Thursday, February 28, 2019

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


Good morning and welcome to the


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:

8. Humble


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 
If you want to sew 
how I put it on my machine 


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:

Right now there is a stitch along
 that Kimberly over at Fat Quarter Shop 
is hosting called the 
Quilters Cottage Stitch Along

to find out about the stitch along 
and the weekly giveaway 
by Fat Quarter Shop

to watch the video tutorials
 by Kimberly for beginning cross stitch.
They are really fun 
and Kimberly's a hoot!


Monday, February 25, 2019

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 


We are using the 





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 
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