Chart 79: Monette, Block 64 in the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt Sew Along

Monette was one of the blocks in the book that has some corrections since the first printing. Make sure that you are working with the corrected instructions. Click here to download the corrections PDF from the author's website.

When strip techniques are appropriate, as they are in Monette, we will use them every time and have written the instructions to include making strip sets. They need to be cut what we call a full 1-inch wide — that means a few threads wider than 1 in h or close to 1-1/32 inch wide.

Monette also gives us an opportunity to repeat “How to Cut Squares with a Triangle Template.” Remember, repetition is the best way to add a technique to your toolbox of cutting tricks!

My Monette Block

Click on the image for a larger view. Click the link below to download the Chart for cutting and making Monette:

From Marti Michell Chart #79
 

Visit these other Farmer's Wife Sew Along blogs, too, for sewing tutorials and other info about the Monette block:

http://gnomeangel.com

http://www.onelittlepooh.net/blog-2/

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.

Chart 78: Lola, Block #52 in the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt Sew Along

If you are one of the quilters who wanted to finish as soon as possible, Lola is probably one of the blocks that you made a long time ago. It was one I put aside for conversions, because the sizes were not obviously template friendly. One day it hit me that the measurements might be perfect if you work in metric and sure enough, they were.

Coincidentally about the same time I ran across this great tip in the "Threads" email newsletter, Threads for People Who Love to Sew!

We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog post...

If you don’t subscribe, I recommend that you do. Threads doesn't overload you with emails and it is easy to skim. I was a dedicated garment-maker before I started quilting and loved it so much that my college degree was in Textiles and Clothing combined with Home Ec. Technical Journalism. If I had to guess, I would say that I haven’t made a garment in 25 years, but reading the Threads Newsletter keeps me connected with my first sewing. You can sign up here: love.http://www.threadsmagazine.com/eletter/

Now back to the tip!

It has to do with tape measures that have both metric measurements and inches. Here is the question…Please divide 18-7/8 inches by 5 with just your tape measure.

Click here for the answer, assuming your tape measure has both inches and metric. You will especially love this idea if you do any machine embroidery or love to browse quilting magazines from around the world.

http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/47954/tip-divide-measurements-easily

My Lola Block

Click on the image for a larger view. Click the link below to download the Chart for cutting and making Lola:

From Marti Michell Chart #78
 

Visit these other Farmer's Wife Sew Along blogs, too, for sewing tutorials and other info about the Lola block:

http://gnomeangel.com

http://thecraftymummy.com/

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.

Chart 77: Mrs. Thomas, Block #74 in the Farmer's Wife Sew Along, or our Aunt Gladys

 

Aunt Gladys

If you own Perfect Patchwork Template Set L, it is perfect for cutting Mrs. Thomas. If you don’t own Set L, we have substituted the Set A version of the same block, which reduces the number of pieces in the block from 45 to 33.

You might suspect that I own Set L 😊, so I could make a Mrs. Thomas block, but my quilt will include our block Aunt Gladys made with Set A.

Coincidentally, when I was a girl, a Mrs. Thomas lived about two miles down the road from our house and my Aunt Gladys and Uncle Jess (my Dad’s brother) were their neighbors. Every summer, Aunt Gladys and Uncle Jess had the biggest garden in the area. I remember fondly what a pleasure it was to see Uncle Jess pull into our driveway with sweet corn and Beefsteak tomatoes as big as a slice of bread! What a summer treat – lettuce, bacon and tomato sandwiches and fresh picked sweet corn for dinner!

If you choose to use Set L, these are the conversions for Mrs. Thomas:

My Aunt Gladys Block

Click on the image for a larger view. Click the link below to download the Chart for cutting and making Aunt Gladys:

From Marti Michell Chart #77

Visit these other Farmer's Wife Sew Along blogs, too, for sewing tutorials and other info about the Mrs. Thomas block:

http://gnomeangel.com

http://whynotsew.blogspot.com/

Bonus: 8½-inch Mystery Quilt Block with Set A

Aunt Gladys can also be made in 8-1/2 inches finished size -- perfect for our mystery quilt sampler!

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.

Chart 76: Mrs. Fay, Block #68 in the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt Sew Along

Psst, did you hear? Mrs. Fay got a facelift! 

There is a template conversion chart on the PDF if you want to make Mrs. Fay as shown in the book. However, if there is one thing I didn't want to do, it was a set-in square in the center of a 6-inch block!

I thought about dividing the block into 4 identically pieced triangles, as I wanted to keep the strong gold parallelograms seam-free.

That was a cool idea… but so "Not Me" to divide the center square and add seam lines!

Then I thought, how about this instead…

But, if we are doing away with set-in seams to make construction easier, why not also eliminate cutting and sewing mirror-image parallelograms and really give Mrs. Fay a facelift? If you want to do the mirror-image parallelograms, don't forget to cut them with fabrics right sides together (see my blog posts for Charts 25 and 26 in the January 2016 archive at right).

So, we chose to make Mrs. Fay with Four Patches and Flying Geese units. Download the template conversion chart for more details.

 

My Mrs. Fay Block 

Click on the image for a larger view. Click the link below to download the Template Conversion Chart for cutting and making Mrs. Fay:

From Marti Michell Chart #76

Visit these other Farmer's Wife Sew Along blogs, too, for sewing tutorials and other info about the Mrs. Fay block:

http://gnomeangel.com

http://www.charmaboutyou.com/

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.

Bear's Paw in the Beehive for the Marti Michell Mini Quilt Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on the blog hop! Angie Wilson, the Gnome Angel blogger, organized a terrific blog hop so you could use your From Marti Michell templates to make some great new little quilts designed by a dozen of the bloggers who have been posting block tutorials for the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt Sew Along. The quilts are all so cute and colorful!

There's a contest, too, with a great From Marti Michell prize pack!  On Friday, November 18, the other bloggers (listed below) and I will post a link on our blogs. To enter the contest, make a quilt using one of our patterns and submit a photo of your quilt via this linky. Alternatively you can submit your photo to the specific album in the Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt Facebook Group or you can post it on Instagram with the hashtag #MartiMichellMiniQuiltmania and tag Angie (@gnomeangel) and me (@MartiMichell) in the photo.

A secret panel of judges will chose their favorite entries, which will go in the running to win the prize pack. Entries can be submitted from Friday, November 18, 2016, to Friday, November 25, at 6:30 am EST (6:30 EST, 7:30 am AEST) and winners will be announced on Wednesday, November 30, at 6:30 am EST (7:30 am AEST). The judges' decision will be final.

My Design is Called Bear's Paw in a Beehive

Challenged with making a mini quilt using From Marti Michell Perfect Patchwork Templates Sets A, B, D, N or S, I decided I wanted to use some of the pieces from Set D that were not used very often or at all in the Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Sew Along.

For inspiration, I went to Volume 2 of the Encyclopedia of Patchwork Blocks (Product #8343). It has a collection of dozens of blocks that incorporate the shapes in Sets A and C or B and D.

In no time, I had selected “Spy Glass” on page 31 as a starting point. It is a variation of a block called “North Dakota.” In its standard coloration, North Dakota appears as four stars. Color it differently and we got “Spy Glass.” (Click on the image for a larger view.)

I asked Patti, who does all of our terrific graphics, to pull out a block with the light circle... make four #22 triangles in the center and then divide them horizontally... add a narrow border and then “Bear’s Paw” corners. It looked like this:

After some fabric trials, I zeroed in on the fabric group I wanted to use: Bee Creative by Deb Strain for Moda Fabrics. Then laying out fabric samples made it easy to make some changes. I wanted:

    • All of the #23 background triangles to be the same color,

    • To eliminate the small B13 triangles on the light colored #24 kite shapes

    • To follow our own tip and substitute #22 for two #23 small triangles in several places.

Because the Bee Creative fabrics shared the gray, black and white colors, it was easy to substitute the gold accent for purple and create a new visual:

 

And Bear's Paw in a Beehive was born! The quilt is 22 inches (55.9 cm) square. The instructions are in PDF form, just like our Farmer's Wife 1930s Sewing Along PDFs. Keep reading for some great tips and then download the instructions, along with a photo of my quilt, using the link at the end of this article.

Tips for Easy Sewing, Efficient and Accuracy

 

1. When sewing the corner units (steps 1 and 2 in the downloadable instructions), pay attention to the orientation of the long skinny template D-23 triangles to be sure you are sewing the correct edges together. Press toward the triangle each time. (Click on the image for a larger view.)

2. For the side sections (steps 3 and 4 in the instructions), the templates' engineered corners help make matching pieces for stitching easy peasy. The corners for the two most common arrangements fit perfectly:

This less common arrangement of two #23 triangles aligns partially:

For Bear's Paw in a Beehive, I used a brand new cutting trick to make the side sections (step 4). After all these years of using these templates, they still surprise me!

After joining the first gray #23 triangles to a #24 kite, I pressed toward #23. Then I placed the D-23 template on the sewn unit as shown below and nipped the corner. This quick little trick allows for perfect alignment in the next step!

I then aligned the edges of the kite with the appropriate side of the black D-22 triangle as shown here, with the black triangle on the bottom. Chain piece 4 units, press toward #23 and then add the gray and white mirror-image units to the opposite sides of the black triangles.

Download Instructions for Bear's Paw in a Beehive

Use this link to download a 2-page PDF to make this wallhanging. You may want to refer back to this blog post when you begin sewing.

Thanks for hopping by! 

Come back again on November 25 for news about the contest winner!  And be sure to visit all the blogs to collect all the free patterns for fun quilts to make using your From Marti Michell templates!

August 12, 2016  
Angie Wilson    http://www.gnomeangel.com

August 19, 2016   
Tonya Grant    http://thecraftymummy.com

August 26, 2016  
Lucy Brennan    http://www.charmaboutyou.com

September 2, 2016   
Kirsty    http://www.bonjourquilts.com

September 9, 2016   
Catherine Demack    http://catandvee.blogspot.com

September 16, 2016   
Nathalie    http://ouvragesdenat.com

September 23, 2016   
Alyce Blyth    http://www.blossomheartquilts.com

September 30, 2016  
Peta Peace    http://shequiltsalot.com

October 7, 2016  
Lisa    http://www.sweetlittlepretties.com

October 14, 2016   
Rachel M    http://woodenspoonquilts.blogspot.com.au

October 21, 2016   
Raylee Bielenberg    http://www.sunflowerquilting.com.au/sunflower-quilting-blog/

October 28, 2016
Lisa Johnson    http://intheboondocks.blogspot.com.au

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