Vintage Block Along - Block 12 - Sweet as Honey!!

Good morning and welcome to the

 Vintage Block Along

Today I'm sharing another vintage block

 from my grandma's pattern basket:)

I'm using my 

Farm Girl Vintage fabric collection ...

And my Bee Backgrounds fabric as well:)

 If you are just joining us 

and want to sew vintage blocks with me...

click on each block 

that we have already sewn

 for the tutorial:

1. Grandma's Star

2. Pattern Basket

3. Around the Corner

4. Little Farmhouse

5. Rhinestone 

6. Vintage Lily

7. Star Shine

8. Humble

9. Egg Money

10. Quilting Bee

11. Sunday Star

Today's tutorial is going to be 

"short and sweet" because I am 

packing my bags and heading out to 

Nashville the cross stitch market.

YaY!

But before I leave I wanted to 

do another block for you.

This popular vintage block that we 

are making today is traditionally

 called Shoo Fly.

As I was thinking what to call mine

 and what it had to do with grandma 

(besides being in her pattern basket) 

...it made me think of 

 something that she said often.

 What she used to say is ...

"You can catch more flies with

 HONEY than with VINEGAR!" 

Meaning of course...

that you should always be 

as sweet as honey if you

 want things to go right!

It's always better to be kind.

One of life's great lessons...

my grandma was a smart lady:)

 I'm calling my little blocks 

"SWEET as HONEY"

These little cuties will finish at

 3" x 3" when we sew them into the quilt.

They are super easy to cut and

 to stitch up and you will need to

 make 10 of them:)

I'm still not sure how many blocks

 we are doing but I am not ready 

to wrap it up yet because there are 

"sew many" great block patterns

in grandma's basket:)

I hope you are simply 

enjoying the journey with me and

 not worrying about the end result because

 it will be taken care of in time:)

I've paired up one print with 

one background to make the blocks.

For ONE block you will need to cut:

From the Print- 5 - 1 1/2" squares

From the Background - 8 - 1 1/2" squares

I'll walk you through one block first:)

Grab the 5 print squares and

 just 4 of the background squares...

And sew them into a 9-patch like this!

Then take the remaining 

4 background squares...

And add an easy corner triangle

 onto every corner:)

Either mark the lines or use my 

Seams Sew Easy Guide

If you want to sew 

how I put it on my machine 

CLICK HERE

All sewn...

and ready to trim.

Press and you have a 

cute little easy peasy block...

SWEET as HONEY

Of course you could make 

four half square triangles first 

and then sew them all 

together into a 9-Patch.

I think because they are 

1 1/2" squares and small...

that's a little too fiddly 

when it's just easier to

 add the easy corners at the end:)

Repeat for the other 9 blocks.

First make them all into 9 patches.

Add the easy corner triangles...

trim...

And press!

I really do think these little blocks are SWEET as HONEY!

They should each measure 

3 1/2" x 3 1/2" BEFORE 

we sew them into our quilt 

that we will be making 

at the end of this sew along!!

I promise it's going to be so cute:)

Thanks for sewing vintage with me today!

Tune in next week for 

another episode of the 

Vintage Block Along:)

xx

Lori

P.S. Some of you may be wondering why

 I am going to cross stitch market.

Did you know that I am 

designing cross stitch patterns too?

So far I've done:

1. Happy Farm Girl

2. Farm Girl Fall

3. Vintage Christmas

4. Quilters Cottage

Right now there is a stitch along

 that Kimberly over at Fat Quarter Shop 

is hosting called the 

Quilters Cottage Stitch Along

CLICK HERE

to find out about the stitch along 

and the weekly giveaway 

by Fat Quarter Shop

CLICK HERE 

to watch the video tutorials

 by Kimberly for beginning cross stitch.

They are really fun 

and Kimberly's a hoot!

Farm Sweet Farm - Week Five - Chicken Coop and Windmill Block!!

Well hi there!

It's good to see you again...

thanks for stopping by!

It's week Six in the 

Farm Sweet Farm Sew Along:)

We are using the 

Farm Sweet Farm 

Sew Simple Shapes

And my new 

Farm Girl Vintage 

fabric collection...

To make the 

Farm Sweet Farm Quilt!

Today's tutorial is for the 

Chicken Coop and Windmill Block:)

For this block we are piecing 

the background to applique

 the shapes onto...

but let's prepare the shapes first

 so that they are ready to go!

Sew Simple Shapes needed:

10 - H4

4 - H15

1 - H22

7 - H31

1 - H36

You will need to cut a 

7" and a 4 1/2" piece 

from your spool for the flower stems.

I also had you cut

 2 - 5/8" x WOF strips 

from the Steel Shabby print....

Run them through the 

1/4" bias tape maker...

these are for the windmill:)

Trace your shapes onto the 

interfacing and pair them up

 with the fabric that 

they belong to and sew!

The hen and baby chicks overlap 

into the barn block so 

we will do them next week:)

After trimming you will need to

 clip the cleavage areas 

in the flower shape before turning.

Turn and shape all of your appliqués:)

Trace the swirls onto the 

3 Cinnamon circles because you will

 want to embroider those

 before you applique:)

You can choose to do yours in

 Nutmeg for a subtle look...

or in the white like this.

I used 3 strands and a backstitch:)

Set your shapes aside and 

let's piece the background.

The piecing diagram is 

on page 13 of the guide.

You will need to sew an 

Easy Corner Triangle 

to form the top of the chicken coop.

Draw a line from corner to corner

 on the linen square like this.

Normally you would do this 

on the wrong side of the fabric 

but there is no wrong or right side

 to linen because it is a woven fabric...

not a printed fabric:) 

Place it on one end of the red print

 and sew on your marked line.

Keep in mind to place it so that the

 line is going the right direction...

So that when you trim off 

the seam allowance...

And press it...

And lay it back out it looks like this:)

Now you can sew the pieces together.

Use an accurate 1/4"seam allowance...

easy peasy!!

Now we are ready to lay out the appliqués.

One more thing first though....

We are not trimming down the

 background of this block because 

this is the size it will 

need to be before sewing it 

into the quilt 

(14 1/2" x 24 1/2" at this point)

You may carefully want to do a zig zag

 around the edges of the linen only...

being careful not to "fold in"

 any of the edges when doing so.

DO NOT serge these edges.

Tape together pages 24 and 25 

of the guide on the dotted line 

where it says.

Tape these pages to your 

Easy Trace Light Box 

and line up your fabric with 

the outline of the chicken coop.

Now you can see through it 

to glue baste the strips.

Do these 3 strips first.

Trim them so that they end 

in the middle of where the 

side strips will be 

so that they will cover those raw edges.

On the bottom strip...

just clip when you get to the

 chicken coop on the right side.

None of the edges on these

 1/4" wide bias strips 

will be pressed under.

Now do the "X" ones next. 

Again...

trimming so that the side strips

 will cover the raw edges.

Now lay down your side strips.

On the bottom left...

you can trim it about 1 1/2" up 

from the bottom if you would like

 because the log will cover that raw edge:)

I used 2 large design boards like this

 for pinning my appliqués:) 

Lay out the circles for the 

stack of firewood starting on the

 bottom row on the left and just

 put them next to each other.

***IMPORTANT***

Make sure that you measure up

 1/4" from the bottom so that when

 you sew the blocks together

 you will NOT sew over the bottom

 of the stack of firewood:)

The flowers are easy peasy... 

the leaf on the left side is 

3/4" for the edge.

Here's a close up of the windmill blades.

Keep in mind that you will be

 sewing a 1/2" Cute Little Button 

in the center and you want

 that button to cover the

 inside points of each blade.

Just for easy reference...

the top blade edge measures 

about 4 3/4" from the fabric edge:)

After you have Sue glued

 everything down...

it's time for the rulers

 and heavy objects 

while the glue dries:)

All ready for applique!

But maybe one more thing first...

I asked you to cut 

2 - 1" x WOF strips

 for the roof of the barn. 

Included with that is enough 

to also be used for

 the roof of the chicken coop as well.

If you want to get a little ahead you can run those strips through the 1/2" bias tape maker...

And add your chicken coop roof now.

Press one end

 under and then glue baste

 it on top of the chicken coop.

Now you can applique it down 

at the same time you do

 the rest of the block:)

Okay...fast forward 

to a few days later and

 it's all appliquéd! 

After I finished my block...

I decided not to sew the 

buttons on yet until I've 

joined it to the barn block.

Then I'll do both blocks

 at the same time.

That's it for this week...

join me next week 

for a barn raising!

xx

Lori