Oh, I’m Kelly by the way. My blog is over at Blue Bird Sews were I like to hang out and share what I’ve got going on. Today I’m bringing over a quilt I just finished up. It’s a Bento Puzzle and so easy to do, I’ll show you how.

The Bento is a really simple block constructed like a log cabin – but you only end up with a 1/4 of a log cabin block. That allows for a lot of playing around with the blocks to come up with all sorts of patterns. I didn’t have a finished quilt in mind when I started but I did know what the blocks were going to look like. That’s where my simple 1-2-3 Quilt program came in and helped me arrange the blocks and play with a pattern. Here’s a couple examples I came up with along the design path…

The quilt I chose to make has a 3-d quality to it don’t you think. I like how the middle box jumps out.

I quilted this is in an all over free-motion meandering pattern, bound it in a primary colors stripe/dot and backed it with a vintage daisy sheet. All quilty goodness.

I used 16 – 12″ (finished sized) bento blocks for this quilt. I played with the color placement to go from darkest in the middle to lightest on the outside. Even though the colors are different the gradient is there. To make one block cut out the following:

Darkest Color:

1 square: 3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″

Darker Color:

1 square: 3 1/2″ x 3 1/2″

1 strip: 3 1/2″ x 6 1/2″

Light color:

1 strip 3 1/2″ x 6 1/2″

1 strip 3 1/2″ x  9 1/2″

Lightest Color:

1 strip 3 1/2″ x 9 1/2″

1 strip 3 1/2″ x 12 1/1″

To construct start with the darkest color square and the dark color square and sew together. From there work back and forth to sew the pieces together along the edges. (Sorry I don’t have a picture of that! But it’s simple enough to figure out as each strip fits along one edge.)
Most Bento Block tutorials out there are simply constructed by sewing a big block together and cutting it into quarters and then mixing up the blocks and sewing them together. (like this FITF tutorial) I challenge you the next time to stretch beyond the simple and come up with your own Bento Puzzle!

Thanks for checking out my quilt; I hope you’ll pop on over to Blue Bird Sews for a little bit of inspiration now and again. And here’s to our friend getting better soon! Get Well Jenna!
Cheers!
Kelly