Blocks 24, 25 & 26 (Hen, Milking Day & Old Glory Flag) - Farm Girl Vintage Quilt & Featherweight Shop Sew Along

Farm Girl Vintage Sew Along

For our geographic area, we have officially entered what many locals call the "mud season" - that time of year when the weather can't decide to pour down rain to the point of flooding or grace us with a warm sunny afternoon.  In this time of weather flip flop, and when I need a sewing break from rubber galoshes and weeding, these Farm Girl Vintage one-by-one blocks are perfect for keeping my interest and excited about the "what do I get to sew next?!"  For April we get to sew: the Hen, Milk Can and an Old Glory flag.

Psssst! If you're just joining us and want to get in on the fun with a darling and perfect collage of farm girl fabric, then check out the Farm Girl Vintage Quilt Kit. You'll have all the lovely fabrics you need to make this quilt from start to finish. You can get the book here, too!

Open your book to page 42 for this month, grab more fabric scraps, get it prepared and cut, and let's enjoy some more Featherweight sewing! Complete your blocks following along with the pattern, paying attention to a couple of tips in the photos below. Make sure to press your block seams open (when you can), being careful to be as exact with your cutting and alignments as possible.

Hen Block 24

Speaking of "flip-flop", I flip-flopped over the color selection for this month's Hen block.  I couldn't decide whether to make the hen look more "natural" with traditional hen colors or throw in a slightly mint accent for the wing.  I opted for the mint wing.

Let's get started with the red comb atop the little hen's head.

You can either draw a line and sew corner to corner on the line, or you can skip that step and use the Creative Grids Corner Clipper ruler.   It sure goes faster!  Just be sure to measure twice, cut once so you cut along the correct edge.

Click here for instructions on how to set your Featherweight Accurate Seam guide in the proper place.  Then, attach the original presser foot, align the fabric pieces against the edge of the guide, and enjoy quarter inch seams that match perfectly!

Once you sew your unit sets together, I strongly encourage you to square your pieces according to the measurements that Lori provides in her pattern.  You can see in my little pieced unit above that in spite of sewing carefully and accurately, I still needed to trim it up slightly all the way around.

Pressing seams open for these teeny tiny seams helps with accuracy as well.  I then pin on both sides of the seam to help with proper seam alignment. Pinning is best accomplished from left to right. These extremely thin glass-head pins are very helpful and one of my favorite notions.

I just love working with these thirties reproduction prints.

Oops!  I got sew excited, I left out a strip of fabric!  It's good to always have a Seam Ripper handy.... This is a good time to re-watch the seam ripper tutorial we posted a few months ago on a previous Farm Girl Vintage block.

You can order your Seam-Fix Seam Ripper here.

Milk Can Block 25

I thoroughly enjoyed selecting fabrics for this block because of all the pretty colors!  It was fun to pull out some of my special stash of reproduction thirties fabrics.

Wendy and I had a fun discussion about "blues" the other day.  We talked about the different shades of blue and how some can be harder to find and bring together.  I chose what I call a "medium-blue" from several of my reproduction prints and really liked the contrast with the various red and yellow prints in the block.  It really pops all the colors!

Here are some photos from our local #featherweightfellowship group that gathers!  Everyone can bring whatever project they're currently working on once a month.  Five of us usually work on the Farm Girl Vintage blocks and three others have other lovely projects under their Featherweight needles!

Rebekah is continuing to work on her Square-in-a-Square blocks; I'm so excited to see her bring this one together!

Look at Wendy's cute fussy cutting yellow star with the cherry in the center!  And, do you notice how the blue shades make the blocks look totally different for flag style?  Color is fun! 

What about you!? What colors have you put together this month for your Farm Girl Vintage blocks? Let us know and feel free to post pictures in the comments below. Or join us on the Facebook group to share and enjoy more Featherweight Fellowship online!

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Until the nextFeatherweight Farm Girl Vintage Quilt Sew Along...

NOTE: We will continue sewing three blocks until we finish the Farm Girl Vintage Sew Along. Thus, we will feature Block 27 Old Red Barn, Block 28 Out To Pasture, and Block 29 Patchwork Pumpkin next.