so those cathedral windows...

When I was coming up with ideas for the Mouthy Stitches 2 Tote one of the designs was based on using the cathedral window block. In all honesty I actually based my design on a simpler way of getting a similar effect which uses a circle of fabric folded around a square but I felt since I'd called the design cathedrals it might be a shame not to do proper cathedral blocks.

So anyway since I'd not made this block before I did a bit of internet trawling for a tutorial and here are the two I used most Hyena in Petticoats and Sunflower Seeds. Now I realised that making proper cathedrals posed a small problem as the way the colour blocks would come out once they were all folded would not match the design I'd come up with.

In order for the pattern to work out properly the original piece of fabric needed to be divided up into triangles as you see above. Once folded and pressed to oblivion the blocks then matched my original plan.

Now I used some Essex Linen in Steel from Justine at Simply Solids which is reeeeally nice like but it might have made pressing easier if I'd used standard quilting cotton. The linen is a bit thicker and with the extra seams caused by the piecing I did have to show the corners who's boss  more than once.

Of course in the end I changed the colours a bit once it started coming together, sometimes once projects are in progress they change and grow as they go along. For instance I didn't plan on adding the black print at the base originally but I thought it was a good foil for the white text prints as well as being practical.

So now the tote is living with Jennifer of Ellison Lane Quilts and tomorrow I'll let you see the gorgeous tote I received from my swap partner.

In the mean time why not go and cast your vote in The Blogger's Quilt Festival so many talented quilters and stunning work, including some familiar names from Mouthy Stitches gang too.

Bye for now