Tuesday 13 October 2015

The Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt - Week 1


I suppose by now you've all heard about The Farmer's Wife 1930's Sew Along that Fat Quarter Shop and Angie (Gnome Angel) are hosting? Of course you have, everyone knows about it, it's all over social media ;0)  The sew along is based on the book "The Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt - Inspiring letters from farm women of the Great Depression and 99 quilt blocks that honor them" by Laurie Aaron Hird.

Well yes, I have decided to sew along.  I have had intentions of making a paper pieced quilt made up of small quilt blocks for a while now but just hadn't had the time (I have been collecting patterns from another source but I will start this another time). When I saw this sew along start up I thought this will do, it's only 2 blocks per week over 12-months and no doubt with the masses of people sewing along I will be motivated to keep up. 

I ordered my book thankfully before the publishers ran out of copies, and it sat on my coffee table untouched for weeks until the sew along began late September - I still haven't had a chance to read it yet, but I have printed off my paper piecing templates from the CD Rom, yep - all 99 blocks:

The book and my 99 paper piecing templates
I had big intentions of making my version of the quilt using a combination of Bonnie & Camille fabrics, or the new Bloom & Bliss range by Riley Blake Designs, but the budget just wouldn't stretch that far.  Instead I decided to "Sew my Stash" and went rummaging though my fabric stash.  I have a large selection of black & white prints which I had been saving for another idea (which is still floating around in the vast abyss in my head), so I decided to go through them and to separate them into a "black" pile and a "white" pile.  I also had a fat quarter bundle of teal homespun solids which I had purchased from Spotlight.  And thus my theme was born - I am going to make MY VERSION of the "Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt" a scrappy monochrome version with a pop of teal.

My Fat Quarter bundle of Teal Homespun Solids from Spotlight
my "blacks"
my "whites"
Week One kicked off on the 28th of September.  The first week we had 3-blocks to sew, and they were all rather quick and easy to piece together.  Although I am displaying my block photos like this, they will be set "on point" in the final quilt layout:

Block 16. Bonnie
Block 12. Becky
Block 8. Aunt

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