Monday 31 March 2014

Modern Irish Bee: Broken Spider Web String Block

 

The deadline for my last Bee block for March was fast approaching so on Saturday I spend some time finishing these broken spider web blocks for Sarah.  Sarah gave us some pointers on the Modern Quilt Guild of Ireland blog page and linked to this Tutorial by House Of A La Mode


Sarah's colour choice was bright and happy with a low volume text print or grey centre. To make the centre star more prominent we were asked to use strips 1.5" to 2.5" of the same colour family but different prints for each of the centre pieces.  That meant we needed 8 prints.  This wasn't too easy and involved a fair bit of rummaging in the scrap basket and I thought I would need to cut into a fat quarter or two, but amazingly I found strips in pink and green that would work.


For this block you need a 12.5" square of grey cut into 4 quarters along the diagonal.  There are specific instructions on the tutorial to draw a line on the triangle to place the first strip. This is the only strip sewn to the grey triangle.


All the remaining strips are sewn to each other and the template is used to trim the pieces up at the end.


Once the excess from the strips is trimmed away, the extra background fabric can then be trimmed.


Then it's playing with the layout to make sure the centre colours work well together and sewing them in quadrants to make 2 halves and then finally together.


Sarah asked us to watch out for the centre strips and try to match points here as best we could. 


To get this block to come out at 12" you would need to use a scant 1/4"(sew just inside the 1/4" mark) as when sewn with a true 1/4" this comes out just about a 1/4" short.


Sarah advised the block would be a little short of the tutorial and to send as is which was great!  Big relief not to have to unpick these guys!


I had made broken spider web blocks using this method for the Craftsy 2012 Block of the Month.  If you haven't seen these videos by Amy Gibson they are brilliant.  Amy is very clear in her instructions and makes it all look so easy!


I have to say I much prefer Sarah's colour choice for these blocks.  The grey and bright combination is just gorgeous!

Linking up to Design wall Monday and
stitch by stitch
Sew Fresh Quilts

3 comments:

  1. They're absolutely beautiful! I had to do a bit of digging to get the coordinating 8 pieces for the center too, but did find them :) Gorgeous makes, lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love your blocks! Thanks for sharing the directions to create these.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are most welcome! I reply by email or within the thread if you are a noreply blogger so check back. Thanks.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...