Farmer's Wife Quilt - Update 1

It's been a while since I updated the status of this project.  My original post is dated 2/10/2015 so maybe "a while" is a relative term.  I did choose the accurate title for that post - "My Intentional UFO" - it still holds true today!  You can see that post here.

I decided that in 2018 I was ready for a project that I could work on for an extended period of time as my schedule allowed, and had no deadlines or pressure to finish.  I wanted something that I would enjoy doing and that would teach me new quilting techniques or refresh ones I had not done in a while.  The project chosen in 2015 was still a good choice in 2018.  As indicated in my original post, I already purchased the book for The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt and started choosing blocks and fabrics that I would use so I just picked up from where that project left off.

I did decide against using the 30s fabrics as originally chosen though.  I eventually chose the "Simply Harvest" line of fabrics by Marcus fabrics.  I will also use some Moda Marble solids with this fabrics to add a bit of variety since there are 111 blocks in this project.

My original post may have mentioned that I joined a Face Book page called Farmer's Wife Quilt Revival Class 2018. It was started by Karen Walker.  The purpose of the page is to provide a way to make this sampler quilt using rotary cutter techniques.  It has been a wealth of information, support and inspiration.  Karen has created 12 classes for this sampler quilt which explain a variety of techniques to make the blocks.  The classes are available for purchase and I have found them extremely helpful.  

So, I have completed 8 blocks so far.  I am a bit off my original schedule of 2 blocks per week but I had several projects to complete and my blog was getting a much needed makeover!  I didn't want to add anything to the older blog while it was undergoing the revisions.  My new blog now has a separate page where I can list all the blocks and the order in which I will hope to make them.  You can see this new page in my navigation bar.  Here are my first 8 blocks.

 

Taking pictures really helps to point out mistakes!  My broken dishes block had an oops in the bottom left corner!  I quickly fixed this before it was sewn together!   

 Now, it's ready to sew!  I love the design boards that I used to move my blocks from cutting board to sewing machine to ironing board.  I learned to make these from a tutorial I saw on the Fat Quarter Shop YouTube page. They are very easy to make and make the blocks in progress very portable!  

I hope to have several blocks cut in the next 2 weeks.  Watch for the next update!  

My Intentional UFO!

I am trying to balance my time between large projects like bed quilts, finishing up several lots of UFOs, and starting a new project.  I think I probably share this problem with many others.  I have joined several quilting groups on Facebook and have started a BOM on one of them.  I have never done a BOM before and so far I am enjoying this one.  All the fabrics have been selected and the January block is complete.  The pattern for the February block has been printed and reviewed and will be done next week when I know I will have some extra free time.  I also participated in a challenge from this group to use up 2.5 squares.  I originally completed one 6x6 square block and thought I was done when I found out that the challenge was to complete at least a baby quilt size from the scraps.  This meant cutting 432 squares from my stash.  I did end up cutting all the squares, assigning them to a block (I have never been able to just pull a block from a bag)  and sewing 6 of the 12 blocks.  I finally realized that this was more than I wanted to do because I had so many other irons in the fire that needed my attention and I had no current need for this particular quilt.  So, the challenge was put aside for now.  It will be finished within a few weeks however. 

So, after much deliberation, I have decided to do a Farmer's Wife sampler quilt.  I was intrigued with this quilt since it is made from 6.5 inch blocks and the pattern has 111 blocks.  Some I have made already, but most I have not attempted.  I like the idea of trying new blocks.  I think this keeps the excitement in the project, especially since this will most likely end up being a queen size quilt.  The blocks are inspired by the letters written by farm wives to respond to a question posted by a newspaper in 1920 which wanted to know if mothers wanted their daughters to marry a farmer.  The letters were reviewed and several winners were chosen.  The cash prizes ranged from $200 to $1. 

The book "The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt" book was authored by Laurie Aaron Hird who was inspired by the letters received.  She then selected 111 blocks which were inspired by the letters.  These include Broken Dishes, Broken Sugar Bowl, Steps to the Alter, Farmer's Puzzle and many more. 

 

Now that I have decided on the project, the next hurdle was to choose the fabrics.  I am on a stash reduction path right now so I wasn't planning on buying new fabric for this project.  But I also wanted to use a coordinated pallet of fabrics.  Then I remembered that I had quite a collection of 1930s fabric fat quarters.  I have 42 FQs of the Storybook Classics collection from Windham Fabrics and 33 other FQs that were collected over the years. 

 

 

I think these will do very nicely! 

 

My next step was to choose the blocks I wanted to make first.  I needed a selection method.  Do I make them in the order they are in the book, by name, by number, by number of pieces?  And the winner is....drum roll please.....by number of colors per block!  I went through the book and selected all the blocks that used two colors regardless of number of pieces.  You can see all the yellow page markers in the photo of the book above. 

I think this will give me a nice variety of starter blocks. 

 

The book contains a CD with all the templates needed to make the blocks.  It's been a while since I used templates so this will be an interesting part of this project.  My next step is to review the CD and determine which templates are needed first.  I may attempt to find some alternate cutting options since 6.5" blocks are pretty common and many of these blocks have been around for a while. 

 

There is no definite schedule for completing this project.  I am hoping to make 2 blocks per week, but this is not carved in stone.  My target month for my first block is March.  We'll see how that goes first but I think that is very possible "God willing and the creek don't rise!"