Spinning a Web

with warm + cool contrast

It is my turn to come up with an idea for our next collaborative charity quilt. Yay! This is my very favorite part of being in a quilting bee. Oh the possibilities!

Spiderweb blocks have been on my wishlist for probably about a year. It’s a classic block that I made long ago, when I first learned to make patchwork. I finished my spiderweb blocks as a Christmas tree skirt and even created a tutorial for the project. The tutorial is honestly not one of my best. Ahem. I was brand spanking new to these things.

Oh my gosh, how is it 15 years later? Sheesh.

So, I’ve decided on spiderweb blocks for the Comfort Circle February quilt! I couldn’t find a tutorial that I liked, so I drafted my own block, which finishes 16”. Unlike most spiderwebs, this one finishes as a whole spiderweb, instead of as a whole star. That’s better for a collaborative quilt, I think.

What’s great about the spiderweb block is how it uses tiny string scraps without any pre-trimming. You sew on a fabric foundation, which allows you to find right-sized scraps without measuring. In the end, the fabric foundation becomes the star that appears between webs.

My pile of string scraps is all warm colors: yellow, orange, pink, red. I’m working with warm/cool contrast. Each block should have a warm web and cool star OR a cool web and a warm star. I’ll alternate types of blocks in the finished quilt setting.

First I made a test quadrant, to check that everything went as planned. Then I cut cool-colored fabric foundations for the rest of my block.

Just as with string blocks, you want to press after sewing each string scrap onto the fabric foundation. If you work on all the foundations at once, adding a strip to each at a time, then it’s not as much back and forth from the sewing machine to the pressing board.

The last step is to trim the excess string scraps equal to the size of the triangle foundation. I love that part! So tidy.

I’m really pleased with how the block sews up. The triangles are just slightly oversized, so that one can trim up the quadrants. Plus, there is seam allowance at the outside edge of each spiderweb corner, to protect the web points when pieced together. Should I write this up as a pattern, I wonder?

For today, I’ll sew another block, this time with a cool web and warm foundation triangles. =)