Good morning Moda Bakers! I'm sending a cheery wave across the Atlantic from one of my favourite UK beaches, Porthminster in the lovely Cornish town of St. Ives. It's a long drive from my native Shropshire in the English midlands, but worth every hour of the journey to soak up the beautiful light sparkling on St. Ives Bay.

I holidayed in St. Ives many times as a teenager and have enjoyed returning with my husband and our boys. The beautiful Cornish light has always attracted artists, so as well as lovely beaches and a pretty harbour it has a wonderful art gallery and the Barbara Hepworth museum & sculpture garden.

My block is inspired by a much loved feature of the British seaside: the Beach Hut. Given that summer weather can be somewhat unreliable in the UK, they're enormously practical and as well as a place to hide from summer showers or eat your fish & chips, they're the perfect place to make that other seaside essential: a nice cup of tea.

This post is part of our summer quilt-along series. Find the rest of the posts by clicking {here}.

As soon as I saw the the new Brushed basic by Sarah Watts for Ruby Star Society I knew I'd found the perfect fabric for my block: it immediately brought to mind sun-bleached (or should that be rain-washed?) timber.

From Fabric A (red) fat quarter, cut:

• (1) 4” x 7” piece
• (1) 6½” square
• (1) 3½” x 6½” piece

From Fabric B (white) and Fabric C (navy) fat quarters, cut:

• (2) 2” x 18” strips

From Fabric D (pale blue) fat quarter, cut:

• (2) 4” x 7” pieces

1.   First make a strip set by joining the four 2” x 18” strips together, alternating the colours and pressing towards the navy strips.

Trim the end and subcut (2) 6½” squares and (2) 2” x 6½” pieces

2.   To make the door, join the 2” x 6½” strip set sections to each side of the red 3½” x 6½” piece.

3.   To make the roof first prepare a 4” x 7” pale blue piece by trimming it down with a diagonal cut, right side up, offsetting the diagonal by ½” from the bottom right-hand corner (discard the smaller portion).

Then mark the 6½” red square with a placement line using the template. {EDIT: some of you are having problems printing the template to scale. Try selecting 'actual size' when you print} Position and pin a prepared side piece on the marked line and stitch ¼” away before flipping ‘open’ and pressing. Turn your block to the wrong side and trim the side piece using the base piece as a guide. Trim out the base square if preferred.

4.   To make the gable, trim the 4” x 7” piece and join to a marked 6½” strip set square as described in step 3. Next, trim the remaining 4” x 7” pale blue piece REVERSING THE DIRECTION OF THE CUT and join to the other side of the gable unit.

5.   To assemble the block, join the gable to the roof, pressing towards the gable. Then join the remaining 6½” strip set square to the door unit, pressing away from the door. Finally join the two rows together, pressing towards the roof, or open if preferred.

This block finishes at 12" square.

If you have a block going spare, I shared a tutorial on my blog during last December's Bakeshop Sew-along which would make the perfect Beach Tote, so there's no excuse not to take some hand sewing to the beach! You can find the tutorial here.

If you make a Beach Hut block I'd love to see it! Come and find me on Instagram and don't forget to tag your post #mbsattheseashore. One of the joys of a sew-along is the wonderful sense of community we all have when we share our blocks and take time to encourage each other. I hope you're enjoying cheering on your fellow Bakers...you know I'd buy you all an ice cream if I could...

Nicola xx

{blog: Nicola's Sketchbook}
{instagram: nicolajdodd}
{shop: CakeStand Quilts}

MBS at the Seashore Beach Hut Template