Farmer's Wife 1930s Quilt Along: Blocks 73 and 74, Mrs Taft & Mrs Thomas

Welcome to another Farmer's Wife 1930s QAL Monday.  The first block, Mrs Taft (p.232, letter p.109), I chose to add to my group of half blocks- I need eight for the twin quilt layout in the book. Chase is guest blogging on this block so pop over and take a look at what she has done and read about her techniques. 

Fabric credits:

Penny Rose Fabrics, Hope Chest 2, Leaves Blue

Pam Kitty Morning Recipe Text Fabric, Holly Holderman, Lakehouse DryGoods : gift from friend 

{Please note:  On both blocks I have linked to my sponsors for fabric bought through them and elsewhere for anything that has come from other shops}

I enjoyed making Mrs Thomas, Block 74, Mrs Fay (p. 233, letter p.51).  Although there are a lot of pieces there is a lot of repetition so the cutting is straightforward and there are only three sections so once the fabric is precut and I started chain piecing, it came together nicely.

Fabric credits:
Pink and green dotty/floral: gift from friends 
Robert Kaufman Fabrics, Penny's Dollshouse, Floating Leaves

I foundation paper pieced this block and used the rotary details below which will produce pieces approx. ¼" bigger than needed.  I played around with the colour scheme to break up the shape.

Q: You may be wondering why I choose half-square-triangles or quarter-square triangles when I list the rotary cutting details?  What difference does it make?
A: I like to avoid any bias grain on the outer edge of the block, so for example, with the large background triangles, if I had suggested half-square-triangles there would be bias diagonal edges that might ripple and stretch out of place making the block too big.  By instead cutting these using the quarter square triangle option, the outer edge uses the straight grain and will maintain it's shape better!

Rotary Cutting Dimensions 

Background Fabrics
Very small HSTs: cut (12) 2" squares; sub-cut each square once along each diagonal to yield 2 half-square triangles per square. (Total yield= 24 HSTs)
Large QSTs: cut (1) 5 ½" square; sub-cut square twice along each diagonal to yield 4 quarter square triangles.

Pink
Small HSTs: cut (4) 2 ½" squares; sub-cut each square once along each diagonal to yield 2 half-square triangles per square. (Total yield= 8 HSTs)

Green
Centre Square: cut (1) 2 ⅜" square

Small HSTs: cut (4) 2 ½" squares; sub-cut each square once along each diagonal to yield 2 half-square triangles per square. (Total yield= 8 HSTs)

Top tips for foundation piecing this block

• Pre-cut all pieces
• Use a water based glue stick. I use Sewline, to stick the first piece of each section
• Chain piece where possible 
• Mark in seam allowance around edge of each section 
• Sew the section seams in stages, baste the seam points in place first, especially for the centre square.
• Flatten seams with Flatter or similar light starch spray

Here are my nine-patch extra blocks that I've been making inspired by all the prints I've been using.  

I really like how these are going and the Heather Ross prints seem to be the most wonderful fit.  Her Tiger Lily range has been one of my favourites, especially the roses. 

Remember you can:

• Hashtag  #fw1930sqal on Instagram and add photos to the Flickr group if you like to share there.  
• For individual blocks, you can use #MrsTaftblock and #MrsThomasblock on Instagram, Fat Quarter Shop and Angie are using these hash tags, #fw73MrsTaft,  #fw74MrsThomas - I'm using both hashtag systems.
• You can also copy and paste links to any blog posts you do on these blocks in the comments and I'd love to visit and take a look. 

There's a break next week as I was planning to be at Glamp so I'd built that trip into the schedule. Instead, I'll be writing a post about the fabrics used so far rather than a usual two-block post.   Normal service will return 13th June.   Jo Greene will also be back as a guest blogger.

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