Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Tutorial — Block 45 Jenny

Hi!  Today I’m guest blog­ging as part of the Farm­er­’s Wife 1930’s Quilt Along being hos­ted by Angie at GnomeAn­gel and The Fat Quarter Shop and I’ll be shar­ing how I made Block 45 Jenny.

I’ve been using the Mar­ti Michell tem­plates to make many of the blocks so far.  They’re great and make sew­ing all these teeny pieces accur­ately so so easy.   I’m look­ing for­ward to work­ing with them more dur­ing the quilt along but today I thought it would be fun to share an altern­ate way to piece Jenny using some simple rotary cut piecing.   Tonya from The Crafty Mummy is also doing a tutori­al today and I know that she will have heaps of great hits and tips as well.   Tonya’s blocks are ser­i­ously adorable!

The fab­rics I’ve used are from Bon­nie & Cam­ille’s Hello Darling line for Moda Fab­rics.  To make Jenny in the same style as the book you’ll need 3 dif­fer­ent fab­rics.   I recom­mend choos­ing non dir­ec­tion­al smal­ler print fab­rics if you would like to use this meth­od of piecing to make Jenny.

Now, because we all respect copy­right and appre­ci­ate all the hard work Laurie Aaron Hird put in to mak­ing the Farm­er­’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt and book I know you will under­stand that I can­’t provide the the fin­ished sizes for each unit (HST, QST, etc) in my meth­od of mak­ing this block.  The good news is that if you’ve got the book and have sewn Cor­al (block 24) using the Rotary Cut­ting Instruc­tions you have most of the inform­a­tion you need.  To make it nice and simple I’ll ref­er­ence the Cor­al & Addie tem­plate let­ters (A, B, C, etc) as we work through the tutorial.

Using this altern­ate piecing meth­od you’ll need:-

• 4 — easy corner rect­angles (the same size as Cor­al Rect­angle A)
• 4 — half square tri­angles  (the same size as Cor­al Square B)
• 1 — quarter square tri­angle for the centre of the block (a square the same size as the long side of Cor­al Rect­angle A, or,  Addie Square A)

Let’s start with the Easy Corner Rect­angles.   Cut 4 rect­angles the same size as Cor­al Rect­angle A (Aqua) and 4 squares the same size as Cor­al Square B (Red).   Draw a diag­on­al line on the back of each square and then place the square on top of the rect­angle with right sides togeth­er.   Tip: Make sure the diag­on­al line is ori­ented as shown in the pic­ture below.

Sew just beside the drawn line as shown.

Using a rotary cut­ter trim away the excess fab­ric the from the edge of both pieces of fab­ric.  Leave a ¹⁄₄″ seam.

Press towards the square (red) fab­ric and voila! you’re done.   Remem­ber you will need to make 4.   If you have trouble get­ting these units to line up nicely check out my Flip­ping Fly­ing Geese Tutori­al.  The tutori­al will show you a simple trick using a piece of card­board which will make per­fect easy corner rect­angles a breeze!

Next, lets tackle those quarter and half square tri­angle units.

To make the quarter square tri­angle unit you will need to cut 2 squares 1 ¹⁄₂″ lar­ger than the long side of Cor­al Rect­angle A, or Addie Square A.    I’ve used the red print again and also a pink flor­al.  Draw a diag­on­al line on the back of one of the fab­rics and then place one square on top of the oth­er.   Make sure the squares line up exactly — the pic­ture below is shown to illus­trate that rights sides are together.

Sew ¹⁄₄″ away from the line on both sides.

Using your rotary cut­ter and a ruler, cut along the drawn line.  Press towards the pink fabric.

Draw anoth­er diag­on­al line on the back of one of the half square tri­angles you’ve just made and then place one on top of the oth­er with right sides togeth­er.   Make sure the seams nest tightly together.

Sew ¹⁄₄″ away from the line on both sides again and then cut along the drawn line.  Trim to the same size as the long side of Cor­al Rect­angle A, or, Addie Square A.

You’ve prob­ably noticed by now that you have a quarter square tri­angle left over.  My the­ory is that I’ll end up using it in anoth­er block in this quilt or, it could be the start of a very snazzy little coast­er that’s per­fect for a quick gift!

Fol­low the same meth­od to make the half square tri­angles.  You will need to cut 2 squares 1″ lar­ger than Cor­al Square B from each of the fab­rics you used to make the easy corner rect­angles (Aqua and Red).    Draw a diag­on­al line on the back of one of the fab­rics and then place one square on top of the oth­er as shown.

Sew ¹⁄₄″ away from the line on both sides.  Using your rotary cut­ter and a ruler cut along the drawn line.

Press towards the aqua fab­ric and then trim each half square tri­angle to the same size as Cor­al Square B.   Each set will make 2 half square tri­angles, you’ll need a total of 4.

You can now sew your block togeth­er.   I like to lay the block out next to my sew­ing machine just like the pic­ture below and chain piece each row before join­ing all three together.

Easy right!     If you run in to any trouble please don’t hes­it­ate to flick me an email or pop a ques­tion on the Face­book group.   There are so many amaz­ing people join­ing in with the quilt along that are so help­ful and friendly.

So… how are you all doing with your blocks?   There are so many gor­geous blocks pop­ping up on Ins­tagram and Face­book, I love see­ing them all.   If you’re like me I’m sure you can­’t wait for the next one to be announced!    Next week’s line up is pretty awe­some, make sure you check out:

• Tues­day Novem­ber 3 — Angie from Gnome Angel 
• Wed­nes­day Novem­ber 4 — Cat from Cat&Vee 
• Thursday Novem­ber 5 — Angie from Gnome Angel
• Fri­day Novem­ber 6 — Kirsty from Bon­jour Quilts

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; RRP $28.99 – Click here to pur­chase.

Happy quilt­ing,