The Farmer's Wife 1930s Block Tutorial - #40 Grandmother

Welcome to the next tutorial in the Farmer's Wife 1930s Sew Along, hosted by Angie of GnomeAngel and sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop and Marti Michell. 

Today I'll be showing you how I put block #40, Grandmother, together. This is a pretty simple block to make - I used a combination of paper piecing and rotary cutting for this one, and it was a pretty quick block to put together. 

I used Marti Michell templates (N80, N79 and B13) for a lot of the cutting for this block, but almost all the pieces can be cut using the rotary cutting instructions found on the CD that comes with The Farmer's Wife 1930s book. I have to admit I have become a real fan of these templates - having the cut away corners makes it so easy to align the pieces of fabric and get perfect points (and no I'm not being paid to say that - it is my honest opinion!) I chose to paper piece the section shown below (D1/D2) as I felt this would be the most accurate way to piece this part of the block. 

So, let's get onto the cutting instructions. This block uses three different fabrics, so I'll take you through each fabric one by one. 

CUTTING FABRIC 1 - 'background'

• Cut one 40A triangle 
• (rotary cutting instructions found on the CD, or using template B13). 
• Cut one 40G triangle 
• (rotary cutting instructions found on the CD). 
• Cut one 40E and one 40F 
• you can cut these using the templates found on the CD OR see below...

If you have access to Marti Michell templates, you can use template N80 as shown in the photo below to cut both 40E and 40F. Alternatively, you can use the templates found on the CD to cut these pieces.

• Cut two strips 1.5" x 4.5", and 
• Place N80 at one end of the strip, carefully aligning the top, bottom and side edges.
• Cut off the corner of the fabric
• TAKE NOTE OF THE ANGLE YOU ARE CUTTING - 40E AND 40F ARE CUT AT OPPOSITE ANGLES. 
• I highly recommend laying out your pieces as shown above to ensure you are cutting the correct corner off these strips.  

Cutting Fabric 2 - Main 'basket' fabric

• Cut 2 40B squares (using MM template N79 or using rotary cutting instructions found on the CD)
• Cut 4 40C triangles (using MM template N80 or using rotary cutting instructions found on the CD)
• Cut one 40D piece either using template found on the CD, or cut a strip 2" x 4" to place on paper piecing template in position D2. 

Cutting Fabric 3 - minor basket fabric

• Cut 3 40B squares (either using template N79 or using rotary cutting instructions on the CD)
• Cut 1 40C triangle (either using template N80 or using rotary cutting instructions on the CD)

Piecing the bottom right corner - using paper piecing template

Take your 40A triangle and place it wrong sides together on the back of the paper template, carefully aligning the sides with the dashed lines around the template. It should overlap the D1/D2 seam line by 1/4". 

Take your 2" x 4" rectangle and place it right sides together with 40A. See the photo below for what it should look like. You can see the 40A triangle fits exactly behind D1 and allows you to line up the D2 piece with ease. Sew along the D1/D2 line (using a shorter stitch length than usual), press the piece across.

Trim all around the paper pieced section on the dotted lines. It should look like this.

Next take one 40C triangle from the secondary basket fabric and place it right sides together with the paper pieced section. If you are not using Marti Michell templates, you can finger press both sections to find the centre of the sides you are sewing together and line them up that way.

Press this seam (I pressed open). And now you're ready to lay out the next components of this block.

Arrange your 40B, 40C, 40E and 40F pieces as shown below. I find it helpful to keep them in this orientation while sewing to avoid mixing up the angles.

Sew the 40B and 40C pieces into rows as shown, pressing seams as desired (I pressed open). 

Join the pieced 40B/40C strips to the 40E and 40F pieces. Press open.

Now we are ready to place the last 40B and 40C pieces down.

Sew one 40C triangle to the top of the 40B square and press open.

Place the second triangle right sides together with this unit, as shown below. The bottom straight edge of the triangle should align with the bottom edge of the square. Sew and press.

Now all the block components are pieced, it's time to join them all together!

First, sew the top and bottom rows into pairs as shown below.

Then, piece the bottom and top rows together. And now we are ready to add the final piece, 40G.

And there you have it, a completed Grandmother block!

If you would like to join in this sew along, the book we are making the blocks from is shown below :o) 

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.

xx Jess