1930’s Farmer’s Wife Block Tutorial | April

Hello! I’m happy to be here today to share my third tutorial for the 1930’s Farmer’s Wife Quilt Along which is sponsored by Angie of Gnome Angel, Fat Quarter Shop, and Marti Michell.

Today’s block is number 6, April, and I’m happy to say it can be pieced with a 

couple of time-saving techniques!


Before we get started, though, have you heard that this quilt along is going to focus on just one block a week from now on? I’m super excited about that because I’ve fallen behind and hope to be able to catch up this way. So this block is the only block for this week, and there will be just one block a week from here on out.

I used Marti Michell’s cutting directions for my block. There are also rotary cutting directions for most of the pieces in this block that are included in your CD that comes with the book.

Instead of making the four nine-patch sections with squares, Marti suggests using strip piecing. This makes everything more accurate and saves a lot of time. Before I began I starched and ironed all of my pieces. This really helps when working with these smaller bits of fabric.

I pressed the seams open on my strip sets to make sure I had everything at just the right size. This simple step can make quite a difference in your strip size, so be sure to measure the strips after sewing and pressing.

Cut segments from your strip sets until you have all of the pieces needed for your nine-patches. Marti’s directions tell you how to make the strip sets and also tell you how many to cut from each set (my photo is actually missing a couple of the segments I used).

Make four nine-patch units. There are two different block layouts for these nine-patch units, and you will make two of each one. Pay close attention to the diagram in your book.  I pressed these seams open, too.

The center square can be sewn to the two rectangles, and then it’s time to make the easy corner triangle sections. I would much rather make easy corner triangles than cut odd shapes any day!

Sew the small squares to one corner of each remaining large square and press out. Trim the extra pieces.

Then, repeat on the other side. Make four of these units.

Now that all of the units are pieced, sew the units into rows according to the diagram in the book.

Press after each step. Once the rows are completed then sew them together into the quilt block.

I liked the way this turned out. I made sure there was a good amount of contrast in this block so it wouldn’t look muddled. I also used the Marti Michell “My Favorite Log Cabin Ruler” which really made working with these pieces very easy.

I have 15 blocks now, but the good thing is that I think I can get caught up pretty easily with only one block a week from here on out.

Are you sewing along with this quilt along?

The
Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt: Inspiring Letters from Farm Women of
the Great Depression and 99 Quilt Blocks That Honor Them by Laurie Aaron Hird for Fons & Porter/F+W; RRP $28.99 – Click here to purchase. (Compulsory inclusion for this sponsored blog post).

Thanks so much for stopping by!