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Thursday, 30 June 2016

2016 Finish A Long Quarter 2 Link Up

I have well and truly failed at the regular blogging thing over the last few months, so much so that I totally forgot that the end of Quarter 2 of the FAL was upon us. I haven't even had a chance to share my one and only finish for this quarter yet - I promise that will happen before the linky party finishes! I've made major progress on another of my Q2 proposed finishes too - something I hope to share over the next week or so as well.

2016 button 250 best

This year the FAL is being hosted by a global group of bloggers:
It's time to link up the projects on your 2016 Q2 FAL list that you finished. First, a huge thank you to our fantastic sponsors:
For the 2016 FAL, we also will feature a tutorial week. Here is the schedule so you can visit them all:
The 2016 Q2 link for your finishes is now open below on my blog and on each of the hosting blogs - you only need to link on one blog for your finish to appear on each blog.

 Link-up "rules"
  • Add one link for each finish. If you want to link a round up post of all your finishes, use that link to enter one of your finishes and then link the rest of your finishes separately. Please, only one link per finish, as your link is an entry into the randomly drawn prize draws.
  • Please use the 2016 FAL button or the hashtag #2016FAL
  • Please ensure that the photo or blog post you link up contains a link or reference back to your original list so that we can verify your entry (make sure it is from the appropriate quarter)
  • Please become part of the FAL community. Please check out the links of others and comment. We all need encouragement so let's applaud each other. The 2016 FAL Facebook page is here and follow us on Instagram @finishlong and tag your photos #2016fal and #falq2yourname (substitute your name - this makes it easier for us to match your finishes with your lists.
  • Our hosts will also link their finishes to share in the community, but they are not eligible for any of the prizes.
The Q2 Finishes link will stay open from now thru July 7 - link up your finishes early and if you have a last minute one, add that one later so you don't miss out. The prizes will be awarded as soon as we can verify all the entries and do the drawings. We will post the winners on each hosts' blog. Also, start making your Q3 FAL lists as the Q3 list link opens on July 8!



I hope to be back very soon with some quilts - and I'll be back in a few days with my promised Mitred Borders tutorial :o) 

xx Jess
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Thursday, 9 June 2016

The Farmer's Wife 1930's Block Tutorial - #83 Poppy

I'm feeling like the slackest blogger ever at the moment. I have been sewing quite a lot, and I'm hoping to have a chance to share what I've been working on really soon! I finished quilting and binding my improv quilt over the weekend, and I just need to get some decent photos so I can blog about it. And I've started my next class sample - more to come on that in the next week or two!

Today though, I'm sharing my next block tutorial in The Farmer's Wife 1930's Sew Along, hosted by Angie of Gnome Angel. My block this week is #83 - Poppy. I was a little dubious when I saw how many pieces are packed into this 6" block (over 60!?!), but she came together pretty happily in the end :o)


I've been using my stash of Japanese prints (mostly Suzuko Koseki and Dawaibo from both Polka Dot Tea and Sew Me A Song) for these blocks. I deliberately chose high contrast colours for this block, as I wanted to emphasise those tiny pieces. The orange print is quite small-scale, but the black and blue are both medium/large scale prints - I think the combination works quite well, despite the tiny size of the pieces. 

This is a pretty basic tutorial - I paper pieced my block - and the biggest advice I can give here is to identify which fabric goes with each template section and label it accordingly. This meant I could cut a bunch of squares from each of my three fabrics (mostly 2" squares, with a few 2" x 2.5" for the ends of the rows) and then piece them without having to think too carefully about what went where. 


Once I'd foundation pieced each of the sections (my friend Cat shares a great paper piecing tutorial here) I laid them out and double checked that I hadn't messed up my fabric placement. From there, it was simply a matter of piecing all those bits together.


I don't have all that much special advice here. I didn't use pins or clips to hold my pieces together - I actually find with really small sections like these, either of these tools actually shift my pieces just slightly and it causes more issues than if I don't pin. Go figure. I just made sure the edges of each pair of pieces lined up nicely, and sewed right along the solid line rather than using my 1/4" foot. I pressed my seams open in all cases, to spread the bulk as much as possible.

First, join F and G to E.


Then add the side sections of the middle star to (EFG) - these are sections H and I (pictured to each side of the block in this photo).


Followed by the first outer edge sections. These are sections C and D.


And finally the longer outer edge sections - sections A and B.


Every time I make one of these blocks I get the bug to keep making more - so once I get my last two class samples made for this year, I hope to get back to my Farmer's Wife 1930's quilt! 


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.

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