Hive 5 - September Tutorial - Crumb Polaroid Blocks for Sara

A while back, I came across the image to the right while scrolling Pinterest for quilty inspiration. The pin linked to an article on Curbly and referenced a photo collage display that was originally on Urban Outfitters. While not a quilt, it captured my attention - I liked the play with colors, and gradiant display. Plus I've always liked Polaroids. I pinned it and forgot it.

When I started brainstorming what I wanted to do for September, I came back to this idea. Hopefully it'll be a fun way for everyone to get scrap busting in, especially for the smaller pieces that we may not usually get a chance to use! 

Block Details

I'm looking for one 7" wide x 8" tall Polaroid style block, with the "picture" improv pieced and surrounded by solid white or very low volumes. 

For the "picture" colors, I'm hoping to make a rainbow-ish display so choose whichever color family you have the most scraps of, except for white, brown, gray, etc. You'll want mostly medium values, however some light and dark valued fabrics are ok. 

There's a lot of creative flexibility in making these blocks so I'm excited to see what everyone makes!

Crumb/Improv Piecing

A crumb is just a small scrap of fabric. For these blocks, we'll be piecing together all these crumbs into strips or squares using improv piecing to make a bigger block. Please try to keep the largest size to no more than 3" so the piecing is the highlight.

There are no rules! All straight lines? Ok! Curves? Ok! 

If you find yourself overthinking the placement of fabrics, set yourself some rules (such as all fabrics must be placed next to unique fabrics) or randomly grab out of a basket. It can also be helpful to find something you can fussy cut or use as a highlight, from which you can start with.

I've included some information about how I approached this below, but other resources include: Scrap Fabric Love's Crumb Quilting Tutorial, Alanda Craft's Crumb Quilt Technique Tutorial, and a Youtube tutorial by Teresa Down Under.

Constructing the "Picture"

Start by sorting out your crumbs and scraps by color, so you can see what you have to work with. From the piles I have here, you can see that I pulled out a variety of sizes and shapes. 

I would've been tight using only these greens or yellows shown in the pile, but I had plenty of blues and pinks so I decided to start with my blues. 

From this overall color sort, I sorted each of my blue fabrics by fabric. I was originally aiming to not have repeat fabrics touch, but I did not have quite enough to do that. You could also sort by size or shape, or skip sorting at all, if it isn't useful.

I used two 2.5" squares to make a HST, which I then cut to use as my starting piece. A square or rectangle is easier if you aren't sure where to start (in the pink block below, I only used squares and rectangles). 

Pressing as you go helps keep your block neat, but a good finger press can work. Depending on the size of your scraps, seams can get bulky. Press seams open or to one side, depending on what works best for that seam. 

Once you find a straight edge, add a piece that fits, then trim off the overhand to square it up again. Keep adding as you go. Depending on the size of your scraps, you may need to piece some together to fit the straight edge. 

Blue fabrics sorted

My starting piece

First piece added

Continuing to add on:

Keep adding fabrics to your starting pieces, similar to how you'd construct a log cabin (just less precisely) or strip smaller blocks together that can be pieced together. Trim down angles to create a straight line or get really wonky. Keep going until your crumb can be trimmed down to 5.5" square.

In the picture below, you can see my block assembly on the left and the "picture" on the right, before it was trimmed down.

Framing the "Picture"

From your white or very low volume fabric, cut the following:

• 2x - 1.25" x 5.5" (sides)
• 1x - 1.25" x 7" (top)
• 1x - 2.25" x 7" (bottom)

Attach the sides first, then the top and bottom. Press. The finished block should be 7" wide x 8" tall.

I hope you have fun making this block! I really enjoyed it and am excited to see everyone's blocks! 

Thank you!

Sara 

IG @rippingoutstitches

Hive 1 - September tutorial - Crazy Cats for Nicole

 Hello from sunny Southern California! This is my first time participating in Stashbee and it's been such a pleasure sewing for everyone so far this year. This month we are going to be sewing up some wild and crazy cats! I couldn't find exactly the cat I was looking for, so I drafted up my own.

COLORS 

For the background, you can pick any color fabric as long as it reads dark. Solids, tone on tone, small patterns, please just no batik. The key here is contrast. I'm not picky (see those lines up there going every which way?). Here's a fabric pull and looking at this photo, I probably wouldn't use the gray unless I was pairing it with something really bright like yellow:

For the cat, I'm looking for bright, saturated, wild. ROYGBIV colors in whatever pattern you like, please just no licensed characters, religious themes, or batik. Anything else goes. Here's a pull:

CUTTING

Background color

(1) 5.5" x 8"

(1) 2" x 5"

(1) 2" x 4.5"

(1) 5" x 5"

** optional (2) 1.5" x 1.5"

Cat color

(4) 2" x 2"

(1) 4" x 5"

(2) 5" x 5" 

(1) 3" x 9.5"

(1) 2" x 7.5"

SEWING

All of this is done with 1/4" seam. I have no preference on pressing, thread, or pattern matching. Don't worry about squaring up as you go, it'll be fine! 

First, take 2 of your 2x2 cat squares and mark them down the center diagonally on the back. This is your sewing line. Place them on either end of your  2x5 background piece with right sides facing. Make sure the lines are going in the correct direction as shown.  Sew down your lines and cut off the excess with a 1/4" allowance. Press out as you please.

Should look like this when you're done:

***This next step is optional. If you like a CHONKY cat, you can skip the next step. If you want your cat to have a more defined head/face, keep on.

Take your (2) 1.5x1.5 squares and mark them diagonally on the back as shown. Place them on the bottom of the 4x5 cat face with right sides facing. Sew your line and cut the excess with a 1/4" allowance. Press out as you please.

Should look like this when you're done:

Sew your kitty ears to the top of your kitty face with right sides facing. Press open. Now you've got a completed kitty face!

Next is the back slope. Take your 5x5 squares and match them with right sides facing and sew down the diagonal. Cut excess with 1/4" allowance and press open as you like. Should look like this:

Take your remaining 5x5 cat fabric and place it on top of the piece you just finished with right sides facing. Sew down the right side and press so when you open it up, it looks like this: 

Next take the 3x9.5 cat fabric and place it along the bottom of the piece you just completed with right sides facing. Sew along the bottom then press open so it looks like this:

Tail Assembly: take the 2x2 cat pieces and place them at either end of the 2x4.5 background fabric with right sides facing. Sew together and press open so it looks like this:

Take your assembled tail and place on the left hand side of the completed body unit with right sides facing. Sew together and press open so it looks like this:

Sew on the 2x7.5 cat tail to the left hand side of the body unit. Press open.

Place the 5.5x8 background block on the completed kitty face unit with right sides facing so that when you open it, the background flips out to the left. Press as you like. 

Place the completed top unit face down on the top of the bottom unit and sew. Press and voila! Completed cat. Should finish up to about 12.5" square.

I hope my directions were easy enough to follow. And I can't wait to see your wild and crazy cats!

Happy sewing,

Nicole P 

Hive 4- September Tutorial - Mosaic Tiles for Meg

Hi!  My name is Meg and this is my first year doing Stashbee : ).  I love to collect quilt patterns even though I will never have time to make them all, and I have had this YouTube video saved for quite a while hoping I would get to it one day: https://youtu.be/twK-hloqxOY.  This video makes a disappearing hourglass block look REALLY easy, and it makes the final quilt look so amazing!  So, this video is the inspiration for the block for September - a disappearing hourglass that will finish 14.5" square in red, white, and blue.  Here is the first practice block that I made:

Fabrics: Go wild with red, white (or cream) and blue!  Here is a pic of my fabric pull from my stash:

 You can pick whatever inspires you the most :) whether it be big or small prints, solids, novelty, holiday, USA patriotic, Australian patriotic, Canadian patriotic, batiks, wherever your heart takes you.  My favorite thing about block swaps is seeing what inspires other people and seeing other people's creativity.  You'll need to pick three fabrics - a white or cream for the background, and two reds or two blues (or a red and a blue).  You background fabric can be low volume, white on white, or even just mostly white.  If you think it is appropriate for the background, go for it!  If you have a question about whether a fabric will work or not, the answer is yes!  Go ahead and use it :)  

Cutting:  Cut 2 8.75" squares from your background fabric, and 1 8.75" square each from your two colored fabrics.  Here are mine:

Sewing:  You're going to make 4 half square triangles that finish 8" square.  

1.  Draw a line from corner to corner on the wrong side of your white or cream fabric:

2.  Place each white square right sides together with a colored square and sew 1/4 inch or a scant 1/4 inch on each side of the line.  Cut on the marked line, press, and square them up to 8".  I am a weirdo and I like pressing towards the light side.  I love to see that perfect quarter inch showing through the lighter fabric.  But you should press your favorite way, whatever that may be :).  Here are my 4 HSTs:

3.  Arrange your HSTs into an hourglass design and sew into a block - it will measure 15.5" square.  You can point whichever color you want inwards.  I made my blues kiss, but you can do either!  Here's mine:

4.  Make 4 new cuts.  Each cut should be 2.5 inches from the center seam of the block.  In the photo below, the yellow markup represents the center seams, and the blue lines represent where to cut.  It doesn't have to be perfect, just get that rotary cutter rolling 4 times :).  

This is what my block looked like after I cut it up:

5.  Rotate each of the pieces in the 4 corners 180 degrees.  This photo is marked with a green X in each of the 4 corners.  Those are the pieces you'll rotate:

Here is what mine looks like as I rotate the corners:

6.  Sew your 9 pieces together just like you would a 9-patch.  I like to nest my seams, but you can do it your favorite way!  The final block will measure 14.5 inches square, but don't feel like you need to square it up.  Here is a picture of my finished block:

When you put the blocks together, they make a beautiful secondary pattern, like this:

I can't wait to see what my quilt will look like!  Thank you so much for sewing this block for me.  

With love,

Meg from Alabama 💗

Hive 3 - September Tutorial - Bright Diagonal Strings for Ruth

An easy block that works really well with leftover jelly roll, binding, edge bits, etc. It also only needs one round of pressing and is satisfying to trim.

The colors are inspired by my keyboard!

Teal/aqua, orange/yellow, and a low-volume white (preferably actually white, not cream). Solids, prints, low volume are all okay for the colored fabrics.

Cutting

Just a bunch of rectangles. I made a diagram to help you visualize and plan what can go where. We'll be making four of these simple blocks.

For one sub-block:

11.5" x 2" - white

10.5" x 2" - 1 orange, 1 teal

7.5" x 2" - 1 orange, 1 teal

4.5" x 2.5" - 1 orange, 1 teal

The most important length is the white, that's the reference point for trimming. The other lengths have a little extra for trimming security.

I've been doing the darker fabrics for the longer strips which gives nice contrast with the white, but don't sweat it too much.

Sewing

Start with your white strip. Fold in half along the long edge, pinch the fold to get a reference mark in the center. Do the same for the next strip: one of the 10.5" ones. Line up the center marks and sew together with a normal 1/4" seam. Continue in this same way with the corresponding color strips (7.5", then 4.5"). Then do the same thing for the other side of the white strip with the other color.

Pressing

You can just press all the seams open

Trimming

Line a ruler up diagonally with the corner against the center of the edge of the white stripe. Make sure it's aligned with the stripe using the 45 degree line and where the lines cross on your ruler markings.

Trim the corner. If you have an 8" square ruler it'll be pretty trivial from here, if not, we're basically doing the exact same method as how you'd square up and trim a finished quilt.

After trimming both white corners like that, you can just line your ruler up with the previous cuts to complete the other two corners. The final square ends up as 8"

 

Finish!

Make four of these blocks. Please don't sew them together so that I can mix them all around in the quilt for supreme scrapiness.