Little House on the Prairie Quilt: Block 8

Our first block from the On the Banks of Plum Creek book is a church to represent the first time Laura and her sisters attend church.  This book talks about their stay in Walnut Grove, Minnesota.  A new church had been built in town and because they had moved around so much (and to places with undeveloped land and towns), it had been a long time since they were able to attend a church.  The girls had never even attended one before.  They thought it was very special since Ma dressed them in their best attire and put bows and ribbons in their hair.

I looked for quite a while on the internet for a church pattern in a 12.5" finished block and could not find one.  My mom had a book with a barn pattern (still not 12.5", though) that if modified, it could look like a church.  So that's what we did.  I spent several hours tweaking measurements, researching on how to create the triangles for the peak of the church, calling my mom for help with measurements (thank goodness she is sharp with those!), creating paper piecing templates, sewing some pieces together, ripping out seams, starting again, etc.  I joked with my mom that, "Phew! My brain hurts! That was a lot of math!"  She said, "As Nana (my grandmother) used to say, 'It's good to get the cobwebs out every now and then!"  That's for sure!  We got it to work, though, and I'm happy with how it turned out.  I appliqued the cross and embroidered the door handles and in between the doors.

Lots of measuring (the top pattern is what we used, but it still needed tweaking) and creating paper piecing templates.

Sewing triangles together.

All finished!