What's Under the Needle?

My March Stitch Along week 3

Posted by Ruth on 20 March 2017 | 5 Comments

Tags: stitch along

My finished block ended up a little over 15" but I figured that was fine for now, I'll use the excess for straightening up later once I get an idea of where I'll be cutting.

To cut this block into 5" squares, I started by laying the block on my cutting board so I could clearly see the lines at top and bottom. By using the board lines as a guide, it gave me an indication of where the cuts would be made. I saw that if I centered it, I would make one cut through the red strip as shown with the arrow in the image below.

For this reason, I moved the block over so the 1/2" overhang was at the right side.

Then I trimmed it off to 15". There was no trimming needed on the adjacent sides as these happened to be 15" already.

It's time to make the cuts - free form of course. First one way...

and then the other...

Now the fun begins as I swap the blocks around and see what I come up with.

There are many many combinations!

I played around for quite some time but will only post a few images here.

Then suddenly this arrangement popped up and the row on the right caught my eye. The two red blocks in the corners appeared to be joined by a bridge.

Keeping those three blocks as is, I rearranged the rest until I discovered another arrangement where the center red block looked as if it was spilling out into some space. I put this in the middle next to my first-row arrangement.

I arranged the last three block with the two darkest blocks in the corner.

Now it was time to join them up in rows. I found, even though everything was cut free form, there was very little straightening to be done. Only the block on the left of the middle row!

With the rows joined I completed my block. I rotated it to look at it and to decide which I liked best. Different images popped into my mind as I did so. I chose this one to be the best as it reminded me of an abstract lighthouse.

What does it remind you of?

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