Patchwork of the Crosses

This week we'll start working on the first block.  Here is my block - we're starting with an easy one!

  You will only need two fabrics for this block.  Here are the fabrics I used:

Finding the perfect fabrics for these blocks is much of the fun.  There is an incredible variety  available in shops today!  As we get farther along, you will discover that you begin to look at fabric differently when making your choices. Stripes work especially well as do paisleys and floral prints. Search your stash and you will probably find many beautiful high contrast fabrics that will work. As with all quilts, cotton fabric is recommended.  Whether to prewash is a personal choice, but is recommended to check for color fastness and to avoid uneven shrinking of pieces later in the quilt's life.
If you prefer, you can purchase fabric packs that will include many of the fabrics I’m using in my blocks.  Fabric packs include a combination of fat quarters or fat eighths totaling ¾ yd. in a variety of fabrics perfect for making POTC (Patchwork of the Crosses) blocks. They can be purchased on the Lucy Boston page of our web site (www.littlequilts.com) and they will be automatically shipped monthly, or you can purchase packs at the shop.  (Please note:  not all the fabrics I use will be included in the fabric packs – some of the fabrics are coming from my stash!)

Once you have selected the fabrics, use the acrylic template and rotary cut twelve honeycomb shapes from each fabric.  I used only the floral part of the stripe fabric for this block, but save the remaining fabric – we will be using the blue part of the stripe in another block.

Glue baste the shapes to the honeycomb papers using the method described in last week’s tutorial.  Each block requires a total of twenty four honeycomb shapes.

Come back next week for another tutorial – I’ll be showing you how to arrange and stitch your honeycombs together.
I’m sorry for all the problems with the link to Inklingo last week.  Much as we love computers, they can be frustrating at times!  We were finally able to complete the link, so if you’d like to check it out, click here  to find out more about  printing shapes that are ready for hand piecing right onto your fabric with an inkjet printer.  Inklingo can also be used to print your own paper shapes.  Free shapes are available on the Inklingo site if you’d like to try the technique before purchasing.