.: Bust-A-Kiss block - our first blogtorial :.

February was Jodi's month in our Care Circle of doGoodStitches - and as February was also QuiltCon month, I ran a little behind in sewing my blocks.  Jodi had asked for improv blocks, using rainbow colours - all the rainbow colours + navy + pink - with a low volume background.  I had no real plan in mind for Jodi's blocks when I started, but I did have Rachel and her baby Eleni on my mind, and ended up with wonky, scrappy, rainbow kisses/x's.

When I shared the blocks on instagram, a couple of lovely people asked me if there was a pattern for the kisses/x's - so I thought I'd have a go at my first-ever tutorial for the blog - or as my husband has been calling it - a "blogtorial"!  I figured the block needed a name that was a little more catchy than rainbow-scrappy-kiss/x, so after a little pondering and a glass of wine, came up with 'Bust-a-Kiss' - as these x (or 'kiss') blocks are perfect for scrap-busting - are you with me?  I'm hoping you've now also got Young MC's 'Bust-A-Move' in your head, ready to sing out loud while busting through your scraps.

So - this blogtorial is to make one 12.5 inch block.  I 'sew big and trim down', so there's plenty of wriggle-room for fabric-placement - this may not be your way of sewing - see how you go - your blocks could end up a little bigger, which is a nice bonus!

1. Start with a 12.5 " square of low volume fabric - you can create a piece of fabric by sewing together some low volume scraps, or just use a single piece of fabric. I've sewn four blocks - three with scrappy low volume backgrounds, and one single-fabric background.

2.  Piece together two bust-a-scrap strips measuring 2.5 " x 18.5 " - this length gives you plenty of fabric to work with so you can trim down later, remembering my whole 'sew big, trim down' philosophy of sewing (which others may call 'don't bother measuring too carefully' or 'she wastes fabric' ... but I figure this is a great scap-busting project, so you'll be sewing from your scraps anyway).

3. Slice your low volume background square in half on the diagonal - either diagonal is fine.

4. Pin and sew a bust-a-scrap strip to one of your low volume background triangles.

5. Iron your seam towards the bust-a-scrap strip.

6. With right-sides together, lay your remaining low-volume background triangle on top of your sewn-piece, roughly making sure that the corners line up - I would never normally actually check that the corners are exactly in line, I would just eye-ball it, but for the sake of the blogtorial, I wanted to be sure you knew what I meant (the numbers on the ruler in the pic don't mean anything, the ruler is just to show you the corners are in line!).

7. Sew together, and iron your seam towards the bust-a-scrap strip.  I should mention at this point too, that I rarely sew with solids - and take a look at that awesome green! - a solid!

8. At this point, you can trim up your square a little if you like - down to 12.5 " if you like - but you don't have to.  I have trimmed my square to 12.5" for this step, just so you know - and just a little tip for you when you are trimming, make sure the corners of your 12.5 " square ruler (or whichever ruler you are using) are centred in the middle of your bust-a-scrap strip, so your kiss-corners are even-ish.  Slice your square in half on the diagonal, as shown in the pic below, cutting straight through your bust-a-scrap strip.

9. Pin your second bust-a-scrap strip in place and sew, again ironing the seam towards the strip.  If you had trimmed your square to 12.5", the strip will overlap the ends of your low-volume background triangle.  If you had not trimmed down, the strip will not quite reach the ends of your low-volume background triangle - so just centre it as best you can.

10. OK last step - lay your remaining background piece right-sides-together on top of the piece you have just sewn, taking care that the bust-a-scrap strips line up, as shown in this pic - see how I've folded-back the top-piece, so you can see that the strips are lining up?

11. And oh look! - you've made a Bust-A-Kiss block!  - trim it back to 12.5 " square (see the little trimming-tip in step 8 above).  Here are the four finished blocks I made to share with you.  The blocks are the perfect size for a pot-holder - or they'll make a very gorgeous quilt if you keep on going - see how the joins in the kisses all meet up? - cute!

I'll be back soon to share what I've sewn these blocks into - I haven't yet decided on a mini or potholders or whether I'll add them into my AusModBee + Sew Sisters quilt.  Happy Monday!  xoxo cat