Introducing “Eastern Shore”, a 12.5″ by 12.5″ unfinished block, created for the New Block Blog Hop, sponsored by Paintbrush Studio, and hosted today by my quilty friend, Cheryl Brickey, of Meadow Mist Designs.

Paintbrush Studio (formerly Fabri-Quilt) has a new line of solids, called Painter’s Palette. And each blog hopper received six fat quarters of these colors: White, Peach, Coral, Bordeaux, Midnight and Daydream, to create a New Block for the 2016 Paintbrush Studio New Block Blog Hop. The hosts chose these colors, called Ocean Sunrise Palette.

They’re about 40 quilt bloggers who are participating. Today, these quilt bloggers are introducing their blocks. They’re all free patterns.

Host: Cheryl @Meadow Mist Designs

Kim @Leland Ave Studios

Andrea @The Sewing Fools

Cassandra @The (not so) Dramatic Life

Stephanie @Quilt’n Party

Irene @Patchwork and Pastry

Tish @Tish’s Adventures in Wonderland

Abby @Hashtag Quilt

Sarah @Smiles Too Loudly

Carrie @The Zen Quilter

Jayne @Twiggy and Opal

I live in Virginia, and one part of the coast is called the “Eastern Shore.” Do you see the sun rising over the east coast of Virginia, USA?

Eastern Shore

This is a traditional block. It’s usually in two colors such as red and white. I created this Eastern Shore block pattern (click on link to get the pdf) to show you how to make it, using four of the colors: Peach, White, Bordeaux and Coral, from the Ocean Sunrise palette. Let’s get started with the cutting instructions.

But first, two important tips.

CUT ALONG THE SELVAGE

Why? The selvage side doesn’t stretch as much as fabric cut crosswise. As you sew the selvage-side strips, they will continue to be straight. The crosswise strips tend to bow and you’ll get curves instead of straight strips.

CUT THE LONGER STRIPS FIRST

Why? It’s more efficient. Once you finish cutting the longer strips, you can go back and cut the smaller ones, then the 1.5″ squares.

You’ll notice from the diagram that each strip is 1″ longer as you move up the block. In the diagram, I made the “White” strips in a light gray to make them easier to see.

Eastern Shore cutting instructions

The color key and exact cutting instructions should help:

Eastern Shore Assembly color key cutting start here

ASSEMBLY

CHAIN PIECE EACH STRIP TO THE 1.5″ SQUARE

That means the 1.5″ Bordeaux square is sewn to the 3.5″ by 1.5″ White strip. The 1.5″ Coral square is sewn to the 4.5″ by 1.5″ Bordeaux strip and so on. Follow the diagram. The 1.5″ square is sewn to the strip to its right.

Eastern Shore chaing piecing

PRESS SEAMS OPEN

This will help you get nice straight seams.

SEW SINGLE STRIPS TO THE LEFT OF THE FIRST BLOCK

The 3.5″ square is first. Sew the 3.5″ White strip to the left side of the 3.5″ Peach square. Use a scant 1/4 inch seam.

SEW THE PIECED STRIP TO THE TOP OF THAT BLOCK.

You should match the seams. You should now have a 4.5″ block.

SEW THE NEXT STRIP TO THE LEFT OF THE BLOCK.

The next strip is the 4.5″ by 1.5″ Bordeaux strip. Then sew the Coral/Bordeaux strip on top.

There are nine single strips and nine pieced strips. Keep sewing the single strips to the left then add the pieced strip to the top until you have a 12.5″ inch block.

Some photos of the process:

This block is versatile just like a Log Cabin block.

Eastern Shore block

I made some additional blocks, using the Midnight and Daydream colors. It’s fun to experiment with the layout.

Let me know which one you like the most.

(Or I could make 30 more blocks and put them together as shown. That would be fantastic).

Wanda

The Central Virginia Modern Quilt Guild crayon color challenge was so much fun.

We pulled three crayons (they were Crayola) from a bag. We were tasked with using those three colors in a quilt. We could add any other colors we wanted. The reveal is scheduled for March 1. Read the entire post for why I won’t have this quilt for the reveal. Sorry, CVA MQG. 😦

I got Plum, Blue Green and Green Yellow.

I wanted to use these colors in a big way. I purchased yardage of each color: Michael Miller Cirtus, Kona Lagoon and Kona Berry from Quilting Adventures. I sketched and colored what I wanted to do:

I wrote on the sketch, “hotel art” because it looked like something you’d see in a hotel lobby. I ultimately called the quilt, Lakeside Avenue, the location of our guild meetings.

I had some Kona Tomato and added a little bit of it to the quilt as I went.

Then, quilting it. My family and I traveled by train to New York City over Christmas, and I had plenty of time to hand quilt. I got most of the middle done. Once home I machine quilted the rest because I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to hand quilt it all by the deadline.

I like the difference the hand quilting and machine quilting gives to the quilt.

I entered the quilt in the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, February 25-28, 2016, and it was selected for the show.

I am inspired by art museums, and attending the festival was better than an art museum. Here’s me at the festival with my quilt. No ribbons, though, but look at that color. It won’t be back in time for me to take to the March 1 meeting. This photo will have to do.