Grandmother's Fan Block

This is the first block in the Grateful Hearts Sampler. It is called Grandmother's Fan. Below is a write up of the steps that I used in creating this block. Please note that the instructions given in the pattern are somewhat different. Feel free to use the pattern instructions or any other method that is most comfortable for you. First you will need to decide what colors to use in the "blades" of your fan. I chose green, fuschia, and turquoise for the blades, and bright yellow for the quarter circle at the base of the fan. Once you have determined what colors to use, cut your fabric into rectangles 4 inches by 1o inches.

Arrange your fabric rectangles in the sequence in which you are going to piece them. Note that I cut 2 pieces of green, two pieces of fuschia, and one piece of turquoise. If you want each blade to be a different color, cut only one rectangle of each color.

Stack all your fabric rectangles one on top of the other, aligning the edges exactly. Baste through all 5 layers of fabric (one layer for each blade). I used a dark basting thread because it is easier to see.

Cut the paper templates apart and line them up on your stack of fabric that you just basted together. Notice that there is a grainline on the templates, so line them up appropriately. I used a glue stick on the back of the template to hold the paper onto the fabric.

Use your rotary cutter to cut the fabric along the template edges. The templates have curved edges on the top and bottom. I cut straigh across, and it doesn't make any difference in the finished piece.

Once you've cut all the templates out, you'll have four sets of your fan blades. Don't remove the paper template or the basting until you are ready to sew each fan. You will have some bias edges, and keeping the sets basted together helps keep them from getting wonky. Sew your fan together and press. Sew or baste a line of stitching 1/4 inch away from the large curved edge. Turn this edge under, and run a line of glue form a glue stick to hold it in place.

Now it's time to work on the quarter circle that will form the base of the fan. Take the template provided with your pattern, and trim off the seam allowance ONLY ON THE CURVED SIDE!!!!! Leave the seam allowance on the straight edges!!! Repeat, cut off the seam allowance only on the curved side, and leave the seam allowance on the straight edges.

Pull out about 3-1/2 inches of freezer paper from the box it comes in. The strip should measure at least 3 inches by the width of the box. Fold the paper in half and then in half, so that you have 4 thicknesses of freezer paper. Pin the trimmed quarter circle template onto the freezer paper, lining up the straight edge of the template with the straight edge of the freezer paper. Trace the curved edge onto the freezer paper and cut along the tracing line. You will have 4 freezer paper copies of the quarter circle template.

Iron the freezer paper, shiny side down, onto the fabric you want to use for the base of your fan. Be sure to leave a margin of fabric on the curved side of the template.

Cut the fabric around the quarter circle as shown. Leave about a 1/4 inch margin around the curved edge. This is the seam allowance.

Flip the freezer paper quarter circle and fabric over to the back side. DO NOT REMOVE THE FREEZER PAPER YET. Smear a light coating of glue from a glue stick onto the curved edge of the fabric. Now, using your fingers, press the curved edge of the fabric towards the center. Press along the edge of the freezer paper. In other words, finger press the seam allowance in toward the center; the glue will hold it down once you've you've finger pressed it.

This is what the back of the freezer paper template/fabric should look like. The cruved edge has been folded towards the center along the curved line of the freezer paper.

Take the fan that you sewed together before, add the quarter circle that you've glue-basted, and arrange on a 12-1/2 inch square.

Repeat for all 4 corners. Now you are ready to machine applique (the dreaded "A" word) the fan onto the background. Use a blanket stitch or try one of the fancy stitches on your machine to sew along the large curved edge. Then use the same or a different stitch along the the curved edge of the fan base. Voila! You've made the first block!

March Meeting

Susan showing her mini wallhanging.

Susan showing the Asian wallhanging (above) and the floral stack n whack (below).

Debbie's Little Dresses (above) and Sylvia's Blue/Lime Green quilt (below). You can't tell from the picture, but she mitered the borders!

Sylvia's Black and White Half-square triangles with Appliqued center squares.

We gathered at Mozelle's in March to work on donation blocks. Present were: Mozelle, Eva, Susan, Joyce, Diane P., Sylvia, Debbie, and Estela.

Eva demonstrated several blocks that she is working on, some of which would be suitable for making donation blocks. We decided that the lap quilts would be better if they were made of five rows of 4 blocks each; the blocks are to be 8.5" square. That would make a lap quilt that is approximately 32" wide by 40" long. Eva also showed us how to press seams to avoid having a lumpy intersection where you have 4 pieces that come together at a single point.

Estela handed out the pattern for the quilt sampler we will be working on for the coming year, and demonstrated some tips for cutting and piecing the first block. There will be a separate post on this blog showing some of the steps for piecing the block, which is called Grandmother's fan.

The pictures are from Show and Tell. Sylvia brought 2 quilts for Meg to quilt for her. One is the Blue Squares sashed in Lime Green; eveyrone loved the green, maybe because it reminds me that maybe, just maybe, spring will come to cold NW Arkanas. Sylvia also showed us a Black and White Half Square Triangles in which she appliqued a square in the center. Love that Applique!

Debbie showed a really cute quilt she made from a pattern called House Dresses. Each little dress is a different color--the pattern is not for beginningers because it has "Y" seams (inset seams) that require great accuracy. Fantastic piecing, Debbie!

Eva finished a queen-sized quilt that she showed, but I forgot to get a picture of it. I'll get a picture on Thursday and post it later. Sorry, Eva. Besides, I'm not sure I should refer to it as your quilt, since I think Mozelle has designs on it to match her draperies!

Susan, ever the over-achiever, showed us 3 items she worked on. The first was a "stack and whack" type quilt made from carefully cutting identical squares of fabric that had a large floral print, then rotating them in various ways, like a kaleidoscope, to get very different looking blocks. All the blocks shown on this quilt were made from the same fabric; the squares are different because of the place where the fabric was cut and how the squares were rotated. The second item she showed is the large Asian-themed motif that combines Susan's love--and great skill--at embroidery, with very careful piecing. The wallhanging inspires serenity (and envy!). The third item that Susan brought was the small wall hanging that she said her husband claimed for his potting shed.

The next meeting is on April 14, at Meg's house. See you there. I hope you will have an opportunity to gather/buy your fabrics for the quilt sampler, and put together your basic sewing kit to bring to the April meeting so we can start making the sampler blocks. See you then if not before!

Donation Quilt Blocks

In February we cut fabric into 2.5" strips and decided to make 8.5" blocks that will be sewn into lap quilts. Susan Moore showed us a quilt made from a simple pattern consisting of a 4-patch that was then framed. After the February meeting I sent out a summar of the meeting, and the summary included directions for making the block. Here is a picture of the block. Hope this helps understand what we're aiming for. The gray that you see around the block is not fabric--it's the carpet! I laid it on the floor to photograph it.

Grateful Heart Sampler

I just got back from a quilting retreat in Gainesville, TX, with a group of Dallas-area quilters. One of the ladies told me that she was working on a quilt top that she hoped to finish during retreat. When she finished making her blocks, she held it up for all to see. And guess what? It was the Grateful Heart Sampler that we've chosen for our project. She made it in batiks, and it is gorgeous. She did not make some of the blocks in the original sampler; notice that she made a star kind of block for the top lefthand of the quilt, which is a Grandmother's Fan in the pattern.