Cross Purposes….a Queen Bee Block

Hey PEIMQG quilters. Its time to make another Bee Block. I call this one Cross Purposes. Its very similar to lots of others out there in Internet World but mine has its own unique charm. My block stitches together at 12.5″ square–unfinished and allows you to try your hand at partial seams…..DO NOT PANIC….Partial seams are easy peasy to do. Seriously.

Here are the fabric requirements needed to make one 12.5″ (unfinished) block.

four 4.5″ x 4.5″ squares of “cross” fabrics of bright modern fabrics
four 3.5″ x 2.0 ” rectangles of “cross” fabrics same colours as above
four 4.5 x 4.5″ squares of busy background fabric
one 2.0″ square of same busy background fabric

The block center is the only pieced unit so we will make it first.

Are you a newbie to partial seams or feel like a little technique refresher would be a good idea? No problem…follow the link below to watch a great tutorial by Andi at “A Bright Corner” http://www.abrightcorner.com/2022/09/how-to-sew-partial-seam.html

Again, DO NOT PANIC. I guarantee this will be one of the easiest techniques you will ever decide to learn.

Let’s do this!

Start by placing the strips around the center square as in the above tutorial, and shown below.

Select Strip 1 and begin stitching it to the 2″ BG square. Remember, sew with a 1/4″ seam allowance and stop sewing about 1″ from where you start. Finger press the seam that you just sewed, but try not to press the unsewn section, because its easy to distort the seam.

Next, with the partial seam in place on the top of the center block, select and line up Strip 2 to the left side and stitch it to the BG square.

Naturally Strip 3 gets stitched on next. No need for photos of this part,

Strip 4 gets sewn on next ….

And Holy Heck! Just like that you have four strips attached around the sides of the center block and the only thing left to do is finish sewing the Strip 1 seam to the unit…it should fit perfectly! Next you can trim the block to measure 4.5″ square. (I deliberately made the block a bit oversized so there would be wiggle room at the end to trim the sides to size).

It REALLY is as easy as that.

The rest of the block goes together easy. It’s just a nine patch after all. Just make sure to place the coloured crosses in the correct position…like this.