Block Play: Train engine (steam type)

Hello, everyone.

The block has finally been finished!

Here is a picture of the elements, just before the final seaming:

I was going to put up the sketch, but it's covered with scribbled letters and such.

This is an incremental development of the train engine block that is on Pinterest, and possibly also at About.com. (I don't remember seeing it there, but it probably is. A lot of blocks are!) The original had a shorter red body section and the two wheels were the same size. Also, though it's hardly an innovation, I decided to make the cow catcher black. It just seemed a little more true to the old-time steam engines' shape.

This is the list of fabric pieces, instead:

The background is blue. The main body of the engine is red. Stack and wheels are black. Cab top can be either black or gray, cowcatcher can be either black or red. Smoke puff is white.

Measurements are in inches. The block overall is in two parts: upper and lower.

List of materials

Size	Red	Black	Gray	White	Blue
3.5 square		1
2.5 x 7.5	1
2.5 x 3.5		1			1
2.5 x 4.5					2
2.5 x 2.5	1	1	1		3
1.5 x 4.5	1				1
1.5 x 2.5	2				4
1.5 x 3.5					3
1.5 x 1.5	3	5		1	4
1” square	2				2
Opt. scraps to decorate stack

Upper portion:

Stack section:

(Optional: add a bit of ribbon or fabric strip to make a painted stripe on the stack before proceeding with the rest of the stack construction.)

Sew a 1.5” black square to the 1.5” white square and add another 1.5” black square to the other side. Press, trim, set aside.

Sew 1.5” blue squares to the 4 corners of the 2.5” x 3.5” black piece snowball style. Press, trim and set aside.

Sew a 1.5” blue square to a 1.5” black square and add another 1.5” blue square to the other side. Press and trim.

Sew the blue-white-blue strip to the top of the 2.5” x 3.5” piece. Sew the blue-black-blue strip to the bottom. Press and trim. Sew the 1.5” x 4.5” blue piece onto the front end of the rectangle just created. The sub-assembly is now 4.5” square. Press and trim. Set aside.

Cab section:

Sew the gray 2.5” square to a blue 2.5” square. Press and trim. Sew the unit to the long front side of a 2.5” x 4.5” blue rectangle. Sew the other 2.5” x 4.5” blue rectangle to the other side. Press and trim. Sub-assembly is now 6.5” wide and 4.5” tall.

Sew the cab section to the rear of the stack section, press, and trim. Set aside.

Lower portion:

Wheel section:

Sew two red 1.5” squares to the upper corners of the black 3.5” square snowball style. Sew two 1.5” blue squares to the lower corners of the same square likewise.  Press and trim. Sew a 1.5” x 3.5” blue strip across the bottom of the square. Press and trim.(large drive wheel)

Sew two red 1” squares to the top corners of the 2.5” black square snowball style. Sew two 1” blue squares to the lower corners of the same square likewise.  Press and trim.  Sew a 1.5 x 2.5” red strip to the top of the black square. Sew a 1.5” x 2.5” blue strip to the bottom of the square. Press and trim.(front wheel)

Sew the 2.5” red square to a 2.5” blue square. Press and trim. (middle of chassis)

Sew the drive wheel to the rear side of the red/blue rectangle, press and trim. Sew the front wheel assembly to the front side of the red/blue rectangle.

Sew the 2.5” x 7.5” red strip across the top of the wheel assembly, press and trim.

Cowcatcher section:

Sew a 1.5” x 2.5” red (or black) strip to a 1.5” x 3.5” blue strip, placing the red strip crosswise and 1.5” in from the end and using a diagonal seam. Be sure to check the way the pieces will press out before doing any trimming. The idea is to create a 4.5” long strip with an angled seam  that goes from 1.25” up at the front to 2.25” up at the back on a 1.5” wide strip. (Think of joining strips to make bias here!) Press, check to make sure the edges are straight, and trim the back side of the diagonal seam to a ¼” seam allowance. (cowcatcher)

Join the 1.5” x 4.5” strip of red to the back edge of the cowcatcher. Press and trim. Sew a 2.5” blue square to the bottom edge of the cowcatcher assembly, press and trim.

Step section:

Sew a 1.5” red square to the end of a 1.5” x 3.5” blue strip. Sew the end of a 1.5” x 2.5” blue strip on the opposite side. Press and trim.

Sew the step strip to the rear of the wheel section. Sew the cowcatcher section to the front of the wheel section. Press and trim.

Sew the upper section to the lower section, press and trim. Final size of the block is 10.5” square.

Block play: Doggie with blanket

Hello, everyone.

This is more block play--a new design. As we all know, Texas Aggies say they "bleed maroon." This block is a tribute to their mascot. (H/t to About.com's quilt blocks.)

Doggie with blanket (Tribute to Reveille)

Doggie almost completed

Materials list

	Blue	Tan	Maroon
2.5” square	3	3
1.5” x 2.5” strip	2	2
1.5” square	5	8
3.5”square			1
1 7/8” square	2	2
2 7/8” square	1	1
1.5” x 3.5” strip	3	1
1.5” x 4.5” strip	1	1
2.5” x 3.5” rectangle	2	2
4.5” x 3.5” rectangle	2
5.5” x 3.5” rectangle	1
Black scraps for eye and nose

12” square

Doggie sketch. Dotted lines are seams
between pieces of the same color..

Dog: tan. Blanket: Maroon. Background: Light blue.

The dog is divided into three sections: Middle, Back, and Front.

It is a good idea to starch and iron all the fabric before beginning to sew. It makes the stuff stiffer so it will hold still. 

It is important to press seams and trim to square before sewing any crossing seam. Small errors can add up to a wonky mess.

Middle of dog:

Using 3.5” x 3.5” square of maroon, Sew 1.5” square tan to each bottom corner snowball style. (Blanket) Press and trim. Sew to 1.5” x 3.5” tan strip.

Assemble section: Sew 4.5”t x 3.5”w blue rectangle to bottom side of tan strip. Sew 4.5”t x 3.5”w blue rectangle to top side of maroon square. (Midsection with blanket—12.5” tall by 3.5” wide)

Enjoy the feeling of accomplishment. Set midsection aside for now.

Back end of dog:

Tail section:

Sew 1 1” tan square onto corner of blue 2” square snowball style. Press and trim. (Upper curve in tail)

Make 2 1.5” half square triangles blue/tan. (Tail tip and tail base) I use the quick piecing method and do two sets right away. To do this, place the 1 7/8” squares on top of one another, right sides facing in, and mark a diagonal line from corner to corner. Sew ¼” away on each side of the line. Be sure these stitching lines are straight. Cut on the line and press the two half-square triangle squares open. One of these squares is the tail tip.

Sew 1 tan short edge to 1.5” blue square. (Tail tip and upper background piece) Sew rectangle to 2.5” blue square with tan pieces touching. (Tail tip rectangle is now 2.5”t x 3.5”w)

Sew second half square triangle square with 1 blue short edge joined to blue 1.5” square. (Tail base angle)

Sew 1.5”x2.5” tan rectangle to 1.5”x2.5” blue rectangle, forming a square. (Body of tail) Sew tail base angle piece to tail body piece. (Tail base rectangle is now 2.5”t x 3.5”w)

Sew tail tip rectangle to tail base rectangle. (Tail section is now 4.5”t x 3.5”w)

Rump section:

Sew 1.5” x 3.5” blue strip to 2.5” x 3.5” tan rectangle. (Haunch is now 3.5” square)

Rear leg section:

Sew 1.5” x 4.5” blue strip to 1.5” x 4.5” tan strip.

Make another 1.5” half square triangle square in tan/blue using the last two 1 7/8” squares. (You will have one bonus 1.5” half square triangle square at the end.) Sew to 1.5” tan square on tan side. Sew to 1.5” blue square on blue side. Sew 1.5” tan square to bottom of blue square. (Leg and foot)

Assemble section: Sew leg rectangle assembly to haunch assembly. Sew tail assembly to top of haunch assembly.

I sewed the midsection to the rear section right away and it was a great encouragement to see that it was already looking “doggy.”

Front of dog:

Front leg:

Using a 2.5” square of tan, sew 1.5” square blue to tan square snowball style, press and trim. (Elbow)

Sew 1.5” x 2.5” blue strip to 1.5” x 2.5” tan strip. Sew to bottom of elbow square. (Arm rectangle is now 2.5” w by 4.5” t)

 

Sew 1.5” x 3.5” blue strip to 1.5” tan square. Sew rectangle to brown side of arm rectangle. (Adds front paw to leg)

Sew blue 1.5” x 3.5” strip along bottom of front leg.

Sew 5.5”t x 3.5”w blue rectangle to front of leg assembly. (Lower front quadrant is now 6.5”w by 5.5”t.)

Head section:

Make 2 x 2.5” half square triangle blue/tan using the 2 7/8” squares. (Ear and back of neck)

Sew one of the 2.5” half square triangle squares to a 2.5” square of blue, with blue edges together. (Back of neck)

Cut a 1” square (true) out of the black scrap fabric. Fold one of the 2.5” tan squares in half to locate the center. Fold three edges of the black square under ¼” (press!) and pin with upper folded edge on center line and unfolded edge at edge of square. Baste edges together. Sew folded edges down onto tan square. (Eye) Sew this tan square to tan edge of second 2.5” half square triangle square.

Sew the back of neck piece to the eye piece, being careful to match the diagonal seams.

Cut a 1” x 2.5” strip from the remaining black scrap fabric. Lay it on a 2.5” tan square with right sides together and raw edge of black strip ½” from edge of tan square. Sew the strip down with ¼” seam, press and turn the black over and press down. Black edge will be even with brown edge.  Trim the brown fabric underneath leaving a ¼” seam allowance. Sew 1.5” blue squares to both of the corners of the black strip snowball style, press and trim. (Muzzle)

Using a 3.5”t x 2.5”w blue rectangle and a 1.5” square of tan, sew the tan square snowball style to bottom left corner of blue rectangle. (Forehead)

Join forehead piece to muzzle piece, being careful to match diagonal seams. Sew a 2.5” blue square to bottom of muzzle. (This section is 7.5” tall by 2.5” wide.)

Sew 1.5” tan squares onto corners of short edge of other 2.5” x 3.5” blue piece in “house” shape. Sew to long edge of 3.5”t x 2.5”w tan rectangle. (Shoulder and front of neck with jaw)

Sew ear/eye assembly to top of shoulder assembly. Sew to muzzle section. (Head quadrant is now 6.5” wide by 7.5” tall.)

Assemble section: Sew front leg section to head section.

Assemble dog: sew front section to middle section. Dog block is 12.5” square.

Today's new block: an airplane

Hello, everyone.

After whipping out the little windmill yesterday, I decided to try something more complicated. This is my first time for this block, and it went reasonably well.

Here is how it went together:

Plane color: gray

Background color: navy

Measurements in inches. To convert to metric, multiply inches by 2.54.

8x8 Plane block     

Overall plan: have a base of 2 x 2 squares. Add corner bits as needed for diagonal seams, as in Snowball block. Instructions are based upon creating sub-unit squares and joining them to make the whole block. No inside corner seams are used.

The diagram of the block. 

Nose tip and tail tip:

Cut 1 each: 1 7/8 x 1 7/8 in background and in plane. (This will produce 2 Half Square Triangle  (HST) squares.)

Mark diagonals on lighter fabric, place on darker fabric with right sides together, and sew 1/4" away on each side of the drawn line for 2 half square triangles. Cut the sewn triangles apart along the diagonal line. Press them and trim "ears." (These will be the airplane propeller) 

Cut 1: 1.5 x 2.5 piece in background color.

Cut 2: 1.5 square pieces in background color.

Cut 2: 1.5 square pieces of airplane.

For the tail tip, join 1 plane 1.5 square and 1 background 1.5 square to make a rectangle. Press.  Join unit to 1.5 x 2.5 background piece. Press. Square up.

For the nose tip, join 1 HST and 1 background 1.5 square. Press. Join 1 HST and 1 plane 1.5 square. (Note that the plane-colored triangle points away from the plane-colored square.) Press. Lay out the rectangles so 1 HST + background will be on top and 1 plane + HST will be on bottom. Join to form a square with the HST pieces diagonally across from each other. (See the diagram.) The color of the propeller should be on the upper part of the HST. Press. Square up.

For tail wings and rear fuselage:

Cut 3: 2.5 x 2.5 pieces in plane.

Cut 6: 1.5 x 1.5 pieces in background. Sew background pieces to opposite corners of plane pieces.

Join tail tip to one wing piece. Join other wing piece to rear fuselage piece. Press all. Join wing-fuselage piece to tail-wing piece. Press. Square up.

For front wings and front fuselage:

Cut 4: 2.5 x 2.5 pieces in background.  

Cut 8: 1.5 x 1.5 pieces in plane.

Sew plane colored pieces to two “top” corners of background pieces. The diagonal seams should meet in the middle of the background piece edge. Press and square up.

Cut 3: 2.5 x 2.5 pieces of plane.

Cut 4: 1.5 x 1.5 pieces of background. As with the rear fuselage, sew the background pieces onto opposite corners of 2 plane pieces. (Third plane piece is fine as it is.)

Join 1 mostly-background piece to one mostly-plane piece. Top right plane colored corner of larger background piece should adjoin the top left corner of larger plane colored piece, creating right wingtip. Press and square up.

Cut 2: 2.5 x 4.5 pieces in background color. 

Join the right-wing rectangle just created to one of the 4.5 x 2.5 background pieces. Press and square up.

Join this square to the tail square. Press and square up.

Repeat this step in mirrorwise fashion: Join left wingtip piece to background piece with top left plane colored corner of background piece adjacent to bottom right corner of wingtip piece. Press and square up. Join unit to second 4.5 x 2.5 background piece, press, and square up.

Join third plane colored square (the one with no odd colored corners) to background piece with the plane colored corners adjacent to the unadorned square. Press and square up.

Join nose section to last background piece with plane colored corner square adjacent to plane colored triangle and HST adjacent to unadorned part of background square. Press and square up.

Join front fuselage section to nose tip section. Unadorned plane colored square is on left bottom of new square. Press and square up.

Join this square to left wing square. Press and square up.

Join with tail section rectangle. Press and square up.

Tutorial: the boot block, as I do it (photo heavy)

Hello, everyone.

I looked at the boot block and realized that it's not completely obvious how to get it to go together. Order of operations matters with this one.

This is to make a dark boot on a light background, with a contrast heel.

 There are two different widths of fabric strip used.
On the left, pieces with no diagonal seaming. These are cut to 1.5" for the light strips and 3.5" for the dark square.
On the right, pieces with diagonal seaming. These are cut 1 7/8" wide. The light cubes are 1 7/8" x 1 7/8". The odd width one at the top is also 1 7/8" tall, but it's only 1.5" wide. It could as well be a cube like the others--I was playing around with making the slope at the back of the heel less sharp.

Before proceeding farther, all the pieces were starched and ironed. This got them to stay put while being sewn.



All of the light background squares, plus the one small rectangle, were marked with sewing lines.

These pieces go on top of the partner piece, right sides together of course, and then the seam is sewn from the end which is in the middle of the longer piece toward the end. This avoids the sewing machine eating the corner of the pieces.




The many bits and pieces are grouped into sub-assemblies. Each sub-assembly is pressed before being joined to another piece.


It is good to trim the assembled bits to the proper dimensions right after pressing. On the picture of the boot top edge pieces, you can see how the excess fabric was trimmed off. The after-trimming height of the assembled strip is 1.5".

Three of the sub-assemblies, arranged
in a group. 

The navy solid is the heel, and its rectangular background piece is sewn on. Using a rectangle instead of a square for the background bit meant trimming the assembled piece to get rid of some odd shaping. After the trim, it was laid in the group for the picture.
The longer medium strip is the vamp, the part where the arch of the foot is, and its square background piece is sewn on.
One of the shorter medium strips is the toe. In the first picture, the front background piece is sewn on.
 (Not sure why the proportions look so odd to me.  The trim bits on the right are sewn at 45 degree angles, but they look like who-knows-what here. Probably goofed up in the cropping! Sorry.)

The toe now has its second background
piece.

Here the top edge of the boot shaft has been put together. First a square of background was sewn to one end of the strip, and pressed, and then the second square was sewn to the other end of the strip and pressed.

Using the rotary cutter and the squaring template makes trimming much easier on the squares.

The heel is joined to the toe piece.

Returning to the bottom part of the square, the heel is sewn to the lower background piece of the toe. This is most of the bottom row done. Press and trim if any bits are sticking out in funny places.

The shaft (the part above the foot) 

Here the curved top has been sewn to the square block. The shaft of the boot is done.

The 4.5" long piece of background was sewn to one side of the shaft. Be sure to sew it onto the same side as the toe. Otherwise, you will have to pick the stitches out and move it over. Press.

The vamp of the boot is added to the bottom of the shaft next and pressed.

This is a good time to use your squaring template to make sure the block is still a good rectangle.





The 5.5" long strip of background goes onto the toe end of the boot now. Press.

The block needs to be squared up
after new pieces are added.

The boot sole piece goes onto the bottom now. Press.


The squaring-up got photographed this time.










The last piece to add is the 6.5" piece of background, which goes on the heel side of the block.

If you leave this piece off, it still looks like a boot, but the block will be 5.5" wide and 6.5" tall. This is an awkward measurement and proportion to use in a quilt. I like to add the final strip so the block will be 6.5" square.

The new block with its prototype

Brewing experiments

Hello, everyone.

DH is a beer maker, as our friends know, and he's been taken with the urge to use up grapefruits this year. (With two mature trees, we have a lot of grapefruit to use up!) He dug up some information about grapefruit wine making online and got  yeast and suchlike supplies from the local brewing supply shop. Then picked about 60 fruit to squeeze. The juice marinated for a few days and then he, following the directions, put the yeast, sugar, and water in. It took almost two days to start bubbling, but then it was a champ!

Today he moved the grapefruit juice mixture to the secondary fermentation carboy, and covered it with its carboy jacket.

Then he started making one of the little one-gallon beer kits that were on special at the Giant Book Store that is more interested in selling non-book stuff. I knew he'd started that when he turned up in my sewing room with the small carboy in his hand. (Think of a 1 gallon moonshine jug here, in clear glass.) A new, small-sized carboy jacket was needed.

I pulled out a piece of stash fabric: polished cotton from the dining room window swags. Added the back half of a stained linen top, which was still black. Cut both to size and attached at the bottom edge.

The jug is a smidge less than 21 inches in circumference, plus seam allowance gives 22"

Base of jug to neck is around 11 inches--the neck itself will stick out a bit.

Bottom seam pressed open. 

 I had cut the lining piece a little shorter than the outside piece, so the selvage you see at the seam is folded up in the pressing.

Bottom folded up, sides sewn together and serged to prevent fraying. The layers are treated as one piece from now on.

The next step was to sew the short sides together to make a tube to fit over the jug. Then press that seam open, so it wouldn't be a big lump inside the cover.

Sewn into a tube. 

 The top edge was folded down and pinned for a casing. A piece of stash ribbon (1/4" or 3/8" wide satin and about 12 inches long) was used for the drawstring.

Sewing the casing with a 1/2" seam.

 Threaded the ribbon through the casing with the always-useful safety pin, then sewed the ends together so it would stay threaded.

Completed carboy jacket!

Father-and-son carboy jackets

 The fermenting grapefruit wine is in the 5 gallon carboy in back. The 1 gallon carboy in front is ready for action.