Saturday, January 5, 2019

Vintage Block Along Block Three - Around the Corner!


Today I'm going to show you 
how to make the third block in my 
Vintage Block Along


If you are just tuning in...
the short explanation of 
this tutorial series is:
1.My grandma was a quilter and made
 many many quilts in her lifetime.

2. She gave me her basket 
of patterns that she used 
to make her quilts.
I'm sure some of those patterns
 came from her mother (Martha) 
and sisters as well.

3. I am taking several of those 
vintage block patterns and drafting 
them so that they can be rotary cut 
and sewn by machine instead 
of using templates...
which is how the patterns 
all were back then:)

4. I'm sharing blocks from her 
pattern basket via tutorials
 here for you on my blog.

5. I have been waiting for the release 
of my Farm Girl Vintage fabric 
to do this series because both of my
 grandma's were the original 
farm girls in my life:)

6. The blocks will finish at all different sizes..
and I will put them together into a quilt..
I'll show you how as well.

7. The tutorials will be about one a week.
I've done three so far this week
 just to get a good start!

8. I'm not sure how long this will go
 or how many blocks I will be doing...
but let me just say that there are 
a lot of good vintage blocks
 in grandma's basket!


Grandma always made the 
best use of her time.
Between  all of the things that 
a farm wife did back then...
she always managed to make time 
for quilting and stitching 
with her sisters, my mom,
 and me and my sisters too.

She made so many beautiful things 
to make her home a comfortable 
and a welcome place to be.

The photo above was a 
stamped on linen cross stitch 
and now hangs in my bedroom.


This is my grandma's cute little farmhouse.
I think she must be taking the picture...
from left to right is  
Uncle Ron, my grandpa (Nat) Uncle Bruce,
 and then my mom and dad.
Mom was the baby of the family.
This must have been when 
my parents were engaged.
Grandma and grandpa raised 5 children..
 Aunt Doris and Uncle Lynn 
are not in this photo.

An addition was added to the farmhouse
 a few years after this photo was taken.

Now my cousin Matthew and 
his family live there:)


Grandma loved to decorate and 
take good care of her home
 and make it a place of rest
 for grandpa when he came in from the farm.



Grandma also loved to be with Grandpa
 when he was out with the sheep herd too:)
Farm Life was full of hard work and 
they worked together and loved it:)



Okay...time to make a block!
 Grab your fabric and let's get started:)
If you are using Farm Girl Vintage fabric
 I would suggest a fat quarter bundle 
along with both fat 8th panels.

I'll be using some of my Bee Backgrounds collection
 for the blocks too.
I like to use scrappy backgrounds.
I like the way that they 
add to the vintage look.
So no worries about the background 
yardage amount for the quilt...
just use what you have...
a different one for each block
 or choose 6-8 and use them throughout.
It's your choice!




I decided on these three prints...
you will need 3 colors and 
one background for this block.

I chose to use my new aqua pin dot
 for the background.
It was originally part of my 
Sew Cherry 2 fabric collection 
but is now a 
Riley Blake Designs Basic...
YaY!


This is the block that I chose out 
of my grandma's pattern basket 
for this week...
And yes I had 
out on my work table
 and I just had to add some 
round granny's 
to the photo for fun!
After all...crochet is vintage too:)
My other grandma taught me to crochet.
She loved it and she crocheted
 ALL the things for us back then:)


From your background cut:
4 - 3 1/2" x 6 1/2"
8 - 3 1/2" x 3 1/2"
36 - 2" x 2"


From Fabric One Cut:
4 - 6 1/2" x 6 1/2"


From Fabric Two Cut:
4 - 3 1/2" x 3 1/2"


From Fabric Four Cut:
9 - 3 1/2" x 3 1/2"


Pair up these two squares to make
 4 half square triangles.


Mark a line or use the 
and sew from point to point 
with right sides together.
to view how I put it on my machine:)


Trim off the excess and press.


I use my trimmings and cut a
 1 1/2" square from each at the same time.


Four 1 1/2" squares to add to 
my scrappy square stash:)


Set the 4 half square triangles aside 
and grab the nine 3 1/2" squares
 and the 2" background squares.

We are going to make 
9 square in a square blocks.


Sew an easy corner triangle onto
 one corner of each square like this.


Now sew one to the opposite corner.


Trim away the excess.
These trimmings are too small 
for me to keep:)


I pressed my seams open.


Now add the 2 remaining
 easy corner triangles.


Trim and press.


I used my 3 1/2" Trim-It Ruler
to square up these square 
in a square segments if needed...


And also the previous 
half square triangles.
The lines on my Trim-It Rulers 
make it so easy to get things squared up!


Okay...
now it's time to start sewing 
your segments together.


Sew them together like this.
You should have 4 of each and have
 one square in a square leftover
 for the block center.


I used my 6 1/2" Trim-It Ruler 
for these segments.


Mark a line from corner to corner 
on your large squares.


You will be sewing an 
easy corner triangle onto 
the bottom of these 4 segments.


I always pin these when the squares are 
large so that they line up perfectly.


By the way...
I've had several questions about my
 cute little tractor pincushion.

I made it a few years back with the publication of my

I love to make pincushions out of 
small vintage things and when I saw this
 cute vintage toy tractor 
I just knew it would be a 
perfect pincushion for this
 vintage farm girl:)!


Here's a quick tutorial for you...
I simply used one of my circle rulers
 to cut a circle of fabric.
Sorry that I can't remember which 
size because it's been too long!
I just turned under and gathered the edges
 by hand and stuffed it firmly...
then tied off and knotted it.


Then I glued it right onto the 
tractor seat using a glue gun.
Cute and easy peasy!

Now back to my original tutorial!


When you are trimming 
the excess from these segments...
make sure that you have the 
half square triangle side up 
so that you can be sure to 
trim off the correct part!


I pressed towards the half square triangle.


And yes...
I sure did cut these squares 
for my stash out of the trimmings:)


Lay out your block like this.
It's a simple 9 patch now and 
you can sew 3 rows of 3...


And then sew those 3 rows together.


This is the back of my block.


AROUND THE CORNER
15" x 15" finished
15 1/2" x 15 1/2" unfinished


This block has the perfect vintage flair 
and I'm really happy with 
how it turned out!


I named it "Around the Corner" 
because we did a lot of
 easy corner triangles and also...
my grandma just lived around the corner
 from our little farm:)

Also 2 of my great Aunts and Uncles 
lived just around the block from us 
on opposite corners as well.

My Aunt Isabelle and Uncle Elt on one ...
 Aunt Edith and Uncle Jim on the other.

Isabelle and Edith were 2 of
 grandma's 5 sisters:)


So here are the first 3 
Vintage Block Along blocks together.

Sew vintagey fun!!



If you have missed these tutorials...
here are the links.
Just click on them to 
take you right to them.


Thanks for tuning in to my 
Vintage Block Along!
Chat with you next time:)
xx
Lori







9 comments:

  1. I LOVE THIS!! Currently working on the second block. I’ll post pics when I get it finished. FYI I love the stories :)

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  2. I like the size of this block. I'll be digging in my stash later today.

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  3. Really nice block! Thanks for all the stories and tutes. Had to smile at the radios. I had a turquoise one similar to the one in the pic when a teeny bopper. hugs, lj

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  4. My grandmother taught me to piece. I love this series. I am going to try to catch up.

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  5. My son went away to college, met and married “ the farmer’s daughter”. After both working jobs in the big city they packed up and moved to her family’s farm. It is much as you described with family all living nearby the new house they built. My son loves being a farmer! Up at dawn to care for the cattle, plowing fields until late at night. It warms my heart seeing how happy they are. I will be giving this quilt to them when it is complete. Thanks for sharing your stories along with this series Lori!

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  6. You were blessed to know your Grandparents. My crafty Grandma passed away before I was born. She raised chickens and sold eggs, made lye soap which I could get-nothing like the stuff I've bought, crocheted, quilted, embroidered, tended to the garden and who knows what else. They had 11 children. There house didn't look like your Grandma's house, it had what I call tar paper on the outside, there was no running water or electricity. They washed clothes in one of the many streams on the property and used another for drinking water. Grandpa finally got electricity years after she passed away and the kids chipped in to buy him a refrigerator. Can't imagine all that and how did they find time to do any crafting? I know Grandma's quilts didn't make it much because they were made out of the children's clothing. I have one block I want to frame although it's tattered. I tried to hand quilt but my stitches are not tiny like hers. Even though big stitch quilting is in, I don't care for it so it's to the sewing machine for me.

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  7. What a lovely post - thank you for sharing. I love this fabric too.

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  8. Lori I am a really bad quilter---I seem to have lots of cuss words come out of my mouth when sewing! In my dream world you and I are besties and you have taught me how to sew lovely things. Admire your work!!

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  9. Your family must be so proud of you and your quilt business. ❤ I know I am!

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