We are now two weeks into the year-long 1930s Farmer’s Wife Sew Along hosted by Angie at Gnome Angel and sponsored by Fat Quarter Shop and Marti Michell. I’m a block behind already, but it’s okay. No, seriously, I planned for this. At this point in my life, I have learned to actually PLAN for being behind schedule. (Is that weird or just really resourceful? I haven’t decided yet).
The final layout and block setting I chose/created includes background blocks between the farmer’s wife blocks, so my finished quilt only needs 72 blocks instead of the full 99. This gives me some much needed wiggle room and a whole lot less stress when I’m running “behind”. No worries. This is fun!
I’m having a great time so far experimenting with warm and cool color combinations as I put together the 6″ blocks. Here are the ones I have completed so far. For photos, I’m backing the warm colors with the black fabric in which they will be sashed, and the cool colors in a white/low volume print. I may swap a more grey-silver fabric in as sashing in the final quilt construction. Time will tell.
As you can see, I’ve been inspired by the gorgeous blocks being made by other quilters, especially the fun use of meticulous cutting. While I don’t have many “fussy cut”-able tone on tone fabrics, you can be sure you’ll be seeing more meticulous cutting in future blocks wherever I can make it work. It’s so much fun!
Reading the letters that correspond to each block has been my favorite part. The determined spirit of the farmer’s wives in the 1930s is inspiring and really puts things into perspective. While my block sewing has not been as reflective and relaxing as I imagined (shocker), I am enjoying this journey.
The Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt: Inspiring Letters from Farm Women of the Great Depression and 99 Quilt Blocks That Honor Them by Laurie Aaron Hird for Fons & Porter/F+W; RRP $28.99 – Click here to purchase.
The only requirement for this sew-along is that you have the book by Laurie Aaron Hird, since the block measurements, directions, and templates are all included only in the book. There is also now an ebook available, which makes it super easy to jump right in.
I’m linking up with Angie’s Farmer’s Wife 1930 Sew Along Link up, week 2. I encourage you to hop over and see all of the gorgeously diverse blocks that have been made so far. It’s amazing how each person’s personal style and tastes can be put into the very same block! You can also visit the extremely active and growing Facebook group, which is now over 4,000 strong! I’m looking forward to making more of these blocks, and reading more inspiring reflections by the farmer’s wives of the 1930s.
The Farmer’s Wife quilt is one that while straight-up traditional, I’ve been itching to make for a while now. I’m not technically a farmer’s wife, but I certainly live in farm country and some of my closest friends are farmers (I’ll call mine the Programmer’s Wife in Farm Country quilt). There was just something about the idea of reading “inspiring letters from farm women of the Great Depression” and then making the respective quilt blocks that really appealed to me. Inspiration plus quilting: what’s not to like? When Angie asked if I would join the official bloggers team for the sew along, I knew that this was my chance–how could I say no?
This sew along is going to be super cool. All you need to participate is a copy of Laurie Aaron Hird’s book The Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt and your fabric of choice. I’m going to try to make mine almost entirely from stash, since frugality is part of the farmer’s wife experience.
Over the course of the year, Angie and the blogger team (including me!) will share tips and tricks to help you create all 99 blocks from the book, 2 per week in a non-chronological, easy to more difficult, order. Blocks finish at only 6″ square, and can be paper pieced, hand pieced, you can use templates, do English paper piecing, use a rotary cutter and sewing machine, or try all methods. I will most likely use a variety of methods, heavily favoring the rotary cutter-machine piecing and foundation paper piecing options.
I have my book, took it for a little photography tour of our homestead, introduced it to our chickens, and have been thinking about how I want to make my quilt. I really lean heavily toward the modern aesthetic, so I want to try to make this uber traditional quilt “night quilter style”. We’ll see if I can pull it off.
The fabric pull is pretty predictable, but this time instead of a simple rainbow gradient, I want to play with warm vs. cool colors. I’m planning on making the warm colored blocks with a black background and the cool colored blocks with a low volume/white background.
I really like how fiery the warm colors look paired with black.
Conversely, the cool colors look almost icy paired with the low volume/whites. I’m really hoping I can find a layout that emphasizes these visual characteristics!
Now that I have EQ7, it makes playing with layout options *really* quick and easy. Knowing that I am a busy, busy mama of three and that there is a decent chance I won’t be able to make ALL 99 blocks, I’ve opted for a layout that includes whole cloth background squares between the blocks, as well as sashing. I plan to use Essex yarn dyed linen in charcoal for the whole cloth background squares, or *maybe* (with the last layout) a gradient from even lighter to darker. Here are some of the layouts I’ve played with. I haven’t landed on one I LOVE yet. What do you think?
Note that rather than buy the entire Farmer’s Wife block file for EQ7, I just used some of the free quilt blocks included in the program. I made them the colors I wanted and then used them in duplicate to get the general aesthetic of the quilt.
Farmer’s Wife Layout 1: Warm Cool Converge
Layout 1. This one feels too stark to me.
Farmer’s Wife Layout 2: ROYGBIV blend
Layout 2. Note that I’ve pretty much decided I’m not going to use this layout. It’s easy, sure, and looks great, but I want to try to stretch my color play muscles a little bit.
Farmer’s Wife Layout 3: cool warm
Layout 3. I like this one, with consistently colored sashing and background/filler squares. But I’m still not sure it’s exactly what I want. I want to create the effect of the fiery warms rising to meet the cool colors, which are dripping to meet and mingle with the warm.
Layout 4: Cool Warm Converge Blended Background
Layout 4. I like this one more than Layout 1, but I’m still not sold completely.
For now I will plan to start making my cool/warm blocks when the Sew Along begins in two weeks, and will continue to play with layout until I find one I love. Will you be joining in on the Farmer’s Wife Sew Along? If you do, be sure to join the super active Facebook group, too. It will be a fun journey!
When I first decided to participate in this year’s A Lovely Year of Finishes(ALYoF), I sketched out a general plan of projects and works in progress for the year. April, being my birthday month, was designated “selfish sewing month” and I had planned to work on–or finish!–the quilt I am making just for me. But lo, as life goes, other projects have due dates and take precedence over selfish sewing. My sister-in-law is expecting her first child, a daughter, and her baby shower is at the end of April. This bumps her baby quilt to the top of the pile. So far, all I’ve done is pull fabrics from my stash to begin planning this quilt.
I’m planning to make a baby quilt using a giant pink Hazel Hedgehog with a teal background. My sister-in-law is all about pink… I mean ALL about pink… so the pink heavy Hazel will be perfect for her.
Since I have yet to even begin this project, I’m hoping to finish just the quilt top by the end of April. I’m taking it easy on myself for a change, with a hopefully easily attainable goal. She isn’t due until June, so I’m thinking a quilt top will be an acceptable gift to present at her shower, and quilting and finishing should be attainable before my baby joins us sometime in May, or maybe June.
I haven’t fully decided on pink placement for this quilt yet. I’m torn between using the light pink as the face, the grey as the body, and then a brighter pink (or combination of brighter pinks) for the hair OR using the light pink for the face, the darker pink solid for the body and an even darker pink (maybe the bottom one, or perhaps a mix of the middle two pinks) for the hair.
I like the look of the grey mixed in, but I’m not sure if that’s just my style preferences leaking in, or if it really would look better with the grey body. If you haven’t seen a Hazel Hedgehog, here are a lot of great examples made during Angie at Gnome Angel’s Hazel Hedgehog Quilt Along held last month. While the Quilt Along has ended, there is a ton of great inspiration there! What would you do with your pink Hazel?
There’s a hashtag going around social media that reads #quiltconhangover. Even though I’m with child and didn’t have a single alcoholic drink during my trip (that’s more than I can say for some others, though!) I definitely am feeling the effects of my post-QuiltCon return to reality. After a full 19 hour travel day Monday, I’m exhausted. My head is spinning, too, although not in a dizzy way. The ideas and inspirations from those four whirlwind days have left me on a sleep-deprived “high”, ideas spinning around my brain, leaking out in the form of little sketches of pattern ideas and names. One such pattern idea, as an example, will be entitled “Mind Blown: The Aftermath of QuiltCon”
A couple people have already asked me to tell them about my favorite part of QuiltCon. To be honest, I don’t think it is possible to express in words the vast amazingness of the experience. This was not only my first QuiltCon, but it was also my first quilt show or event of any kind, AND my first time meeting any of my quilty bloggy friends and fiber world heroes. The only word I could use to describe the week was “whirlwind”, but in an absolutely good way. Everywhere I turned, there was another familiar name (usually the blog or internet tag name–I’m so grateful for the huge nametags!), a gorgeous quilt, an admired designer, or a fabulous booth to take in. I was fortunate to attend two uber informative and appropriately comfort-stretching all-day classes, as well as three great lectures. I honestly could talk for days about everything I saw, everything I did, and everyone I met.
For now, though, I will answer the question: what was your favorite part of QuiltCon?You. Over the past year (can you believe I’ve only been blogging for one year!?) I have formed some fabulous friendships with quilty bloggers across the country and world. Even without having met a single one of you in person, I can say that I feel like I am a part of your lives, and you a part of mine. We have swapped ideas, we’ve offered each other encouragement and advice, we’ve shared fears and unexpected pains, all via the reading, commenting, and replying to blogs, Instagram posts, and other online communications. Sure, technology poses new challenges to the balance of life, but boy does it also enrich our lives and create unprecedented opportunities. I’ve said it before–you are my quilt guild. QuiltCon was my first time meeting ANY of you quilting, blogging friends. The experience of walking around, seeing a face I *think* might be familiar, looking down at the name tag to confirm my suspicions, officially introducing myself (“Hi, I’m Kitty Wilkin… aka, Night Quilter”) and then hugging like old friends, was simply amazing. Mind blowing. Whirlwind. Time and time again, meeting up with cherished “old friends” and meeting face to face for the first time ever, hearing voices, taking in mannerisms that are impossible to convey in blogland, firming and reaffirming these friendships–that was my favorite part of QuiltCon. I won’t try to name all the names of the amazing blogger friends I met, so if you’re wondering if I mean you, the answer is YES! You!
Three quilty bloggers in particular stand out, though, so I’ll do a *little* naming of names. First of all, I was finally able to meet (and stay with!) my sewing soul sister, Stephanie from Late Night Quilter.
Over the past year, Stephanie and I have met, discovered we are totally sewing soul sisters just living across the country from each other (she lives in Austin, TX and I’m in Monroe, ME), decided to start a Late Night Quilters Club facebook group together, watched that group grow to over 2,200 strong in less than 7 months with the help of Michelle & Mandy–and still stay overwhelmingly nice and supportive–, chatted pretty much daily via texts and messages online, and jumped into various other joint ventures, constantly supporting, encouraging, and helping the other. Needless to say, we have become friends. Great friends. And yet, before QuiltCon, we had never met in person. Stephanie is as wonderful in person as she is online, and it was SUCH a treat to meet her, meet her sweet husband and four energetic kids, stay with her, and have her as a steady, friendly, calm, peaceful presence amidst the whirlwind of the week.
Late night sewing session with Stephanie, Late Night Quilter.
The second “meeting” that stood out as epically awesome wasn’t even technically an in-person meeting! Before heading to Austin, I emailed another close bloggy friend, Angie from Gnome Angel, asking if she was headed to Austin. Sadly, living in Australia and having a little one, she wasn’t attending, but said that some of her Aussie quilting friends would be there and told me to hunt them down. When I found Gemma from Pretty Bobbins, and then finally put it all together that she was one of the Aussie quilters Angie had encouraged me to find (I’m slow), I was SO excited! Trying to resist the urge to jump up and down (okay, maybe I did a little bit) I swapped pins AND hugs with Angie all the way in Australia (thank you, Gemma!!), and was able to tell her and share the excitement immediately via Instagram. The world is an amazing place!
Finally, meeting Yvonne from Quilting Jetgirlwas another highlight. I first met Yvonne through Beth at Plum and June‘s New Bloggers Blog Hop earlier in the year. I was trying to think of why I feel particularly close to Yvonne since we primarily converse through blog reading and comments, but then I realized that Yvonne not only reads blogs, she is also consistently the first commentator on a post, with a thoroughly thought out and sincere comment. These frequent comments have opened the door to conversations that have built deeper understanding and closeness over the past few months. Yvonne also has been writing more open and reflective posts about the deeper aspects of quilting, self, and community, which really help me to see inside her thought process and quilty soul (in an open and awesome way). I would definitely recommend her recent posts The Four Agreements and Community {Discussion}. Meeting Yvonne in person was such a treat, and I’m so grateful for the time (as sporadic as it may have been) we had to hang out in person. As I told her yesterday via blog comment-conversation, I keep catching myself thinking how I could see us being great friends if we lived nearer to each other. I catch myself because–duh!–we can be great friends even though we live across the country from each other. Just one more amazing aspect of this blogging community and the simple communication allowed through modern technology. Somehow, the only photo I have with Yvonne is the one above, with the other new quilt bloggers, so here she is modeling her Jetgirl flight suit pre-QuiltCon!
Yvonne modeling her QuiltCon Alter Ego flight suit–can you believe we did not get a single photo together in our Alter Ego attire!?
By highlighting these three wonderful women, I in no way wish to downplay the intense joy and excitement I had in meeting all of you quilty bloggers at QuiltCon. I am overwhelmed with emotion at the sheer number of fabulously talented and sweet people I was fortunate to meet and get to know during my week in Austin. Just look at all of these pins and cards! It’s only the tip of the awesome iceberg.
I also want to share my experiences from the classes and lectures I attended, and share some of my favorites from the amazing collection of quilts displayed at the show. Like I said, I could talk for days about QuiltCon! I plan to share more in the coming weeks, mixing my QuiltCon reflections in with my slow reacclimation to “real” life, as the changed quilter and designer I am. Thank YOU for reading.
I grab a needle and thread once the kids are in bed
The final layout and block setting I chose/created includes background blocks between the farmer’s wife blocks, so my finished quilt only needs 72 blocks instead of the full 99. This gives me some much needed wiggle room and a whole lot less stress when I’m running “behind”. No worries. This is fun!
As you can see, I’ve been inspired by the gorgeous blocks being made by other quilters, especially the fun use of meticulous cutting. While I don’t have many “fussy cut”-able tone on tone fabrics, you can be sure you’ll be seeing more meticulous cutting in future blocks wherever I can make it work. It’s so much fun!
Night Quilter 