Sunday, March 20, 2016

Happy Spring! A Quilt Block a Day Tutorial

It's Spring! Not that you'd know it in Colorado -- low of 14F and 22F currently, with snow on the ground.

But, as Shelley wrote, "if Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?"

With the advent of Spring comes a new "Quilt Block a Day." Did you keep up with making 90 nine-patch blocks during Winter? I hope so, because you need them to make the Spring BaD!

We're going to convert our nine-patch blocks to Farmer's Daughter blocks. Yes, I'm a farmer's daughter. I grew up on a dairy farm. Maybe that's why I wake up at 4 am every day?

Here is the completed Farmer's Daughter block:


To make it, start with the nine-patch block, tutorial here.



I'm making my Farmer's Daughter quilt using scrappy reds and background tone-on-tone prints. Of course, you can make your's using other colors, or three colors. Or really, really scrappy, with each element a different fabric!

To make the block, first you'll need eight half-square triangles. For a 90-block quilt, that's 720 HSTs. Don't panic, we'll only need eight each day. Cut a stack of HSTs and use them as your Leaders and Enders while sewing other things.

1. Place a 2½" strip of colored fabric right sides together with a 2½" strip of background fabric.


2. Use the EZ-Angle ruler to cut HSTs across the two strips. Then sew on the diagonal seam and press toward the dark fabric. 


3. Lay out the eight HSTs, eight background squares, and the nine-patch block to form the Farmer's Daughter block:


4. Sew two HSTs and one background square together to form the short side of the FD block:



5. Press toward the center background square.   This segment will be sewn to the side of the nine-patch block where the background square seam is pressed toward the dark squares:




6. Although I rarely use pins, in this case, pins will ensure your vertical seams match. Stitch with the HSTs on top, so you can stitch right across the "X" of the seam on the HST:


7. Press toward the nine-patch block:


8. Next, sew three background squares alternating with two HSTs to form the long side of the block.


9. Press each seam toward the outside background square. "nestle" the seams and stitch:


10. Press this seam toward the nine-patch:


 11.  A final pressing, and there's your Farmer's Daughter block!
 

 One down, 89 to go!


From the desk of your auntmartisignature