May God Bless You this day beyond measure! May He pour out His richest blessings in lavish ever-increasing abundant overflowing blessings of LOVE, JOY, PEACE, HOPE and PERFECT HEALTH upon YOU!!! May your every need be met and may everything you put your hand to prosper. Know that you are His chosen child and you are Loved and Treasured by the King of Kings. God Bless You!

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Sowing Stitches: Calico Dots and Gingham Quilting Bee

Greek Cross

I decided to go 'simple' for this bee block..thinking 'simple' is best for putting the fabrics in the spotlight. Then, I fell in love with this block, (Greek Cross). The block makes up fast with nice clean lines and the fabrics just sing! I'm pretty sure that the next baby quilt I make, the Greek Cross will be my block of choice.

Below you will find the tutorial for this fun little block.

You will need the following:
2 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch rectangle template

4 3/4 inch square rectangle template
4 1/2 inch square rectangle template
scissors or rotary cutter

pencil
ruler
iron
pins

Fabric: 3 different pieces:For this bee I selected: calico, dots, gingham

Creating the block:Cutting the fabric you will need to cut and place pieces by unit.



Fabrics stacked and ready to assemble

Cut 1 calico 4 1/2 in square [for center]



Unit #1 creates 4 
Cut 4 calico 2 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch rectangles

Cut 4 gingham 2 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch rectanglesUse 1/4 inch seam, press open

Unit #2 creates 4
Cut 2 gingham 4 3/4 inch squares
Cut 2 dots 4 3/4 inch squares

Place facing fronts together using one gingham and one dot fabrics, draw a diagonal line corner to corner then stitch 1/4 inch from the line on each side. After you've stitched 1/4 seams on both sides of the drawn line, cut along line to create two completed units.


Unit 2
Units ready to layout

Ready set Row! Using 1/4 inch seams.
Press seams open.
Why I press seams open. It's a simple tribute to my grandmother who taught me to sew when I was only 4. I have tried over the years to press towards dark or gasp even avoiding the process all together. I just can't, so help me, press my seams any other way than with a hot dry iron pressing the seams open and flipping and pressing the seams from the front as well.

Almost done! There are only 2 remaining seams! I told you this was a quick and easy block. :)
Now for this step, I pin! I'd rather take the few seconds to pin matching seams than to dig out the seam ripper dealing with drifting stitches. I think it might take a total of 45 seconds to pin the rows together matching seams.


Pin matching seams! This prevents drifting stitches!!



Press open your row seams and ta~da! You have a brand new Greek Cross quilt block.


Enjoy!
Happy Quilting!
with love as always,
Carol a.k.a. Beulah




1 comment:

  1. Thank you so much for this tutorial, oh so many quilt ideas don't you just love it. :)

    Peg x

    ReplyDelete

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