Corn and Beans Quilt Block Tutorial
Sampler Sew Along Block 5
Today’s block is a traditional pattern called Corn & Beans and apparently the traditional palette for it is yellow and green. In her book Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns, Barbara Brackman has also identified this block as Hen & Chicks, Ducks and Ducklings, Shoo Fly, and Handy Andy so take your pick! I’m going with Corn & Beans.
Corn and Beans is an easy block although there are a lot of pieces so it takes time. The finished size of the block is 12” (unfinished size is 12 1/2”) because that’s what we’re working with in the sew along. As with all quilt blocks you can change the size of the block by changing the size of the pieces within.
In the following instructions I will refer to the colors as the ones I chose (olive green, white, and indigo) so as you plan your block, swap them for your personal colors. For the natural dyers the color recipes I chose for my block are olive green and light blue indigo. As a fun exercise I recommend sketching out this block on graph or dot paper and playing around with the color placement. As always the way you place the colors will significantly change the look and feel of the block. Below you can see how I sketch out a block to find the patchwork shapes within and then come up with a cut list.
Corn and Beans is made up of 36 patchwork pieces:
24-HST’s
12- squares
Finished Block Size 12”
1/4” seam allowance
Cut List
For the HST’s:
Cut 12 white squares: 3”
Cut 6 indigo squares: 3”
Cut 6 olive squares: 3”
For the Squares:
Cut 10 white squares: 2 1/2”
Cut 2 olive squares: 2 1/2”
Make the HST’s
Gather the 3” squares you cut for the HST’s. Lay your olive and indigo squares out on your work surface and place a white square on top of each one aligning all the corners. Follow the instructions in my HST tutorial beginning where it says ASSEMBLE HST’s. Each pair of squares will yield 2 HST’s so you will end up with a total of 24 HST’s. When you get to the part which explains how to trim your HST’s, trim them to 2 1/2”. Now we have all the pieces we need to make a Corn and Beans block.
Assemble the Block
Lay the 36 patchwork pieces out on your work surface as shown below being careful to orient the many HST’s in their proper directions.
* Tip: With blocks like this where there are so many pieces I like to lay them out on something that I can set right next to my sewing machine like a smaller cutting mat or a piece of cardboard. This helps me keep all the pieces oriented correctly.
Sew the pieces into 6 horizontal rows as shown below. Press the seams open or to the side if you prefer.
The block looks funny in an elongated way at this point! Sew the rows together using pins to match the seams and press the seams open or to the side if you prefer. Taking your time to match the seams and being precise with your 1/4” seam allowance will help with accuracy. I show how to match seams by pinning in this tutorial if you need some guidance with that.
Five complete sew along blocks! I’m looking forward to sharing next week’s block. If you have any questions please ask below in the comment section for all to reference. Be sure to tag your sew along blocks with #folksamplersewalong on Instagram. It’s been really fun and inspiring to see the beautiful work you’ve been sharing there. Thanks so much for joining this adventure, I’m so glad you’re here!
