Farmer's Wife Revisited

Thankfully, the basket of Kansas Troubles fabric is not a full sized laundry, but still! My guess is that there is enough for at least 10 quilt tops and some of those would have backings. That's shameful! But I had fun buying it, but now, to get it used up! I also found three patterns in the basket. I don't have time to start a new project, so all the excess went into the basket and back on the shelf. 

Look what I found when I went shopping for the border and backing fabric for Farm'ers Wife. 

Three brand new jelly rolls

OH -- and one charm pack. HEY -- it was on sale -- I NEEDED to rescue that. 

One charm pack

But this is what I pulled to finish my Farmer's Wife quilt. The rust one will be the backing, the tan is the inner border (if I decided to add one - there isn't one in the pattern, but I'm more concerned about the final size) and the green will be the outer border and the binding. 

Backing and border fabric for Farmer's Wife

I did NOT get any more done on the quilt as I was busy with something else, which I'll share in a bit. 

But someone enquired about making the quilt and how easy it is. Hmm--- Easy? This quilt is NOT easy. 

This is what all the patterns look like in the book. A diagram and on the left-hand side are the template shapes that you need to cut. It's basically been set up as if you were hand piecing it and were going to cut ALL shapes, including squares with a template and scissors. 

An example of an EASY pattern in the book

There's a CD in the book where you can download all the templates and cut them out. Obviously, you will use many of the templates over and over again, as you work your way through the blocks. 

But look at some of them -- tons of template per block and those seams? Not fun! But our group did it and I don't know how many finished, but I do know that some people did. 

A not so fun block to make

ACK -- look at those seams!!!!

Another crazy block

OH MY GOSH -- I was trying to find the final class show and tell for this quilt and I stumbled on this blog post from September 29, 2018. Have a quick peek and see what two quilts I was working on that day. It's hilarious and you'll see why in a second. 

Some else asked if there was another set of duplicate blocks in the quilt. Well, yes and no. This block is called Broken Dishes and only used two colors. This is the picture from the book. 

The Broken Dishes block

Here's the diagram from the book. 

Diagram in the book

And this block is called Old Windmill. Same piecing, it's just done with different colors! I guess there are only so many block variations and then they just started to recolor them to get a new block!

Old Windmill block from the book

Diagram of Old Windmill

If anyone is contemplating making this quilt, I would STRONGLY suggest that you go the Marti Michelle route. Of course, she did it to promote and sell her templates, but they sure made quick work of cutting the blocks. 

The Marti Michelle method of piecing Farmer's Wife

And every month, we used a chart that told us which templates were to be used for which blocks. That was super easy. There were only a handful of blocks that needed to be cut with a paper template. But you need Template Sets A, B, C, D, N, and S (I think it's S). 

The Marti Michelle template cutting sheets

There was even a template for the setting triangles and setting corners, but you do not need a template for those. 

A template for the corner triangle

OK -- so back to September 29, 2018. Did you see the other quilt I was working on? Yep -- that would be my machine embroidery applique Hallowween quilt. Guess what I was quilting yesterday? 

My machine embroidery applique Halloween quilt!

That's the Halloween quilt! Gosh -- when I go back and look at my blog -- I see so many quilts that I was working on and now those quilts are on my UFO lists. I just could NOT get myself to finish anything. Now why is that? But I'm trying to be really good --- I MUST get things completed. 

A lot of people have been curious how I was going to quilt the Halloween quilt. It's very stiff with all the stabilizer in it, including a layer of battilizer. The border has no stabilizer in it. 

I decided to stick in the ditch around each row. There are five blocks in each row and I contemplated stitching in the ditch around all the blocks, but then decided there was already too much definition in those vertical seams between the blocks. I also stitched in the ditch around all the sashings and corner stones. 

Next, I loaded a thin grey thread and stitched in the ditch (more or less) around the main shapes in the grey section of each row. It fits loosely around the shapes and I managed to make one sweep across each row. Then I loaded orange thread and did the same across the top part of each row.  

In the ditch quilting around the applique

I have one more orange pass to make this morning (it's intense to do, my hand kept cramping up!) and then I'm going to add a bit of stitching in the sashing and then I get the fun of trying to do that border with the computer!! I really need to get it off the machine today, so that's the focus of the day. 

I think it would be very hard to do this on a domestic machine because of the stiffness of the quilt. 

But I finished that audiobook -- One Second After, by William R. Forstchen. It's a frightening book, it's sad, so many morals, ethics. I don't recommend reading it. I mean I do, but it's INTENSE and it's very disturbing. But it kept me focused on the quilting. 

Trust me -- I have a much lighter book lined up to listen to next. MUCH lighter. 

Our little group of four is fast approaching our final destination on our virtual walk across Canada. We are at 90% and there are 13 teams in front of us. Something like that. We've made amazing progress. But look at the terrain. We are definitely above the tree line? or are there just no trees where we are? We're getting close to the border of Quebec and Labrador. 

That is NOT a very nicely paed road! But better than some that I've seen. 

On the road to Labrador

On that note, I'm out of here! More paperwork to get accomplished this morning. I was very productive yesterday morning and I hope to repeat that!

Then back to the long arm, where there will be some intense learning and math going on! 

Oh, someone is very happy that their bear is no longer trapped in the snow and ice on the deck. I had to give the bear a wee pull to free it. 

Murphy and her outdoor bear

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!