Sew Hometown: October

This month we are making 5 Finch Blocks for our Sew Hometown Quilt. These blocks finish at 6 inches and are quite fun to construct. The tutorial from the gals at Inspiring Stitches has not been posted yet, but if you check their website over the next few days, they should post their little video soon. 

They tried to fit a lot of instructions for this little bird on one page so some of it may be a little confusing but it all comes together in the end. 

As usual we start with choosing fabrics and cutting them out according to the list. I went opposite the pattern and did dark for the body and light for the wing and beak portions of the bird. (Even though I switched the dark and lights I will still write this post as if I did not, so that it is the same as the pattern.) 

I cut all 5 of my Finches at one time to make it quicker. 

Making the beak unit is up first. I used a piece of chalk to mark the two positioning points on the background fabric than placed my beak fabric on top of that, sewed 1/4" from the edge and trimmed accordingly. After pressing it, I trimmed it to the size mentioned in step 1 of the pattern.

Step 2 in the pattern is for assembling the body. The pattern doesn't tell you which pieces to use, just tells you to look at the picture. We are going to use our largest background rectangle, the 6.5" light pink rectangle, the 6.5" dark pink rectangle and the 5.5" rectangle. Sew these all together, press the seams and trim into the rectangle. I had a 3.5" ruler handy so I used that to trim, with the 4.5" marking as the left corner. 

Step 3 has a typo in my pattern, there is no 3.5" light pink rectangle, so use your 4.5" one here instead. 

Finally we need to assemble the block, the picture in my pattern seems to have a couple extra pieces in it, so here are photos of my block in the various stages. 

I again put all my blocks on to the design wall to see how its looking, and I am loving how the colors just seem to pop off the chocolate background fabric. 

There is only two months left in this Block of the Month, and a total of 9 blocks yet to make, than we get to actually assemble the whole quilt top. 

Kayla

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.

Sew Hometown: August

Another month, another set of blocks. This month we are making the Butterfly Blocks in the quilt. These blocks finish at 9" and we need to make 6 of them.
Once again there is some Improvisational Piecing involved. This type of piecing is perfect for using up scraps of all shapes. I didn't have many scraps left so I ended up cutting some 2" strips off my Fat Quarters and using them to do my improv on three of the blocks. The other three I decided to use just one piece of fabric rather than doing the improv.
Once you have the wing centers pieced the blocks assemble quite quickly. We just need to add the squares to all four corners of each wing, put the body between two and add the top border.
As with previous blocks, I used my folded corner clipper ruler from Creative Grids to trim the squares before sewing rather than drawing the lines.
If you wish to watch a video tutorial for this block, head over to the Inspiring Stitches website.
Here are all my blocks so far, only four more sets of blocks to go.

As a reminder the Fall Class and Club reveal is tomorrow evening, Wednesday, August 14 from 7pm-9pm, I hope to see you there.
Kayla

Sew Hometown: July

Last week I spent some time in Montana doing some camping with my husband and our four boys, my husband's parents and some family friends.  Now that we are back, and the laundry is finished and the trailer cleaned and ready for the next trip it is time to get back to quilting. 

Last night I made my July blocks for the Sew Hometown Quilt. These Improv Star Blocks were fun to make and introduce a new technique that we haven't done yet in this quilt along, Improvisational  Piecing.

Prior to this block I had done very little Improv Piecing, and it took a few pieces to get accustomed to the fact that the strips don't need to fit together, but once I started playing I really enjoyed it.  The great part is that you can use up some of those odd scraps that you have laying around. I first pulled out all the scraps that I had from this quilt already, than I chose one of my larger triangles to start with and added strips and triangles on to it, trimming sections off and adding more as needed to get to the required size. 

For the star points I decided to go scrappy as well and cut one square from all my fabrics. I used the Creative Grids Folded Corner Clipper to trim before sewing to avoid drawing the lines on the back of each square. 

The general guidelines for the improv piecing are at the beginning of the calendar and if you click here you can see a quick video on the construction start to finish. 

If you don't want to do the Improv center, you can always substitute a solid piece of fabric into the center. 

I am thrilled with how this quilt is coming along, and I am in love with the dark background, the colors really pop off of it. 

Now I need to go catch up on my Moda Bakeshop Summer Camp quilt, I fell behind while on holidays. What are your sewing plans for the week?

 Kayla

Sew Hometown: April

Welcome to month 4 of the Sew Hometown Sew Along. This month we are making Flutter, a simple block that finishes at 6", and we are making 5 of them.
For the small triangles I cut 5 squares. I than cut these in half diagonally once. From the resulting triangles I cut one on the diagonal to use for the blocks, and set the other one aside for use in a later block.

For the large triangles I cut as directed in the pattern, and set the extra triangles aside for later.

We have some improv blocks coming up that these leftover pieces will be perfect for.

I used my 6.5" square Creative Grids Ruler to trim up my blocks.

And finally I put all my blocks so far up on the wall to see my progress.

 How are your blocks coming?

Kayla

Check back Friday to see some of the newest fabrics in our shop and the projects some of us are working on.

Sew Hometown: March

This month we are making the Crosswalk Block for our quilt, and we need to make a total of 5 of them. They are pretty straight forward blocks and is made up of half square triangles and some pieced units that go together quite simply.
I chose to go with a different color for each Crosswalk and to do all the backgrounds in dark brown.
To speed up the cutting, I stacked all 5 contrasting colors on top of each other and cut my strips and squares all at the same time. Than I cut for 5 blocks from the background rather than 1 at a time.
I trimmed my Half Square Triangles using my 4-in-1 Half Square Triangle Ruler from Creative Grids. I love this ruler for trimming these blocks, and we have a tutorial on our Facebook Page demonstrating one of the methods to trim HST's with it.
I am so happy the pattern designers chose to make the "crosswalks" with strip sets, it really speeds up the process, and cuts down on the number of small pieces to cut at the beginning. Be sure to be gentle when pressing the strip sets, it can be easy to distort longer strips when pressing. I like to give it a quick finger press before applying heat.
On the bottom left of the pattern there is a small picture with arrows showing which way to press your seams in the final construction. I actually pressed mine opposite of what is shown, mostly because that is which way my seams wanted to go.
I am having a lot of fun pulling this out once a month and making a few more blocks to add to the stack. I also really like the fact that we are making more than one block each month unlike many Block of The Month programs where the pattern calls for just one block a month. I must confess though that I am almost finished my quilt, because I would like to get it hanging in the store as a sample for the pattern and fabrics.
Have you been working ahead, or are you going month by month?
Come back on Tuesday to see some of the latest fabric arrivals in our store. There will be no blog post next week Friday (March 15) as it is my little sisters wedding that day.
Kayla

Sew Hometown: February

This month we are making 4 Birdhouse Blocks for our Sew Hometown Quilt. These blocks are very straight forward to make, and if you have a scrap bin if strips narrower than 2" you will be able to use a good amount of them.
You can go very coordinated with these blocks or super scrappy, whatever suits or fancy, or even a couple each way.
I chose coordinated and made the centers of each one of my birdhouses a solid color and than did a light and dark of two colors for each set of strips, choosing a third color for the roof and base of each birdhouse.
When adding the strips be sure to add to both sides and than top and bottom, in a courthouse steps fashion rather around the block like a typical log cabin.
Also be careful when pressing not to distort those fabrics, but still getting a nice crisp press.
I absolutely love my wool mat for this. The wool mat holds the heat from your iron (without getting too hot, so you can still use it on your table), so it is like pressing your block from both sides at once. I honestly would not press with out my wool mat anymore I love it so much. They come in a variety of sizes from small squares to a large mat that measures 22"x60". I love my monster mat, but aside from that one the Mega Mat which measure 14"x24" would be my preferred size. We do have the Mega Mat in stock and the smaller ones are on order and should be here around the end of the month.

Be sure to tag us, chickenfeedquilts, in your photos so we can see your blocks and tag Inspiring Stitches as well so they can see your progress too.

Kayla

Sew Hometown: January

The first blocks we are making for the Sew Hometown Quilt are the Cabin blocks. These blocks finish at 12" and we need to make 4 of them in total.
I chose the fabrics for all 4 blocks, took a quick photo and than stacked all the roof fabrics together and cut them all at the same time, repeating for all the pieces. This made cutting go quick, and I had a picture to look back at if I forgot which house fabric went with each roof. I also just chose 4 greens and cut one of each size strip from each to make the 4 blocks.
Creative Grids recently produced a ruler that is called Simple Folded Corners. It is great for stitch and flip blocks, like we do here on the roof. To use just put the two pieces right sides together, and than instead of drawing a line on the diagonal and stitching and than trimming, just align the ruler on the fabric, use your rotary cutter to trim the excess and than stitch. It includes the 1/4" seam allowance for you.
Rather than throwing the scraps from these corners into a scrap bin or the garbage, I like to stitch them into half square triangles. I just chain stitch them quick, give them a press and set them aside. I will keep all the ones from this quilt together and in the end I should have enough to make a small project, with the bonus of all the HSTs being premade.
The pattern gives the option to make the blocks with the house on the right side or to switch it up and place it on the left side. I ended up making them all with the house on the right side (mostly because I was chain piecing and not really paying that much attention). If you want the house on the left simply add the background on the other side, this is such a simple way to change up a block, without .
changing any measurements.
The gals from Inspiring Stitches have not yet published their post for this month's blog, but as soon as they do I will publish the link to it on our Facebook Page.
Have fun making your blocks and tag Chicken Feed Quilts in your pictures so we can see them too.

Kayla

Block instructions can be found in the Inspiring Stitches 2019 Calendar: Sew Hometown

Sew Hometown: Introduction

Sew Hometown is the 2019 Block Of The Month put together by Amy Ellis and Heather Valentine from Inspiring Stitches. It is a fun quilt made up of whimsical blocks. I will be doing this quilt through the bog, posting tips or motivation each month as will as a link to the blog posts by Amy and Heather who will also be doing some videos for instruction as well.

MLXLS​​

During this BOM we will be making a new block each month, each block occurs 3-6 times in the quilt so some months will be busier than others. This quilt also features some improv piecing which is great for those small scraps, and a fun way to learn some new skills. 

The designers suggest choosing either one favorite print and using that as a starting point to choosing fabrics or to pick 3 focal colors that work well together and choosing colors that will coordinate well thinking about the size of print, the color saturation (deep jewel tones versus pastels) and color family. They also suggest sorting the fabric choices into like colors to make them easy to select while piecing. They did a great little write up in the beginning of the pattern to help you out in your choices whether you are shopping from our store or from your stash. 

SXLLM​​

I have decided to use a fat quarter bundle that was designed by Amy Ellis. It is called Wanderlust and is mainly green, yellow and a fun coral color, with some dark brown, and lots of white prints. Because the white prints make up a large portion of the bundle and there is only a little of the brown, I am going to use the brown as my background. Now if you know me, you will know that I almost never use brown or green, so I am going to be stepping out of my box on this project.

There is no real fabric requirement for the main fabrics as it is written for scraps but you will need at least 25 fat quarters though fat eighths will also work well. You do need a total of 4.5 yards of background fabric which can be all one fabric or several. This measurement also includes the border. 

The quilt finishes at 67"x79", which is a great size.

This Block of the Month will begin on January 4th which is 3 weeks away. We have the pattern available in store. The pattern is actually put together in the form of a desk calendar so it would also make a great gift. 

Speaking of gifts and January being only 3 weeks away, do you have many Christmas and yer end parties to attend this year? Have they already started? We have our first one tomorrow evening at Esther's house. 

Kayla;