Welcome to the first day of our Burlap Brights Block Hop! We hope you'll enjoy the eleven block tutorials our designing friends will be sharing here over the next week and a half. Be sure to stop by each day to see a new block and have a chance to win some Burlap Brights for yourself!
Today Chris from made by ChrissieD is here, sharing her block. Check out her tutorial and then head over to her blog to enter for a chance to win a fat quarter bundle of the six Burlap Brights prints featured in our hop.
Hi I'm Chris of made by ChrissieD. I'm a Textile Craft Artist working with fabric and yarn and also a Quilting/Sewing Teacher in and around Manhattan, New York.
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I love to share my projects and tutorials with everyone on my made by ChrissieD blog and various social media sites including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Flickr.
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Today I'm thrilled to be sharing my 'On The Bright Side' block pattern with you here on the Benartex Sew in Love {with Fabric} blog.
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When I first saw the Benartex Burlap Solid Brights I was instantly attracted to the intensity of colour of primaries alongside their complementary secondaries and the use of tone on tone within the colouring adds great visual texture to the smooth fabric surface. I wanted to design a fun block that would be as happy as the colours made me feel
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I've created my 'On The Bright Side' block pattern using a fast chain pieced Half Square Triangle technique and incorporating six Benartex Burlap Solid colours: red; bright green; blue; orange; sun (that's the yellow); and grape. Placing these brights against a white solid makes the colours sing and also provides a resting place for your eyes.
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Here's my instructions for making one block that's 12" finished (12-1/2" unfinished):
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On The Bright Side Block Pattern
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Tools:
cutting mat / rotary cutter / small scissors or clippers
cutting ruler / marking pencil or pen / pins
Bloc-Loc (optional)
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Materials:
(4) 3-1/2" squares - 1 each of red, bright green, blue and grape Solid Burlap Brights by Benartex
(6) 3-7/8" squares - 1 each of red, bright green, blue, orange, sun and grape Solid Burlap Brights by Benartex
(6) 3-7/8" squares - white solid
neutral thread
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Now we're ready to make our Half Square Triangles (HSTs) - draw a diagonal line across each of the six white squares. That's a heat disappearing ink pen I'm using so after the blocks are ironed it won't show through my work (note heat disappearing ink can sometimes reappear in extremely cold conditions).
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Pair a white square with each of the coloured squares of the same size (3-7/8") - place them right sides together,
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Sew a 1/4" seam on one side of the diagonal line through the two paired squares - chain piecing the six paired squares makes this faster.
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Sew a 1/4" seam down the opposite side of the diagonal line on each square - again chain piecing will make this faster.
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Snip the chain to separate the blocks and they should now look like this
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and on the back they'll look like this.
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Cut along the diagonal line on each of the six paired squares
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and you'll have a pile of 12 triangles just like this.
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Press the seams closed first to set the stitches
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then press the seams to the side away from the white solid. Pressing away from the white solid will keep the white sections of the block looking crisp with no hint of colour showing through from an open seam beneath.
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Press each square again from the front of the fabric and ensure the sewn seam line lies full open and you'll have a beautiful pile of 12 HSTs.
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Trim the 12 HSTs to 3-1/2" squares - I've used a Bloc-Loc but you can also do this with your cutting ruler. If you haven't heard of a Bloc-Loc before here's a made by ChrissieD blog post I wrote previously about using a Bloc-Loc to trim HSTs.
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Lay out your HSTs and the additional four 3-1/2" coloured squares as shown.
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Join the first row on the left together using a scant 1/4" seam.
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Press all the seams open - this will reduce multiple seam bulk in the finished block.
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Continue to sew each row as for the first until all four rows are sewn as shown below.
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Now join the rows together - I've started with the centre two rows but it doesn't actually matter what order you do this in. I've matched and pinned the open seams to ensure they are pefectly lined up at each junction in the finished block.
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Any variation in block size that's up to an 1/8" or so can be 'lost' within the 1/4" seam at this stage - do be sure to sew your 1/4" seam following the edge of the true sized square though and not the smaller one.
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This sun yellow block didn't quite come up to size so you can see below how I've 'fudged' it so you won't see it at all in the finished block.
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Time to add the final two rows...
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...and here's the untrimmed block.
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Let's have a quick look at the back of the block too so you can see just how I've pressed those seams.
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Here's some closer details of that finished block and how it looks from different angles.
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See how saturated those colours are in the Burlap Brights - that tone on tone effect really increases the intensity.
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I hope you've enjoyed my day on the Burlap Brights Blog Hop and if you do use my tutorial I'd love to see what you make - Chris :D
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Thanks Chris! Head over to made by ChrissieD to enter to win a fat quarter bundle of the six Burlap Brights she used to make her block.
And don't miss her latest post, which shows her block in a variety of layout options for a quilt as well as how she turned her block into a throw pillow!
Make sure you check out each day's tutorial!
Day 2: Mary from Mary on Lake Pulaski
Day 3: Alison from Little Bunny Quilts
Day 4: Debby from Debby Kratovil Quilts
Day 5: Kristen from KD Quilts
Day 6: Benartex design team
Day 7: Stephanie from Stitched Together Studios
Day 8: Julie from The Crafty Quilter
Day 9: Cynthia from Quilting is more fun than Housework
Day 10: Jessica from Quilty Habit
To see the entire schedule, click here.
Love It? Share It!
Cute block! Love the saturated colours!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the fun block tutorial--the burlap texture is great!
ReplyDeleteLove the colors, and LOVE seeing that someone else presses seams OPEN when needed to get the crisp look they are going after. This block should have an interesting secondary design--my favorite.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful block and great tutorrial and Love your fabric combo!
ReplyDeleteLove HSTs!
ReplyDeleteBright and beautiful!
ReplyDeleteLove the block and those bright colors!!
ReplyDeletecwayons(at)yahoo(dot)com
Love those bright colors, Chris. Your block helps them play very well together. Multiple blocks could yield some great graphics play! Thanks for sharing! (janeherbst at roadrunner dot com).
ReplyDeleteThanks Jane, funny you should mention multiple blocks together. I created a few graphics of how this would look but the post was getting lengthy so I've scheduled a second post on my own oblog before the block hop ends over on my blog to include these pics with and without sashing and also using the block as a pillow cover. Hope you'll drop by - Chris :D
DeleteHi again Jane - I've scheduled myblog post for Saturday, 16 May - Chris :D
DeleteI love the dynamic feel of your block! Thanks
ReplyDeleteNeat block. Wonder what it would look like w/the corner squares different colors from the tris.
ReplyDeleteLove this block and the bright colors. I have to ask, because I cannot tell by looking at it... is the white just a white fabric or is it burlap also?
ReplyDeleteHi, it's a solid white, not burlap or tone on tone. Glad you like it, thanks for asking - Chris :D
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