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.

Chart #40: Partial Seam Lesson with Hope, Block #43 in the Farmer's Wife Sew Along

Measuring Strips when You Cut the Marti Way

When you are using a template to measure strip width, you want to use the template that is the correct width, but also, the one with the longest parallel sides. That means that in Set S you will want to use S98 to measure the strips for everything but 100a and 101. The surprise may be that you also want to use it to measure the strips for M77 when the hypotenuse is on the straight grain as it is in Hope.

Using a Partial Seam

A partial seam is the name given to a seam that is completed in two steps. It is frequently used when multiple pieces surround a center unit. Hope is a perfect example of both the use and effectiveness of a partial seam. A partial seam generally replaces either set-in seam or extra seams, usually in pieces of matching fabric.

Hope, Without a Partial Seam

Instead of the instructions on our PDF which show using a partial seam and adding 4 of these matching units …



... the instructions would say:

Make 2:



Make 2 each:

And assemble the block like this:

See how disruptive those extra seams are?  It's worth a partial seam!

Another Block Design Made with Partial Seams

You might also see a partial seam surrounding a hexagon center such as our very popular Interlocking Hexagons shown in this quilt called Ode to Asia, 41 x 50½ inches (104 x 128 cm). The hexagons as well as the strips that surround the hexagons using a partial seam are cut with our Multi-size Hexagon, Product #8060. 

The pattern is Product #8535. You may want to add these products to your wish list.

My Hope Block

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

From Marti Michell Chart #40
 

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 39: Mrs. Anderson, Block #66 in the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sew Along

We had already made the Mrs. Anderson block when the publisher's corrections arrived, so I'll just share the process we went through to make the block. It worked very nicely.

Since these are 6-inch finished blocks, we decided to use measurements that were as easy as possible. The center square and sashing strips should finish at 1-inch wide and the squares with diagonal patchwork in each corner should finish at 2-1/2 inches square. You probably have already used From Marti Michell Perfect Patchwork Template Set S for several blocks. Piece 101a in Set S is perfect for cutting the 16 small triangles. Make sure the hypotenuse is on the lengthwise grain. The edges of the units are very vulnerable to stretching.

Set Q is both "optional" and Wonderful!

Set Q, the 2-1/2 inch square basic set, Product #8212, is barely used when making this quilt. However, if you own it, Q-93 is perfect for squaring-up the corner units!  If you don't own it, we can provide dozens of reasons why you might decide you will. For example:

Using Set Q is a great way to get a real understanding of the grid system that most patchwork blocks are designed on: 2 x 2 (2 squares across and 2 down), 3 x 3 (3 across and 3 down), 4 x 4, etc.

Or use Set Q with Set T and Set R to make quilts in Five is Fabulous, Volume 5 in the Encyclopedia of Patchwork Blocks.

If you love sampler quilts, you will love making the 15-inch blocks for Aunt Sukey in Volume 5. This quilt measures 79-1/4 x 104 inches, finished.

Here Set Q was used to make the blocks for a wallhanging made by Brenda Asmuth:

My Mrs. Anderson Block

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

From Marti Michell Chart #39
 

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 38: Rosemary or our substitute Mexicali Rose, in the Farmer's Wife Sew Along

None of the pieces in Rosemary are From Marti Michell template friendly, and I picked a well-known block with similar design elements as the template-friendly substitute.

Most of our alternate or substitute blocks are named after Iowa farm wives of the 1930s. Mexicali Rose is a song these women might have sung along to on the radio.

The song was a popular love song (music by Jack Tenney and lyrics by Helen Stone) published in 1923. The sorrowful refrain "Mexicali Rose stop crying, I'll come back to you some sunny day" will keep playing in your head if you dare to listen to Gene Autry or Bing Crosby croon it on YouTube. Interestingly, the movie Mexicali Rose that starred Gene Autry was not produced until 1939.

The block is quite straightforward but it does contain a mirror image with triangles that we first encountered in the Addie block; see Template Conversion Chart #11.

My Mexicali Rose Block

Click on the image for a larger view.

Click the link to download the cutting and sewing chart for Mexicali Rose:

From Marti Michell Template Conversion Chart #38
for cutting and sewing the Mexicali Rose 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.

Chart 37: Mirror Images and Bea, Block #11 in the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sew Along

Mirror Image Alert

It has been a few weeks since our last mirror image alert, and wouldn't you know, it is parallelograms again. Trim one strip set right side up and one wrong side up. You could put the strips right sides together, but be careful if you do -- the seam allowances build up height and can make your FMM Template S-100 rock during cutting. (Download the template conversion chart for cutting details.)

I love Bea's letter from "Queen Bee" in Nebraska. It exemplifies the saying,

Be careful -- just when you think you have pieced the mirror-image basket handles and the rest of the block is triangles, the mirror-image basket feet are waiting to be sewn!

My Bea Block

Click on the image for a larger view. 

Click the link to download the cutting and sewing chart for Bea:

From Marti Michell Template Conversion Chart #37
for cutting and sewing the Bea block
 

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


Queen Bee image courtesy of The Graphics Fairy, http://thegraphicsfairy.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 36: Half Blocks and Charlotte, Block #23 in the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sew Along

Coming Soon!

In only 3 weeks, we will begin making several blocks that are most easily and accurately made using strip techniques.

The 3/4-inch finished squares and strips can be cut with a regular ruler, but I will be showing you the advantages of using our 3/4-inch finished Log Cabin Ruler #8037.

Because most of the lines on the 3/4-inch side of the ruler are exactly 3/4-inch apart, making the "second cut" across the pieced strip visually easy.

End-of-Row Block

Because I stabilized the bias edges on the two halves of Charlotte, I thought you might enjoy my "Top 10" list for Marti's Choice Fusible Tape. Click the image for a larger view or download the PDF here to print

Making Charlotte

Take advantage of cutting the fabrics for both halves of Charlotte at the same time. It is really very straightforward.

If you don't have Set M, there aren't many pieces of each shape to cut using the patterns provided in the book.

My Charlotte Block

You can see on the back where Marti's Choice Fusible Tape has been fused on the longest edge (hypotenuse) of the pieced halves:

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

From Marti Michell Chart #36
 

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 35: Block Order and Mrs. Keller, Block #69 in the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sew Along

The Order of Things

I can't imagine living in a world without alphabetical and numerical order. It would be unbelievably chaotic. But, they are not the only ways to establish order out of chaos. Sometimes short to tall or narrow to wide are appropriate ways to sort. Left to right, right to left, ladies first, PFC to General, and rainbow order of fabrics are some other sorting techniques that come to mind quickly. It would be fun to make a list of all the ways we sort or create order in our lives.

Someone remarked to me the other day, "I thought you said we were doing the blocks from the easiest to the hardest. If they get much harder, I'll never finish this quilt."  Let me tell you what I have tried to do and why. First, I would never try to put almost 100 diverse blocks into easiest to hardest order.

Without hesitation, the first 10 or 12 blocks were selected to provide a fast start. It seemed to me that the more blocks you finished quickly, the more you were likely to commit to finishing the quilt. But, some of the easier blocks show up much later to offer encouragement for the final push.

To me, the Sew Along is about encouraging progress and learning, sharing experiences and being in this together, all around the world. I love the parallel that our Sew Along is connecting quilters just as the letters written by the farmers' wives of the 1930s, and selected by Laurie for the book, were letters of encouragement and sharing for those women who were connecting through the magazine.

So, you might ask, if we didn't try to sort easy to hard, what did we do?

Most Common Shapes

Sorting by the tools and/or shapes was my first sort. We chose to make blocks that used the most common patchwork shapes first, but we did not exhaust the supply of blocks with simple shapes.

Challenge Level

Likewise, some of the blocks that Laurie chose for this quilt are quite challenging and/or time-consuming. Those are sprinkled in throughout the year. My goal was to create a comfortable rhythm of difficulty and order, regardless of the techniques that you are using.

Common Cutting or Piecing

Sorting by unique cutting or piecing issues was important because repetition is one of the best ways to really add a technique to your quiltmaking toolbox. The repetition of making several blocks in a row that include mirror image cutting, for example, will raise your awareness and increase your understanding of mirror image issues forever.

Template Friendly or Not?

Sorting the blocks that are not (or not very) From Marti Michell acrylic template friendly and finding a comfortable rate of introducing them into the Sew Along was important to keep the interest of those of us who want to cut with acrylic templates. To make that possible, we often added optional template-friendly blocks.

Random Order

This sounds like a perfect oxymoron to me! But I used it, too. Random order would mean that all the blocks in the book have an equal chance of being the next block. In all my sorting, some blocks just didn't really fit any group, like Daffodil and Priscilla, so they were included in a rather random way.

I hope you are enjoying the surprise element of what block might be next and, even more, that you have found the grouping of shapes and techniques helpful in your Sew Along patchwork journey.

My Mrs. Keller Block

Click on the image for a larger view. Click the link to download the cutting and sewing chart for Mrs. Keller:

From Marti Michell Chart #35

for cutting and sewing the Mrs. Keller 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.

Chart 34: Measure and Cut Strips the Marti Way for Georgia, Block #37 in the Farmer's Wife Sew Along

This is the first block in the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt to be cut with From Marti Michell Perfect Patchwork Template Set S. If this is your first time using the Set S templates, please take a little time to understand the pieces, especially Template S-98.

Because it is a long piece, the width of 6 inches divided by 5 plus 1/2 inch, it is perfect for measuring and cutting strips “the Marti Way” for many pieces in the Set S blocks. S-98 can actually be used to cut 8 pieces, 4 rectangles and 4 trapezoids. If you have used any of our Log Cabin Rulers, S-98 is used to measure in a similar way. You can download a PDF that illustrates cutting the Marti Way with S-98.

Click the image for a larger view.  Click here to download the PDF.

Nearly every day I encourage people to eliminate unnecessary seams to reduce bulk, create smoother, flatter quilts and to avoid disrupting fabric designs whenever possible. Not to mention, every seam you reduce is one less piece to cut, one less piece to sew, one less seam to press, etc.

In the Georgia block, we took the opportunity to join squares and half-square triangles out of the same fabric into trapezoids when cutting and eliminate seams.

We also joined the sub-units a different way. See the last diagram on the Georgia PDF.

Volume 4 of the Encyclopedia of Patchwork Blocks includes 80 12-inch blocks based on a 5 x 5 grid to make with Set M. You will notice in the Set S instruction booklet on page 7 we include a conversion chart to simplify turning the 12-inch 5 x 5 blocks in Volume 4 into 6-inch 5 x 5 blocks.

If you need more blocks to make a larger quilt, or just want to replace some of the blocks in the book, there are 6 in the Set S booklet for starters and dozens more in Volume 4.

My Georgia Block

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

From Marti Michell Chart #34
 

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 33: Border Quilt Pattern and May, Block #61 in the Farmer's Wife Sew Along

Jewel was the first non-template friendly block where we recommended that you just cut fabric out, use the paper patterns and sew like you would if you were sewing a garment. That was block #46 and From Marti Michell Chart 15. Then we hypothesized that if your sewing experience includes making garments, you will immediately understand that cutting mirror-image pieces with the fabric folded wrong sides together is like cutting vest or shirt fronts.

Another IF — If your sewing experience includes making garments, the chances are around 90% that you have bought and ultimately saved commercial garment patterns. That brings up the question of what to do with those patterns now!

So, Another Diversion

Even though there is no expiration date on dress patterns, we thought it would be fun to share some ways to repurpose dress patterns each time we just cut and sew a Farmer’s Wife block with a paper pattern. With Jewel we made accordion pleated tissue flowers.

A few weeks later with Priscilla, block #86 and From Marti Michell Chart 23, we just used the dress tissue like tissue paper in gift bags! How appropriate for a gift from a sewer!

I mentioned in Jewel’s post that I had tried tracing a quilting design on an old dress pattern, pinning that to a quilt and machine quilting right through the tissue. I only tried it once and didn’t love it enough to do it a second time, but I am committed to trying it again someday.

Repurposed Dress Pattern #3

In the meantime, I LOVE the way I repurposed a dress pattern to guide my quilting on a border. I created a quilting line without marking and there was no marking to remove after quilting!! Since I did not sew through the tissue, but only beside the edge of it, the tissue was re-usable and best of all, there was no tearing away with little pieces of paper to pull out.

A Simple Border Quilting Pattern

I needed to quilt a border and a modest quilting was all that was needed. The border is 5-1/2 inches wide. Starting with a 27 inch long shirt pattern, I cut 4 strips of tissue 5 inches wide and 27 inches long and taped them together to make a strip as long as the quilt. I actually used Marti’s Choice Fusible Tape to join the tissue because I was at the ironing board ironing the wrinkles out of the tissue and the Fusible tape was handy.

Then I folded it in half and traced five 4-1/2 x 9 inch Flying Geese triangles (FMM product #8022) the length of the tissue to create a sawtooth edge. It was easy to cut with scissors.

Then I smoothed out the quilt on my work table and pinned the tissue pattern in place along the border.

 Now you can see it at the machine ready to sew along the edge of the tissue.

At the point of the sawtooth edge you stop with your needle down and turn the quilt border 90° and continue stitching to the interior corner of the border. Stop with the needle down and rotate the quilt again.

When you reach the end, stop. Unpin the paper and go to the next side. As it turned out I could use the same tissue on all 4 sides. I used all 10 triangles on the long sides and only 8 along the top and bottom.

I think I am satisfied with the one saw tooth row of quilting. At least I am going to complete the binding before I make a final decision.

Original border as quilted:



This line drawing represents a variation repeating the same border offset by ½ triangle. Even though the tissue has been pinned and unpinned 4 times, I think I could make it all the way around the quilt again. The square on point or diamond that this creates could be filled with more quilting, if desired.



On a wider border, you could create an echo by moving the sawtooth border a few inches closer to the edge of the quilt.



You could use the same idea with other shapes like a half circle.



You could also do the same thing with a freezer paper border pattern or painters tape, but that won’t give you the warm feeling you get from repurposing or recycling something you really should have thrown out 10 or 15 years ago. What? Longer?

My May Block

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

From Marti Michell Template Conversion Chart #33

For May, Block #61 in the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sew-along
 

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