Westward Ho!
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Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along Block(s) WYou'll be using the blocks W to make two different spacer units for the Prairie Patchwork Sampler quilt. It won't be long until you will be using the spacer units to assemble your quilt! Yippee!CLICK HERE to download the fabric requirements, and cutting/assembly instructions for Block(s) W |
Westward Ho!
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Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along Block(s) V |
Westward Ho!
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Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along Block(s) U |
Westward Ho!
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Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along Block(s) T |
Westward Ho!
It's week 18, and this week we have Block R in the Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along!
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Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along R |
This week you'll be making just one lonely little shoofly block - Block R! Piece of cake!
If you've been participating in the Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along, you will by now have quite a stack of instructions, if you've printed them out. If you've printed them out, you may also have compiled them into a notebook, like I have.
I have the completed quilt printed onto an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper, and inserted into the clear sleeve on the front of the notebook, which makes a handy quick reference:
Happy sewing!
CLICK HERE to download the fabric requirements and cutting instructions to make Block R.
Westward Ho!
It's week 17, and this week we have Block Q in the Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along!
Q is for quilt, and we are so close to finishing blocks for the Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along Sampler. Hint: after this week, there are just 2 more unique what I will call "premier" blocks. Blocks T through Z are blocks for spacer units and the border. And then, the grand finale - assembling the blocks into the sampler!
CLICK HERE to download the fabric requirements and cutting instructions for Block(s) Q
Westward Ho!
It's week 16, and this week we have Block P in the Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along!
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Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along Block PI designed the green fabric used in this block to imitate as best I could some of the faded greens you see in many mid-nineteenth century red and green quilts.Just the one block this week! Happy sewing! |
Westward Ho!
It's week 14, and this week we have Block N in the Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along!
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Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along Block N |
This block is from the quilt "Pipe Creek" in Prairie Patchwork, and as you know, if you have the book (and hopefully you do!), "Pipe Creek" is wool applique on cotton.
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Pipe Creek |
And as you can see from Block N, it would work equally well using cotton applique on cotton!
I hope you enjoy making block N, and I will see you again here next week! Happy Applique!
CLICK HERE to download the fabric requirements and cutting instructions to make Block N
Westward Ho!
It's week 13, and this week we have Block M in the Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along!
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Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along Block(s) M |
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Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along SamplerI'm really excited to see your progress on your Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along Sampler and I would love for you to share any photos you may have of your blocks made to date! Simply tag your photos #prairiepatchworkquiltalong on Instagram or Facebook! CLICK HERE to download the fabric requirements and cutting instructions to make Block M |
Westward Ho!
It's week 12, and this week we have Block L in the Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along!
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Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along - Block(s) L |
You'll be making three of these little 4 1/2" finished blocks, which I consider an abbreviated version of the historical Hovering Hawks block, the actual version which looks like this:
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Hovering Hawks block |
This block design is over 100 years old, back when blocks were frequently given names which described events, places or things which had meaning in the lives of women of the time.
The hawk is ubiquitous in North America, and my Field Guide to the Birds of North America lists 15 different species of the hawk, and even more sub-species. The most common of the hawks is the Red-Tailed Hawk, whose range covers almost all of North America.
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| Red-tailed Hawk from
Birds of America (1827) by John James Audubon (1785 - 1851), etched by Robert
Havell (1793 - 1878). Photo courtesy of RawPixel.com |
The Red-Tailed Hawk preys on rodents, which makes it a hero in my book!
I hope you'll enjoy making the little Hovering Hawks blocks this week. See you back here next week for Block(s) M!
Martha
CLICK HERE to download the fabric requirements and cutting instructions to make Block(s) L.
Westward Ho!
It's week 11, and this week we have Block K in the Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along!
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Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along Block K |
This week it's all applique!
Appliqued blocks, when prepared ahead of time, can be a great project to take along when traveling. My husband and I took a long weekend trip this past weekend to meet my son, grandson, and granddaughter half way between our two homes, to a little cabin outside of Durango, Colorado. Although I'm not working on any applique at the moment, I did have some hand piecing to work on while driving in the car.
During our stay, we hiked in the beautiful La Plata Canyon
And visited Mesa Verde National Park, and marveled at the fantastic Cliff Palace, something I've always wanted to see:
I'm back home again, and trying to finish these hand pieced blocks!
Until next week, happy sewing!
Martha
CLICK HERE to download the fabric requirements and cutting instructions for Block K.
Westward Ho!
It's week 10, and this week we have Block J in the Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along!
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Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along Block(s) J |
You'll be making the block units with the quarter square triangles oversized first, and then cutting them down to size. To do this accurately, you'll have the best luck by using a smaller square ruler, such as the 4 1/2" square ruler I used, by Creative Grids. The ruler is marked with a 45 degree line.
✂ Align the ruler with the 45 degree line over one of the diagonal seams on your block as shown:
The block needs to be cut down so that it measures 2" unfinished, so you'll want the vertical and horizontal
1" line intersection placed over the block center.
Cut the right and top side with a rotary cutter.
Turn the block and trim the remaining edges for a 2" unfinished block unit.
You'll be making three Blocks J this week, in two different color combinations.
CLICK HERE to download fabric requirements and cutting instructions for Block(s) J.
I hope you're enjoying the Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along so far. The best part is when all of your blocks are finished, and you put them together, assembly of the quilt is a snap! That should be the very end of September! If you're using the red and green color palette, what a nice addition to your Christmas decor it will be!
Until next time!
Martha
Westward Ho!
It's week 9, and this week we have Block(s) I in the Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along!
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Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along Block(s) I |
You'll be making two little 4 1/2" finished blocks I with two different color combinations this week.
CLICK HERE to download the fabric requirements and cutting instructions for Block(s) I
See you back here next week for Block(s) J!
Martha
Westward Ho!
It's week 8, and this week we have Block H in the Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along!
I've been using alphabet blocks from my childhood to identify each block, and it looks like a puppy got a hold of this one, or a very aggressive teething baby!
If you missed Monday's blog post, I explain in words and screenshots how to order fabric on Spoonflower, using the Fill-A-Yard option on the Spoonflower site. In this way, you're able to order yardage amounts outside of the default increments when ordering individual prints (the default amounts are 8" x 8" test swatch, fat quarter and yard increments). I've also posted a more explanatory video on the process, which you can access in the same post:
How to Use Spoonflower Fill-A-Yard
And here are this week's instructions to download for Block H:
CLICK HERE to download fabric requirements and cutting instructions for Block H
I'll be back next week!
Martha
Several years ago I started designing fabrics and using the print-on-demand textile printing company Spoonflower to print my fabrics on quilting weight fabric.
You'll see some of my fabric designs used in quilts in my book, Prairie Patchwork for Martingale Publishing. Church Picnic and Ma's Sewing Basket are quilts made using my Porch Perfect fabric collection - fabrics in teal blues, creams, reds, browns and black:
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Ma's Sewing Basket |
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Church Picnic |
When you order fabric from Spoonflower, the default yardage quantities are an 8" x 8" text swatch, a fat quarter, and then increments of yards - 1 yard, 2 yards, 3 yards, etc.
But what if you would like, or need, yardage under a yard, or even smaller than a fat quarter.
In that case, you can use the Fill-A-Yard option on the website, and I'll explain how to do just that.
The first thing you'll need to do is get to my Wagons West Designs Spoonflower shop page on the Spoonflower website, by clicking https://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/wagons_west_designs
Pictured you'll see the landing page for my Spoonflower shop. On the left side of the page, you'll see Shop Home in blue, and underneath an option titled "All Collections". Click on that.
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Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along Sampler Quilt |
You'll be directed to the Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along collection page, where you'll see all of the prints used in the Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along sampler quilt. To order pieces of fabric less than one yard, you'll want to use the Fill-A-Yard option, which you see in the banner just below the title of the collection. Click "Start Designing".
Option 3 is set at the default Petal Cotton, which is what you want to use for quilting, so now drop down to Option 4, and select "Start Designing".
You'll now be taken to a blank grid, shaded gray, and divided into 6" squares. If you fill each square with a different fabric, you'll have 42 different fabrics printed on one yard of fabric. Pictured, you'll see that I've filled part of the grid with 2 x 3 squares of the same print, which gives you a 12" x 18" rectangle of fabric, which is very close to what a fat eighth of fabric would be (9" x 21"). The prints you see selected are those fabrics in which you only need a fat eighth of a yard for the Prairie Patchwork Quilt Along sampler quilt. The rest of the grid is filled with one square each of the different prints where the fabric requirement is either an 8" square or a 5" square - the 6" square is close!
Pictured below is another example, still using the Fill-A-Yard option, where I've selected fabrics for which a half yard is called for in the Prairie Patchwork QAL sampler quilt fabric requirements. In that case, I've filled in the grid with 3 down, and 7 across for each fabric, resulting in an 18" x 42" rectangle of fabric, or in other words, a 1/2 yard.
The following YouTube video gives you a step-by-step tutorial on how to use the Fill-A-Yard option on Spoonflower. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me!
Until next time,
Martha
