! Trim your edges but don't square up; I'll be putting all of them together with one background color to keep the roundish effect of each eye. Thank you so much for sticking with me through this. I'm really looking forward to putting it together!