Jan 2010 is my month to mail out fabric for the bee. It seemed appropriate to do something relatively simple to begin the year.
Your fabric pack will contain: one charm pack containing forty 2.5″ squares, two 2.5″ squares of flour sacking cotton, and two 3″x45″ strips of Osnaburg cotton. This should be plenty of Osnaburg, but if you can’t cut 34 squares of Osnaburg from these strips, please substitute for the remaining squares with your own muslin or neutral scraps or with lighter-toned charm squares from the pack provided.
Warning: Osnaburg is a loosely woven cotton and I did not pre-shrink it. If you use a lot of steam when pressing, it will begin to shrink a bit. This organic shrinkage is something that I like about the fabric, but please use caution to make sure that your blocks do not turn out too small. The best shrinkage occurs after the quilting in the first washing…
I ask that you each make two of these 6×6 checkerboard blocks using 2.5″ squares; the finished block should be about 12.5″ square. In each block:
- 17 of the 2.5″ squares are Osnaburg cotton
- 1 of the 2.5″ squares is flour sacking cotton, randomly placed
- 18 of the 2.5″ squares are from the charm pack provided, mostly used whole, but should include an “intentional mistake.” [The sample includes a pieced square. Click on the photo for more info.]
You should feel free to include your own scraps or invent other “mistakes.” I only request that there be 36 identifiably separate squares in each block and that corners meet cleanly.
Thanks!
12 Squared Quilting Bee 