Farmers Wife Quilt Blocks # 5 - 8

Farmers Wife Quilt Blocks # 5 - 8

This week I've been making progress on my Farmers Wife Quilt. I'm aiming to make 4 blocks in a session.

All started off well.

Farmers Wife Quilt Block # 5 Bat Wing

Block # 5 worked out just fine. I used the templates provided, but I decided I don't like them all that much and decided this would have been much easier if I'd just made two flying geese in the usual way and then added the other components.

Farmers Wife Quilt Block #6 Big Dipper

So for block # 6 I didn't use the templates, I just made 4 quarter square triangle blocks. My decision to press all seams open in this quilt seems to be paying off too.

The back of my work doesn't often look this neat. At this stage I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself!

Farmers Wife Quilt Block # 7 Birds In The Air

Aah! When I turned the page and saw what # 7 was I started to make excuses to myself. I've always been in awe of this block and my resolution to make all the blocks in order nearly flew right out the window. I started telling myself  "I haven't got time to make this one now" and "the light isn't good enough". Anyway, after a stern talking to, I did make the block.

I dispensed with the templates and made 12 teeny, tiny 1"(finished) half square triangle blocks.

I starched the fabric well, made them oversized and trimmed them. These looked so cute!

I assembled the 4 sections and was just about to sew them together when I noticed I had done this to one of them!

What on earth happened here I shall never know, but at least I spotted it before I sewed the sections together. 

Then it was time for block # 8. It didn't look too difficult, I ploughed on….

…..except, what on earth happened to the points on the flower? There was no seam allowance left, so they would be totally truncated when I joined the blocks together. I couldn't understand what I'd done wrong. I was tempted to leave it at is was. I was getting pretty tired of it at this point and wasn't sure that a second attempt would be any better than the first. I walked away and had a cup of tea. tea makes everything better, don't you think?

In the end I decided to paper piece this block.

i drew out the layout at the correct scale.

Then I photocopied it several times and cut it up into sections.

The paper piecing worked a lot better, although it was very time consuming in preparation time.

Farmers Wife Quilt Block # 8 Bouquet

Although I was totally fed up with all things Farmers Wife by the time I'd finished it, I actually like this version of the block, with a patterned background, much more than my first attempt.

So 8 blocks now complete, and put together, they look like this:

Linking up with Work in Progress Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

A Few Works in Progress

I have quite a few works in progress at the moment. I'm a bit of a butterfly, happily flitting from one to another. Sometime you just don't feel like working on the thing you really should be working on, so it's nice to have a lot of choices.

This week I went back to my Farmer's Wife quilt. I started it about a year ago, but didn't get very far.

At the time I chose some Liberty fabrics, but I didn't get very far. 

I wasn't comfortable with the palette, and I couldn't see it being a quilt that would go with any of my rooms. It would end up as a car or garden quilt, so I decided to start over.

This time round I'm using a Moda layer cake - 30s Playtime Chloe's Closet, plus any scraps from my stash that happen to go well. I'm also using plenty of solids , as I think too many prints was part of the problem last time. I've chosen a spring green, navy, red and snow for the solids. Others may be added as needed.

Two other changes I'm making - I'm pressing all my seams open. Some of these blocks have a lot of tiny pieces, so I'm going for consistency and pressing all the seams the same way.

I'm also working consistently through the block numbers. No skipping ones that I don't fancy that day allowed!!

So here we have:

Block #1 Attic Windows

Block #2 Autumn Tints

Block #3 Basket

 The handle of the basket is hand appliquéd on afterwards. I love sitting quietly in the evening doing a little hand sewing. I must do more of it!! The strip was cut on the bias, folded under and then curved into position. It was a pretty tight curve and it didn't look as though it was going to co-operate. Then I remembered a tip that was stored somewhere in the dark recess of my mind - spritz it with water! I did, and it just sort of fell into place. I pressed it firmly until it was dry, and hey presto! the basket has a handle.

Block #4 Basket Weave

4 blocks down, 107 to go !!

I've also been working on my Economy Block quilt.

Adding a side border...

And another...

And a third

It's a finished quilt top now. 60" x 64"and I love it far, far more than I ever thought I would.

It will be stored away for a while, as I'm going to put myself through a sort of marathon free motion quilting practice on some scrap blocks. And when I think I'm good and ready, it will get quilted. This was going to be a charity quilt, but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to part with it!

Linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

How Do You Eat an Elephant?

How do you eat an elephant? The answer is one mouthful at a time, and this has to be my mantra for the next week, month, or more.
I have returned from a wonderful holiday with my family in Cornwall. We had glorious weather and a great time.

We feasted on fresh locally caught fish at idyllic pubs. We sampled the local saffron bread. (I have acquired a recipe, and can't wait to try and re-create it) and relaxed on the wonderful beaches.
If you're wondering why we made a sand turtle, not a sandcastle, it's a Canadian thing apparently - it was a first for me, and just as much fun as a castle!

We were staying on the Lizard and the beaches and scenery were breathtaking. Top left is Lizard Point, the next two are Kynance Cove and the bottom right is Hendra beach. It never ceases to amaze me that if you are just prepared to walk a little way, you can virtually have a beach to yourselves. We swam and fished and generally relaxed, enjoying precious moments of family togetherness.

The villages were so pretty and I love the aqua, red and white splashes of colour in the harbours. And a boat as a flower tub?? I don't think it would have quite the same effect in the Midlands!

So now I'm back home, and my son and daughter-in-law have gone back to Canada. I have a love-hate relationship with airports. They're exciting, bubbly places if I'm there to meet them off an incoming flight, but places of tears and heartache if I'm saying goodbye, especially when I don't know when I'll see them again. But life has to go on, and at least in this day and age we have Skype  and FaceTime, so I should count my blessings.

Inevitably thoughts now turn to tasks that need to be done and works in progress that need to be progressed and that's where the elephant comes in:
I have soooooo many projects to finish, and even more in my head, jostling for first place on the starting line.
I have my Greenfields knitting projects to do....and I'm way behind with those. By my calculation we are 33 weeks into the year, so I should have 33 completed baby items.......I only have 29 and enthusiasm is waning.

Not the enthusiasm for the knitting, just for the yarn that I'm using. I'm left with drab or odd colours that don't make good baby clothes. The point of the exercise is to use up my stash, so I can't justify buying some really cheerful colours to add to it, well, not yet, anyway. I may have to if the finished items start to look really awful!
I have my Swoon quilt to complete - now I don't need any encouragement to work on this, just time.

I need to do a lot more work on my Farmer's Wife quilt. This is supposed to be a quiet moments project, not a "must get done" type, but it keeps getting pushed to the back of the pile.

I have the Rows Quilt Along from Bee in My Bonnet to finish that I started about this time last year, and haven't done any more to since. Ooops!!

I have at least 4 new knitting patterns at various stages of completion for the Etsy and Craftsy shops, and I need to get these done!! Some are so ridiculously close to being finished, I don't know why I haven't done them ages ago.

I have so many ideas for quilty things in my head that it's fit to burst, but I can't start them until I have completed a few of the WIPs, and finally (saving the best till last here) I have a ton of baby knitting, baby sewing and nursery sewing that I want to do because I recently heard that one of my nieces is expecting a baby in February!!! I shall be a great aunt! Yikes, that makes me feel so old!!! My niece is a great photographer too, so maybe, just maybe I shall have a new little model for some of my patterns as well.
I've told myself I can't start any happy, exciting, super special baby projects until some of the WIPs are completed, so in order to stop myself rushing frantically from one half finished project to another, picking them up, putting them down, and generally being in too much of a tizz to finish anything, I have to adopt the "one bite of the elephant at a time" policy and go steadily and methodically through the backlog,  and see if I can get caught up enough to unleash some of the new project ideas buzzing around in my head.
At least it means I don't have too much time to miss my family!
If you have any techniques to help get you through the unfinished projects in your life, please share them with me.

Farmers Wife Quilt

My Farmers Wife quilt is growing!
I managed another two blocks over the weekend.I think I picked just about the most complicated blocks in the book! Or maybe I've just got to step up, as I think there may be quite a few like this.
These pieces are so tiny!

That block on the bottom right of the top picture nearly got the better of me.

There are 33 individual pieces in one 6" block and you have to be so accurate - which you can see from the photo, I'm not :(
The un-picker tool got a lot of use this weekend!
Despite the challenges, the tiny pieces look really sweet, especially when chained pieced like these - almost miniature bunting.....

 

The blocks I completed this weekend were numbers 53 and 64

and here is an excert from the letter that goes with them saying why the author would be pleased if her daughter should marry a farmer.

"Nothing ever compels so sweet and deep a response in a women's heart as does strength. I hope my daughter's husband, strong with the sun-browned strength of a farmer, clean minded, true, may inspire in her the kind of love that will dare any obstacle."

I guess these days with modern machinery, it's not strength that the farmer needs, so much as determination - and in the UK, you're not going to get many sun-browned farmers, just wind browned ones maybe. The letters are providing interesting reading though.

I said on Friday that I hoped to spend some time gardening, and as Saturday was a glorious day, I spent the whole day in the garden.

I had a small plan to try and gradually raised the level of the lawn at the bottom of the garden as it flooded a lot over the winter and I lost a lot of plants. My son offered to help, and before we knew it the small plan had become a big one with levelling (we used a spirit level!!) and raising of the border, taking out plants, and ordering turfs.

Hopefully we can get the turfs down next weekend as it looks a bit bare at the moment, but I'm sure it will look great in a couple of months time.

Finally, it's Earth Day today, and as I'm sure you know if you've been reading my blog for any length of time, I love organic cotton, so if you are starting a new project, consider using organic and do your bit to help this earth of ours :)

 

I'm linking up with "Let's Get Acquainted Monday"  which is over on the  Quiet Play blog this week

 

Wishful Wednesday

My goodness, how quickly Wednesday has come round again. I've been busy in the garden (finally, Spring seems to be here!), seeing friends, doing jobs and suddenly here we are again!
The blanket above has to be the most colourful item for Wishful Wednesday yet.
It is from Elizabeth at  Another Vegetarian and is knit in Stylecraft DK yarn. My crochet skills are pretty basic so this would be a great skill-builder, if only I had the time!

picture from A Quilters Table blog

Second up on my list is a fabric version of the time homoured memory game. My kids loved playing this game, but we didn't have a bought version or a fabric version. I just sent them off running round the house to bring me 10 things that would fit under a tea towel (I was usually trying to cook dinner when we played this!) We then laid the items out, they tried to remember them, covered them up with a tea towel and I sneakily took one away. They then took the tea towel off and had to try and remember which one had gone. Aww, fun times, good memories!

The other version you can play is where you lay all the cards face down, pick up two at a time until you can remember where the pairs are. When you turn up a pair, you get to take the cards, and the one with the most cards at the end wins.Either game can be played with the sewn version, and all the cards fit nicely into the pouch. The fabric to make the cards and the pouch is available on Spoonflower and the tutorial for making the game is here.

 

 

Third is a knitted shawl or wrap. I'm not really a shawl person. I like the idea of knitting them more than I do the wearing of them, but I could certainly see myself wearing this on a summer's evening. It is a free pattern and the link can be found on Ravelry

 



 

Finally, no wishing for the quilting project ..... Actual commencement! My Farmer's Quilt book arrived, and I've downloaded and cut out the templates. Eeek! Some of these are so tiny!!!

Hopefully by Friday I'll have a couple of finished blocks to show you.

An amusing thought has occurred to me... This is a Farmer's Wife quilt. It's going to be made out of Liberty fabrics.... could I name it "Taking Liberties with the Farmer's Wife"? Hmmm, perhaps not!