Category Archives: Farmers Wife Quilt Sampler

Quest for the Perfect Quarter Inch Seam

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Sometimes you have to go back to the basics.  I am currently participating in two reproduction quilt projects – the Civil War Block of the Week and the Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt.  Each week I am challenged with new and sometimes intricate quilt blocks.  I am discovering that my piecing skills could use some fine tuning – in particular my 1/4″ seams.  It is frustrating to select just the right fabric, cut as precisely as possible, piece the block and find that it doesn’t fit together as expected and is not the desired size when complete.

So this week I have taken some time to work on this skill.  My first resource is a book called Quilter’s Academy – Vol 1 – Freshman Year.  Written by Harriet Hargrave and her daughter Carrie Hargrave, this book includes step-by-step instructions on how to sew 1/4″ seams. I also attended a demonstration by Marci Baker not too long ago, in which she included lots of tips and techniques for getting 1/4″ seams.

Well, actually, we don’t really want true 1/4″ seams.  We need scant 1/4″ seams because of the thickness of the thread and the fold of the fabric when the piece is pressed. Our goal is the have the perfect size block which we can get if we reduce the seam size just a smidge.

My sewing machine (a Janome 6500P) came with a 1/4″ foot.  This is what I’ve been using. And that is where my problems started.

See the little black metal guide on the right side?  If I feed the edge of my fabric along that guide, I actually end up with a seam that is a bit larger than 1/4″.  That reduces the size of two pieces of fabric stitched together by just a bit.  Well, when you have four or five pieces of fabric stitched together, they could end up to be 1/4″ too small.  Well that is HUGE in the quilting world and will cause all kinds of messes and frustrations!

When I attended the Marci Baker demonstration I purchased one of her tools called Sewing Edge.  This is a reusable vinyl stop that I setup to use as a sewing guide:

Now it was time to test it out.  The Quilters Academy book suggests the following:

  • Select a light fabric and a dark fabric, cut 2″ strips that are 7″ long (the book includes lots of good information on accurate cutting).
  • Place a light and dark fabric right sides together.  Make sure your edges are exactly aligned – don’t leave a bit hanging over from one side or the other.
  • Stitch your scant 1/4″ seam.
  • Press toward the dark (believe me – the section in this book on pressing is awesome!).
  • Stitch the third fabric to the other two so you have a light, dark, light or dark, light, dark pattern.
  • Now is the moment of truth.  Measure the set.  It should be exactly 5″ wide.
  • And the center strip should be exactly 1.5″ wide:

If the center is less than 1.5″, then your seam is too wide.  If your center is greater than 1.5″ then your seam is too narrow.  Adjust your guide and try again.  It took me nearly a dozen tries before I got two in a row that were correct!  Practice makes perfect!!!

Now I’m looking forward to working on the Civil War Block of the Week and the Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt this week so I can put my “perfect” scant 1/4″ seams into practice!

 

Farmer’s Wife Quilt Along

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This is my third week on the Farmer’s Wife Quilt Along.  The official quilt along on Flickr is on week 12.  The challenge is to create two blocks from The Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt book (by Laurie Aaron Hird).   I am playing catch up.  The first two weeks I made 5 blocks but this past week has been busy busy busy – so I have 3 blocks to show.

Here are blocks 11, 12 and 13:


I paper pieced each block and am using Aunt Grace fabric (or similar from my stash).

Here is a close up of each:

Broken Dishes

The fabric I chose for Broken Dishes reminded me of blue and white Spode china.  With all those little bitty triangles I think it does look a bit like “broken dishes”.

Broken Sugar Bowl

Two “broken” quilt blocks in a row!  I was trying to go for a brown sugar and white sugar look with the fabric selection.

Buckwheat

I think rabbits may eat buckwheat. 🙂

Next week, I’ve got two more “B” blocks and then it will be on with the “C” blocks.  I’ll “C” you then! 😉

Farmer’s Wife Quilt Along – My Week 2

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This is my second week on the Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt Along.  The official Quilt Along on Flickr is on week 11.  The challenge is to create 2 blocks every week from The Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt book (by Laurie Aaron Hird).   I am playing catch up so I am trying to piece 5 blocks a week.

As I mentioned in last weeks FWQA blog I am working on the blocks sequentially.  Last week I created on blocks 1 through 5 and this week blocks 6 through 10.

For the most part, I paper pieced the blocks using the foundation piecing patterns from the Farmers Wife Sampler Yahoo Group.  The only block I did not paper piece this week the Bowtie block.  I just recently created a quilt for Grandpa Joe made entirely of bowtie blocks – so I was very comfortable with the block.

Here are close-ups of each block:

Big Dipper

Birds in the Air

Bouquet

Box

Bowtie

The fabric I am using is mostly Aunt Grace from Moda plus miscellaneous stash fabric.

I was surprised to see a few blocks that have also been part of the Barbara Brackman’s Civil War Block of the Week.  The Bouquet block pictured above was last week’s block on the Civil War Block of the week, however, it was called Carolina Lily.  You can see my Civil War version here.  The Civil War version of the Birds in the Air was 1/4th of the Farmer’s Wife Birds in the Air – quite a bit easier without all those teeny weeny triangles!

I love seeing all the new blocks, like the Box block, as I work through projects like the Farmer’s Wife Quilt Along and the Civil War Block of the week.  I certainly learn a lot as I go!

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