I'm Sewing Along...

I am participating in a Sew-Along...because you know, not enough to do. Seriously, I have several of Marti Michell's template kits and I haven't used any of them until now.  Remember, I'm not a quilter, but for some reason, I felt the urge to purchase almost all the Marti Michell template kits that The Loopy Ewe sells. I'm not a quilter; I swear I'm not.

I have this book because the blocks are so cute, and vintage, and I really am meaning to make some things with them...but I haven't made anything yet. Then, this book came out and I bought it too, because I liked the colors, the 1930s vintage fabric and the blocks and, you know...I was meaning to make some of the blocks.

Then, I heard about the SAL (Sew-Along) and I heard that Marti Michell (MM) was going to make conversions of the blocks using her templates, and I thought it would be a win-win - make blocks out of the Farmer's Wife book AND get to play with the templates.

What's so great about the templates? Well, one thing is that they facilitate cutting the little dog-ear corners that just add bulk to the seams when the blocks are all assembled:

See how I've cut off the corners in the top square?  I cut the smaller square using MM's Log Cabin ruler which doesn't have corner-cutting capability.

Never fear, MM has a a ruler that allows one to cut the dog-ears off the most commonly used quilting shapes. Cool, huh?

Another cool thing about the MM templates is they help one line up the pieces - which takes the guesswork out of the operation. It makes for a smoother quilting experience...even for non quilters.

See how nicely the pieces line up on the left side of the block?

This week in the SAL, we are playing BINGO. Five blocks were chosen and we have to link them to the BINGO post.  Here are my renditions of the blocks:

I like the trick in the middle of the back of this block. 

One swirls the seam where the four corners come together in order to orient the seam allowances in such a way as to decrease bulk.

Four of the blocks took an hour to complete from cutting out to finish.This one took about two-and-a-half hours. 

I kid you not. I sewed every single seam at least twice, and some four times...because I'm not a quilter.

MK out.

(Remember to click on the pics to see them in their entirety.)