Farmer's Wife 1930s QAL

I'll be recording all the posts for The Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt by Laurie Aaron Hird starting September 2015.  There will be a couple of introductory posts about fabric choice, colours etc and the block posts start with blocks one and two on September 14th and will continue every Monday for around a year until they are all complete!   I will post one block each Monday and there will be a series of guest bloggers posting the second block each week.

You can read a review of the book here.

You can find quilt along buttons here.

You will need a copy of the new 1930s Farmer's Wife book.  This has a different block selection to the previous 1920s Farmer's Wife book and The Pony Club .  It also includes foundation paper piecing patterns on CD as well as templates for all blocks and rotary cutting measurements where applicable. book.   Local book shops and the usual online book sources and Book Depository posts worldwide. 


Farmer's Wife Technique Posts: Foundation paper piecing, cutting diagonals
Farmer's Wife Technique Posts: English paper piecing 
Farmer's Wife Technique Posts: Hand piecing with templates 
Farmer's Wife Technique Posts: More Hand piecing with templates 
Farmer's Wife Technique Post: Y seams

Blocks
Blocks 67 & 68 Mrs Brown and Mrs Fay: guest blogger Charise
Blocks 69 & 70 Mrs Keller and Mrs Lloyd: guest blogger Melinda
Blocks 71 & 72 Mrs Morgan and Mrs Smith: guest blogger Hannah
Blocks 73 &  74 Mrs Taft and Mrs Thomas : guest blogger Chase

Break: Thoughts so Far on Fabric Choices

Blocks 75 & 76 Nan and Nancy: guest blogger Jo Greene
Blocks 77 and 78 Nellie and Old Maid: guest blogger Justine
Blocks 79 and 80 Patience and Patricia: guest blogger Ayumi
Blocks 81 and 82  Peony and Pharlemia: guest blogger Jo Avery
Blocks 83 and 84 Poppy and Posy: guest blogger Sarah
Blocks 85 and 86 Primrose and Priscilla: guest blogger Jo Greene
Blocks 87 and 88 Prudence and Rosemary: guest blogger Charise
Blocks 89 and 90 Ruby and Sara: guest blogger Jo Avery
Blocks 91 and 92 Sarah and Sonnie: guest blogger Justine
Blocks 93 and 94 Starlight and Susannah:guest blogger Fiona
Blocks 95 and 96 Sylvia and Tirzah: guest blogger Charise
Blocks 97 and 98 Tracy and Viola: guest blogger Jo Greene
Block 99 Widow: Kerry
Finished Quilt!










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36 comments:

  1. Hi. I'd like to join in on the fun. I've ordered the book. I have looked at the Fat Quarter Shop QA also but prefer to not have to buy lots of new rulers. Thanks for doing this.

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  2. You are welcome BarbEllen. I've already made quite a few blocks and you definitely don't need any extra rulers. I've been using my 61/2" square one!

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  3. Will you/ have you paper pieced your blocks?

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    1. Hi Iris, yes I plan to paper piece most or all of the blocks and you can see some of my paper pieced blocks in the book review.

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  4. I am going to get the book after having a look, but am a bit concerned it may be a bit beyond my basic skills but until I give it a go I just won't know!

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  5. Hi Heli, there are some complex blocks, there's no denying! But, I and the guest bloggers will help where we can. Different construction methods can do a lot to help too!

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  6. My book arrived today. I can't wait to get started. This is going to be good fun. I am going to be away from the end of September until early October, but I can play catch up, I'm sure. I have loads of 30's prints, but I also have accumulated quite a lot of some delicious Cotton and Steel prints. I am going to have to make some tough choices. I'd love to know what others are using.

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  7. I just got my book and I am ready! Thank you soooooo much!

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  8. I have my book and can't wait for the fun to begin!!
    Susie

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  9. I'm thinking about joining the QA. I missed out on the 20s Farmer's Wife QA. I was so excited when I read Laurie was writing another book from the 30s, which is my favorite era. I love English Paper Piecing and am wondering if this quilt could be pieced using this method (I've not purchased the book yet). Is anyone else going to EPP it? Am I crazy to even try? ;)

    Thank you for doing this. :)

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  10. Hi Susan, funny you should mention that but Jo Avery from My Bear Paw is one of the guest bloggers and she tested a block and used EPP to piece it, the foundation piecing templates on the CD were her pattern pieces http://www.mybearpaw.com/2015/08/farmers-wife-1930-qal.html#.Vcj5UktXARI

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  11. what a shame would have liked to do this but I have the wrong book, mine is The farmer`s wife sampler quilt no 1920`s in the title but below says letters from the 1920`s farmers wives and the 111 blocks they inspired

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  12. Hi Margaret, there are still all the original Farmer's Wife Quilt along posts for the first book online. The big advantage with the new 1930s book for me is the foundation paper pieced patterns, plus there are some great traditional blocks in there that I haven't seen before.

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  13. It will be a busy year. Are you using the 8 fabrics shown?

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  14. I have the book and can't wait to get going but please please can you suggest a suitable source for 1930's fabric. I would like to "keep it real". Thanks.

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    1. Hi Mairi

      I don't know where you are based, I buy most of my fabric in the UK and I am assuming you mean 1930s repro, not genuine vintage 1930s prints! I buy my repros at Prettyfabricsamdtrims.co.uk and sewandquilt.co.uk Both stores have a mix of 1930s repros as well as modern pretty floral interpretations. Tikki Patchwork is also a good source. For USA, Connecting Threads usually have a 1930s repro range- there is one which I think is exclusive to them called 'Line Dried' which is lovely! I hope that helps.

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  15. Really appreciated your help Kerry, orders placed, excitement building!

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  16. I think this would be great fun, I will look in to getting a book right away.

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  17. Apologies to All About Andrea whose comment I accidentally deleted. She asked, 'What if you've never paper pieced?'
    You don't have to paper piece, the blocks can be cut with a mix of templates and some rotary cutting and either machine or hand sewn. Some of the blocks are v challenging with a lot of little pieces. There are a lot of paper piecing tutorials- I have a page with links- then if you wanted to try the technique first and see if it works for you there's lots of tutorials to choose from.

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  18. eeep really trying hard not to join but its sounding so awesome !!

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  19. I'm in! I'm in! So excited. This is my first quilt along! I've got Bonnie and Camille's Hello Darling and plenty of scraps.

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  20. I'm in too! I've got the book and I'm trying to decide what method I'll use, as I'll be away for the first two weeks. I've got some 30s repros, some Lecian tidbits, and a few vintage bits from my grandmother. I just can't decide whether to put them in a big quilt (swirled in with lots of other stuff) or use them in their own mini. Ah, decisions! Looking forward to the fun, thanks Kerry!

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  21. FYI, block #15 Blossom has an inaccurate template for the small triangles so you need to print out the block diagram from the cd and make your own template from that.

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    1. Hi Shelley, thankyou, that errata is already noted in the templates section of the errata page.

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  22. Hi Think this is a brilliant idea. Love doing EPP. This is my first quilt along. My sister Jo Avery showed me her book when I was staying with her at end of August. Have already started, out of sequence, but will start at the beginning and join in.

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  23. We are really enjoying this quilt along but concerned we cannot keep up with the two weekly blocks. Hope we do not get so far behind we give up.

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    1. It was a tough one when I picked the pace of the quilt along but I didn't want it to go beyond a year. All the posts will be there to look back on if you miss the odd one and there are a few weeks off- e.g. for Christmas.

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  24. It's official, confirmed by Jo Avery today, my templates are not printing at the correct size! Before I contact the publisher is anyone else getting 6" rather than 6.5" blocks?

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  25. Check the printer settings. I know that if I download a .pdf free pattern I have to open up Adobe to be able to have it print correctly. I just received my book, found this Blog, and have not printed out anything yet. I hate it when a Designer has issues with patterns! Hope this helps.

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  26. I ordered the starter kit from the US store and also ordered a lot of fat quarters from Calico Annies in the US. Hope I can get this one started soon. Had to wait for the book, now the fabric.
    I will be following you on this project and have put the button on my Blog - doitrightquilter.wordpress.com Nanette

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  27. This a well executed quilt along Kerry. I love the fact that I can download the examples that your Bloggers are doing. I am just starting, so now I will have easy reference for when I am working on my blocks thank you for the hard work - that means the Bloggers also!

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  28. Thank you for hosting such a helpful QAL. The hints and tips and all the extra information is fantastic and seeing everyone's blocks is such an inspiration.
    I have just completed the first four blocks using the foundation piecing templates on the disc.each block measures exactly 6 inches, meaning when they are set in the quilt they will only measure 5,5 inches. Should the completed blocks measure 6.5 inchesp so the finished size in the quilt is 6 inches? I really want to make sure they are the correct size before continuing to make more.
    Thanks for any help and advice on this
    Donna

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    1. Hi Donna, blocks are 6" finished. Check you are printing at 100% and not scaled down. Some of my blocks are slightly smaller- losing size through piecing sections together with generous instead of scant seams. Maybe add a border to the small blocks?

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  29. How careful are you about grain line when pre cutting fabric bits for foundation piecing? The book I have makes it seem like pieces can be cut and sewn randomly because the paper stabilizes everything. Do you use templates with extra wide seam allowances to cut your pieces, or big rectangles for everything that get trimmed down after each seam is sewn? I tried to find a post or tutorial that talks about how you cut diamonds, triangles, and other odd shaped pieces? I want to learn how you do it because your piecing is so beautifully precise and you're able to place patterns exactly how you want them. Other methods I read about don't seem to allow you to fussy cut and feature a fabric print so carefully.

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    1. Hi Rebecca

      Great question! I’ve answered it in the next Farmer’s Wife post for Monday- blocks 43 and 44. But in short, yes, I do try and stick to grianline and I do use templates where shapes are not squares/rectangles or HSTs. I pre-cut all the fabric and my seam allowances are around 3/8” before trimming so the wastage is quite minimal. Fussy cutting is hard in foundation work but freezer paper helps again for this too.

      Kerry x

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  30. Love it! Thank you so much for sharing this one really well defined all peaceful info,
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