Friday, April 1, 2016

Hive 4-X Marks the Spot!

Hi!  I'm Jennifer.  I learned last year that I'm not a great tutorial writer, so this year I went with a block that has a fabulous tutorial already developed...and then went a bit further.  You see, I'm working on a Masters in Nurse Education and it just so happens I needed a video using demonstration as a teaching strategy for a class.

Enter stage right my husband, a few hours of time, and some fabric purchased for "educational purposes".   For my block, I've chosen the lovely X Marks the Improv block by Debbie Jeske of A Quilter's Table.  With her permission, I've developed a video tutorial that is about ten minutes long.  Keep in mind, I'm not Craftsy by any means, there are wild animals that roam my house (count the number of times you see the cat), I use my middle finger to hit the thread cutter, oh, and there are some extra bits that were required for my class.  Feel free to fast forward through "Bloom's Taxonomy" and the rotary cutter safety bit.  I cut towards myself in one shot, violating my own safety rule, so uh, do as I say, not as I do.

If your life will be complete without watching me, just follow her tutorial, making the subunits add up to 12.5"x16.5" instead of 12.5"x24.5" like her tutorial directs.  Her colors are my colors for the background--blue, teals, turquoise, navy.  For the strips, stick to either low volume or colors that are in the same color family as the blue, teals, turquoise, and navy.  Prints are fine.  For the pops of color, the world is your oyster.  They can be big, small, or non-existent,  Up to you.  I just ask that you don't make giant swaths of orange or yellow.  For trimming, a little wonkiness is fine by me.  If your dimensions don't work out great, that's okay too, this isn't an exact block.  My only request is if all of your subunits are made of the same background fabric, please don't assemble them into a final block.  I'd like to spread your work out with other blocks in the final quilt.

Here are some of the blocks I've made:



And if you're wondering, I made an A on the presentation, though my classmates enjoyed pointing out the one scene where I cut towards myself with the rotary cutter!

To the rest of the bee, I have an enormous favor to ask you to consider.  I have been called upon in the last couple of days to meet the need of a family who needs a quilt.  I can't spare all the details at the moment publicly, but, I promise, they need to have quilty love wrapped around them at this hard time in their life.  Unfortunately, I'm not a part of a giant quilter community--I'm not a blogger and only know a few quilters locally.  If anyone would be able to help with a 15.5 x 15.5 inch slab block, I would be very grateful.  The color that has been chosen is purple, though if you're moved to make another color, that's fine too.  I can provide a few details via email if that helps or if you like to have a name to reflect upon while making your block.

The idea of a slab block comes from this post from Dining Room Empire.  I will update this post with a picture ASAP.

My email is:  jennifer.a.bloxham (at) gmail (dot) com


Please let me know if you have trouble with the block or have questions!

Jennifer

2 comments:

Jane Holbrook said...

As a fellow quilter with a Master of Nursing (UW '85) and a minor in Adult Ed., I watched your video with extra interest. Yay for making a video tutorial and getting an A!! I imagine it was a nice change from the patient care tutorials we have seen so many times. You did a nice job, and covered the topic succinctly and clearly. I have some questions about how you taught all of your objectives. You pointed out that you had an unsafe rotary moment, I guess you didn't want to edit that out...You did explain about closing the rotary cutter. If an open cutter is knocked off the table, it falls blade first and will cut through tennis shoes. I did not see where you taught how to make an accurate quarter inch seam. We quilters know how to do that, but how did you prove that the objective was met? You used many terms that are familiar with quilters but not necessarily with nurses. did you get questions about that? And, lastly, you talked with your eyes shut, especially at the start. It gives the message of nervousness and being unsure of the topic. After reaming your video, the least I can do is send you some blocks.

June D said...

Fun to see your class video. Bet everyone enjoyed the change of topics - maybe some will even start quilting!
: )