More Farm Girl Vintage

Slightly late with these blocks:

Baking day

 Butter Churn

 Canning Season

 Chicken feet

 Churn Dash

 & Cool Spools.

I've also managed to find an old UFO that I fancy working on:

I have 3(!) jelly rolls worth of blocks to sew up.  Once I have them all to this stage, I'll take a day or two (probably 3) to piece them together.  If I have any over, I'll make something smaller with them, depends on how many are left!

A finish... ish!

A friend made this table runner and asked me to quilt it for her.  I thought I'd have another go at feathers and I think it suits the pattern well!

I put the binding on for her (there was a deadline and due to our class having a week off, I was worried she wouldn't make it) so technically I finished it - but it's not mine, so probably doesn't count.  But it was on my list for this quarter, so that's something I can cross off!  Unfortunately, I've been able to move many things along, but no other finishes.  Need to get cracking on some bindings...

Cutting and marking multiple squares tutorial

I've joined the Farm Girl Vintage sew-along, and had fallen behind a little.  I decided to cut 6 blocks (catch up, this week's block and get a little ahead).  However, so many squares to cut!  I thought I'd put together a little post on how I cut (and mark) multiple squares very quickly.

Firstly, work out the maths.  I was cutting 1 1/2" squares, and using a 7 1/2" ruler.  This means if I used a square of fabric 7 1/2" square, by then cutting along 1 1/2", 3", 4 1/2" & 6" measurements:

 And the same in the other direction, with just 10 passes of your cutter you have 25 squares!

If you need to mark the squares, make sure you started with the initial square of fabric turned wrong side up before sub-cutting into squares.  Then position your ruler from corner to corner of the lower left square (I always off-set the ruler slightly to make sure that the line marked runs exactly from corner to corner) and mark.

Move the ruler up for the remaining squares, and hey presto

25 squares cut and marked in a fraction of the time it takes to cut or mark individually!  It takes a little more time to position the ruler for marking, but it is more than worth it.

Just adapt the theory for other size squares/rulers.  A 7 1/2" ruler would cut 9 2 1/2" squares, or 4 3" squares.  So easy!  You don't need to start with a square - I earlier cut a 3x4" rectangle into 12 1" squares.

Autumn star & Baby chick

Here are the next two blocks of the Farm Girls Vintage Sew-Along:

"Autumn Star" is one of my favourite blocks in the book, so I made a 12 1/2" version from some scraps and will make it into a little wallhanging:

And this is one of my planned finishes for this quarter, all quilted and ready for binding.  The weather is foul here so this is the best photo I could get.  Hopefully that will be a finish soon!

I adapted a pattern from one of Angela Waters' books, but I don't entirely love it.  I found the little scalloped echos a bit annoying - the tiny movements were harder than a continuous movement, and also the very straight line into the centre of each flower I found distracting.  I think if I did this again, I would substitute more of a ripple and use that same ripple to get into the centre, as other than the straight line I loved the effect of this.

2 posts in one day?!!!

Somehow it's happened!  I wanted a post with this, my first block in the Farm Girl Fridays sew-along.

I didn't mean to have the two outer blue triangles on the same side, but *shrug*.

My dad made the little clothesline!

Baby Quilt - finish

Baby quilt is collected, so here's a finish to share with you!  I took advantage of the glorious few days we had to take some photos.  Good job, because now it's freezing again - we even had snow again the other day.

Practised more feathers.  This is a table runner I was quilting for a friend, and feathers seemed to suit it well.  Getting this quilted was on my list of things to do, though obviously doesn't really count as a finish for me.  Unfortunately, the really good free motion foot for my machine broke when I was nearly finished, so I have a couple of bits to re-do before handing it on.

I'm quilting like a demon at some of the things I have on my to-do list, so should have those to share soon.