Hello again, I’m Caroline (@casperbrigg) and I’m here to share with you box 5 of the Patchwork and Quilting subscription box. This month’s fabric from Lewis and Irene is the Honey Bee range, with its vibrant gold accents to give that ultra-luxurious look.
This month’s block is economy squares. I do have a confession; I’ve made the basic economy square quite a lot. I never knew they had a name. I just liked the pattern. To give myself a bit of a challenge I decided to do the economy square within an economy square.
Following the instructions normally you start with the lightest in the middle and work out to the darkest. However, the black bee fabric leant itself so well to fussy cutting that I decided it would be the centre square. I then graded the colours from the cream bumbleberry out to the gold starbursts and cut out everything.
I made sure I cut each pair of squares in opposite directions. This keeps any directional fabrics the same way on all 4 sides of the square. Then it’s just a case of sewing each triangle onto the edge of the square to make a new square.
You start by adding onto opposite sides of the square, press and then the other 2 sides to create a new square. Trim the new square so the edges are around ¼ inch from the corner of the inner square. Then when you add the next set of triangles the point of the previous square will be just touching the next layer of squares. Keep working up until you have your block.
I really enjoyed making this block. Although this is a familiar pattern to me, the extra challenge of an additional economy square was an enjoyable one. I’m almost tempted to make an entire quilt from this block. The final result I think is absolutely stunning and I’m really happy I chose to fussy cut the bee for the centre of my block. And ending on the gold star bursts just adds that extra impact. I love it!
Thanks for reading and hope to see you again next month with block 6.