I have been making Farmer's Wife blocks for awhile now, and nearly every Friday, my friend, Carla, and I have a series called Farmer's Wife Friday. We have been sequentially following the letters in Laurie Aaron Hird's book, each making the blocks associated with the letters, along with sharing our thoughts on what the farmer's wife had to say in her letter.
Carla is doing all her blocks in very cheery prints, while I have been making mine out of Kaffe Fassett shot cottons, so while we are making identical blocks each week, they have a totally different look. To this point, I think we have made 74 out of the 111 blocks in the book.
Way back toward the beginning of our series, one of the first blocks we made was #58, Mother's Dream (see Carla's block here). Because I have been making blocks out of solids, I try to base my color choice on either the name of the block or something pulled out of the letter. So I based the colors on what my dream might be if I were a hard-working farmer's wife and mother--I would want to take a vacation at the ocean. I chose two shades of aqua/turquoise and a sandy-beach color.
My first thought when I looked at this block was, "There is no way I need to make templates to construct this block. It is just a square in the middle, then easy peasy rectangles, along with some triangles." I thought I had the correct measurements for each of the pieces and started cutting. It is a fairly straightforward and easy block to construct.
However, when all was said and done, my block was too large. Which meant when I get to the point of putting the quilt top together, all the points of the rectangles will be chopped off by the 1/4" seam. On to Phase 2, actually cutting out the plastic templates and making the block again.
But I loved the colors in the original block and couldn't quite bear to throw it out. But what to do, what to do?
Then Sunni contacted me about this series. I thought about it, and had a "lightbulb" moment.
This post won't give you a tutorial as such. It is basically just a little inspiration to help you reinvent rather than discard, if a block you make doesn't turn out quite the way it should.
(This is the second block I made--these corners won't get cut off!)
My pillow top ended up like this:
There are many pillow construction techniques when it comes to closures. I chose the easiest, using this tutorial.
I'm really happy with the end result. And it doesn't bother me one bit that the rectangle corners were lost in the construction process.There are so many variations on what you can do when something like this happens. So next time something doesn't turn out quite right, don't discard. Reinvent!
If you are new to the series, be sure to check out the posts from Week 1.
Blog Hop Week 1
March 4-Sunni is guest-posting on Jolly Jabber
March 5-Love Affair with my Brother
March 6-Craizee Corners
March 7-Lilypad Quilting
March 8-Love Affair with my Brother
March 9-Clover & Violet
Blog Hop Week 2
March 12-Mommy for Reals
March 13-A Colorful Life
March 14-It's Sew Kiki
March 15-Lilypad Quilting
March 16-Why Not Sew? Quilts
Blog Hop Week 3
March 19-Love Affair with my Brother
March 20-Echinops & Aster
March 21-Life's Rich Pattern
March 22-Ellison Lane Quilts
March 23-Love Affair with my Brother
At the end of the series, Sunni will host a special link party for projects you have made inspired by the FW. Guest judges will name the winners and there will be some awesome prizes!!
Linky Party
Linky Party will be open from March 24-31 with 2 winners announced the next week. You can link up any project that is inspired by The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt and uses between 1-9 6" finished quilt blocks. The blocks do not have to come from the book.
Please link up a blog post or Flickr photo for your entry.
Judges
Laurie Aaron Hird, author of The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt
Michele Foster, Quilting Gallery
Sunni Bolger, Love Affair with my Brother
Prizes
The Intrepid Thread is sponsoring a FQ bundle of the amazing Cosmos by Dan Bennett for Rowan.
Fat Quarter Shop is sponsoring a FQ Bundle of gorgeous Poetica by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics.
12 comments:
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M-R Charbonneau
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March 13, 2012 at 5:37 AM
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Carla
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March 13, 2012 at 7:06 AM
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Terriaw
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Erin @ Why Not Sew? Quilts
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March 15, 2012 at 3:03 PM
Love it, Cindy! I'm such a fan of asymmetrical settings. :) It looks fabulous!
How fun to see one of the FW blocks in another project! Your pillow is very modern looking...love it...just right for a nap at the beach!!
What a cool way to use that block! I love love love that pillow. The colors are so calming, and the offset block makes it even more fun.
I love this!! The colors are amazing! I tried big stitching last night. I ended up pulling out the thread and throwing the project on the ground. Slight exaggeration
but close enough.
Great reinvention! I'm currently accumulating orphan blocks from my Foundation Paper Piecing For The Terrified SAL, and trying to find a good variety of repurposes o.O
You made such a fantastic pillow! Love your reinvention!
I am so pleased you could do this beautiful block justice x
I should say you should be pleased with that pillow. What an awesome solution. It turned out so great, too!
Cindy, this is a great way to use an orphan block - love it! Since I dream of the beach, this is one I need to put on my list! Thanks for sharing!
That's a brilliant idea - I often see blocks that I like but as I'm only beginning I don't want to take on a whole quilt. Thanks for sharing the pictures of your beautiful version.
Your pillow is awesome, Cindy. I love the block setting and stitching!!! beautiful.
Love your pillow it turned out as if it was meant to be. When I goofed up I just threw it away. Now I've learned something - thanks.
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