Farm Girl Vintage 2 Quilt Along - Farm Girl Friday's - Week Four!!

Happy Friday and welcome to my blog 

for week four of the...

Farm Girl Vintage 2 Quilt Along

We are using my new book

 Farm Girl Vintage 2

And Farm Girl Vintage Fabric 

To sew two Farm Girl blocks per week:)

COLD WATERMELON

is up first and can be found 

on page 31 in the book.

I have been working on my pile of 

Farmhouse Kitchen Potholders

 and so I thought I'd whip up a

 6" Cold Watermelon Block 

so that I could give you a few of my 

piecing tips when making my 6" blocks.

As with any piecing...

 when making the blocks there are 

a few basic rules that always apply:

First one is:

 Cut accurately and use an

 accurate 1/4" seam allowance

It's simple advice that you 

always hear but is VERY true.

About steam and starch:

If you like to starch your fabric 

or use steam in your iron then the time

 to do both of these is

 BEFORE cutting out your pieces.

If you carefully cut your pieces and 

then AFTERWARDS you apply moisture 

like (steam) and then heat (iron)

your pieces will shrink 

because it's 100% cotton...

and we all know that's 

just what cotton does:)

Keeping track of pieces when cutting:

I'm sure that you all have 

your favorite methods for this

 and that is great because we all need to keep pieces organized.

Lately I have been crushing on using my new 

SEW HANDY STICKERS

 I simply put a letter A sticker 

on the stack of  "A" pieces etc.

I keep them on throughout the entire

 process of sewing and pressing.

Yes ...

you can iron over them and 

they do not leave a residue:)

They are great for keeping all of 

those little pieces organized 

and labeled while sewing.

Onto the sewing part...

I always have 2 pieces of fabric 

that I have sewn together

 under my presser foot.

This has 2 advantages.

First: 

When you are feeding small pieces into 

your machine the thread will not 

"eat your piece" 

at the beginning of the seam because 

you are feeding it directly after

 2 pieces that are already there.

This helps so much!

Second:

By knowing and planning beforehand 

what I'll be doing with these squares...

I'm making a quilt at the same time...

I always call these my "BONUS" quilts.

I love multi-tasking!

Next tip when sewing with small pieces 

is to make sure that your needle is sharp 

so that it glides through the pieces

 easily to save on distorting the piece.

This sound so simple but you would 

be surprised how much it helps!

Another tip for accuracy is about thread!!

  I use Aurifil thread when piecing.

It is a 100% cotton thread which matches up with the fabric I am using.

That's important.

It's a very strong but thin thread and

 so it allows less bulk in your seams.

I started using Aurifil 10 years ago 

and have never looked back:)

When sewing easy corner triangles

 I use my

Seams Sew Easy Guide 

like this so that I do not

 have to mark a sewing line...

it saves time and is super accurate.

I use washi tape to hold it down...

when I change the bobbin I 

simply lift it up then stick it back down.

These are the 2 squares 

that I had under the presser foot.

I usually put them in a pile to

 press later but I pressed this one 

now to show you:)

After sewing however many pieces 

(I normally sew more than just one

 because I chain piece) 

then I feed another two squares in

 and keep it under there until after 

pressing all my the 

pieces that I've just sewn.

 I just continue feeding these squares 

in every time I stop and start.

I've done this and taught this 

for years and have always called them "starters and stoppers"

they are now also known as

 "leaders and enders" 

Two sets of two squares...

I'll eventually sew them into

four patches and I'll show you 

in a few weeks what "bonus quilt"

 that I am making...it's from the book!

But right now let's talk about 

pressing your 6" blocks.

Pressing is an important part when 

sewing small pieces so do not 

under estimate it's value.

One tip I have for pressing is:

I like to use a wool pressing mat 

and a Quilters Clapper.

Both wood and wool absorb the heat 

quickly from cotton.

 This makes your blocks

 flatter after pressing.

YaY!

After pressing I lay my block or section

 (in this case the watermelon)

 back out onto my design board and 

smooth it out and let it 

cool completely that way.

Now onto piecing the fork!

Try not to let the small pieces 

freak you out lol

Here's the way I look at it:

You just sew them together with a 

1/4" seam just like you do a large piece...

it really makes no difference 

how much fabric is hanging over 

to the left of your presser foot...

it could be 12" or 3/4"...

it just does not matter because 

you only need to worry about 

the 1/4" seam on the right.

If you have problems holding onto 

the small piece to keep it straight 

while feeding through the machine 

then use a tailors awl or

 the point of your seam ripper.

You can see here that I also use my 

Seams Sew Easy Guide 

for an accurate 1/4" seam.

Some like to sew a "scant" 1/4" seam. 

I don't really do that...

I just try to stay as accurate as possible.

I try to cut-sew-and then press accurately and that seems to work out fine.

Remember that this did not

 happen overnight for me...

of course it takes practice!

Practice means just

 "jump in and do it" 

the very best that you can...

with what you have...

with an attitude of learning and fun.

Before you know it 

all of these tips 

will just come naturally. 

When sewing 6" blocks or 

even small pieces in a larger block...

 I like to press my seams open.

The simple reason why is that 

your seams will lie flatter and so

 your block will not be distorted.

Speaking of distorted...

be careful to PRESS and not to 

 "iron back and forth"

because this can so easily 

distort your blocks especially

 if you have a huge iron and tiny pieces.

Here are my fork pieces.

I use the Clapper when pressing pieces too...

not just when the block is completed.

When sewing pieces that have angles

 that need to line up like the handle

 onto the fork bottom...

I use my DOUBLE PINS

They are thin enough so that you can 

sew over them if you need to.

It's just one pin but 

it's like placing two pins 

on either side of the seam at the

 same time so that it doesn't slip 

out of place when going 

through your feed dogs.

They work amazing!

6" COLD WATERMELON Block 

is done and ready to be

 made into a pot holder.

I really don't use them much for that

 but more for decor in my kitchen:)

I often hang them on a clothesline

 that's across my bay window 

and switch them out for the seasons.

Here's the back of my 6" Block.

I hope my tips and tricks on sewing my 

6" Farm Girl Blocks have helped you!

I do all these things when sewing all of

 my 6" blocks from all of may books.

Let's move onto the next block

 for this week.

CORN and TOMATOES 

is on page 34 of the book.

This is a good example of a few 

of the blocks in the book that 

are easy to switch up a bit...

so let's talk about some 

Quilty Math real quick!

If you look at the block 

you can see that the corn is 

EXACTLY one half of the block 

and the tomatoes are the other half.

 I drew them up this way on purpose

 because I love the way they

 look together but they can 

also be fabulous on their own!

This means that I can make a block

 with two ears of corn 

and I can also make a block

 with four tomatoes

Remember my Fresh Pears Block in book one?

Same thing:)

So that is exactly what I did...

cut two more blocks to add 

to my Pot Holder collection.

I decided to add a green tomato in 

and I also used some pieces from my

 Autumn Love Fabric collection for these blocks:)

When sewing these...

I just followed the same directions...

twice for the corn and 

four times for the tomatoes:)

Easy peasy!

I love the way they turned out and I

 thought you might like to see them too!

Thanks for joining me this week...

please continue using the hash tag 

#FarmGirlFridays 

when posting your blocks.

They are so fun to see!

If you are making your quilt exactly 

like mine then you will need to 

make the Cold Watermelon in 6"

and the Corn and Tomatoes in 12"

To make it easy to remember make sure 

to download and copy 

the easy reference chart.

CLICK HERE

to get it.

I'll see you right back here

 next Farm Girl Friday for 

2 more Farm Girl Blocks!

xx

Lori