Summer Sampler Series: Minnesota Block

Welcome to another block in the Summer Sampler Series! Today we'll be making the Minnesota block. I just love the vintage charm of this block.

Minnesota is block #1979 in the Encyclopedia Of Pieced Quilt Patterns. It is in the "Unequal Nine Patch with Small Center Square" pattern category—a huge category with an amazing variety of designs represented. This block originally appeared in the magazine "Hearth and Home," which was popular with women in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Hearth and Home published a series of 50 quilt block patterns, one for each state (there is a book that collects all 50 state block patterns, which you can buy here). I couldn't find any information on whether there is design significance to each state's block (I'm guessing there isn't). But Wisconsin's is pretty interesting too, so you might see that one from me one of these days! It might be kind of fun to make a "travel quilt" of blocks for all of the states that I've been to over the years.

Minnesota Block Tutorial

This is another block that combines traditional piecing and paper piecing. But if you've made it this far in the quilt-along, I promise you'll think this one is a piece of cake. No, seriously!

1. Cutting:
• (4) 6.25" print squares for hourglass units
• (4) 2.5" x 5.5" pieces for diamond units
• (1) 2.5" square for center diamond
• (8) 3.5" x 4.5" pieces for background of diamond units
• (4) 2" squares for background of center diamond

2. Let's start with the paper-piecing this time. You can download the paper-piecing template here. (Please note: Printing directly from Google Docs can cause your template sizes to be inaccurate. To avoid this, download the PDF to your computer and print it from Acrobat—for information about how to do this, see this Flickr discussion.) You will need 4 copies of the rectangular template and 1 copy of the small square template.

3. Starting with the rectangular templates, adhere the 2.5" x 5.5" pieces to the back of the templates, right side facing out, so that your fabric is on one side and the printed template is on the other. I use double-sided tape to put my fabric onto the template, but you could also use a glue stick, fabric glue, or pins. Your fabric pieces should be the same size as the template and should completely cover the back of the template. In the photo above, mine are all adhered to the templates.

4. Take your 3.5" x 4.5" background pieces and cut them in half diagonally, so that you have 16 triangular pieces.

5. Position a background triangle onto the back of your template/fabric, right side facing, as shown.

6. Flip the entire thing over, so that you're looking at the printed template. Hold it up to a light source to check that the triangular background piece is in the correct position. It's hard to tell in this photo because my fabric is black, but at least 1/4" of the triangular background piece should be above the line you'll be sewing on, and the rest should be below the line.

7. Sew directly onto the line between Section 1 and Section 2, as shown. Be sure to use a shorter stitch length to make it easier to tear off the paper later. I'm using 1.4 on my machine.

8. Fold back the triangular piece and press into place, as shown. (My paper is curling in the photo above, due to the nine-thousand percent humidity we're currently having.)

9. Sew the other three pieces into place in just the same way. When you're done, you should have something that looks like this.

10. Using the paper template as a guide, trim off the excess fabric.

11. Tear off and discard the paper templates. Fold back the background triangles and carefully trim off the excess fabric underneath. (So I'm trimming off the black fabric from underneath the white fabric.)

12. You should now have a diamond unit that looks like this. Repeat the process to make a total of four diamond units.

13. Now follow the same process one more time to make the center diamond. Use the 2.5" square paper template, your 2.5" square of fabric and your 2" square background pieces. After sewing and trimming, you should end up with a unit that looks like this.

14. Now that your paper-pieced diamond units are complete, we'll use traditional piecing to make the four hourglass units that complete the block. Start by cutting the 6.25" squares in half diagonally, and then in half diagonally in the other direction. You should now have a total of 16 triangles like the ones above.

15. Match up one triangle of each print and sew them together along a short edge. Don't sew together the long edges—if you do that, you'll end up with an HST, and we actually don't want any of those this time! : ) I pressed my seam allowance to the side, toward the blue print.

16. Do the same thing with another pair of triangles, but this time, swap the sides the prints are on. Yes, it does matter which sides the prints are on, so pay attention to that. Again, I pressed my seam allowance toward the blue print.

17. Join the two triangles together for a completed hourglass unit. Pressing your seam allowances to the side should give you those "locking seams" that will help you nicely align your points. The completed hourglass unit should measure 5.5" square. Repeat to make a total of four hourglass units.

18. Arrange all 9 units as shown, join into three rows, and then join the rows together to complete the block.

See, that wasn't too bad, right? And look what you've made (and learned!) in only three weeks! My blocks are above—I can't wait to round them out with the final three blocks. I hope you guys are enjoying this as much as I am! Stop in at Swim, Bike, Quilt on Monday for Kate's final block in the series, and don't forget to upload photos of your progress to the Flickr group. I have been so impressed and amazed at the wonderful creations that have been showing up there! Happy sewing!

Come Chat With Me!

I'm chatting with Jennifer of Ellison Lane Quilts over on her blog today. Head over there to check it out! And if you haven't seen Jennifer's fabulous blog yet, scroll down to see some of her projects—she does beautiful work. Thank you for featuring me, Jennifer!

WIP Wednesday #37

Well, I don't have much to tell you about this week that you haven't already seen, but let's roll 'em out anyway, shall we?

Ongoing projects:

Skill Builder Sampler Quilt-Along - currently caught up
Here's my version of the Arizona block (you can find the tutorial here). I decided to reverse things up and do a print for the background, solids for the rest. At first I didn't love the results, but now I think it's kind of growing on me. Visit my Flickr photostream to see a mosaic of all five of the blocks I've done so far for this QA.
Summer Sampler Series
I made my scrappy, stringy six-pointed star block yesterday, and it was so much fun to put together. This is yet another block that is begging to be an entire quilt. This sampler is officially swamping my to-do list! Head over to Fresh Lemons Quilts for today's block tutorial. And check out this post for a sneak-peek at Faith's Loulouthi Cross quilt, made from the Greek Cross block we learned how to make earlier in the QA.
Modern Meadow - I actually made some progress stitching the binding on this. I'm thinking it'll be in the completed column very soon. For real! No, seriously this time!

Farmer's Wife Quilt-Along - currently caught up
Click here for my post about this week's blocks.

Completed tops awaiting quilting:

Hexing Around (for Do. Good Stitches)
Hope Valley (the original Supernova)

No progress:
Kaleidoscope QA
Secret project (on hold while I reconsider fabric selections)
Figgy Pudding quilt
Wonky Log Cabin

This week's stats:
New projects - 0
Completed projects - 0
Currently in progress - 11

Let's see those WIPs! Just a reminder: You don't have to list all your WIPs, although you certainly can if you want to. You can link up any post from the past week that includes an unfinished project. And don't forget to link back to my blog. Have a great week!

Farmer's Wife—Week 7

This week's blocks for the Farmer's Wife Quilt-Along were pretty easy, so I decided to slip in an extra one (out of order! gasp!). I know I'll be missing at least one week in August, maybe even more than one, so it's nice to be able to work a little ahead right now.

Checkerboard: I'm loving how this one turned out with the darker green background. I had originally planned to use the light green gingham, but realized there wasn't enough contrast with some of the prints and changed my plan.

Calico Puzzle

Buzzard's Roost: I'm not a huge fan of this block in general, but I guess it's okay in these fabrics.

Seventeen done now! I'm hoping to do another extra one next week, which means I can miss a week in August and still be on track.

Do. Good Stitches Hexy Top

Remember this block? June was my month as quilter for the Love Circle of the Do. Good Stitches charity quilting bee. I asked each of the ladies to make two Hexing Around blocks for this quilt. Check out the results—even cuter than I was expecting!

I asked for bright, summery colors, and the Love Circle ladies really did it up in that department. These blocks are so fresh and fun. And even though I didn't specifically ask for blocks with fussy-cut centers, almost everybody did fussy-cut theirs, adding another whole level of coolness to this quilt top. Among the blocks, there is a duck, a fish, an octopus (squid?), a sleeping princess, a cat, a giraffe, kitchen utensils, flowers, and—appropriately, on a couple of levels—several bees. So it's almost turned into an I-spy quilt. What an unexpected bonus!

When laying out the top, I staggered the blocks—I like the honeycomb appearance that gives. Although, if I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have asked the Love Circle ladies to attach the strips to the top and bottom of the blocks. The whole point of that was to make the block square—I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me that the block doesn't need to be square. It would have been much easier (and fewer seams) for me to attach one piece of sashing between each block. Well, lesson learned.

My little assistant was concerned about the quilt flying away in the breeze

Thank you, Love Circle ladies! And FYI, there are two more hexy blocks that I'm putting on the back, so if one of your blocks appears to be missing, you'll see it on the back soon enough.

Updated to add: I'm jumping on board with the Hex-Along at Lily's Quilts! This looks like a really fun, loose, no-rules kind of quilt-along (which is the only kind I'm capable of joining at the moment). Basically, you're welcome to join with any project that includes hexagons in any form. So I'm in! Yay for dual-purpose projects!

Summer Sampler Series: Arkansas Traveler Block

Welcome back to the Summer Sampler Series. Are you ready for block #6? It's a very unique block, and one of my favorites in the quilt-along!

This is the Arkansas Traveler block, #3912 in the Encyclopedia Of Pieced Quilt Patterns. It's also known as Cowboy's Star, Travel Star, or "Teddy's Choice." It's from the "Other Stars" category of patterns in the Encyclopedia.

Arkansas Traveler Flag Quilt - featured on Earlene Fowler's website

Not much is known about the history of this block, but it likely dates back to the 1800s, since it shares its name with a popular 19th century folk song. There are several quilt blocks known by the name Arkansas Traveler—the others are variations on spool designs. Arkansas Traveler quilts were sometimes made up of more than one type of Arkansas Traveler block, like the flag quilt above (from writer Earlene Fowler's website).

I'm doing a more modern variation on this block, using 60-degree diamonds instead of the narrower diamonds often used in traditional Arkansas Traveler blocks. Since Faith did such an excellent job of introducing us to paper-piecing with Wednesday's Star block, I thought we'd make this block by combining traditional piecing and paper piecing. Don't worry, it's easier than it sounds!

Arkansas Traveler Block Tutorial

Cutting
• For diamonds: 2 5/8" x 9" strips - cut 8 (Stash Trad bee members: Cut these strips to 3" instead.)
• For background: 3" x 6" strips - cut 8; 3" x 9" strips - cut 8

Cutting and Piecing the Diamonds

1. Place your ruler on an angle over the end of one of the 2 5/8" x 9" strips, lining up the 60-degree mark with the bottom of the strip, as shown, and cut.

2. Slide your ruler over. With the 60-degree mark still lined up with the bottom of the strip, line up the 2 5/8" mark on your ruler with the angled (cut) end of the strip, and cut again. (Stash Trad members, again cut to 3".)

3. You now have a 60-degree diamond. Continue cutting diamonds, two from each strip, until you have 16.

4. Pair up two diamonds, right sides facing, and so that the edges intersect 1/4" from each point (right where your seam will be). This results in little triangles sticking out on each side called dog ears—see them? Make sure those dog ears are showing, and that they're even on each side.

5. Sew and press seam allowances open. Sew together a second pair and press.

6. Put your pairs together, right sides facing, as shown above. Again, make sure the dog ears are correct.

7. Sew and press seam allowances open. You should now have a diamond unit that looks like this. Repeat the steps above until you have four diamond units.

Paper-Piecing the Diamonds into the Background1. Let me start by saying that if you've never paper-pieced before, and you haven't yet made Faith's Star block, I recommend you do that first. Faith did a great job introducing the skill of paper-piecing, and I don't want to repeat too much of what she explained in her post.

2. Okay, all set? Print out 4 copies of my paper-piecing template for this block, which can be found here. Be sure to set page scaling to "None" or "100 percent" when printing, and after printing, check the 1" scale to make sure it's accurate. Trim the templates.

3. Attach one of your peiced diamond units to the back of the template, lining up the diamond seams you sewed in the previous steps with the "pre-sewn line" marks on the front of the template (as much as you can see them through the paper). I flipped down the edges of the diamond unit to make sure the seams were lined up, but don't stress about it too much. Since those diamond seams don't line up with anything else, it's not crucial that they be exact. I used double-sided tape to attach my diamond units to the back of the paper—I prefer that over pins. You could also use a glue stick.

Tip: If you have a certain color/print that you want in the center, place the diamond unit so the center print is between 4 and 5 (where my blue and green floral print is in the photo below), rather than between 2 and 3. This will give your seams an outward radiating pattern.

4. Hold up your template to a light source to visually check that your diamond unit is placed correctly and that there will be 1/4" seam allowance all the way around. This diamond unit is piece #1. You'll add piece #2, a background piece, next.

5. Place a 3" x 6" background piece along the edge of the diamond that borders section #2. Make sure right sides facing and the edges are approximately lined up, as shown. Now turn over the whole thing and sew on the line, through the paper, as Faith showed on her blog. Remember to lower your stitch count to perforate the paper better—I use 1.4.

6. Press back the piece you just sewed and trim any excess seam allowances. Repeat the steps above to add additional background pieces, in order, according to the numbers on the paper template. You will use the 3" x 6" pieces for the first two background pieces, and the 3" x 9" cuts for the second (longer) two pieces.

7. Once you've sewed on all four background pieces, it should look like this.

8. Turn the whole thing over and trim around the edges of the paper template. DON'T tear the paper off yet!

9. You now have the first of your four star units. Repeat the steps above to create the other three quarter-block units.

10. Arrange two of the star units as shown.

11. Put the units together, right sides facing, with the paper still on.

12. Sew the two units together on the template's outer line, as shown. So you're now sewing through two star units and two paper templates. There will be a lot of seam bulk where the center points meet, but the paper will give that area some structure, which should keep the fabric from bunching up. It will also help you match up the points more accurately, in spite of the bulk. If your machine gets hung up at that corner, you may need to gently push the units/paper through. You could also try adjusting your presser foot to make it less tight (if your machine has that option) or using a walking foot if you're still having problems.

When you're done sewing, here's what it looks like on the other side. Your sewing should come through the other side right on the other template's line (mine isn't perfect, but it's close enough!)

And here's what it looks like when you're done (the paper is still on the back).

13. Repeat with the other two star points. Finger press the seam allowances open. When you're ready to join the two pairs with the final seam of the block, you can take the paper off if you're worried about the paper making too much bulk in your machine, or leave the paper on and piece it the same way you did the previous two seams.

14. Once the entire block has been pieced, remove the paper and press seams open.

And with that, we are now halfway through this quilt-along! Here are all 6 of my blocks together. I can't wait to see your blocks, especially Arkansas Traveler, so please post pictures to the Flickr group.

On Monday, the Summer Sampler Series will be back on Kate's blog to kick off our second half. Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!