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.  

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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

Home Again

I'm back home with my parents.  We have spent the first few days unpacking and settling in to the spaces I have made available for them.

My garden over flowed and I had to can tomatoes one day, while unpacking boxes.   I ended up canning seven batches for a total of 35 quarts.  I am glad summer is coming to and end and the tomato crop is slowing down.

I finally unpacked the last box today, and things will get back to some normalcy and I hope to be sewing again shortly.  Especially since I have joined the Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt Sew-Along that begins September 28th, 2015 and lasts for a year.  If you want to participate, click on the button at the top right of my blog and join in the fun.  There is weekly newsletters to sign up for with this group, they have their own FB page, and several guest bloggers involved.  Once you click on the button, you will be directed to all the places to sign up and like and join.

It has been all the rage over the FB page to have the book hole punched and wire bound, so for the first time, I had this one done.  What a difference it makes!  Hubby had them add frosted plastic front and back to help protect the book, and it makes it really nice.  I also picked out my fabric from my stash.  If you remember, I have a rather large stash of 30's reproduction fabric, so I pulled from it as I want to stay true to the book of the 1930's era.  

Stay tuned!

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Discovery

As you know, if you have read my last couple of posts, I have been cleaning up my sewing room, and I posted about finding some kits on a bottom shelf that were in different stages of progress.  Some were brand new, not started yet, some were in progress, and some were completed quilt tops.

This discovery is from 2007, from a online round robin kind of party, called Patchwork Party Spring 2007 (you can see the Patchwork Party Fall 2014 here).  I participated in a couple of these parties, and this one that I discovered uses one of my favorite lines of fabric, Sanctuary by 3 Sisters from Moda.

 This is one of the seven blocks I have completed.  The fabric line is full of roses in so many color ways, and has a romance cottage feel to it.  I just love this line.

The bagged material is the finishing kit that will encompass the 12 blocks, and the pink tone on tone fabric is the matching backing fabric from this line that is 108" wide.  

Patchwork Party gives you twelve options in finishing the quilt, and the twelve shops that participate in selling the 12 blocks also sell their own design in the finishing of the quilt.  The finishing kit I chose to use in finishing my blocks includes 6 additional appliquéd flower blocks.

And then to further finish this quilt, it uses one of my favorite patterns, log cabin.  I tried to find a colored picture of the finished quilt, but no avail.  So you will have to look at the black and white pattern that I have for reference in my finishing kit.  If you enlarge it, you can see where the patchwork blocks are placed, where the appliquéd blocks are placed and where the log cabin blocks will be placed. 

The kits that I purchased, all the pieces of each block were cut using Marti Mitchell templates sets.  I purchased all of them, and I will say, if you take the time to cut your pieces using her templates, the block sews together like a dream.   It does take longer initially in cutting out the pieces, but the end result is so perfect!  Now the block kits have pre-cut laser pieces, and all you have to is sew them when your receive them in the mail.  I can't afford to participate anymore, but I have a couple that I can finish and say that at some point I did get to participate.

I will post all the blocks as soon as I have finished the last five blocks.

This is what keeps me from getting so bored, I do several projects at once.  This year will be a year of finishing what I have started, and putting closure on the past!

Warmest...