Sunday 1 March 2020

BLOCK OF THE MONTH TUTORIAL MARCH 2020


COLOURS OF THE OCEAN BLOCKS


I'm asking that pairs of blocks are made this month, as together they make 
several variations of secondary patterns. 
Follow the instructions below to make pairs, as pictured above.

These blocks will be great for Requests for 
Ocean theme Quilts
Beach theme Quilts
Surfing and water sports themed Quilts

COLOURS TO USE
Colours that are reminders of the ocean depths, the shallow waters, 
the colours that waters appear on a sunny day, the variation of colour as the 
sea is viewed from the beach stretching out to the distant horizon or 
looking down into the water from a high viewing point.
Teals - light, medium and dark
Aqua - every shade
Turquoise - every shade
Blues - light, medium and dark
Greens - think about deep water
Greenish Blues and Bluish Greens

FABRICS TO USE
100% cotton please
Textured patterns
Mottled patterns 
Blotchy patterns
Cloudy patterns
Batiks
Hand dyed fabrics - mottled
Small overall patterns

A selection of suitable fabrics I pulled out of my collection

I found it convenient to use fabrics that I could cut from selvedge to 
selvedge.  However, some of my fabrics weren't long enough 
so I cut the strips to the required width and then joined them to approximately 44 inch long 
and then ignored where the joins were when cutting my blocks.

Cut the five chosen fabrics in the following sizes

Fabric #1 is an outside strip - cut 3 inch wide
Fabric #2 - cut 1 1/2 inch wide
Fabric #3 - cut 2 1/4 inch wide
Fabric #4 - cut 1 3/4 inch wide
Fabric #5  is an outside strip - cut 2 1/2 inch wide

Assemble the strips as in the picture above.  
(My five long pieces of fabric are folded in four for the picture.)  
The wider fabrics must be the outside strips.  
The other three fabrics can be in any position between the wide fabrics.

Stitch the strips together with 1/4 inch seam allowance, keeping the strips level at one edge.
Then, press the seam allowances to one side.

PRESSING NOTE - Take care not to create "bananas" as the strip set is pressed.   A bowed shape piece of fabric strips will be tricky to cut into squares.  If this happens, press on the right side with steam and while the strip set is still hot, gently pull/coax it back into a straight piece and allow it to cool before moving it off the ironing board.

MY STRIP SET WAS PERFECTLY STRAIGHT AND SQUARE...HONEST... BUT MY 
PHOTOGRAPHY SKILLS ARE LACKING!

MEASURE THE WIDTH OF YOUR STRIP SET AND RECORD IT
This is the measurement YOU will cut your squares

If your width was 8 3/4 inch then cut 8 3/4 inch squares

If your width was 9 inch then cut 9 inch squares

Each strip set will yield 4 squares and a left over piece
Please send me the left over pieces with your blocks as these will make 
strip pieced borders that will go in the quilts made from these blocks.

Cut four squares using YOUR measurement after trimming off a small piece to level up the edge

Take two of the squares and place them together on the cutting mat, one on top
of the other, BOTH WITH RIGHT SIDES UP, and position as shown on the left.

Take the remaining two squares, and place them together on the cutting mat, one on top
of the other, BOTH WITH RIGHT SIDES UP, and position them as shown on the right.
Mirror image of each other.  Think bikini top ;-)

Cut diagonally through both squares as shown.

Take the four triangles formed by the two squares on the left side and
position them as shown on the left in the picture below to
make a new square block.  The diagonal cut edges form the outside
edges of the new block.

Repeat the process for the squares on the right hand side and they
will make the new square block on the right hand side of the picture.


Put two adjoining triangles together as shown, with right sides together
 and pin as shown below.

Repeat the process for the two remaining triangles

Sew the pinned seams then lay on the ironing board as shown below.

Lift the top triangle and press the seam allowances onto the upper triangle.  
This will form the flattest seam as the triangle
with all the seam allowances is being press onto the the strip of fabric with no seams.
Repeat for the other half of the block.

Lay out the two halves of the block

Place the two triangles together, with right sides together and
pin the seam as shown below.  The centre seams should "lock" together.

Sew the seam and press the seam allowances to one side.
d

Number one block is finished.

Repeat the process for block number two.
DO NO JOIN THEM TOGETHER

The left over from the strip set

THANK YOU 
for contributing blocks for our deployed Aussie Heroes.
PDF version is HERE
Please send your blocks and the left over piece to

Sandy Corry
9 Wendouree Court
North Boambee Valley   NSW   2450

Please include your email and I will let you know when they arrive.
OR
checkthe Blog on Wednesday nights for the Happy Mail Post
showing all the BOMs that have arrived in the previous week.

Thanks BOM Squad...you're awesome.


No comments:

Post a Comment