Inked – block hop and giveaway!

Fiber artist Lynn Krawczyk of Smudged Textiles Studio has a wonderful new line of fabric by Red Rooster Fabrics called Inked. To celebrate, twelve quilters and fiber artists have worked with Lynn’s fabric line to create 12 fun 12"-blocks that you can make and stitch into a sampler quilt. All of the directions for all of the blocks will be on each quilter’s blog, and then will be available on Lynn’s website. Each blogger gets to give away a bundle of five fat quarters on her blog, thanks to Lynn’s generosity. (More on that at the end of this post!)

My block for Lynn’s block-hop is shown at the top of this post. The center of the block (which is actually nine smaller blocks) is based on a style of tiles that were popular in the early 1900s. I grew up with them in my bathroom as a child, and had the same style installed when we remodeled the bathrooms in our 1916 house. The center square in each section is black, and all the other tiles are white. But we can't have any of that black-and-white stuff here; Lynn’s line is beautifully saturated color. 

When I was a beginner quilter, I shied away from Y-seams (also known as inset or set-in seams), until I discovered a method that made them very easy. I promise you: It’s really not hard to do, and it will allow you to make all of those cool blocks with Y seams that you may have avoided in the past. (Bring on Tumbling Blocks!) There are nine Y seams in this block, one in each of the nine small blocks. If you make this block, practicing this method nine times, you will be an expert in making Y-seams by the time you are done! 

I really love this fabric line. The colors are vibrant, the patterns are funky, and the whole thing has a wonderfully surface-designed feel, like you’d spent hours stamping, stenciling, soy wax batiking, and painting them. These are the five fabrics I used:

CUT:

From purple, cut 9 squares 1.5" (for centers of nine small blocks)
AND 2 rectangles 9.5 x 2.5" (for top and bottom borders)

AND 2 rectangles 12.5 x 2.5" (for left and right borders)

From dark green, cut 9 rectangles 1.5 x 2.5"

From orange, cut 9 rectangles 1.5 x 2.5"

From aqua, cut 9 rectangles 1.5 x 2.5"

From brown, cut 9 rectangles 1.5 x 2.5"  

Note: For precision piecing, I always use a very lightweight but strong cotton thread, 50-weight Aurifil Cotton Mak0. This fine thread leaves almost no bulk in my seams. I know it may seem silly to some, but in my years of experience, I have discovered that it can make a big difference in accuracy.

MAKE NINE SMALL BLOCKS:

1. Each of the small blocks is made with one purple square, and rectangles of green, orange, aqua and brown:

2. With right sides together, align the purple square with the green rectangle as shown below.

3. Sew a quarter-inch seam from the top right edge, down to 1/4" before the end of the purple triangle, and backstitch to secure (this is important for later). 

  

4. Press the seam toward the green fabric as shown, making sure to press the green fabric down 1/4" all the way down.

This is how it should look from the front:

5. Stitch the orange rectangle onto the green/purple edge, and press out toward the orange.

6. Stitch the aqua rectangle onto the orange/purple side, and press out toward the aqua. The brown rectangle comes next.

7. Stitch the brown rectangle to the aqua/purple side, but stop stitching just where you come to the edge of the green rectangle. (If you slide a pin along the seam, you can slightly crease it, or feel the bump so that you can place a pin there to help you know exactly where to stop stitching.) Make sure to backstitch here to secure the seam.

8. Press out toward the brown rectangle. Here’s how it should look from the front. See the problem? You need to join the brown and green rectangles next, and you can’t sew a seam straight down because the green rectangle is already stitched to the purple.

9. Here’s how to do it: Crease the short edge of the brown rectangle up 1/4" so that it aligns with the edge of the green rectangle:

10. Flip it around so that the right sides of the fabric are together. Align the creased seams on the brown and green rectangles, as shown.

11. Then pinch the seam together,  and pin.

12. I flipped over to the green fabric side, where I could see my stitching best. Start at the top of the seam, and stitch down to exactly where the other seam (between the green rectangle and the purple square) starts:

13. Make sure to backstich at the end of this seam, too. The photo below shows me finishing up the backstitching on the seam between the brown and green rectangles. The backstitching at the bottom of the photo is the very first seam I sewed (in step 3) between the green rectangle and the purple square: 

14. Press seam away from the purple square. Here’s how it looks from the front, once it’s been pressed. Nice and clean.

Here’s how it looks on the back. (Note how all the seams are pressed away from the purple.) Each small block should measure 3.5" square.  

15. Follow steps 2-13 to make eight more small blocks like this one, for a total of nine. 

Sew the small blocks together

16. Create each of the three rows by stitching three small blocks together as shown: 

17. When you press these seams, press one row in toward the center block, and two rows out from the center blocks. This allows you to notch the seams together when you are sewing the rows together in the next step, so that the seams line up perfectly.

18. Sew the three rows together to form the center of the big block. Press these two long seams open. The block should now measure 9-1/2" square, and look like this on the front:

and this on the back:

Add the borders

19. Sew one 9-1/2" x 2" purple strip to the top, and one to the bottom. Press toward purple strips. 

20. Sew one 12.5" x 2" purple strip to the left side, and one to the right side. Press toward purple strips. Finished block should measure 12-1/2" square. Ta-da! Here’s the finished block:

Make sure to follow along on the block hop to get the directions for each of the 12 blocks in Lynn’s INKED quilt. There’s a chance to win some of Lynn’s Inked fabric at each stop! Here are links to the participants:

Monday, March 2: Susan Brubaker Knapp
http://wwwbluemoonriver.blogspot.com/
 
Tuesday, March 3: Teri Lucas
https://terificreations.wordpress.com/
 
Wednesday, March 4: Jessica Darling
https://jessicakdarling.wordpress.com/

Thursday, March 5: Debbie Grifka
http://www.eschhousequilts.com/

Friday, March 6: Lynn Carson Harris
http://thelittleredhen.typepad.com/
 
Saturday, March 7: Jen Osborn
http://themessynest.com/
 
Sunday, March 8: Lynn Krawczyk
http://smudgedtextilesstudio.com/blog/

Monday, March 9: Flaun Cline
http://www.ipleadquilty.blogspot.com

Tuesday, March 10: Lynn Krawczyk
http://smudgedtextilesstudio.com/blog/

Wednesday, March 11: Cheryl Sleboda
http://muppin.com/wordpress/index.php/blog/
 
Thursday, March 12: Maddie Kertay
http://www.badassquilterssociety.com/
 
Friday, March 13: Lynn Krawczyk
http://smudgedtextilesstudio.com/blog/

GIVEAWAY!
Win a bundle of the five beautiful fat quarters (above) I used in this block! This giveaway is open to both U.S. and international readers (thanks to Lynn!). Leave me a comment after this post and tell me about the most challenging quilt – traditional, modern, contemporary, or art quilt – you’ve ever made. Tell me your horror story, share your angst. C’mon, it will be fun! I’ll pull one name at random on Sunday, March 14 and Lynn will mail your fat quarters. 

We have a winner! Sandra Cooper won the fat quarters. Thanks, everyone!