Sew Hometown: September + A New Quilt Along + Reveal Date for Gypsy Wife

This month for the Sew Hometown Quilt we are making Starburst Blocks. These blocks finish at 9" and we need to make 4 of them.
They go together quite quickly, I made all 4 of mine in under an hour, from choosing fabrics, to cutting, sewing, pressing and trimming.
I chose to do a lighter color for the contrast part of the block, because I find my quilt is needing a little lights mixed in, otherwise when I put it together I fear it will be really busy. I also did my centers a printed dark fabric, and my outer corners are the same as the background in my other blocks. I used the printed dark in one other set of blocks, and needed to add it in again so those blocks don't stick out, now that I used it in a total of 9 blocks they should blend throughout the whole quilt nicely.


I used my Creative Grids 4-in-1 Half Square Triangle Ruler to trim all the Half Square Triangles to the correct size. I seriously love this ruler, it has 4 different ways to make and trim HST units, and you can do multiple sizes easily with the one tool.
Can you believe we only have three more months of block left? I counted the total number left and we are down to 14 blocks, so close to the finish line.

Which brings me to the next quilt along. Terry Atkinson of Atkinson Designs has released a new book called Follow Your Heart. In the book is all the instructions needed to make a really fun Road Trip inspired Sampler quilt as well as the patterns for 9 bonus projects using the blocks which include quilts, runners, bags and more.
I would like to do the Sampler Quilt as the Quilt Along here on the blog. It will run the same as the last two QALs I have done, a new block every other week and a Facebook Group to share our progress.
I will post the Fabric Requirements and the link to the Group on October 1, and we will begin sewing blocks on October 15.

For those of you that joined in on the Gypsy Wife Quilt Along, I am hosting the reveal party at the shop on Monday, October 7 at 7pm. Bring your finished or unfinished quilt to share with the group.
Kayla
 PS if you take a closer look at the picture of my blocks so far, you will see my little helper in the corner of the picture, he loves to shake my design wall so that all those blocks rain down on top of him. I must say I have a lot of quilt layout pictures on my phone, because I now take a photo every time I put blocks up just in case he comes walking by.

Gypsy Wife: Assembly

We have reached strip cutting and assembly! Although it seems like we are nearing the end, this final part of the quilt is actually quite time consuming. (Sorry for the buzz kill attitude)
Initially I was going to do this in two posts, but even though it is a lot of work I don't think that I need to post two weeks of instructions. Once you get going it is straightforward.
There are a couple ways to tackle this section of the quilt, you can cut all the strips for the whole quilt all at once and than begin assembly, work through it in order of the sections or work your way across the quilt.
I decided to work my way across the quilt from right to left, its backwards from the way my brain usually works, but that is how the sections in the quilt go, it did mean working on several sections at one time, but I kept my blocks organized and it worked well for me, and that way I was able to get the same fabric running all the way from top to bottom and didn't need to worry about running out of it before I got to the remainder of the line several sections later.
For the most part whichever method of assembly you choose it is all about staying organized.

Before starting assembly I went through and made a chart. The chart lists the strip number, the length of the strip, and what section the strip goes in. That way it was easy to follow along where I was and which strips to cut next. Once that was done, I laid all my strip fabrics on the table and cut them into 1.5" strips. (When cutting the strips, if you plan to have the same fabric run top to bottom for each individual strip there are a few that need quite long cuts, specifically the ones in section 10 and a few in 6 and 7. I recommend cutting these first and setting them aside so that you don't run out of that fabric.) Than following my chart I would cut strips in sets of 10, as I found that an easy number to work with, and I had alphabitties through those numbers to label each set. I would grab blocks from the necessary bags, and sew them with the strips following the diagrams on pages 26-31. When a section was complete I would set it aside until I had all 10 done.
There are quite a few partial seams in the assembly, they are marked with little stars and arrows for which side to start sewing on. I only sewed about halfway down those strips, definitely not going all the way to a 1/4".  I had a few spots where I needed to do a partial seam and it doesn't have it listed in the pattern, but I forgot to write down which strips they were, most of them were in section 7.


When all the sections were complete, I put them together as pictured on page 32. For that I did section 1 to 2, added 3, put 4 on with a partial seam, than 5, number 6 next and than 7 (to the sides of 4 and 6) than finished up the partial seam from 4 and completed the right side of the quilt. Section 8 went on to number 9, 10 got added to this, and than I joined the left and right sides to finish the top!
I quilted my quilt with a simple meander a little tighter than I normally do and bound it in a blue stripe. My backing is an ivory cuddle, because I will not put anything but cuddle and fireside on the back of my quilts. 



For the reveal/show and share party I am thinking we get together in September, that gives everyone a few months to get their quilts finished up, and I know for a lot of people quilting in the summer is usually put on the back burner.


Thank you so much for quilting along with me. I had a blast, and I am so thrilled that I finally made this quilt after much procrastination. I hope you had fun as well.

If you have any questions during assembly or on any of the blocks that you need to make yet, please let me know, either on the Facebook Group page or through email.

I am willing to share the chart I made with you, but since it has all the measurements on it, I don't want to post it directly here. I just want to avoid copy-write issues by putting up on internet all the measurements needed for every strip. 
If you send me an email, I will send the document to you. If I haven't noticed any blocks from you, I may ask that you send me a picture of your book, just as proof of ownership, again a copy-write thing. 

My email is kayla@chickenfeedquilts.com

Kayla

Gypsy Wife: Section 10

We have reached the last section of Blocks for our Gypsy Wife Quilt Along. Section 10 has quite a few blocks in it, 11 of them, but they are not too difficult so I have decided to lump them all into one group and get them done.

I must admit that I have made a mistake. We will make a block in this section that we actually need to swap out with one in Section 6, the diagram that I was cross referencing with had a mistake in it and I did not catch it until I put them up on the design wall and noticed that one block was smaller than the one below it and on the layout diagram they appeared to be the same size. I will list all the blocks we need to make as usual, and than point out which one we need to swap out, hopefully this doesn't cause you too many issues.

Onto the blocks, there is 1 Focus block and 10 fillers, and the while section is pictured on page 31. 

Focus Block

Puss in the Corner, pg 13 -- make 1 with border

 Filler Blocks

Pinwheel Block, pg 19 -- make 1, finished size 3"

Hourglass Block, pg 21, -- make 1, finished size 5" (this block will actually end up going into section 6)

Square in a Square Block, pg 22-- make 3, finished size 3"

                                                   -- make 1, finished size 3.5"

                                                   -- make 2, finished size 4"

Square in a Square with Pinwheel Center, pg 23, -- make 1, finished size 5.5"

Square in a Square with Courthouse Steps, pg 24 -- make 1, finished size 7"

Puss in the Corner, we made this block once already way back in Section 1, the only difference this time around is that we are going to add a border to make it a little larger.

Pinwheel Block, for this block I used a bunch of premade half square triangles that I had from a previous stitch and flip blocks, if I hadn't had these on hand, I would have cut my squares at the half inch increment rather than the eighth and than trimmed after they were pieced. 

Hourglass Block, so this block is actually going to end up in Section 6, I apologize for not catching on to this earlier, I went through all my papers over and over but this one missed my eye. The block itself is straightforward, we need to make a hourglass following the instructions in the previous column, and than add a border and than add some triangles to the outer edges. The instructions are a little funny, because it first says 2" finished and than at the end it says 5" Finished, but the inner hourglass is what the first measurement refers too and than we add to bring it up to the 5".

Square in a Square Blocks, what would a section in this quilt be without some square in a square blocks? We need to make 6 this go around in three different sizes. I made all 6 at the same time so that I could chain piece. I cut them and laid them out in a neat row, and it worked really well, and was quicker than doing one at a time would have been. 

Square in a Square with Pinwheel Center, for this block the instructions are on page 23, beginning about halfway through the left hand column.  The pinwheel the pattern is referring to is made on page 19 at the bottom of the right hand column so you will need to flip back to that page to first make the pinwheel, than return to page 23 to complete the block. I did cut the squares for the pinwheel slightly larger for trimming room. 

Square in a Square with Courthouse Steps, we have made this block before in a variety of sizes, this time around we need to make it so that it finishes at 7". There are two 7" finished blocks on page 24, and we will be making the latter one, it has a larger center square, and smaller round 1 borders. 

The block that we need from section 6 to swap with is the 5.5" finished square in a square with courthouse steps. 

So the square in a square with courthouse steps will actually go into Section 10 and the Hourglass Block will go into section 6. 

And that is it, we have finished making all the blocks for the quilt. Next we need to cut some strips and put it all together. I have two blog posts scheduled for this one, not that it needs lots of explaining but it is time consuming. 

From our Facebook Group I see that many of you have been able to keep up, and if you fell behind you managed to get back on track. This is amazing and I love the variety between them all. 

I love seeing quilts in person and so I would love to do a final reveal party at our shop. I will put together a few dates and post them on June 11 and hopefully one of them will work for a number of people to attend so that we can do a little show and tell. 

Kayla

Gypsy Wife: Section 9

This week we are working on Section 9 of our quilt. This section makes up the top left portion of our quilt, and you can see it pictured on page 30 of your pattern book.
There are 5 blocks to make this week, two focus blocks and three fillers.
Focus Blocks
PG 9: Hope from Hartford, make 1
Pg 17: Old Maid Puzzle, make 1

Filler Blocks
Pg 19: Pinwheel Block (Bordered) make 1, 6" finished
Pg 22: Square in a Square Block, make 2 -- 1 that is 2.5" finished and 1 that is 3" finished


Hope from Hartford: This block introduces a partial seam to us. We have to a few when we sew our quilt top together so this will be good practice.
First we need to construct the components of the block. I cut as the pattern states, if you are looking at the picture in your book of where each piece is going, I is the dark triangle, J is the stripe, K is the white triangles and the polka dot,  and L is the small square in the center. Be sure to stitch the K strip to the J triangle.
When you have all the components together lay it out at the pattern instructs. For the partial seam, I like to mark a little line on my square 1/4" from the edge, and than make sure I do not stitch past the line (in fact I usually stop a little before the line.) Than add each component as instructed, and that partial seam will get finished when you stitch the final piece in. You may need to fold your fabric out of the way a little on some parts to avoid catching it.



Old Maid Puzzle: we made one of the blocks for section 2, so this block should not be anything new. I chose not to go scrappy this time around and just used 4 colors total, pink for the big triangles, taupe print for the background, red for the four triangles that cut through the center, and green for the outer corner sections. Here is the link to the tips I made the last time we made this block.
http://chickenfeedquilts.blogspot.com/2019/01/gypsy-wife-section-2.html


Bordered Pinwheel Block: The instructions for this block take up the full first column on Page 19. I had some half square triangles already made so I used those to make my block go really quick, you could also use some of those triangles that we have set aside to make your pinwheel, and you can use all different fabrics or just a couple.

Square in a Square block: These are nothing new, but we do get to do a new size this time around so that is pretty fun. We need to make 1- 2.5" finished and 1- 3" finished.

That is it for this section, we only have one section left after this and than we can start cutting out our strips and assembling our quilt top!

Kayla

Gypsy Wife: Section 8

We have reached Section 8 of our Quilt Along! This week we only have four blocks, so if you have fallen behind at all these next two weeks would be a great time to start catching up again.
This week we have tow focus blocks and two filler blocks, and you can see the whole section on page 30.

Focus Blocks
Pg 8: From The Heart -- make 1
Pg 11: Star Block -- make 1

Filler Blocks
Pg 22: Square in a Square -- 3" finished -- make 1
Pg 24: Square in a Square with Courthouse Steps -- 10.5" finished -- make 1

From the Heart, I love this block and have been looking forward to making it since I started my quilt. It is such a fun take on a heart block. I kept mine simple with two colors, just pink and white.
I did not cut my squares for the Hourglass sections on the diagonal twice as suggested but just once. (I did cut the squares the size listed in the pattern) I than sewed at a 1/4" like making a half square triangle, pressed the seam, and put the two resulting HST's right sides together with opposite colors together, cut on the diagonal across my previous seams and stitched again. This is how I do all my hourglass blocks, I find it easier than working with the small quarter triangles that I always manage to sew together wrong.
Other than that I followed the instructions for this block and it went together really nicely.

Star Block, I did the same thing in this block for the hourglass components as I did in the previous block, and the block went together pretty quickly.



Square in a Square, nothing new with this block, but there is only a few more to make so you can look forward to that.



Square in a Square with Courthouse Steps, this is the largest block in the quilt if I am not mistaken, and it is a square, some borders, corners and another round of borders. It is quick to cut and piece.
I pieced mine while putting together the other blocks, so that I could chain piece the blocks and not cut my thread every time I finished a single seam.

And now we only have two sections left to complete and than we can get to work cutting our strips and assembling our quilt top.
Kayla

Gypsy Wife: Section 7

It's time for another Gypsy Wife Section. This week we will be doing Section 7. This section is comprised of 7 filler blocks. The full section is pictured on page 29 of your pattern booklet.

Blocks
Pg 22: Square in a Square Blocks -- 3" Finished -- make 3 (1 will be used as the center for another block)
Pg 22: Square in a Square Blocks -- 4" Finished -- make 2
Pg 22-23: Square in a square with Pinwheel centers -- 5" finished -- make 1
Pg 23: Bordered Square in a Square Blocks -- 7" Finished -- make 1
Pg 23-24: Square in a Square with Courthouse Steps: 4" Finished -- make 1

Square in a Square Blocks: We have made several of these already and we need to make a few more for this weeks section, 5 in total, although one of them we will use as a center for another block.
When cutting for these blocks make sure all the squares are cut accurately, and when layering the squares to sew ensure that the raw edges are neatly lined up. If you are finding that your squares are shifting while sewing, it can help to put a pin through, or a dab of glue in the section that will be trimmed off. Be sure to sew corner to corner, and you can also fold it open before trimming to see if the new "corner" lines up with the previous raw edges, if not sew a little more to the outer edge.

Square in a Square with Pinwheel Center: The instructions for the pinwheel center can be found on page 19, be sure to follow the cutting directions for the 2.5" finished block.
If you are careful when trimming the squares from your 4" square in a square blocks, you can use those scraps to piece the Half Square Triangles needed for the pinwheel. (I did make my trimmings into HSTs but did not end up using them for this pinwheel, but added them to my collection of Half Square Triangles)
Once you have your pinwheel made, you can flip back to page 23 and follow the instructions on the bottom of that page and the top of page 24 to cut and add the borders and the extra corners. 

Bordered Square in a Square: We need the extra square in a square block here, and we will add 2 borders to make it a little larger. Add the borders to the top and bottom first than the sides, than repeat for the second border. If you find these blocks are coming out a little smaller than they should you can your outer border a half inch wider and than trim the block to the correct size. Or make your seam allowance a little smaller and see if that helps.

Square in a Square with Courthouse Steps: This block is fairly straightforward and we have it before in other sizes. I once again cut my outer squares a little larger than directed and trimmed the finished block to the correct size.

These are the final blocks for the right hand side of the quilt! I like to break my quilts up and celebrate small accomplishments, can you tell? I am getting anxious to finish my quilt, and I am glad that there are just 3 sections left, and than the strips, and final assembly.

How are your blocks coming? Are you caught up , falling behind, perhaps setting aside some time during the Easter break to sew?
Kayla

Gypsy Wife: Section 6, Part 2

This week we will be working on the second half of Section 6. We need to make a total of 12 blocks and they are all fillers. We have made all of these blocks before so there is nothing new there we just needed to make a lot of blocks for this section and so I split it into two parts.

The full section is pictured on page 28.
Blocks:
Pg 22: Square in a Square Blocks- 3" Finished- make 8 (use 1 for block below)
Pg 22: Square in a Square Blocks- 4" Finished- make 3
Pg 23: Bordered Square in a Square Blocks - 5" Finished- make 1 (use block from above for the center)
Pg 24: Square in a Square with Courthouse Steps- 5.5" Finished- make 1

We will make 8 of the square in a square blocks that finish at 3", 7 of them we will set aside to be sewn into our quilt top and 1 we will be adding a border to so that is is just a little larger.
I did use my Folded Corner Clipper from Creative Grids for these blocks to eliminate the drawing of lines on each square.
I also chain pieced all these blocks to make it go a little quicker.

 Believe it or not after this Section is complete we only to make 25 more blocks and assemble the top!
Our schedule for the remaining sections is as follows
Section 7 will be posted on April 16
Section 8: April 30
Section 9: May 14
Section 10: May 28
In June we will cut and sew strips and assemble each section and complete the quilt!

I haven't yet laid out all my blocks together, I have only taken Section pictures and than put each in its bag waiting for final assembly, but I am eager to see all the blocks together. Is anyone else getting excited to see all the blocks come together into a final project?

Kayla

Gypsy Wife: Section 6 Part 1

Welcome to Section 6. This section is made up of a lot of blocks, 21 to be exact, but we are going to do them over 4 weeks instead of 2. This is to keep it fun and lower the pressure. So we will do 9 blocks this week and on April 2 I will post the second part. The whole section is pictured on page 28.

This week we will be making:
1x Indian Hatchet pg 12, 6" finished
1x Nurses Cross pg 14, 8" finished
1x Pinwheel Block pg 19, 4" finished
2x Bordered Pinwheel Block pg 19, 6" finished
1x Courthouse Steps Block pg 20, 5" finished
2x Courthouse Steps Block pg 20, 4" finished
1x Bordered Hourglass Block pg 21, 4" finished

Indian Hatchet: A straightforward main block, that finishes at 6". I chose 8 different fabrics for mine and used my simple folded corners ruler from Creative Grids to trim the diagonals rather than drawing a line and trimming afterwards.

Nurses Cross: This block has a lot of pieces, with several rounds and lots of triangles. I over cut some of them in order to have a little wiggle room. For the block construction your UU triangles are going to extend quite a ways past your rectangles, that's good they are supposed to, just stitch them down anyways and when you have the center complete you can trim it into a nice 4.5" square. For the next step, I cut the squares VV at 4" instead, than when they were stitched on, I pressed and trimmed the resulting block to 6.25" before continuing. I also cut the squares Aa at the full 2", and trimmed my final assembled block to 8.5" so that when it is in the quilt it will measure 8". Go slow with this one, stitch and press carefully and if you feel frustrated with it, walk away and come back to it later on, it really is a fun looking block when it is done.

On to the filler blocks for the section.

Pinwheel Blocks: We are going to actually make 3 pinwheel blocks that finish at 4", and than we will set one aside as finished and to the other two we will add a small border to make them a couple inches larger. Follow the instructions in the first column of page 19 for the full cutting and piecing instructions for all three.

Courthouse Steps: we are doing a total of 3 courthouse steps blocks in this section. 1 of them will have 3 rounds, the other 2 only 1 round. To cut and piece these we will follow the instructions for the last two blocks listed on page 20. I sewed all 3 at the same time so I could chain piece and not cut the thread each time, I just made sure I had my pieces nicely organized on my table beside me.
For the 5" finished block you will notice that round 2 is cut wider than 1 and 3, this is NOT a typo, so cut as the pattern says. if you are worried that your block is going to turn out to small, you can always cut the round 3 strips a little wider as well, and trim it to the correct size when it is all sewn.

Bordered Hourglass Block: If you set aside your extra hourglass block from section 1, you can use it now and just add the border and you are finished. Or you can choose to make a whole new block which is what I decided to do.

That's it for this part of the section.
Next time we have 12 square on square blocks to make, in a couple sizes,  and add some more borders to a couple as well.

I loved seeing everyone's section 5s. They all look so unbelievably different. As for the winner of the gift card that I mentioned last time, Congratulations go to Thelma Brown. If you missed her photos be sure to check them out under the photos tab. Her blocks are beautiful and are all done in various shades of blue with pops of yellow throughout!.
Thelma you can pick your $35 gift card up at the shop next time you stop in.

Kayla