Welcome to the Thread House Retreat Bee  for Siblings Together.  It was great to meet everyone at the Thread House Retreat and thank you for offering to be part of this Bee! Didn’t we have a great time. Still enjoying all the IG posts of what everyone made or received.

We had such a great response to the appeal we have enough for a new Bee. I’m hoping we may go up to 12 but at the moment we have around 10 as I haven’t heard back from everyone  But to tap into the enthusiasm that is out there I thought we’d get started on making blocks while I make the finishing touches to the rota for this year, in practice until July 2018. I’ve chosen a design that is’nt that block intensive so we should be able to pull this one off together quite quickly.

So one of the favourite quilts I’ve ever made is this beauty – my first Siblings Together quilt as a monthly mama with Bee 2. There are over 50 fabrics in that quilt. And that’s the magic behind most of our bee quilts, the sheer variety. I don’t normally repeat quilts but this is such a lovely design and I fancied doing it in warm colours this time.

The pattern is a free one from Cloud 9 fabrics called Field Crossing. Heaven knows why it’s called that but nevertheless the rectangular block shape is a bit different but still a very simple and a quick block with virtually no waste. Apologies for the fact that starting squares are down to eighths”! I did try rounding them up to whole inch squares but there was a lot more trimming – it seems 1/8″ makes more of a difference than you’d think!! But after that it’s pretty straightforward.

As I’ve said I would like warm colours like orange, mustard, plum, terracotta, pink etc please mix it up. And with the background, solid white only preferably a bright white. I found using a full 1/4″ seam was better than a scant one.

To make two blocks you will need the following:

In solid bright white (not cream, fawn etc)

           1 x 6 7/8ths” square cut diagonally and then cut again diagonally to make  4  triangles

In warm colours solids or prints in orange, plum, pink, mustard, terracotta or warm brown

4 x 4 7/8ths” squares cut from 4 different prints or solids  and then cut diagonally to make 2 triangles per square

2 x 4 1/2” squares

 

For the angley challenged like myself I found it really helpful to lay the block out as below then stitch accordingly.

When sewing the seams line up the pieces where I’ve circled  don’t worry about the dog ears at each end

Next layout the other triangles and sew the white triangle to the coloured triangle

When sewing the white and coloured triangle units to the middle unit line up the seams where I have circled

The finished block trimmed

The finished blocks are a smidgeon over 6″ by 11 3/4″. But don’t worry too much – they will be sashed as you can see from the pattern.

If you could make 2 – 4 blocks I would be very grateful. If you get into the swing then extra blocks are always useful and if I get enough I will make another quilt

Any problems or glaring issues or just a better way to do it please let me know. I’m not a sensitive soul!! But most importantly have fun.