Checker {Bee Hive Block Tutorial}

Late last year, my friend Alyce asked me if I'd be interested in designing a block for her project called the Bee Hive. The Bee Hive is a year-long set of unique block tutorials, deliberately designed so that each block creates an interesting secondary when placed together - making them ideal for bee quilts. From the outset, I wanted to design a really simple but effective block, that would be achievable for beginner quilters (and fast and fun for more experienced quilters) but still create a really interesting quilt. The result was Checker, a very simple block to put together, but one with lots of possibilities in terms of colour and block rotation. If you happen to be choosing a block for a bee, I promise you your hive will LOVE you if you choose this block - it is ridiculously quick to make. Even better, it works best if you make two at a time, so you may well end up with extra blocks ;o)

You can head over to Blossom Heart Quilts for the full tutorial :o) 

I've drawn up a few mock quilt layouts so you can see what sort of secondary patterns you can create with this block. This is what straight set blocks look like (in a 6x6 block quilt). 

This is my favorite layout I think - in this one, alternate blocks have been rotated to create pinwheels.

 Once I'd made my block for the tutorial, I got a bit enthusiastic and decided to make a whole quilt using this block design, but reversing the neutral and coloured fabrics. I've made 9 blocks so far, using a bundle of rainbow solids and small prints for the sashing strips and a pile of grey and low volume fabrics for the HSTs and rectangles. I've been fairly randomly choosing the coloured strips so far - but I think I'll start planning the placement to create a rainbow effect through the sashing. I need to decide on which layout I'll go with though - and I'm really torn between the two below. I love the diamonds that emerge in the greys in this first layout.

But I also really love the diagonal lines created with this layout.

Which would you choose? Either way I think it will be a fun quilt to quilt - and it's going to be a 6x6 layout so I have a way to go. Don't get used to this two posts in two days business either, I'm pretty sure it won't happen again for a while! Having said that, I'll be back to working on my Aviatrix tomorrow so I'm hoping I'll have some progress to share on that one soon! There might even be another post this week ;o)

xx Jess