Welcome back to the sew along for the blocks in Bee Lori Holt’s Farm Girl Vintage 2 quilt book.
If you’re new here, the sew along is simple – a group of us are committed to sewing a couple of blocks each week from the book.
The accountability and inspiration from the community is going to get us all to the end!
The sew along started January 10th, but if you’re finding this now, there is still time to join in and catch up.
All you need is the book and some fabric scraps.
Every week on Monday I will email out the assignment.
The first week’s assignment was sent via email (so if you want the weekly updates, subscribe to my email list!)
For week #1 the two blocks were the Baked with Love Block & Autumn Pumpkin.
My initial post tells you how many 12” and 6” blocks you need if you are sewing the entire quilt. You decide the size you want to make each week.
Autumn Pumpkin Quilt Block:
I really enjoyed sewing the Pumpkin block up first. It didn’t have too many pieces and it went together rather quickly.
My personal challenge was that I chose an orange fabric that had a directional print. I only had to use my seam ripper once (ha) to make sure the words all went in the correct direction.
A personal goal for myself with this quilt is to rethink traditional color schemes. While I did end up going with orange for the pumpkin, a part of me wonders how cute it would be in pink or teal.
Anyone else out there breaking the rules with color?
Baked with Love Quilt Block:
As we continue with this sew along, you’re going to notice that I have actually already sewn this quilt once before (it was my 2020 pandemic project).
The first time I did this I sewed the Baked with Love block in the 12” size.
The 2nd time around I did it in the 6” size.
And howdy doody rooty tooty I am here to tell you that this block has a ton of pieces and when you jam them all into a 6” block you have some bulk seams to deal with!
I LOVE how the 6-inch block turned out, but I had to work with a lot of bulky seams.
A few tips for working with super small quilt pieces:
When cutting fabric for the 6” Farm Girl Vintage blocks, you will notice that some of the pieces are so stinking small (hello 7/8 inch square – I’m looking at YOU!).
- Do not use steam in your iron because it stretches and distorts these little pieces.
- Press seams open. I often press to one side, but when there is a lot of bulk (like the crust part of the pie) I start pressing them open.
- Do not over press. I press my block and then set it under something heavy while the heat releases. This keeps me from aggressively pressing my block, which often leads to stretching it.
Any tips you learned from the first week to share with the group? Drop a comment below.
Be sure to check your inboxes on Monday for the new assignment!
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