The Letter F - Hexagon

Printing-table here.

This is the first letter where sewing it mirror-image is a potential problem, particularly if you follow Linda Franz's recommendations and "stitch from the back", i.e. lay the block out with the wrong side of the block visible (watch or re-watch the DVD in Quilted Diamonds 2)

Hitherto, all letters have been either top-bottom, or right-left symmetrical, which means that there are limits to how badly you can mess it up. The letters F, G, J, L, N, P, Q, R, S, and Z however, can be messed up if you don't get it right when turning it wrong side up, so here is what you do with those :

• Lay out the letter on a piece of paper or cardboard, right side up. This means the letter looks as it is supposed to look, from the right side, when you have finished piecing it.
• Carefully place a scrap of batting on top of your laid-out letter.
• Pat gently.
• Turn over the cardboard / batting sandwich, so you now have the paper/ cardboard on top.
  
• Gently lift off paper / cardboard.
• On the batting, your letter is now laid out, wrong side up. And you know it'll turn out right, which is a relief.

Simple, eh ?
Let me know if the above directions are not sufficiently clear. I would hate to confuse more than instruct on this one.

Barbara Frietchie Star

Week 26 of Barbara Brackman's Civil War Sampler, and we're half-way through.
This one is as born for the Inklingo HST. Print a total of 16 HST same size of light / background-fabric, and you're rolling.

Linda Franz' Triangle Tips.
Scroll down a bit. It's the 'Inklingo Sawtooth' pdf-file you want to look at.
Brackman's Post
Printing Table

The Letter E - Hexagon

Printing-table here

Calico Puzzle

Week 25 of Brackman's Civil War sampler is an old favourite : The Calico Puzzle.

In Brackman's measurements (which are also the ones given in the printing-table for the 8" block), you will end up with a block that is 8.25” finished size, and will thus need to trim it down to 8”.

The most appropriate size HST and square to use for the 8" block, would be 2.67”. That size is practically impossible to cut, and there are no perfectly sized squares or HST in any Inklingo collection to match it.
HOWever. If you own the 30” Feathered Star, that one has a 2.64” HST. Print your HST in that size; stitch them just outside of the seam-line, thus giving you the extra millimeter you would like to have. Once the HST-squares are pieced, use the finished unit as a 'ruler' to make your squares. You will get a better approximation at 8” square block compared to Brackman's measurements.

In the 6" size, the block is eminently Inklingoable and easy as pie to make :-)

Brackman's post here.
Printing-table here.

The Letter D - Hexagon

Printing-table here.

Ladies' Aid Album

Please note, that the centre square and the corner squares are NOT the same size !
Not in the 8" size and the measurements given by Brackman, not in the 6" size and the measurements given by me.
It is quite possible to make this with the same size square in the centre and the corners, at least in the 6" size, but I have chosen to follow Brackman's lead here, and make them different.

Disregarding which size you make : Use Linda's brilliant quick Flying Geese with Inklingo method. Go to the Triangle Tips page, (hidden under the 'Support and Goodies' tab on the Inklingo web-page), scroll down a bit, and then download the FREE pdf with directions on how to make Flying Geese with Inklingo. The measurements given here are based on you using that technique.

I have not (yet) stitched this week's block, and it will probably be another week or two before I get back to stitching the Brackman blocks. However, the printing-tables have been made.

Brackman's post here.
Printing table here

The Letter C - Hexagon

Third week, third letter.

As with the Letter B, you can use either quarter hexagons in the top and bottom right side, or you can use half-hexagons and cut them down to size afterwards.

Printing table (both for using quarter-hexies and for using half-hexies and cutting them off afterwards.

True Lover's Knot

The 'Interlacing block' (or 'True Lover's Knot') that has been shown on this blog previously, is a lovely thing. But really. Doing all those inset seams ? On the machine ? ... because stitching this many straight seams is as made for machine-work.

I can't face it. I really can not.

Now, if I was doing this block in a striped fabric, or in a fabric that will show seams very clearly, even from a distance, I would feel that it was absolutely necessary, but ...

So, I've looked at it again, and re-arraged a few seams, and used the 0.75" Log Cabin collection. And now I have a 6" square block that will fit right in with most of the other blocks I've made on this Sampler blog. The printing-table, however, features all 3 sizes of Log Cabin collections.

The block isn't hard to do, when you rearrange the seams as I have. However, the piecing sequence is important. Get that wrong, and you'll be up the creek in no time flat (do not ask me how I know that, unless you're fond of seeing a grown woman cry).
To help y'all avoid the frustration, I've made a piecing-sequence diagram.

- Sounds fancy, doesn't it ? 'Printing Sequence Diagram'.Well, it isn't complicated at all, it's just words, and the reality behind the words is simple -

Anyway : I drafted the easier way, seam by seam, and Linda emended it and changed it into an easy to interpret pdf-file which you can print and keep next to your sewing-machine as you stitch.
I would actually recommend making no less than 2 of these. For one thing, you will waste less fabric when printing, for another, you can piece them simultaneously (using something like Bonnie Hunter's Leader-Ender technique), and not waste miles of thread.

Printing-table for Lover's Knot block (for all 3 Log Cabin collections)
Printing-sequence diagram.

Illinois Roads

Week 23 of Barbara Brackman's Sampler isn't Inklingoable.
It is, however, extremely simple to make.

For the 6" block, the base unit is a rectangle, cut 2 x 3.5 (unfinished size) for a finished size of 1.5 x 3".
Cut 4 rectangles of two different fabrics.
Follow Brackman's Directions on how to join and stitch them.

Very, very simple.

Brackman's post here.

... and no printing-table.

Brackman Sampler : Corrections 2

Another week has gone by, and I have gotten another few of the blocks sewn.
Again, this means corrections to the printing-tables.

Follow the links given below, and download the printing-table on the relevant block again.
This week, there are corrections and updates on :

Lincoln's Platform, week 10

London Square, week 11

Little Blue Basket, week 13 has a completely new printing-table, and I have put up directions, for making the block 6" by adding a handle and shifting the balance of the block ever-so-slightly.
You are on your own when it comes to drafting the handle, but it isn't all that hard. If you have QuiltPro or EQ-some-number-or-other, I'm sure you can either find something useable in one of the block-libraries, or draft something on your own.

Ford Sumter, week 15 has a brand new post too. After the 0.75" Log Cabin collection, this is much, much easier to make using Inklingo. Still no printing table for the 8" block, but the 6" block now takes an absolute minimum of messing about.

The Letter B - Hexagon

The Letter B looks a bit squished on the right side. Trust me when I say, that it won't look better if you make it a hexagon longer compared to this. I've tried, and this is what I consider to be the better looking option. As always when making letters with fixed geometrical forms (like the hexagon), you need to be able to live with small oddities, and the way the letters vary in width.

Printing-table for The Letter B, here.

To make the block a perfect rectangle, you need to use two quarter hexagons for the upper and lower right corner of the block. I really, seriously, couldn't be bothered to print those fiddly quarter-pieces for the few letters that require them (I am making my alphabet with the 0.5" size hexagon), so I just used half-hexagons, even though they are not waht is needed.

If you do that, this (picture on the right) is what your letter B will look like before trimming (if you use only half-hexagons and not quarter hexagons)



Just trim away the excess. It isn't much, not even in the larger sizes, and it will make your life easier to just do it like this.