Fab Farm Sew Along – Cow Block 4

Welcome to week 4 of the Fab Farm Sew Along! This week’s block is the cow.

Now, spring is always full of baby farm animals and I remember loving to go to the nearby farms to see the baby cows. There was a small farm at the top of our street, and down a few blocks, near the elementary school. We went to see those cows nearly every day when we were first allowed to travel alone.

three black and white cows
Photo by Matthias Zomer on Pexels.com

I have some exciting news. I have two quilting friends co-hosting in the next few weeks – Wendy of Pieceful Thoughts about Quilting and Nancy of Grace and Peace Quilting. They both do beautiful work and I can’t wait to see what they have done with their Fab Farm blocks.

Cutting The Block

Pieces are cut and prepped

The cutting instructions for the large and small quilts are both on page 22. Again, in order to make the cutting and identification of the pieces easy, let’s use SEPC.

  • Scan the cutting instructions
  • Enlarge the cutting instructions
  • Print the cutting instructions
  • Cut – both the paper and the fabric, attaching the paper label to the fabric pieces.

There was nothing particularly tricky here.

Making Block 4

Gathered pieces for the face.

As I begin, I gather some of the pieces for the first units – the face, nostrils and front leg. The instructions are on page 23. I might have changed the eyes, they are a bit dark next to my black but visible when in the right light…maybe a little quilting around the eye will help make it stand out a bit more.

HINT #1: Take a photo of the cow on page 21 to refer to as you are piecing.

I have begun using a picture of the animal on my phone to check that I am getting all the pieces. This prevents me flipping back and forth to check against the picture of the completed cow, and helps me check that I know where I am going with the units.

HINT#2: Watch out for the extra snout pieces!

Figure 4 on page 23 shows that the snout gets a few more pieces added to it, 3-Ks and 1-AA – don’t miss it as it is embedded in the assembly of the face/nostrils/front leg unit. I didn’t miss them, but don’t want you to!

This cow only has 3 more seams to go!

HINT #3: The finishing piecing for the block is on 45.
I didn’t realize I missed this until I went to write the post. I just used the picture as I finished the piecing on page 22. I wish all the labels were in it, like they are on page 21, it is sometimes hard to be sure you have everything.

The Finished Block

I love the way the cow looks and the piecing went smoothly.

The Schedule

Here’s the schedule. If you want to pick a block and co-host with me on a particular week, I would be thrilled, please email me if you are interested.

DateBlock
Monday, April 3, 2023Fabric Selection
Monday, April 24, 2023Block 1 Strawberry
Monday, May 1, 2023Block 2 Horse
Monday, May 8, 2023Block 3 Goat
Monday, May 15, 2023Block 4 Cow
Monday, May 22, 2023Block 5 Chicken
Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts co-host
Monday, May 29, 2023Block 6 Bee
Monday, June 5, 2023Block 7 Pig
Nancy @ Grace and Peace Quilting co-host
Monday, June 12, 2023Block 8 Sheep
Monday, June 19, 2023Block 9 Short Sunflower
Monday, June 26, 2023Block 10 Tall Sunflower
Monday, July 17, 2023Parade of Quilts

Pattern and Kits Available

I am listing some links for patterns and kits. They are affiliate links, so a little comes to me (no additional cost to you) to support the costs of running the blog.

Coming Up on My Blog

I am looking forward to sharing My Strippy Stars quilt. I was hoping to have it done before the end of the month, but I will share it next week. I will also show you how I helped a friend with a quilt (not well made by someone I don’t know, if you ask me) so that it could be the remembrance she needed.

My Strippy Stars
Fixing a T-Shirt Quilt
Fab Farm SAL – Block 5 (5/21)
Tips and Tutorials on the 22nd (5/22)
Ships Ahoy

Linking Up

Monday Musings

Fabrics Stash

Fabric in this month: 12.26 
Fabric out this month: 4.00
Fabric in this year: 36.25
Fabric out this year: 31.75
NET Fabric: +4.5 yards!

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My Favorite Tools

Pins with Numbers & Arrows
Annies Soft and Stable Foam Stabilizer
By Annie’s Clear Vinyl
Heat N Bond Iron On Vinyl
Omni Thread, Purplelicious
Aurifil 50 weight thread
Hobbs Tuscanny Wool Batting
Freezer Paper Sheets
Binding Sasher
Nexcare Clear Skin Tape
Cluck Cluck Sew Tape
Simple Folded Corners Ruler
Free Motion Quilting Workbook
Shape by Shape Collection 2
Shape by Shape
DayLight Wafer 1 Light Box
Freezer paper
Siteground Web Hosting
Dream Cotton Batting
Sidekick Ruler
Hex N More Ruler
4″ Circular Plastic Needlepoint
Awesome Ocean Pattern
Schmetz NonStick Needle
Sulky Totally Stable
Barn Quilt by Sherry Shish
PrintNFuse
Applique Pressing Sheet
Mary Ellen’s Best Press Starch
Clover Bias Tape Maker 12mm
Woven Diamonds Pattern
Hobbs Premium 80/20 Batting
Woven Star Pattern
Wefty Needle
Quilt Hanger
Fat Quarter Shop
Accuquilts
Sizzix
Westalee Sampler Template Set
Mettler 60 wt. Cotton Embroidery Thread
Sandboard for Hand Sewing/Appliqué
Clover Needle Threader
Sewline Black and White Pencil
Sewline Grey Pencil
Backyard Birds
Wing Clipper
Quilt Pounce
Hobbs Thermore Batting
Clover Chaco Liner – silver
Turnabout Patchwork by Terese Mairal Barreau
Sewline Glue Pen
Fusible 1″ Hexagon Paper
Fusible Appliqué Paper
Sizzix 3 1/2″ half square triangle
Electric Quilt 8
Sizzix Big Shot
Quilter’s Dream Select Batting
Quilt in A Day Log Cabin
Judy Martin Log Cabin
Emiko Toda Loeb
3M Command Strip Clothespins
Paper Templates for Lucy Boston
Lucy Boston Templates,MPP
Lucy Boston Patchwork of the Cross
Clover Wonder Clips
Thread magic
Clearly Perfect Angles
Sizzix Big Shot Plus
Spritzer
Slotted Triangle Trimmer