2018 Finishes - Farmer's Wife #52

Going back to July 2011, another blogger started a quilt along doing the Farmer's Wife sampler quilt.  This was really popular around that time,  and several bloggers and local quilt shops were doing it either as a quilt along or a BOM.  I had already purchased the book several months earlier (you can purchase one here on Amazon, or anywhere else you want to get a copy.  The local library might have one too.  This sampler is by Laurie Aaron Hird, and has a total of 111 sampler blocks.  The book comes with an accompanying CD rom with all of the templates.  Marti Michell also has most of the templates in acrylic to use with this sampler.

In the book, the first half of the book shows a completed block along with a letter from 1920's wives that inspired each block.  The second half of the book has a page for each block, showing cutting instructions and construction diagrams.  

I jumped all in, really excited.  I printed all the templated out on card stock, cut them out, and started cutting out each block. I blogged about each block I made.  I was so into this sampler, that I opted to do it in two separate color ways.  One in civil war reproductions and the other with a fabric line called Breath of Avignon by American Jane from Moda fabrics.

I used both the acrylic templates and the card stock templates to get each block, then placing the cut pieces in an individual zip lot sandwich baggie for construction at a later date.   Little did I know, until I was in too deep of construction, that the card stock templates were copied at normal printing (which is at about 98%) instead of setting my printer to print them at 100%.   So, many of my blocks were off up to a quarter of an inch.

Some of my blocks came out 6.5 inches and some came out at 6.0 inches.  Panic time!!!  I gave it some serious thought.  One, do I trash the whole project and move on, wasting all that fabric, or two figure out how to make it all work together. 

I took option 2.  I took the framing fabric and added an additional 1/2" to the blocks that were too small, and then framed all the blocks according to the directions.  Anyone looking at it would not see the correction.  It takes only me to know what happened and the fix.  Especially after it was quilted, there is no glaring or even an easily noticeable fix to the error.

I am still working on how to fix the other color way to get that quilt done.  I am guessing this one will fall under my 2019 Finishes.  

To read about my finished quilt on the blogger who started the quilt along, please go here.

Here are some up close pictures of the different blocks and the finished framing and cornerstones, and you can't tell.  

I opted not to add any borders other than the offsetting triangles and bound it with the same fabric I used in framing the blocks.

I tried to get a picture of all the blocks used in the sampler.  Just a note about the blocks done in this sampler.  Remember they are only 6.5" square, and some of them had up to 65 pieces per block.  Sometimes it would take about 2 to 3 hours per block to make.  

This quilt requires lots of time and planning.  

Warmest...

Size: 72" x 84"

Fabric Lines Used:  Civil War Reproductions

Colors:  Black Gold, Orange, Green, red, blue, purple, yellow

Pattern:  The Farmer's Wife

Designer:  Laurie Arron Hird

Long Arm Quilter:  Carol Nelson

Year Began: 2011

Year Completed: 2018

UFO BOM progress

Well, this last week was slow going in the sewing room. Mostly because of some health issues, but I got to feeling better by Thursday, so to keep it simple, I worked on all of the UFO BOMs.

First up is block six of Land of Lincoln Sampler called "Farm Friendliness".

Next up is  Month 5 of the Tribute to the Civil War blocks.  This month called for (4) 12" blocks .  Here is a full view of the block made up.

And here is a pic of all four of the blocks done.

Then, last but not least, I added the sixth row on my civil war color way Farmer's Wife quilt.  There are a total of 15 rows all sewn on the diagional.  This is a side view of it hanging on my door.  When all the rows are done it will be a queen sized quilt!

Warmest...

BOM (Old) Update

This week I did some work on my ongoing older BOM's.  By working on three or four projects at a time, I don't get too bored with any one project.  Working on these older BOM's that I have had stored for a few years, also gives me a sense of accomplishment of cleaning up my stash.  

First up is the progress of putting together the Farmer's Wife blocks.  This has been somewhat of a struggle because the blocks are different sizes.  The reason my blocks came out different sizes is because when printing off the templates from the CD that came with the book, I didn't make sure the print came out at actual size.  This caused them to come out slightly smaller, and slightly smaller over many pieces can be 1/4" or more.  Then, someone in our online group decided to incorporate Marti Mitchell's acrylic templates for some of the pieces throughout the quilt.  So using the incorrect sized paper pieces and the correct sized acrylic pieces have caused some difficulty in matching up the blocks and the sashing.  I have just a little warbling going on.  I am fairly confident that this will work itself out in final pressing, and when the quilting of the top gets done.  But so far, I am liking how it is turning out.

Next up is the next block from the Land of Lincoln Sampler BOM.  This is block #5, called Road to the White House.

And finally, the next block for the A Civil War Tribute BOM.  If you recall, each month requires more than just one block.  This month called for a 18" block and a 12" block.  This is Month 4 of the program.  Between you and me, these two blocks, on their own, are just plain ugly!  Actually, they look better here as a picture than in person.  But, I imagine once worked into the rest of the quilt, they won't be so ugly, and fit right in as if they belong.

Warmest...

A Peek

Here is just a peek of my Farmer's Wife blocks after I pieced together a few blocks.  I really like how it is going together.  I usually don't like on point settings, but I think it is best for the small sized blocks (6 inch) and the quanity (110 blocks) that will be used in the whole quilt top.

 I am away this weekend, doing a gun show with hubby, so I won't get any sewing done, but I thought you might enjoy a peek...

A close-up...

Completed December FW Blocks

Yes, I completed the Civil War Reproduction Farmer's Wife's blocks for December today.  Only one day late!  I spoke more of the daunting task of completing these blocks in yesterday's post, and when I see them stacked in the picture below, I can really see how daunting it was this past year.  The blocks for each color way will only make a twin size quilt, so I might have to add some additional borders so I can put it on a double bed.

Here are the blocks for December....

I. AM. DONE. (At least 1/2)

Yes, believe it or not, I met two goals today. (Close your eyes, and imagine me doing the happy dance) I completed the color way "Moda" Breath of Avignon, Farmer's Wife's blocks for December, and thus the whole set to complete the quilt.  This means, I have done 110 blocks this year.  This color way was part of an online quilt-a-long, that started in February, so I got a late start on them, and had to double up the number I did per month to get the set completed by the end of the year.  The quilt-a-long fizzled out about the fourth month, but I really wanted to keep going and make my goal of getting them all done by the end of the year.

Let me say, that this was a much bigger task that I could have ever realized or imagined.  Most of the blocks are multiple pieces, complicated assembly, and tiny pieces, making it all that more difficult to work with in getting them together.  Some blocks should have been done in a paper piece method, but I am not talented in that area, so I struggled to piece these blocks.  Another area that I made an error in, was the templates I printed out were not at 100% scale.  Which, would have been fine, if I had made all the blocks with just the templates, but I bought into the quilt-a-long's use of Marti Michell's templates for some of the most repeated used pieces.  After the first 10 blocks I did in February, I made the decision to cut out all remaining 100 blocks, so that I could just sit down and make a block or two when I had short times to do some sewing.  About half-way into the next 10 blocks, I realized that my templates were off.  But since I had already cut out all the blocks, I knew I would be in for a struggle to get all the remaining blocks to fit together properly.  So mixing the full sized templates with the printed templates at less than 100% scale, made for some mis-matched pieces and blocks, as each block size was to be 6.5 inches square.  My blocks range from 6.0 inches to 6.5 inches, so I am going to make it work with the sashing when putting the blocks together.

So with further ado, here are my December blocks for the "Moda" Breath of Avignon color way....

November's Done

Yep, November's blocks are done. That's all I can say. Oh, other than, on to December's blocks!

Farmer's Wife Update

Well, remember a few posts back, when I said I would be posting my November blocks from the Breath of Avignon colorway, but it would have to wait until I got all of Novermber's done?  Well, as I so eloquently crabby stated in my blog yesterday, I still haven't gotten any sewing done yet this month, so I decided to share those November blocks that I did get done.  Here they are: