Using EQ7 to Preview Fabric Selections: 1930s Farmer's Wife Block #3 "Alice"

Alice Block #3, Version 1

The 6" blocks in the 1930s Farmer's Wife sampler quilt are complex and time consuming to piece.  I don't want to spend a lot of time putting a block together only to step back and look at the finished block and hate it.  I know a lot of quilters will precut fabric pieces without seam allowances and lay them out like a mosaic to preview how their fabric choices will look together in a block, but that wastes fabric since you have to cut all new pieces with seam allowances for your block.  Another option is to print out several line drawings of the block and test out different colored schemes with colored pencils, but it's difficult to match your fabric values and prints accurately.  However, none of that is necessary if you use EQ7 quilt design software to preview your fabric combos.

Alice Block #3, Version 2

With Block #3 "Alice," I created a 1-block quilt in EQ7 and set the block size to 6" x 6".  It's important that your block size is correct because EQ7 will use that information to accurately scale your fabric print (so that you are accurately seeing how that print will look cut up into the actual size patches in your block).  I did a search in the block library for "Alice" and came up with a block that was very similar to the Alice block in the 1930s Farmer's Wife book.  I just had to edit the block in the block worktable, removing a couple of seam lines and adding a few additional seam lines at the corners of the block.You can even rotate your fabric within your block patches, as I did in my first version of the block, so that your stripes or chevrons or whatever radiate in a specific way, and there is a tool for fussy cutting as well that will let you center a specific print motif in your patch. 

Alice Block #3, Version 3

Once I had recreated the block in EQ7, I was able to swap out fabrics with a click of my mouse, trying out many combinations of prints, solids, contrast levels, etc. within just a few minutes.  I don't always use the exact same fabrics in EQ7 as what I'm contemplating in my stash, but I can usually find something close enough.  The idea is to brainstorm lots of different possibilities for what the block could be.  I don't use EQ to pick fabrics for every block, but it was really useful for this one because there were so many patches that it was difficult to envision mentally, and I didn't want to just recreate what someone else had done with the block.  I wasn't wild about the Alice block initially, but now that I've been playing with it, it's growing on me.

Alice Block #3, Version 4

I think I want a white background with this block, one print, and two strongly contrasting solids.  I am really liking the black at the moment, and I did use some solid black sparingly on my #2 Aimee block.  It will depend on the print that I end up choosing from my stash (in this last version, a really dark gray/blue solid pulled from the print would have been better than black.  Maybe. 

Meanwhile, I think it's time for another paper pieced pineapple block, don't you?  I've got a busy week coming up, with rehearsals for Mary Poppins (I'm playing the Bird Woman), volunteer tutoring, getting the kids to and from their activities, and lots more work to do on my new and improved web site for my interior design business.  Then there are the eternal unending tasks to contend with: vacuuming, laundry, grocery shopping...  And hopefully a little exercise.  Which is why I have six or seven quilts in progress, and nothing finished to show for myself so far this year!

1930s Farmer's Wife Block #1 Addie

1930s Farmer's Wife Block #1, Addie

This is kind of confusing because Addie is Block #1 in the book, but I made the second block first so my first block is my second block.  Or something like that.  I should have taken my picture before I starched the snot out of my block because it looked better before I created those seam allowance ridges!  Maybe I should put a layer of batting under the blocks before I do the final starch and press next time to prevent that happening?  I know it will be fine after it's quilted and washed, but it's a bummer that it spoiled the photo. 

Anyway, I foundation paper pieced this block, using Sax plain newsprint this time.  It fed through my Epson printer without a hitch and was a lot easier to work with than the 29 pound vellum that I was using (due to ignorance) on the last block.

Lots of Sub Sections to the Addie Block

Thoughts on the process: I like the ease and accuracy of foundation paper piecing, and precutting my shapes with approximately 3/8" allowances on all sides does help me to align them more accurately for paper piecing.  The newsprint is nice and easy to work with.  However, I feel like I'm flying blind when it comes time to join block subsections together.  I know "they" say to leave the paper in place until the block is completed AND joined to your quilt sashing or to adjacent blocks, but I am being very careful to keep straight grain along the edges of my blocks and segments, just as I would if I were rotary cutting and piecing the block by the traditional method.  On my next block, I think I might like to try removing the paper from the completed sections before joining them together, so I can feel where the seam allowances nest and see that the fabric edges are perfectly aligned along the entire length of the seam.  Both of these blocks I've made so far are acceptable, but there are a couple of triangle points that could have been improved if I could have seen what I was sewing.  It's also difficult to pin those tricky intersections through seam allowances AND two sheets of newsprint; the pin and paper distort everything so it almost makes it worse.  I know some people baste those tricky joins by machine or by hand prior to stitching, so I could try that, too.

I should note that these blocks finish at 6", so the little green and pink/orange triangles are ITTY BITTY.  I am definitely seeing the accuracy advantage of FPP for this scale, especially as I look ahead to the next few blocks in the book that have many more pieces and some odd angles.

It has been an exhausting, emotionally draining week so I'm grateful that I snuck in enough odd moments of sewing time here and there to make a block this week.  Now what I really need is some exercise and a good night's sleep!  I'm linking up with Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.