Chart 21: Perfect Grainlines and Malvina, Block #55 in the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sew Along

Living in a Perfect Grainline World

In a perfect world, every piece in every patchwork block would have an obvious best grainline cutting position on the fabric. Needless to say, we don’t live in a perfect world or even a perfect grainline world. It is easy to list grainline guidelines. When possible, you want the lengthwise grain of the fabric:

• On the outside edge of the piece,
• The outside edge of the sub-unit,
• And, on the outside edge of the block.

The most important of these guidelines, especially when making 6-inch finished patchwork blocks like we are in the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt Sew Along, is to have straight lengthwise grain on the outside edge of the block. The reason I say that is, typically, a finished block may lay around and be handled and finally manipulated a bit when being sewn into a quilt. The more stable the edges are, the less likely you are to distort it along the way, the flatter your quilt top will be, etc.

The next most important grainline position is the outside of the sub-units. Sub-units are also often subject to more handling, pressing, laying around.

If you want the outside edge of the sub-units to be on the straight grain, you have to identify or locate the sub-units. The Farmer’s Wife blocks are divided into sub-units on the block pages in the book. However, many blocks can be divided into more than one set of sub-units. Malvina is a perfect example. Look at the sub-units on page 214 in The Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt book. The edge of all 12 pieces on the outside of the block is the hypotenuse of a 90° right triangle. It is easy to cut them on the straight grain.

 
However, the remaining 16 right triangles that are the same size and cut from the same fabric are sewn into square sub-units and we grainline geeks would want to cut those triangles with the legs on straight grain.

This is a Great Place for Compromise…

It is a real nuisance to cut the same shapes from the same fabric on two different grainlines and keep track of them. Naturally, there are times I have felt it was worth the effort and I have done it, but that was usually with bigger pieces for larger blocks. I did not think it was worth it on this 6-inch block, but I took a second look at the arrangements of the sub-units and decided to make different sub-units.

You will see on our Template Conversion Chart PDF that by making different sub-units, we could cut all of the triangles with the hypotenuse on straight grain -- and because we made different sub-units, the sides of most of the sub-units were also on straight grain. In addition, the four-patch unit in the center has straight grain on the outside edge of every piece, so where the squares are joined to the hypotenuse of the extra triangles, they will provide stability.

And Maybe Extra Starch

When you know you are compromising grainline cutting decisions, you may want to use more sizing or starch to stabilize pieces. We don’t recommend real starch unless you know you will finish the top, have it quilted and then wash the quilt to remove the starch in a timely manner. Many bugs love starch!

Remember, Design Overrides Grainline

Regardless of how much I stress grainline, I also say design always overrides grainline. Things like fussy cutting or the use of stripes or other directional fabrics to add a desired design element would be examples of design overriding grainline. When you make that choice, just take extra special care as you handle the pieces.

My Malvina Block

Click on the image for a larger view. Click the link to download the Template Conversion Chart for Malvina:

From Marti Michell Template Conversion Chart #21
 

In addition to our template conversion PDF download, you will want to read Gnome Angel's tutorials for these blocks.

On a Personal Note

In the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt book, the letter that goes with the Malvina block struck a chord with me. The writer was proclaiming the enjoyment the family shared around the radio. Radio was important in my childhood home, too, as it wasn't until I was a sophomore in high school that Dad surprised the family with a television set. Radio was also special to our community of Mitchellville near Des Moines, Iowa. We were proud to be the home of the powerful 50,000 watt WHO AM radio tower. WHO could be heard from the Rockies to Pittsburgh and from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

I'll never forget the year mom got a new electric stove. When she turned on the left back burner, we heard WHO radio! It always intrigued me that we couldn't hear the radio on any of the other burners!

Our house was right beside the main road between Des Moines and the WHO transmitter. There is a famous family story about a WHO sportscaster who stopped at our house for directions and chatted and had a glass of water before going on. Because the sportscaster was the radio voice for major league baseball all over the Midwest, he was quite the celebrity. Later, when the Midwest sportscaster became a Hollywood actor, mom and dad repeated the story. When he became president of the United States, we joked about putting up a billboard at the farm that said Ronald Reagan drank water here!

The Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt: Inspiring Letters from Farm Women of the Great Depression and 99 Quilt Blocks That Honor Them by Laurie Aaron Hird for Fons & Porter/F+W