"BLOCK TWO" Welcome to week two of the "PRAIRIE MEADOW" Sew Along! Join me here each week when I will be doing tutorials on the blocks for the quilt. Of course because we are all sewing from all around the world we all have different time zones... But I will be posting each Monday right here on my blog and you can follow my tutorials any time each week that is convenient for you. We are making the Prairie Meadow Quilt 68" x 85" I've been sew excited to begin... This is going to be fun!! The quilt is made with my newest fabric collection called Prairie... I hope that you all have all received your fabric kits by now... and that we are all ready to begin!! If you still need one ... just do a quick google search for "Prairie Meadow Quilt Kit" to find shops who still have some left. We are also using the Prairie Meadow Sew Simple Shapes I have already posted the "BEE PREPARED" post which details all of the supplies for the sew along and how it works. I have also given the link there for the free PDF Download of the Sew Along Guide CLICK HERE to download the sew along guide. It's important to watch my Week One/Block One video tutorial because everything I show you in block one pertains to all the rest of the blocks. Things such as tips on sewing... shaping and turning all of your appliqués as well as the entire process of laying out the block. I also explain about sewing the scrappy background. If you have not watched it please CLICK HERE As per the sew along guide cutting instructions you should have everything for your Block Two all cut and ready to go! Here is my Block Two Kit Everything is all cut... all traced and ready:) Here is a list of the Prairie Meadow Sew Simple Shapes needed for Block Two: 1 - N-1 1 - N-2 1 - N-20 4 - N-21 4 - N-24 4 - N-33 4 - N-39 8 - N-57 You will need to cut 4 - 2 1/2" long of prepared 1/4" straight bias strips for the stems Here are the squares and rectangles for my Block Two background all sewn together:) Here are all of my Block Two shapes sewn... trimmed and clipped. You will need to clip all of the shapes except for the two that I am holding in my hand:) All turned...shaped and pressed:) I usually pre-glue the shapes together that are layered before laying them out onto the background for pinning. The above are the shapes that I pre-glued for Block Two. The dark orange center in the plaid orange flowers sticks out 3/4" The 3 teal pieces are simply centered on top of each other. Okay...now to start pinning the block onto the background. Place your background onto a design board and let's get started!! Remember what I said to you last week in my video for block one... I will always start forming each block in this quilt from the center out:) So first I pinned the layered teal appliqués onto the center of the background. I pinned them down but made sure to glue the outer edges down last because I wanted to be able to tuck the stems and corner leaves underneath first. Next I did the stems and the orange flowers. The stems measure 1 1/2" long from the teal center shape to the bottom of the orange plaid flowers... that means each end is tucked under 1/2" The dark orange tip of the flower measures 1 1/2" from your background edge (before trimming up after applique of course) I then pinned the double leaf shape centered on the stem. The circles also measure 1 1/2" from the edge of fabric and are 5/8" away from the side points of the orange plaid flower. I measured 3 1/2" in diagonally from the corner of the background and placed the top of the gold leaf. The bottom end of the leaf tucks under the teal center shape. I used my ruler to make sure that it was centered exactly on the diagonal. I love this pretty "fall flowers on the prairie block"... These color and print combo makes me happy!! Here's my BLOCK TWO all ready for applique:) Just like I said in the video... Afterwards I will press from the back and then I will use my 16 1/2" Trim-It Ruler to trim down the block. I do not trim away any fabric or any interfacing. My grandma used to do that back in the day when they hand quilted all of their quilts and it was hard to needle all the layers and get tiny stitches. Although she trimmed because it was necessary for hand quilting... grandma didn't like to do it because she felt that it weakened the appliques and also distorted them over time. Now a days of course that is not the case as we have wonderful quilting machines that quilt over/and around the appliqués very well! Sew...there you have it! That's how I made Block Two:) Thanks so much for jumping on the wagon train and for joining me today for week two of Prairie Meadow Sew Along I hope that you will enjoy every step of this journey and that you will have fun making your Blocks!! I'll meet you right back here next week for the Block Three tutorial... xx Lori Other Places to find me: @Beelori1 Instagram Lori Holt/YouTube Bee in my Bonnet Company