Red, White & You! – Midget Block 119

by on 10:23 am in Antique Quilt, Applique Quilts, Free Patterns, Midget Blocks, News, Patchwork Quilts, Site Updates, Tutorials, Uncategorized

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You are the greatest! Copies of Midget Block 15 came pouring into my inbox and it's now back in it's rightful place in a multitude of places hopefully never to be lost again. Thank you, thank you!

Working on these blocks is great fun but missing my Grand Rapids stash yesterday got me to thinking about the place where I come from.The city had been getting a bad rap in the press by a national magazine and people decided to take a stand against those unfavorable comments. The now infamous Grand Rapids LipDub was filmed earlier this year and set a world record on YouTube.

Grand Rapids LipDub

I'm not in the video but it's filled with lots of familiar faces and places that have been part of my life for longer than I want to admit. They're preparing to film a LipDub here in Traverse City. With local resident Michael Moore's Film Festival leading the way anything is possible. Clutch and I are watching.


Midget Block 119 is a real cutie and fun to make. I used a variety of techniques quite unlike the way the original block was constructed but it seemed a lot easier to me. I've given you instructions for cutting triangles, squares and rectangles you piece together to cut your applique shapes from. I used a small machine stitch (1.80 on my Bernina) like you'd use for foundation piecing.


I like to use back basting when doing my applique and here you can see the outer petals basted on my red and white block. I trim the seam allowance down to almost 1/8" on these small blocks. If you've never tried back basting you really should give it a try. It's my technique of choice and I've tried them all! I made a little tutorial for you a while back.


This is not what you want to see on the back of your block when you're trimming the seam allowance away!


This is better........new piece of background, basting done, seam allowances trimmed and ready to applique.


The triangles are machine pieced and sewn together in a faux quilt block that's back basted in place for applique. I didn't use as many fabrics in my red and white block as were used in the block from the quilt.

Here's my red and white block.

And the block from the quilt.

Click on the text for today's pattern

Midget Block 119

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Red, White & You! Midget Block 118

by on 9:42 am in Antique Quilt, Free Patterns, Midget Blocks, News, Patchwork Quilts, Site Updates, Tutorials, Uncategorized

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Clutch and I spent some time making a chart of which Midget Block patterns we've drafted and which ones we haven't. I find it hard to believe I haven't done today's block before now but it's not in the files. The only possibility is if it was Block 15. For some reason I can't find a copy of that block to save my soul. I've looked through all my back up disks, flash drives and old fashioned paper files with no success. I even did a Google Image search and came up empty handed. I did a lot of beautiful Midget Blocks you've made. I can't begin to tell you how inspiring you are. There's nothing better than seeing people enjoy my patterns. If there's anyone out there who has a copy of Block 15 I'd sure be grateful if you could share it back to me.


Block 118 is a classic with many names but the Week by Week Sampler quilter simply called it Star. It's the second block in the first row.


Here's the block in my red and white fabrics. I regret choosing a fabric with a touch of blue in there but the block is finished and it's already set together with other blocks so I'm resisting the urge to make another one. I have however sorted the red fabrics I have here at the lake and pulled out any that have obvious additions of other colors in the prints. I am missing my Grand Rapids stash at the moment.



Here's today's pattern:

Midget Block 118



If you haven't pieced an eight point star before or just want a few reminders you can follow the Sewing "Y" Seams tutorial to assemble your block.

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Midget Blocks – Red, White & You!

by on 10:05 am in Antique Quilt, Free Patterns, Midget Blocks, News, Patchwork Quilts, Site Updates, Uncategorized

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The National Cherry Festival in Traverse City is a pretty big deal each year. Everyone is beginning the countdown of days just like we do when it gets close to the time for our Dear Jane Retreat in Shipshewana.

Cherry Festival days are filled with parades, pie eating contests, concerts, food tasting, air shows, bike tours, volleyball games, wine tasting, big wheel races, arts & craft show, classic car show, teddy bear tea, bubblegum blow, fireworks and so much more.

While Traverse City cherries are the main focus, it seems all things red and white become part of the celebration too. I thought it would be fun to have our own little celebration here at Sentimental Stitches and what better way to celebrate than with Midget Blocks!

This year's National Cherry Festival is July 2 - 9 so beginning today I'm posting new Midget Block patterns. There are several days until the start of Festival so Clutch and I can come up with quite a few new blocks between now and then.

I'm sure you remember me drooling all over my computer during the Infinite Variety exhibit of red and white quilts in New York a few months ago. I did more than my fair share of whining about the fact that I wasn't there. I've been thinking about starting a red & white quilt almost every day since then. Add to that Cherry Festival, your requests for new Midget Blocks and you get.... Midget Blocks - Red, White & You! How's that for a blending of ideas?


I'm surprised at how many of the Midget Blocks have red in them. Here's just a few.

I'll put a link to the pattern for each block in my post about it and on the the regular Midget Blocks page. I also created a Flickr Group for Midget Blocks - Red, White & You! so you can add pictures of red and white Midget Blocks you make so everyone can see our progress. I added pictures of some of my blocks to get us started.


The first new block is called Diamonds. It's one of those blocks you think is going to be difficult to piece but even with a few "Y" seams it went together easily.


Here it is in red and white fabrics. Believe it or not, this one is foundation pieced, "Y" seams and all! You'll have it done in no time. So without further ado, click on the text for your pattern.

Midget Block 117


There are 67 free blocks available on the Midget Blocks page. The first 50 blocks were retired quite a while ago. You can purchase a printed set of patterns in the Online Store or a digital pattern in the Digital Download Store.


Here's the setting I designed for this project. The finished size is 70" x 80". There are 143 blocks in the quilt. If you look this over closely you'll see where I used a couple of blocks twice - oops - have you ever done that? It will drive me crazy until I get out the seam ripper and do some 'frog stitching' to change it.
I'm using a wide variety of red prints, mostly 1930s reproduction fabrics. My background and sashing strips are an off white solid (Moda Bella Solids are my favorite). My cornerstones in the sashing are a red polka dot (no surprise there!) and I haven't decided if I'll use my scraps in the pieced border or just one fabric. If you think you want to make a quilt like mine you'll need at least 7 yards of background fabric and red prints totaling 11 yards. I know that sounds wild but the 11 yards is for your blocks, cornerstones and pieced border. In the next few days I'll break those numbers down for each section and create a PDF file you can print off for reference.



Moda Bella Solid Off White

Enjoy the new block and don't forget to post a picture of it in the Flickr Group for Midget Blocks - Red, White & You! so we all can see.


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