Bonnie – Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt Sew Along

The tutorials for the first 3 blocks of the Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt Sew Along are now live so I wanted to share my version of Bonnie (Block No 16).

GnomeAngel.com

Throughout the Sew Along, Angie of Gnome Angel will post about every block. There will also be at least one guest blogger completing the block and posting any tips and tricks they have discovered.

You can find Angie’s post on the Bonnie block here.

There are two guest bloggers covering Bonnie this week (given it’s an easier block); you can find Lucy’s version here at Charm About You and Melissa’s version here at Oh, How Sweet!

I love seeing how everyone is interpreting the blocks in their own style. If you do too and want to see more, become a member of the almost 4000 [!!] strong Facebook group.

Right, so let’s get on with my version of Bonnie. As I mentioned in this earlier post, I’m using Pat Bravo’s rather classy Artisan collection with some additional matching Art Gallery Fabrics cuts to provide more variety. I am also planning a bit of different approach to the block layout – I will be making four of each block and joining them together to make a super-sized block. For some of the blocks, the result will be exactly that – four distinct, identifiable blocks joined together. But for others, the joining will lead to the creation of a completely new large single block. Exciting, isn’t it? (you can tell I don’t get out often).

With Bonnie, I knew the joining would lead to something big and different because the block is asymmetrical. In fact, I chose to include Bonnie for exactly this reason. First up, I had a choice on how I would join the four blocks, as you can see below:

Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts joins four of each block together for the FW 1930s Sew Along

Depending on which way you rotate and join the blocks, you get a very different final four-square.

I decided to run with the first version, which then left me with one more choice of colour allocation. I already knew that I wanted the navy in the largest square and that I would team it with a low-volume and a saturated mustard. All I needed now was to decide which mustard would go where:

bonnie

And let’s be honest, they both look great, so it wasn’t going to be a problem whichever route I took.

For the navy squares I used the Betoken in Shines fabric and fussy cut the circular shapes.

Bonnie3

I should point out that I didn’t just make four Bonnie blocks and join them – I decided to amalgamate the four small navy centre squares into one big square as it gave me the opportunity to add another fussy cut circle pattern. That larger square turned out to be exactly the same size as the other large navy squares (for those following along in their books), which made it very easy to include.

Unfortunately I didn’t have a template for that sized square so I improvised with one of my bloc loc HST rulers. As you can see below, I put a tiny dot of correction fluid on the exact middle of the ruler so that I could more easily centre my fussy cuts.

Bonnie2

You will see below that I didn’t combine my dark mustard pieces and cut a single, larger rectangle – that was purely because of the spacing of the little triangles on that fabric’s print. If I had combined the two skinny rectangles into one wider rectangle, I wouldn’t have been able to fussy cut the little triangles into the middle of each piece that way. I would have ended up with triangles right in the seam allowance, which I didn’t want.

Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts: Bonnie, four blocks joined into one

I really love the way the final block turned out:

Kirsty at Bonjour Quilts: Bonnie, four blocks joined into one

Those with sharp eyes will see the mistake I made with my fussy cuts. The circular designs aren’t in fact circular, they are ovals. And I messed up the orientation of the bottom two. Perhaps I will unpick them and change them in the future, but for now I am happy to live with it. What can I say, I’m tired!!

I hope you’re all having a wonderful weekend and that sewing is making up even just a little part of that.

Until next time!

K x

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