The Rancher's Daughter Quilt Along ( Tutorial for Dori's Block '6') )

Okay Girls!

Time to saddle up!!

It's Monday.....ready for another block?

Now this time there is no way I am going to tell you how many 1 1/2" squares you have to cut!

You can count them when your done....and be drooling with pride at your amazing-ness!

Here it is:

Dori's Block (6)

And here' s the story behind it.

When a rancher's daughter has to live in the city,

she is always begging, borrowing, stealing,

whatever it takes to get an invite out to the country!

Really!

Now don't get me wrong....

I love being 5 minutes from Books a Million....Starbucks...Olive Garden...

etc. 

I received an email from a gal I met years ago at a church function in Utah  a few weeks ago.

She and her husband had also moved out here to Tennessee.

"John'aLee would you like to come out and help me with a quilt block project I am

contemplating?"

"SURE!"   Happy Dance....Smiles, giggles....I got an invite!!

She was wanting to make a quilt block on to wood for a big wall in her new house she was building.

Like the old blocks you find on barns across America!

Now this sounded fun!

Here's Dori with her darling Grand Girls!

So I drive up into Tennessee hill country....

God's country...

 Can you imagine those hills in Summer??

and got to work:

I showed her how to draft a block with graph paper...

while she made us a fabulous salad with organic greens

and strips of steak she stepped out of her camper to barbeque.

They are living in it while they build their home...

mostly all on their own.

Check out her blog here!   

So here goes Dori's block.

I will tell you the picture she showed me was done in all the

same values of paint colors and had no pattern.

When I started drafting it out on paper,

we noticed a neat Chevron pattern taking place.

(I would show the barn block, but it is copyrighted.)   

Cutting Instructions 

(All will be 1 1/2" Squares)

A Cut (8) Red Floral Print

B Cut (8) Green Floral Print

C Cut (4) Small Red and White Print

D Cut (32) Green and White Print

E Cut (4) Red Tone on Tone Print

F Cut (16) Red and White Print

The following tips I give are crucial to keeping your block pieces lined up right.

Make a Key:

TIP: Make another Key for your Half Square Triangles to keep them straight too.

Put the two 1 1/2" squares together that you will be sewing to make HST's. Mark them with appropriate letters.

 

Every block is a Half Square Triangle

I made a mistake here but caught it because of the key. There are no A/C's. So don't let this confuse you.

Make Half Square Triangles.

Click Here for a Refresher on how I do my HST's

Just one set of mine.

Now go back to your Key and lay them where they belong:

Line out Block Making sure you have your "Row" paper at top.

TIP!! (Once you finish positioning them your sheet will be empty,

so at this point I went to the trash, pulled out scraps and made a Color/Fabric Key

so I could keep it all straight once again.

 I then propped up this by my sewing machine so I could look at the drawing, to help me position all the HST's right.

Stitch Row 1 HST's to Row 2 HST's

Stitch Row 3 HST's to Row 4 HST's

Sttich Row 5 HST's to Row 6 HST's

Stitch Row 1/2 to Row 3/4

Sew Row 5/6 to Rows 1/2/3/4

Now stitch horizontal rows together:

Row 1 to Row 2

Row 3 to Row 4

Row 5 to Row 6.

Stitch sets together and your block is finished:

Tip:

After sewing each row together, turn block over, unstitch a couple of stitches where all 4 corners meet.

Sorry about the pic quality...the hubby wasn't here to help.

Spray Starch up and down the seam and press open:

Now here's a promise to you ladies!!

I promise...promise....

The next few weeks blocks will be easier!

Also I created a Group Flickr Account for any who would like to add their blocks to it:

Click Here!

Thanks for traveling the back roads of Tennessee with me!

Hope you enjoyed!

The Rancher's Daughter Quilt Along Block 5 (Nancy's Friendship Block Tutorial)

It's time to show you how to do another block for

Nancy's Friendship Block

If you look close you can see that is 4 little friendship blocks!

Many years ago Nancy and I met at a women's bible study when

we both lived in a little po' dunk town an hour outside of Las Vegas.

We both had mini farms....goats, chickens, gardens,

we both milked goats, gathered eggs

and came into each others lives when we both really needed a good friend.

Today she still tops the list on my friendships.

My best girlfriend, the one I turn to when I need a prayer warrior...

or a shoulder to cry on.

No amount of words could ever express what she means to me.

Do you all know what I'm talking about??

Here's Nanc playing with my grand kids at her house!

I remember walking into her kitchen this would have been like 13 years ago,

and she said, "Check this out John'aLee. I've learned a new block!"

(It was the Friendship Block)

We were both just getting into quilting...

and thus began our weekly Quilt Nights were several of us ladies would take turns hosting the night, do all the cooking and all we had to do was come and sew. Sweet memories.

If you don't have a group like this, I encourage you to start one.

And hint....hint, I'm wanting to start one here in Nashville if anyone is interested.

So the block!

It has 52 1 1/2" Squares!!

But don't be afraid!

It's really not that hard,

with the system I have to show you.

Now I always draft my block out on graph paper so I have a guide to go by.

And I color in the squares or triangles where I want a dark or medium

leaving  the ones blank where white or a lighter color will go so I can get a handle on the arrangement I want to do.

You can see my 'key' below.

I then start playing with fabrics and mark them before I began cutting pieces.

Your Cutting Directions: 

All pieces are cut 1 1/2" X 1 1/2"

A Cut (2) Red Print with White Background

B Cut (8) Green Print

C Cut (8) Dark Red

D Cut (8) Red Print with White background 

E Cut (2) Red and Green Print with White Background

F Cut (8) Green Print

G Cut (8) Dark Red 

H Cut (8) Red Print with White Background  

I then lay them out beside the letter they coordinate with on my key:

 

When it has a lot of pieces, I put post it notes on it so I won't get confused. Especially with the small pieces:

First make all of your half square triangles:

 All (8) C/D Half Square Triangle Units

All  (8) H/G Half Square Triangle Units

Click Here to See Tutorial for HST's 

 Next step is to take a blank piece of paper and lay the whole block out, 

being very careful that everything is pointing in the right direction

and write the Row Numbers at the top. This will really help!

Sew Row 1 to Row 2

Sew Row 3 to Row 4

Sew Row 5 to Row 6

 Sew Row 1/2 Units  to Row 3/4 Units

Sew Row 5/6 Units  to Row 3/4 Units

Now I'm going to show you my set up by the machine to help  me keep it straight:

 Now sew the 3 sets of rows together and your block is complete!

So what do you think of the block ladies?

And are any of you blessed like me to have 

a friend like Nancy in your life??

It sure does make life's journey sweeter!

Love ya Nanc!

I've got to get Block of the Months out today...

make soup and homemade bread for my elderly neighbors...

so I'd better get a hoppin'!

Toodles...

P.S. Make sure to share the blog button on your blog!

I sure do appreciate it.

Let's get as many of our quilting buds that we can to join in!

Also, I've decided to do a Linky Party once a month.

What's your take on that too gals?    

 

The Rancher's Daughter 1st Linky Party

Time for our 1st Linky Party!!

We've created 4 blocks so far....

and I'm hoping you all want to share any or all that you've

finished!!

Can't wait to see  your color choices!

Link up below to join!!

  And let your friends know in case they want to join in too!!

(If any of you are new here, click on the blog button on the top right hand side of my blog to see what this Quilt Along is all about!)

Here's some of mine:

  

Have a fabulous Friday everyone...

January's gone...

let's get lots of sewing done in Feb!

 

   

The Rancher's Daughter Quilt Along (Block 4 Barnyard Spools)

 (A Whoops!! Any of you who downloaded my button, could you please go back and reload it. Some of the code was missing and the old one takes you to a non-existing page. So, so sorry!!)

Barnyard Spools

(Seeing I wanted to get a block to you this week, and Monday's post was about the Quilt Along...

here it is now!)

Growing up breakfast and bible study was at 7 a.m.

If that wasn't early enough....

we had to go down before that and milk goats, feed chickens

and make sure the 2 day old baby calves that had been pulled from their mothers

were either bottle fed or fed by the goats.

Dad built stalls where the goat went in one way,

and then two calves went in the opposite way on both sides of the goat and fed.

When Dad wasn't looking....

we found these huge spools that I guess housed electrical wire of some sort,

and sat for a spell.

Now that didn't happen too often.

Dad had the old eagle eye!

So in naming this block I remembered these huge ole things in the barn.

Here's the scoop:

A Cut (24) 1 1/2" Squares (White) 

B Cut (7)  1 1/2" Squares (Red)

C Cut (7) 1 1/2" Squares (Green and White Print)

D Cut (7) 1 1/2" Squares (Red and White Print)  

E Cut (7) 1 1/2" Squares (Green) 

I've found out that it helps if I create a drawing on graph paper

to follow from for these blocks.

That way I don't get any block mispositioned. 

I then line up the cut pieces beside the appropriate Letter

and work from there.

First of all create half square triangles from A/B squares

    

 If you need detailed instructions for the HST's

Go Here!

Next, lay out the three rows making sure everything is positioned correctly!

This is critical because these little babies can get turned around pretty easily, look right and are so not right!!

Sew rows together.

Make sure as you go along that seams on each row are pressed to one side and the next row to the opposite

so when piecing them together they nestle in there together perfectly.

Sew the 3 rows together.

Stitch the other 3 spools in the same manner.

Position them according to the photo below.

Your Barnyard Spool Block is done!

And going with the theme....

a pic from up in New York when we went to our Lost Soldier Boy's funeral,

Ken and I stopped in at a Farm Sanctuary...

just so I could pet some goats! Love my goats!

Happy Stitching My Ranchin' Buddies!

Rancher's Daughter Quilt Along - Join Now!!

Oh Goodie, it's here!!

My new blog button for our Quilt Along!

~If you'd like to post it on your blog you can copy the code on the upper right side of my blog~

I'm so excited about this ladies.

I've been up in the middle of the night thinking of the stories I can tell about 'Ranch Life',

i.e.....raising a pig in my bathtub....you know, stuff like that!

And through it all we will get a quilt finished!

So here's the particulars:

~Each Monday I will post a new block~

~These are all 6" blocks~

~Tutorials will be Added to Each Blog Posting~

~And on some Fridays I will Post a Linky Party

for you all to share your work with each other

and possibly tell some stories of your own!~

 

In November I will post a setting solution for the quilt!

So that by Christmas, you will have a quilt to either give away or keep.

Something to think about, if you are wanting a new Christmas Quilt for yourself too.

I'm doing one set of my blocks in Christmas colors.

And that's it! 

Keeping it sweet and simple!

Here are links to:
Block 1 
Block 2 
Block 3 

I sure hope you all will join in! Let your friends know too, and let's just see how many we can get to join us!

Gotta get sewing.....

See ya soon....

P.S. If you want to know who created my button it is Karen Valentine
over at 
Valentine Design!
Check out her work ... it is fabulous!
She can help you out if you need some blog work done!