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 

my crochet 

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 

Seams Sew Easy Guide 

and sew from point to point 

with right sides together.

CLICK HERE

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

 Farm Girl Vintage Book 

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.

GRANDMA'S STAR

PATTERN BASKET

Thanks for tuning in to my 

Vintage Block Along!

Chat with you next time:)

xx

Lori