Bee Blessed November 2014

Time for another Bee Blessed block of the month!

Pinched from Nicky's IG feed - with permission

Ever since I saw these blocks on Nicky's IG feed back during my summer hols, I've been looking forward to introducing them here to Bee Blessed. Nicky has shared this link to the blog post where she found her own inspiration for the blocks.

What follows is a quick "how to" with measurements as these blocks are so simple that calling this a tutorial is a bit grand really.  I also have no idea what this block is called and haven't seen any other tutorials for it so I will refer to it as the 'Strip Step' block.

As you can see below, the block is made up of six strips which I have labelled A-F for cutting instruction convenience.  When choosing your fabrics, please use a white solid for the square steps and keep to mid to strong range colours for the strips to give a really nice contrast to the white squares.While Nicky choose to keep each of her blocks in one colour way, we are going to mix ours up for a super scrappy look.

Cut 6: 2.5" squares (white solid)

Strip A cut:  10.5"x 2.5"

Strip B cut:   2.5" square and 8.5"x 2.5"

Strip C cut:   4.5" x 2.5" and 6.5" x 2.5"

Strip D cut:   6.5" x 2.5" and 4.5" x 2.5"

Strip E cut:   8.5"x 2.5" and 2.5" square

Strip F cut:   10.5"x 2.5"

1.  Lay out your cut pieces into strips as in the photo above.

2.  Using scant 0.25" seam, piece each strip together and press the seams away from the white squares.

3.  Next stitch the strips together using scant 0.25" seam to form the block, this time pressing the seams open.

4.  Trim to 12.5" square.

This block could hardly be easier, honest!  Take a look below for more layout possibilities for this block (again courtesy of Nicky's IG pics).  Don't you just love them?

So go, on grab some 2.5" strips and get stitching!  

PS If you were interested in these blocks for yourself, Nicky has also shared with me a tip regarding the orientation of the background strips.  As you can see in the IG pics copied above, the background strips will orientate differently (some horizontal, some vertical) according to the layout you choose and for Bee Blessed we are happy to work with that for our quilts.  However, if you like things a little more ordered when making your own quilt and would prefer all of the background strips to run in the same direction as in the photo below (again Nicky's)

you will need to make some of your blocks with the white squares positioned running from bottom left to top right, as well as the top left to bottom right version I have shown in the instructions above.  Clear as mud?  Hope it makes at least some sense.