Farm Girl Friday - Week Ten! ...

Good morning!

It's time for another episode of 

Farm Girl Fridays!

Today we are talking about my 

Gingham Block

This was one of the 

very first blocks to design

for the book…

gingham is classic farm girl style

and you all know how much I love my gingham:)

Someday I'll be making a big quilt 

just from my gingham blocks

but for right now…

I'm happy with my gingham runner!

I love how it looks on my table.

I made the centerpieces by painting 

4 large tomato sauce cans and 

then wrapping them in burlap and lace.

I put a vintage milk bottle in each can

and put daisies in each one.

A simple farm girl style project!

Instructions for my Gingham block

are on page 36 of my book

Farm Girl Vintage

If you want to join our sew along

CLICK HERE

to grab a copy and get started!

I decided to make a cute little project

starting with the 12" Gingham block:)

A tip about choosing fabric for this block

is that you need to make sure that 

 there is plenty of contrast between

the two colors…

otherwise you will lose the gingham look:)

I started out by cutting 

the squares for the block

and then cut a few more to add an extra row

Making it a 14" block instead...

because I wanted to make a pillow and 

I already had a pillow form that size:)

After quilting…

I chose these two cute prints by my friend 

Pam's Pam Kitty Garden Collection

for the envelope pillow back.

I often use this method for the back of my pillows because

its easy to take the pillow form out…

And turn them into wall art!

These photos are from my book 

Great Granny Squared

and it includes instructions on 

exactly how I do the back of my pillows:)

I chose to use red for the binding.

I think it finished super cute and

 was super fast and simple to make!

I can also use it as a 

cute little table topper 

in my farm girl kitchen...

Or insert the pillow form and 

have a super cute pillow!

Every farm girl kitchen 

should have a gingham pillow:)

Next farm girl block 

for this week is on page 35 and is my 

Furrows Block

Another classic and super simple one.

I chose to make scrappy flying geese

and name the block Furrows

to represent the look of a pasture after

 it's just been plowed and ready for planting!

Last night I decided to whip up a few 12" Furrows blocks.

I grabbed my 3 1/2" scrappy stash basket

and quickly cut some geese:)

Chain pieced them...

And soon they were ready to be sewn into

Furrows

(background is Swiss Dots by Riley Blake in Navy)

I made 9 blocks and laid them out on the floor

for placement auditions.

Each block represents a plowed pasture.

I turned each block a different direction and 

now I have 9 scrappy happy acres 

plowed and ready for planting!

I could easily add more blocks to this quilt

but I just may stop here because a 

36" square quilt would be a super cute table topper!

Thanks for joining me for week ten

of my Farm Girl Fridays Sew Along...

CLICK HERE

to see the schedule and to

 visit this weeks guest bloggers!

Now go put on some 

gingham and plow your fields!

xx

Lori

The Quilty Barn Along - Barn 12 and Easy Flying Geese and "Furrows" Block Tutorial!...

Good morning!

I'm off to a bit of a late start but today it's time for the 

Quilty Barn Along!

This is #12 and the last block for the first quilty barn quilt!

Can you believe it?

Don't worry...

we still have a few more quilty silo barns to make for the second quilt:)

For this last red barn...

I chose to design a block representing furrowed fields:)

I used my easy flying geese method to make 3 calico furrowed rows...

the block is called 

"Furrows" of course!

It's a perfect companion to my
Vintagey Farm Girl Tractor 
block for the quilt label:)

(I am working on the embroidery for 
the steering wheel and the words right now!)

Okay...

I have showed this method many times before...

but I'm showing you again!

This is how to make the flying geese for the furrow block.

You will need to cut:

6 - 3 3/4" squares for the background

6 - 3 1/4" squares for the geese

(This will make 24 little geese...

you will only need 18 for the block)

I used a 1/2" x 6" Omnigrid ruler to mark stitching lines...

2 lines diagonally down the center...

1/2" apart.

Click Here

to see my short YouTube video about this ruler:)

Mark both directions...

like this.

Now cut this marked square in half...

(measure in 1 7/8")

and in half again so that you have 4 - 1 7/8" squares.

Repeat for remaining 5 background squares....

4 small marked squares for each large "goose" square!

Lay the first one on top of a goose square (right sides together)

and align corners and sides perfectly.

Stitch directly on the marked line...

add another square and align on the bottom corner and continue stitching.

(squares will overlap in the center, just make sure to match marked lines)

Now stitch on the remaining marked line.

Notice that I chain stitched all six to save time and thread:)

When all marked lines are sewn...

cut down the center like this.

Press towards the little background triangles...

you now have 12 segments shaped like a heart...

cute huh?

Now you can sew one remaining small square to each segment...

(stitch on both marked lines again)

Cut apart...

Press and trim bitty triangles...

off the seam allowances:)

Lay out your furrows block onto your design board.

I used one of each color in each row...

leaving me with one leftover of each color:)

I sewed mine together side by side like this...

Until I had 6 rows of 3.

Using a tailors awl will help keep your seams lined up 

when sewing these tiny geese together!

Press the side by side seams open for less bulk.

Now sew the six rows on top of each other...

and press these seams up and away from the points like this.

"Furrows"

6 1/2" unfinished

Sew your red strips around it for the side of the barn...

And build your barn!

Quilty Barn #12...

Hangin' out with Quilty Barn #11:)

Next Quilty Barn post you will see my quilt

 all together and ready to be quilted!

Have a barn buildin' kind of day!

xx

Lori

P.S. Later I'll show you what I made

 out of my 6 little leftover geese:)

Waste not...want not!