Monday, March 28, 2011

April's Scrap-Bee Block

Hello Scrap-Bee players!  This is my very first quilting bee and I am thrilled to be a part of this...what great blocks we've had to make so far this year!

I thought it might be nice to take a classic look and give it a 15-minutes of play twist...what do you say?  Are you game?

I love the look of red and white quilts, so here's what I came up with for my block....

A scrappy red block with a slash of white.  The blocks final size is 6 inches (be sure to begin with a slightly larger block though and trim down - I began with a 6 1/4 inch block) and the white slash can be placed anywhere the mood strikes you.  Don't worry if you don't have any white fabric left, just use the lightest fabric you've got...no worries, ok?

I'd really appreciate it if you could send me two blocks.
Thank you!
Mary-Frances


Here's how I made my blocks, using Victoria's phone book paper method:

I began with a 6 1/4 inch square of phone book paper.


Placed my first piece of fabric...

Added my second selection and sewed them together.  I continued adding fabric and when the block was covered I trimmed off the excess.
 
One block done.


Now comes the fun part, adding the slash..


Ready to add the white fabric.  Note, I remove the paper backing at this point, before I add the white slash.

Sew the white fabric to one side.
 
I didn't want my slash to be that wide...


...so I placed the other red piece at an angle on the block and sewed it together.


All done!
 Thanks again!

11 comments:

Nifty Quilts said...

Looks like fun! I'll get right on it.

Unknown said...

My grandmother taught me to use newspaper squares,(That was almost 50 years ago and newspaper was easier to get than a phone book)and to use strips of fabric. She called it a "string quilt". I really like using every bit of fabric that I can.

Victoria Findlay Wolfe said...

yep, except we are not using strings.. using found object scraps and using the paper as a way to control you size...

These will be lovely mary! rend and white!!! wahhooo!

Celia Ciuffo said...

very very nice!!!
Hermoso, me encantó.
ya enviaré el mío!!!

Glen QuiltSwissy said...

How exciting. I do so love red. I will make some this after noon or tomorrow, or whenever!

glen

CharlotteP said...

You have hit on a good idea there, Mary-Frances!

Jessica said...

I was just talking to Helen about red fabric and teasing that I should come raid her stash.. now I've got a good reason to do it!
thanks mary frances~

Mary-Frances said...

Haha, that's awesome Jessica!

I forgot to mention what my inspiration was for this quilt...Victoria's post on all the red and white beauties at the quilt show in NYC! You must check it out...just gorgeous!

Karen said...

Have never seen this done before, do you have a picture of blocks put together?? It looks wonderful!

Mary-Frances said...

Hi Karen - I have a few ideas on how I would like to put this quilt together, but I'm going to wait until I've received my bee blocks before I do so...I'll post photos as soon as I can!

Alexis said...

Looks like fun! I love that you chose red + white!