Farmer's Wife - Bonus Economy Block

Farmer's Wife - Economy Block

Bonus Economy Block - Made with Oshkosh B-Gosh blue pin-striped denim and a red bandana fabric.  The biggest challenge here was finding a suitable focus for the middle.    This one might look familiar -- It's one of the blocks from last week.  I'm a big fan of this simple block, and couldn't resist giving it another go with some other fabrics.  

The pin-striped denim and red bandana fabric are leftover from this project: 

 

 

 

 

 

"Birdhouse in your Soul"

by They Might be Giants

 

4-Patch Posey Square-within-a-Square Quilt Top Done!

This quilt top is finally done.  I'll plan on sandwiching it at Quit Camp in the fall, to be quilted later, one I figure out what to do.

Any idea on what to call this quilt?  It's  sized for a double / full-size bed.

I started these blocks probably 10 years ago, and just didn't like the original layout in the pattern. I finally had he bright idea to set them with the economy block, or square-within-a square.  I like this much better!

Diamond-in-a Square 4-patch Posey Test Block

I worked up these 4-patch posey blocks about 10 years ago.  They've been sitting in a box with some of the finishing fabric ever since.  I think I was not happy with the traditional straight-on grid layout with sashing.  The blocks seemed kind of small, and I didn't want them to feel crowded in that grid.

The other day, I had an epiphany to enlarge and frame those old posey blocks with the diamond-in-a-square treatment.   I was finding tutorials about it, but the younger generation of quilters calls it "the economy block" -- I guess because you make the most of your fabric with very little waste.    Perhaps that was a response / backlash to a much more wasteful way to accomplish the same objective by sewing squares onto all 4 corners, then trimming off half that fabric to make the corner triangles -- I can see how that would seem wasteful.  I will admit that I used that method years ago on a storm-at-sea quilt, and it was a huge help to keep everything straight and true.

 Detail - 4-Patch Posey Diamond-within-a-Square

There are many tutorials out there for making the diamond-in-a square or economy block, like this one.  But only a few that help you make the size YOU want to make.    This Economy Quilt Block Tutorial Any Size tutorial from Melanie McNeil at Catbird Quilt Studio was the most helpful for me.  There is a formula for figuring our how big to cut your framing squares depending on the size of the original center.  But the numbers are so precise- down to 1/8th inch.  That doesn't leave a lot of room for the fudge factor.  Melanie's numbers are generous -- which I appreciate, making it easy to trim the finished blocks down to size, squaring them up in the process.  And her table made it easy for me to figure out what size I needed to cut my framing squares.   In my test block, I got perfect points, with a generous seam allowance.  That made me very happy!

For my own notes :
     Center Squares are about 4-3/4 inches
     Cut Black squares 4-1/4 inches
     Cut Pink Squares5-1/2 inches

Then I was trying to do the math to figure out how much fabric I'd need if I set these blocks on point, with an alternate block and setting triangles ...  which added up to 6 yards of fabric!  Hmmmh ...  That's a lot of fabric.  Just how big is this quilt going to be?

There were some very helpful web pages out there for figuring setting triangles, including some calculators like this one from Generations Quilt Patterns.  And after all that, I determined, I'd wind up with a monster-size quilt that would be bigger than a King.  No need to set these on point, and I don't need the extra space setting triangles would add. So, I can nix that idea.