Skip to main content

The Farmer's Wife: Here we go again

It's been a while since I wrote a post about the Farmer's Wife quilt hasn't it?

My 1920s Farmer's Wife Quilt made in batiks
Well, I'm starting on a new one. We've moved on from the 1920s farmer's wife to the 1930s: a new book, 99 new blocks and considerably more pieces. There are two quilt alongs happening: one organised by Kerry and the other by Angie. There's a Facebook group with nearly 4000 members. I'm a sucker for a sampler quilt and a sucker for a quilt-along, so I'm diving in.

Last time I was pregnant I made the City Sampler quilt (as yet unfinished), so this pregnancy - and undoubtedly beyond - I will make a Farmer's Wife quilt. But if the children think they are getting their paws on any of these quilts, they can think again!

Lots of people have been posting photos of their fabric pull for the quilt - the specially-curated bundle offered online contains 50 fat quarters, so it's clear you need variety. This is my fabric pull.


Yep - my entire stash! Anything and everything is up for grabs! And it'll all look fine in the end, because I love all of those fabrics.

I'm planning to keep up with the QALs by making a couple of blocks a week, using a mix of techniques: standard rotary cutting, foundation piecing and English paper piecing. But I think it's unlikely I will make exactly the same blocks every week. Kerry is working through from front to back - I prefer to jump about and pick out a block that I like the look of. Angie is working through from simplest to most complex - personally I know from previous experience that leaving all the difficult blocks to the end would be a recipe for disaster.

The first block that grabbed me was no. 13: Belle. It lent itself to English paper piecing to avoid some Y-seams if I had been machine piecing, and I could draft it without needing to print it out - our printer is in need of yellow ink - not vital for printing patchwork patterns, but apparently vital for it working!



I picked a floral print from Recollection by Katarina Rocella for Art Gallery - I used this recently on my La Pass quilt and then picked up a large piece which can go towards a quilt back sometime soon! The solid isn't actually completely solid, but it was the perfect match and reads as a solid from pretty close. The letter that accompanies this block is all about celebrating Christmas - it makes our Christmas gathering of 25 people look small!

I've also pieced the three blocks from this week of Angie's quilt along: Becky. Having spent last weekend picking apples, I decided it would be appropriate for this block. The yellow is Michael Miller, and the larger green spots are Fig Tree.



Bonnie: I think the blue is Drift from Art Gallery, the dark aqua is Alison Glass, and the light Aqua is Cotton and Steel.



And Aunt: the two navy fabrics are cotton and steel, and the pink is Art Gallery Lace Elements. I foundation pieced the central economy square for this block.



And I've made a start on another EPP block - Ann: I have also suddenly realised just how ridiculously small some of the pieces are in this quilt - this is just one quarter of a finished block and those orange pieces are TINY!


I'm going to link up with Angie this evening!

Comments

Marly said…
Gosh Jennie, I just don't know where you find the time! Those blocks are looking good, so keep up the good work.
Lin said…
Up and running again Jennie! You exhausted me last time you were pregnant and after - don't know where you find the time! Good luck with the Farmers Wife. I am about to give up on my Dear Jane and turn her into something more manageable. xx

Popular posts from this blog

365 Quilt Challenge 2016 [A finish]

I can't believe I've just typed that heading! When I made the block for January 1st 2016 I could not have imagined the journey this quilt would have taken me on. So make yourselves comfortable and grab a cup of tea, because this blog post may get lengthy! I'd seen the 365 Quilt Challenge on Facebook. I think every quilter on Facebook must have been aware of it. Loads of my friends had signed up and it kept popping up as a "Page you might like" thing. In the end, in November 2015, I joined the group, had a poke round. Decided it wasn't for me. One of the things that really put me off were the fabric requirements: you needed x amount of dark dark fabric, x amount of medium dark fabric, x amount of dark medium, medium, light medium, light, background.... I just couldn't get my head round those requirements. I'd looked at the mock ups on the wesbite and couldn't bring myself to pick a colour. I put it to the back of my mind. But I had obvious

Hidden Agenda [A Finish]

This is very possibly my favourite ever finish - I know I've said that in the past, but this one is going to be hard to beat. This time last year, I attended a day long lecture/workshop with Tula Pink and it was inspiring. Having not really loved her fabrics in the past (but loved her patterns), I suddenly saw them in a new light, linked with my 2018 new year's resolution to try more fussy cutting). Fast forward 8 months and I confess that my Tula stash has expanded quite a lot. I found some UK shops with older ranges of fabric, splurged on a few destashes and found the odd piece of her fabric already in my stash. The plan was always (and remains) to make a Smitten quilt, but I'm well aware that I have plenty of fabric to make other projects as well! So when I saw the Hidden Agenda quilt pattern by Angela Pingle, this fabric sprung instantly to mind.... and we all know I love a rainbow! And what could be better than rainbowfied Tula? I was ably assisted by my friend Ti

February Embroidery Along [A Finish]

I've really been enjoying my embroidery this year, after not doing very much last year. One of the challenges I set myself at the start of the year was to learn to colour tint my fabric before adding the embroidery - I love buying the pre-printed panels, but I'd like to do this myself as well. And the opportunity to learn this arose in February. Meg Hawkey of Crab Apple Hill Studio hosted a stitchalong to celebrate National Embroidery Month, and the first step was colour your fabric. I bought the pencils she advises,  the blending stumps, something called fabric extender and the pigma pen. And I gave it a go. My first attempt ended badly. Because the one thing I didn't buy was a new, clean paintbrush. So when I came to add the fabric extended, it went all bleary and muddy as, despite cleaning the paintbrush thoroughly, it obviously wasn't clean enough. It was unsalvageable so I started again, and I was so much happier with the results. The practice piece was, in

Labels

Show more

Archive

Show more