Farmer's Wife

no 26 - Cut Glass Dish

no 54 Kitchen Woodbox

In the course of my blog hopping, I came across someone who was working with the book The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt to do a weekly quilt-a-long to make up the sampler quilt (this is a project on a scale with the Dear Jane quilt - lots of blocks, all different). This really appealed to me as a project (because I need more projects!) although unlike some of the people doing it, I don't know that I am going to try to do 2 blocks per week. For one thing, the book uses templates for the blocks, and I'm not a template kind of girl, so many of them will have to be redrawn or worked out mathematically to make them compatible with rotary cutting or paper piecing.

The blocks are 6" finished, and I have decided to do them in whatever fabric takes my fancy - I am not going to make a concerted effort to use up scraps, I am just going to browse my stash and use what I feel like using. I will, however, not buy any fabric for this project at all (except if I need more background - I am using plain, unbleached calico for the backgrounds - it's easier that way). If I happen to buy fabric for other reasons, I might use it for this, but nothing bought specially. I'm not going to worry if the fabrics "go together" from block to block (though I will try to ensure they work within the context of a single block), as they will probably be sashed anyway. In other words, a true sampler quilt.

I've also decided that I am simply going to work my way through the book in order - which actually, doesn't necessarily mean block order as the blocks are linked to a series of letters written by farmer's wives to The Farmer's Wife magazine back in 1922.

So, the first two blocks are done - no 26 Cut Glass Dish and no 54 Kitchen Woodbox. I tried to have a go at no 24 Country Path without redrafting it, but couldn't quite get the measurements right in my head, so have now redrafted it in EQ5 and put it upstairs to work on next. I know this is a big project and will take a long time to finish (I am aiming to complete at least 5 blocks per month) but I am hoping it will fill some of those gaps when I want to just sit and make a block. And who knows, it might involve a tiny bit of stash reduction as well - or more importantly, give me a chance to use some of the fabrics I buy a FQ of just beacause I like them and they are on sale, but then never do anything with!

There is also a flickr group for the project, which I might hang out with a little, just to see what others are doing, but all my deadlines for the project are going to be self-imposed - it's just something for fun.