I have been sat here for ages trying to come up with a snazzier title for this but typically I have hit a wall and The Six Inch Block of the Week it has become! Here at Two Tiny Makes I like to work with a comfortable tiny size and I think that the Six Inch Block is a good size block to work with. It can pack a punch and some interesting shapes but it doesn’t suck up a load of fabric like its’s Twelve Inch counterpart!

My fabric stash is lower than modest and I like to use use use it all before I keep adding to it. It does mean I have a million and one projects on the go but that’s normal isn’t it? Yes? Good… One of my favourite things about sewing is learning new things and I feel I have picked up a few skills along the way that help me do what I do. I want more though and one thing I’ve wanted to do more of is to explore different styles of blocks that are floating around the sewisphere.

The Six Inch Block of the Week is born. Starting in January I am going to pick a block, maybe from a book I own, free from the Internet, maybe even make some up and share them here with you. The idea being that I will build up my knowledge base to gain continued confidence in block building and patchwork as a whole.

The Fabric for The Six Inch Block of the Week

Colour and style is another skill I want to build on so I am going to set myself the challenge to build my blocks with certain fabric house/styles/creators, depending on what I have got in my stash. Another plus to sewing a Six Inch Block is that I get to spread my minimal stash over more blocks. I’m going to work with the following 4 fabrics to start with:

Liberty

I never own more than a Fat Eighth of liberty fabric, I have a good variety now but never a lot of it. I am going to look forward to using my Liberty in a different way.

A small pile of Liberty Floral Fabrics in a variety of colour

Alison Glass

Mainly all 5″ scraps or less now my Alison Glass stash is well loved and used, so it’ll be interesting to see how I fair with using this in my Six Inch Blocks. I may have to add a Fat Quarter or Two to keep me going!

A pile of vibrant Alison Glassfabrics

Avery by Ruby Star Collective

I couldn’t resist trying out some Ruby Star Fabrics and bought myself a discounted Layer Cake (10″ Squares) from Olive and Flo and Craft. It’s really all I own of this and will enjoy using this very different fabric on my blocks.

floral and birds Japanese style fabrics Avery by Ruby Star

Scrappy!

The call to buy another fabric range for this project was high and I poured over a variety of on-line retailers hoping that I would hit the “Buy” button on something. There was lots, too many, and in the end it occured to me that I should use my stash! So my final fabric choice is to hit my stash and go scrappy, or at least colour co-ordinated from things I already own!

A box of folded up fabric
My modest Fabric stash – it’s not a lot is it!!

It occured to me while I was writting this that although this is my journey to document and build on I wondered if others would like to join me in this little challenge of mine? Hit reply in the comments below and say Hi if you’re interested.

I plan to post The Six Inch Block of the Week on a Monday morning, where the first week of January will be a list of blocks I have picked and how I plan to prep. How far I’ll go into the year is anyones guess, but January I have good intentions!

Thanks, Karen x