Brass Ring Bee Cross Stitch - Holly Clarke Design

14 Jan Brass Ring Bee Cross Stitch

Posted at 15:24h in Pattern, Quilt by admin_holly 0 Comments

0 Likes

Next up on my work table is a fun project using a new basic fabric called Bee Cross Stitch designed by Lori Holt of Bee in my Bonnet for Riley Blake Designs. I had fun selecting this palette from the collection’s wide variety of colours and low volumes. ⁣I chose Taffy, Plum, Peacock, Jade, Daisy, Autumn, and Pebble.

Can I just say how spectacular this range of fabric is? Look at the luscious rainbow of quilty goodness! Not to mention the co-ordinating l o w v o l u m e options. If you’re looking to match to the Riley Blake Confetti Cotton solids, they’re a perfect match!

I based this quilt on my Tsuro Quilt that I designed in October 2020. Rather than using the multiple modular blocks from that quilt, I decided to make this one using only a single repeated block. Rotating the block in different directions I played with the layout until I came up with a fun new design.

I got to work cutting out all my pattern pieces. Shown below are all the pieces of my lighter coloured fabrics. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the darker coloured pieces, but basically the darker colours are all the iron-shaped pieces you can see in the layout above. Also not pictured is the background pieces. I used Confetti Cottons in the Le Creme colour, which is a nice warm white.

Once I cut out all my pieces, I plopped down in front of the TV and set at pinning all my pieces. Some people can sew curves without using pins. I am not one of those people. I use allllll the pins.

I built each block piece by piece, adding one curved piece at a time. Many quilters are afraid of sewing curves, and I totally get that, but I must say that by going slowly and taking some time to practice, they’re really not that hard. And I think there’s nothing more satisfying than pressing a curved seam flat and standing back to admire it.

One block down, 15 to go!

Here’s the second block. I love how the darker colours create a “transparency” effect where the curves come together.

For my background fabric, I used Riley Blake Designs’ Confetti Cottons in “Le Creme” which is a perfect match for the Bee Cross Stitch Pebble colour (shown below).

Once I finished piecing all my blocks, I decided a simple 3″ grid for the quilting would be a nice contrast to all the curves. Here I have my quilt sandwich all pin-basted and marked up with my Hera marker, ready for quilting. I like to put on headphones and a good podcast or Audible book to help make the tedious work of quilting go by faster.