Block Number 44 Iris in the Farmer's Wife 1930's Quilt Along

Hello! Welcome to Daydreams of Quilts for Block number 44 Iris in the Farmer’s Wife 1930s quilt along hosted by Gnome Angel and sponsored by Fat Quarter Shop and Marti Mitchell.

Farmer’s Wife Block 44 Iris pieced by Daydreams of Quilts.

Isn’t this a pretty block!? I love it. I used my Alphabitties to label different sections of this block for the purposes of this tutorial.

Tutorial Notes: Please refer to the diagram on the printed template sheet that you printed from your book’s CD. I used the lettered names of the pieces for this tutorial. I cut my pieces with a rotary cutter using the paper templates printed from the CD. I lines my quarter inch line on my ruler up on the solid template lines to cut an accurate quarter inch seam allowance. For multiples of the same piece I folded my fabrics to cut two or four at a time. U cut all the little notches on the corners of the templates as well to make it easier to match up the pieces.

For this tutorial I have numbered the block sections as in the above photo.

Step 1:

lay your pieces out on a work surface according to the diagram in your book ( have mine pointing to the left here – in the book it is pointing to the right)
Sew Section 1: Sew G B and F pieces together and press seams to the darker fabric. Press after each seam.

This is what you have after step 1 is complete. Section 1 is sewn together.

Step 2:

Section 2: Sew pieces C, A and D together. Press seams to the darker fabric.
Sew to section 1 being careful not to stretch bias edges.

This is what you have after Step 2 is complete. Sections 1 and 2 are sewn together.

Step 3:

Section 3: Sew E triangles together. Press seams to the darker fabric.
Sew the E triangle units to H triangles.
Sew both section 3 pieces to Section 1+2 piece and press seams to one side.

After Step 3 is complete. The top half of your block is done.

Step 4:

Working from the outside edge in sew the section 4 pieces.
First sew P,O,K pieces and Q,N,L pieces together.
Press seams towards the outer corner of the block (pieces L and K)
Sew the P/O/K unit and Q/N/L unit to M pieces and press seams towards M
Sew I pieces to M/P/O/K and M/Q/N/L units and press seams towards I

This is what you have after Step 4 is complete. Now it is straightforward to finish the block.

Step 5:

Sew Section 4 pieces to the center J piece. Press seams to the side in one direction
Sew the top and bottom halves of the block together and press center seam open.

A beautiful Iris block. I was able to grow lovely Iris’ in my garden when we lived in New Brunswick but have not had success so far in Alberta. Maybe I will try again this spring because the blooms are so beautiful.

Thank you for joining me today to sew Block 44 Iris. I hope my garden can be as successful as this block this year.