Chart 48: Setting Triangles and Iris, Block #44 in the Farmer's Wife Sew Along

Iris is another block to which I made many construction technique adaptations. A little applique eliminated a lot of pieces. The methods I used are detailed on the PDF. I hope you will download it and find the instructions useful.

Looking for More 6-inch Blocks?

Someone emailed that she needs 126 blocks for the quilt size she is making and then she asked how many more alternate blocks I would be including. I thanked her for the compliment. The question implied that she thinks I am done! In fact, other than having determined the order of the blocks, I’m only a few blocks ahead of all of you!

But I’m guessing 8 or 10 maybe even 12 major modifications of blocks or complete substitutes are in my future. If you are also looking for substitutions or additions to make a bigger quilt, don’t forget that the instruction booklet that comes with Set S has 6 additional blocks included. I also checked the Index of Volume 1 of the Encyclopedia of Patchwork Blocks and it has 26 six-inch blocks, mostly made with Set A.

From Marti Michell Product #8342, $10

Don’t forget, it is your quilt. There is a certain interesting discipline to making a quilt stitch for stitch like someone else, but there is also a charm to personalizing the same quilt with some of your own choices.

Looking Ahead to the Setting Triangles

If you are using the setting included in the book, it is REALLY important to cut those large right triangles with the hypotenuse or long side on straight grain and preferably on straight lengthwise grain. That means you will cut strips parallel to the selvage and then cut the triangles.

There are three really easy and accurate ways to cut the setting triangles with From Marti Michell specialty rulers.

Pick from Three Tools for Cutting the Setting Triangles!

You may even already own one of them!

Click photo for a larger view.

Cut 12 or 15 and put them up on your design wall to make sure you like your fabric selection. Then you can start sewing the triangles in place as you finish each block. You'll be ready to arrange the blocks into a pleasing layout when you want to.

1. Back in August 2015 when I wrote the first list of potential tools, I recommended the Small No-flip Diagonal Set Triangle Ruler #8105 for cutting the setting triangles. It was the obvious tool to recommend — it is designed specifically for cutting setting triangles for blocks from 2-1/2  to 10 inches square.  (Click the diagrams for larger views.)

2. Later, I realized the Flying Geese Ruler also has a line that is perfect for the triangle. The line to align with the fabric is actually the seam line of the largest triangle. It has nothing to do with setting triangles, it just happens to be the right size triangle needed for setting this quilt.

3. Just recently I discovered that the outside dimension of one of our newest tools, the Multi-size Half-Square Triangle Ruler, is also the exact size needed for the setting triangle. Ignore the printed lines and place the hypotenuse on the straight edge of the strip to cut full size triangles.

No matter how you cut the triangles, remember to cut the strips on the lengthwise grain parallel to the selvage. The strips should be 4-3/4 inches wide when you cut the triangles with any of these tools. The engineered corners create a “dog-ear free zone” and make lining setting triangles up with 6-1/2 inch squares so easy. Just like this:

Both the Diagonal Set Setting Triangle and the Flying Geese Triangle also have instructions for the setting corner triangles that you need at the top and bottom of rows.

See directions in the book starting on page 260 for joining the blocks and making rows. Press seams toward the setting triangles.

Planning to Cut Triangles with Your Standard Ruler?

Please, please! Read the following carefully if you are using the quilt layout in the book and planning to ruler-cut the setting triangles.

It would be easy to just start cutting half-square right triangles from squares. BUT, if you do that both long edges of every strip will be on true bias, which means it will be almost impossible to get a nice flat quilt top.

 Some people recommend stay stitching the bias edges, but if the edge stretches while sewing (due to presser foot and feed dog pressure and/or finger resistance), the stay stitching will set the stretch. (Click the diagrams for larger views.)

You can cut a larger square and cut across it diagonally in both directions. In this case you would need to cut 9-3/4 inch squares. The reason I don’t recommend this method is that you end up with two setting triangles that have crosswise grain on the hypotenuse and two that have lengthwise grain, which results in varying amounts of stretch on those long seams.

Even more important to me is that if your background fabric has even the slightest directional design, some of the design "lines" will be horizontal and some vertical, which can be very disruptive visually. Sometimes even triangles of solid white fabric look different when cut that way and the quilt is assembled! Directional designs are obvious when they are stripes but many floral prints, etc., are also directional.

Testing is always good. If you plan to cut this way, cut a few and put them up on your design wall for a closer examination before you cut and sew all the triangles.

The goal is to always have the longest side of the triangle, or the hypotenuse, on the outside edges of your quilt rows on straight lengthwise grain.  It's not hard to do -- it just requires a little planning before you begin to cut them.  Your triangles won't stretch as they're added to the blocks.  Your rows won't stretch as they are joined so your quilt will be "square".  And the length of your quilt top will match from side to side and top to bottom.

P. S. All of the above suggestions also apply to setting triangles for any diagonal set quilt design, not just the zig-zag layout for the 1930s Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt.

My Iris Block

Click the links below to download the Chart for cutting and making Iris:

From Marti Michell Chart #48

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

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 47: Quick 4-Patches and Mrs. Smith, Block #72 in the 1930s Farmer's Wife Sew Along

Mrs. Smith is a 6-inch block with 53 pieces. That could look impossible unless you break the block down into the smaller sub-units. That is one of the real benefits of making a quilt that has so many different designs like the Farmer’s Wife Sampler. You learn to recognize the smaller units you have already made and are comfortable making.

You’ve seen me talk about the design grid before, like graph paper that is divided into squares. Mrs. Smith is an 8 x 8 grid design. You could easily color in the shapes used in Mrs. Smith in 64 squares – 8 x 8 on graph paper. You would not be surprised to see an 8 x 8 block made with pieced units 2 x 2 or 4 x 4.

But you may be surprised to see the units or sub-units that you will piece in Mrs. Smith. They are actually 3 x 3, 2 x 3 and 2 x 2, but even though this is today’s new block, there is nothing new in this block.

You have just made 4 patches in Post #46, Tracy. In Post #45, Fanny, which was made on a very similar 8 x 8 grid, you framed a 2 x 2 unit with a square and 2 rectangles just like you will in Mrs. Smith. The final style of sub-unit you need to make is similar to the mirror image parallelograms in Post #25, Joy and Post #26, Lillian or Lily. These are even easier. They just have mirror image parallelograms with small triangles at each end.

Speaking of Four Patches

Special tricks for making 4-patch sub-units aren’t critical when you are making one 6” block but when you need dozens of 4-patch units it’s another story. After years of promoting strip methods for 4-patch units, I was tickled to discover a way to make 4 patches faster with acrylic templates than the old-fashioned strip technique way.

Here it is excerpted from 5 is Fabulous!, the fifth volume in the Encyclopedia of Patchwork Blocks. The instructions are from the quilt called Bean Counter’s Star. Even with only 16 four-patch units it is worth learning.

Making Four Patch Units

This fun way of layering fabric and cutting squares to size with a template is faster and more accurate than the well-known strip technique—but you have to try it to believe it.

Cutting

1. From the background fabric B (white), cut a piece 13-1/2 inches (3/8 yard) long by the width of the fabric. (This is just the size needed for this project, it is not a magical size!)

2. Put fabrics B and C (blue dots) right sides together and fold fabrics in half, selvage to selvage. The wrong side of the white background fabric should show on the outside.

3. Trim off the selvages. Starting at the just-trimmed edge and using Q-93 to measure the strip width, cut four strips, 3″ wide, on the lengthwise grain. The fabrics should be correctly stacked light, dark, dark, light for the next step. (Of course, you would use the appropriate square template and measure the Marti Way.)

4. From the stacked strip sets (4 layers of fabric), cut 16 sets of square Q-93 = four sets from each strip.

Sewing

1. Make 16 Four Patches. Chain piece stacked pairs of squares in order. The top piece of each pair will alternate light, dark, etc. When pressing, flip over every other pair so that all the dark squares are on top (see diagram below).  Open and press; the seam allowances will automatically be pressed toward the dark fabric.

2. Cut apart in pairs, leaving one thread between pairs, as shown.

3. Rotate and place the right pair on top of the left pair, right sides together as shown, and stitch the edges that are still connected by a thread to make a four-patch unit. Four Patches should be 5½″ square, including seam allowances. Confirm size with T-102.

Want Some More Practice?

If you really want to practice making 4-patches, I recommend our Queen/Double 4-Patch Mosaic Quilt. You will also get a great workout with any of our Diagonal Set Triangle Rulers when you make this quilt. The easiest one to use when making this quilt is the small no-flip Diagonal Set Triangle Ruler, #8105. That ruler is also very easy to use for cutting the setting triangles for the Farmer’s Wife setting that Laurie used. See next week's post when we talk about cutting the setting triangles and making sure the long edge is on straight grain, preferably (surely you know what I’m going to say!) straight lengthwise grain!

My Mrs. Smith Block

Click the links below to download the Chart for cutting and making Mrs. Smith.

From Marti Michell Chart #47
PDF updated April 25

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

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 46: Tracy, Large and Small, Block 97 in the Farmer's Wife Sew Along

It has been awhile since we have converted any blocks to 8-1/2 inches for our 8-1/2 inch mystery quilt blocks, so this week we have 2 PDFs for you. 😊 After the PDF for the 6-inch Tracy block, you can download and print a second PDF for the 8-1/2 Tracy block. They will look almost identical, so please be careful!

Speaking of 8-1/2 Inch Blocks…

Now that we are doing only one block per week, if you miss making 2 blocks, you may want to start making the 8-1/2 inch blocks. Four were posted with Chart 11 on November 2, 2015. They were Caroline, Old Maid, Jenny and Addie.

In the November 11 post with Chart 14, we added Nancy.

And on December 16, with Chart 24, we added Ava and Cat.

Are you ready for Setting Triangles?

In two weeks, I'll be writing about cutting the setting triangles using regular and specialty rulers (our Multi-Size Half-Square Triangle Ruler happens to be the exact overall size; you can rotate it on the strip to get the correct grainline!)

My Tracy Block

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

From Marti Michell Chart #46

Tracy in 8-1/2 inch finished block size

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

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 45: Fabric Key and Fanny, Block #32 in the Farmer's Wife Sew Along

Making a Fabric Key

When I look at the pictures of blocks posted in the Facebook group this sew along, it appears some people are trying to mimic the colors in the blocks and others, not at all. For example, my red, black, gray and white blocks are marching to their own drummer! (Red and black were my high school colors, but we did not have enough students for a marching band.)

When we do the instructions on the PDF pages, we try to mimic the colors in the book to make it easier to relate one to the other. However, if there are more than a dozen pieces as well as three colors, I almost always have made a color key similar to what we suggest at the beginning of the PDF for Fanny.

It seemed like I was always searching for the right size piece of paper for my key so I finally asked Patti, our graphic designer, to make me a page of fabric keys. I printed several and cut them to size and clipped them to the book so they would be handy. We thought you might like to do the same so we added a page of 4 fabric keys to the PDF Conversion Chart for Fanny. You can print them as needed and keep them handy, too.

My Fanny Block

Click on the image for a larger view. Click the link below to download the Chart for cutting and making Fanny, and blank fabric keys (page 2 of the PDF):

From Marti Michell Chart #45

After you click on the above link, if you get the message you see in the image below, just click the blue Download button and the file should automatically go into your Downloads folder. If you don't know where your Downloads folder is, you may have to do a search for it on your computer. Or if it's not working on your iPad, look in your iBooks folder; that's where ours go.

 
 

 

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

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 44, Viola and Nellie in the 1930s Farmer's Wife Sew Along

This is a 2 for 1 day!

Why you might ask? One answer is that now that you have had a couple of warm up sessions with strip techniques and checkerboard designs, you can turn out these 2 blocks in no time!  Another one says that while you are cutting 1-1/4 inch strips, you might as well cut a bunch. Besides, the more strips you cut and press and sew in one session, the more efficient you will be.

The real answer is these blocks look like twin sisters that don’t like to be separated but just don’t want to dress alike. Back in the 1930s they probably married brothers and lived on farms no more than ½ mile apart.

Happy strip piecing on 2 for 1 day!

My Blocks

Nellie

Viola 

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

From Marti Michell Chart #44
 

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

Chart 43: Emma, our version of Em, Block #30 in the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sew Along

The block we call Emma looks just like Em, except we have eliminated a dozen unnecessary seams by making 8 Flying Geese units and 4 rectangles to replace 16 half-square triangles and 8 squares. Plus we used strip techniques to make the checkerboard units instead of cutting tiny individual squares.

You may have forgotten, I wrote in a previous post that my Mom was an Iowa farm wife in the 1930s.  So, when I decided that I would substitute a very template-friendly block for Aimee that was only barely template-friendly, I named the new block Alta, after my Mom. I also decided that whenever I offered an optional template-friendly block, it would be named in memory of a 1930s Iowa farm wife who was either my mother’s friend or one of my friends' mothers. Emma was both.

Emma’s son Clarence was a classmate of mine for 12 years. Even though our small graduating class of 26 has spread from coast-to-coast, we have kept in touch. It was fun to find out at a class reunion about 10 years ago that Emma’s granddaughters and Clarence’s daughters, Susan and Julie, are two of the partners who own Ladybug’s Quilts in Manteca, CA, about 60 miles south of Sacramento. Don’t miss it if you are in the area and make sure you tell them “Marti sent you!”

Photos courtesy of Ladybug's Quilts

Emma’s Signature Quilt

It was especially fun that, just as we were starting the Farmer’s Wife quilt-along, Emma’s family members discovered a signature quilt from the 1930s which included Emma’s embroidered name. They shared a snapshot of the quilt and her name block.

This quilt has the earmarks of a good fundraising signature quilt. It was common for people to contribute money to have their signature included in the quilt. Usually that also gave those people an opportunity to win the quilt when it was completed, and it looks like Emma won.

You can make your own 6-inch signature block or blocks. If you and several friends are cheering each other on as you make the Farmer’s Wife quilt -- it might be fun to put their signature blocks on the back of the quilt.

Use triangle template A-2 for the triangle corners. Cut 3 strips a scant 2 inches wide by 4-3/4 inches long for the signature area. True up the signature square with template C-15 (a 4-3/4 inch  square) if you own Set C or use My Favorite 6-1/2 inch Squaring Up Ruler. Don’t forget to press freezer paper to the back of the signature area to stabilize it for signing.

Join triangles to opposite sides of the 3-strip square, press toward the center and then add the remaining triangles to the remaining opposite sides.

My Emma Block

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

From Marti Michell Chart #43
 

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

Thanks for reading this to the end! Leave a comment below to enter our giveaway and you could be one of 3 random commenters to win a set of our new multi-size Starry Path Templates for 6-, 9-, and 12-inch blocks. The 6-inch size would be perfect as an extra block in your Farmer's Wife quilt. We'll do a random pick on March 28, 2016.


P.S. Jinny Beyer's Quilters Album of Patchwork Patterns credits the Starry Path block design to Alice Brooks Design, Chicago Tribune, 1936.

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.

Free Quilt Shows for Worldwide Quilting Weekend!

Saturday March 19 is Worldwide Quilting Day; a day for quilters to celebrate quilting with their local quilt shops. Quilting has become a pastime with creative makers worldwide. Show your love of quilting by using #WWQuiltingDay on social media. You can see more of what's happening on Worldwide Quilting Day at http://worldwidequiltingday.com/

To celebrate International Quilting Weekend, The Quilt Show, the web series hosted by Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims, is opening their doors to everyone!  For three special days, March 18-20, you can access over 200 shows by some of the world's leading teachers and quilt artists!  And the sponsors have donated over $11,000 worth of prizes!  My show is episode 504, about curved Log Cabins and quilt-as-you-sew.

We'd love to have you browse our catalog, too, and any orders placed during International Quilt Weekend will get free shipping! This offer is good through midnight your time Sunday night.  *Free shipping is for US orders only. Free shipping will not appear in your online order totals, but  Your order will be credited for the shipping adjustment when your order is processed by Helga or Sherry in our Customer Service Dept. Your credit card will not be charged until your order is ready for shipment.

Because I'm a star member, I can watch The Quilt Show any time, so I'm hoping to be cheering on our Iowa State Cyclones in the NCAA Tournament on Saturday!  We were so excited when we only had to drive 5 hours to see them play in Florida earlier this year, and then we got close enough for pictures! Here I am with Georges Niang, and Richard is with Monte Morris. I'm in the smallest photo with Monte's proud mom.

Go, Cyclones!

 

Chart 42: Cutting Rectangles and April, Block 6 in the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sew Along

April is the first Log Cabin Ruler block in the quilt. I know it doesn’t look like a Log Cabin block, but it is very conducive to cutting with the Log Cabin Ruler because of the strip techniques used in the block.

If you didn’t read the last blog, Chart #41 for Blossom, please go back, as I wrote there in detail about using Log Cabin Rulers to cut strip technique blocks. The #8037 ruler with 3/4-inch finished strips is perfect for April's small squares. At the same time, the companion 1-1/2 inch finished squares in April can also be easily cut with the Log Cabin Ruler.

Even though there are endless variations of Log Cabin quilts, the usefulness of the Log Cabin Rulers are not limited to Log Cabin quilts. So, to emphasize the versatility of the ruler, check out this list of all the ways you will use one ruler in the April block.

1. Measure 1-1/4 inch cut strip widths when cutting “the Marti way.” (Step 1 on the PDF chart, similar to cutting the Marti Way in previous charts.)

2. Turn the strips and the ruler and cut strips to length. The illustration shows cutting b strips (step 5 on the PDF chart.)

3. Confirm proper width of sewn strips for the Nine Patch sub-units. (Step 3)
4. Measure and cut the crosscut units for the Nine Patch sub-units. (Also step 3)
5. As an option, cut small a Squares to replace small triangles. (Step 4)
6. Cut the larger squares in April with A on the wide strip of the #8037 Log Cabin Ruler.

April Fools!

Be careful or this block will surprise you. Just when you think you are almost done, you realize there are 2 different Nine Patch units.

However, no April Fools' joke, just another template trick, when we show you how to “double-cut” A-7 if you choose to cut the tiny triangles instead of the option of cutting squares to replace the triangles.

My April Block

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

From Marti Michell Chart #42
 

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

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 41: Use Log Cabin Rulers for Any Strip Technique, and Blossom, Block #15 in the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sew Along

Reminder

The error on piece 15A has been posted many places, but it is good to remember the day you cut the pieces. Actually, it won't affect From Marti Michell template cutters because you will use template 100 from Set S to cut 10 pairs of #15A half-square triangles.

Starting Next Week

The next 6 blocks in a row are easily cut with From Marti Michell Log Cabin Ruler #8037 for cutting finished 1-1/2 inch and 3/4-inch strips.

What are Strip Techniques

Quilt designs which are dependent on strips to create designs or squares, rectangles or any combination of same, such as:

1. You cut strips. Often, but not always, many fabrics and the same width strips.
2. Sew strips together in a prescribed pattern and press seams.
3. Cut across the sewn strips, often but not always the same cut width as the first strips.
4. Sew these units with units of other combinations to make a design.

Using Log Cabin Rulers for Nearly Any Strip Technique Quilt

If you started quilting after 1979, the year the rotary cutter was invented, you have no idea how exciting the rotary cutter was to those of us who had previously cut everything with scissors. In the early years of the rotary cutter, the only acrylic cutting companions were long straight edges. The first rotary cutting tools were unmarked but were a specific width, such as 1-1/2 or 2 inches wide by 24-inch long rulers. They were soon followed by the 6-inch wide by 24-inch long rulers, marked in inches and quarter inches. (What a shame no one thought of size specific acrylic tools for quilters then!)

If you started quilting after 1995, when we began to manufacture and teach how to use many other acrylic shapes both size-specific and multi-size, you probably don’t know that starting in 1980, I was one of the original quilting “strippers!” My quilt history includes several years of making, teaching, and authoring best selling books on quilts with only straight cuts. Every piece in every quilt was a square or a rectangle. Over 700,000 copies of my book, Quilting for People Who Don’t Have Time to Quilt, published in 1988, were sold. People often tell me that was their first quilt book, and I love to hear it.

Ten years later, the expanded version, Quilting for People Who Still Don't Have Time to Quilt, was published and it introduced strip techniques to tens of thousands more quilters.

As the From Marti Michell templates and specialty rulers became well known, people begged for templates for Log Cabin blocks—surely with templates they could make Log Cabin blocks that were square and all the same size. Instead of templates, we created the very versatile From Marti Michell Log Cabin Rulers to make it easy to cut Log Cabin strips to length and on the lengthwise grain of the fabric.

It wasn’t long until I realized the Log Cabin rulers are easily adapted for use with many strip technique designs. Why? Because the Log Cabin Rulers are "width-specific." They can be used to easily measure and cut strip widths, as well as to do the second cut to create or help create the piece needed.

Why Log Cabin Ruler #8037?

When you divide 6-inch blocks on an 8 x 8 inch grid, the finished size of each unit on the grid is 3/4-inch square, or 1-1/4 inch cut. The narrow strip on the #8037 Log Cabin Ruler is exactly that wide.

Measure Strips for a Sixteen Patch

If you want to practice this, pick fabrics you like for Nellie (block #77) or Viola (block #98), which are coming soon!

Slide the ruler a few inches to the left (or right), out of the way.

Measure 1¼″ strips by placing the 1¼″ cut side (wide side) of the Log Cabin ruler on the fabric so that the trued up edge and the vertical line that is 2″ from the edge of the ruler are aligned. Hold it securely with the right (or left) hand as you slide the 3″ x 18″ ruler on the fabric so the ruler edges touch.

Remove the Log Cabin ruler and cut against the edge of the 3″ x 18″ inch ruler.

Join pairs of strips and press toward the dark. Join pairs of pairs and press in the same direction as before. (Illustrations are colored for block #77, Nellie.)

Cut the units. Use the 3/4-inch side of the ruler to measure the width and to confirm length and accuracy of strip width at the same time.

My Blossom Block

Click on the image for a larger view.

Click the purple link below to download the cutting and sewing chart for Blossom.

From Marti Michell Template Conversion Chart #41
for cutting and sewing the Blossom block

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

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.