The End of the 1920s Farmer's Wife Blocks-

I have finished 100 of the blocks in this first book.  There were 111 in the book.  Some I didn't want to do because they were just plain boring or symbolic of things I don't like but I think there were a couple I just plain missed!  This is the first 66 which I posted before.

This is the remaining 34 that I finished today.  My thought is to border each block with either a dark or light fabric and then sash them which will make a pretty good sized quilt which I will quilt in 4 sections and then sew together.  That will have to wait a bit though.  I may start on the 30's one but not with the same determination I have had with this one.

This and the next two are closeups of some of the blocks I liked best.

 

Farmer's Wife Blocks, Some Charity stuff and Blocks for Our Guild Raffle Quilt!

I should have added some hand dyeing to the iist of things done the last couple of weeks!  This was the most successful of my last dyeing adventure.  The picture doesn't adequately show what a nice purple gradation it is made with Jacquard Deep Purple.  I also did some ice dyeing with random fabric which turned out very pale and uninteresting so may  just throw it into a dye pot and overdye.  My one experiment was quite successful though.  It was copying something I saw on the Ice Dyers list on Facebook.  Many of the dyers just put down dry fabric, then sprinkle soda ash and dyes on top and then put ice over everything..  I was sure I would get spots of concentrated dyes doing this but didn't.  I used a lilttle Intense Blue and Basic Blue from ProChem as the dyes and got some nice mottling which will be great for skies.

This is just a small sample of the 2 1/2 in blue strips I have filling 4  two and one half gallon plastic bags.  They will be used in making background squares for the Guild's newest raffle quilt. 

I made seven blocks so far and ran out of the fabric I was given to include in each block.

This was extra challenging.  I was given a panel with 8 scenes on it and needed to make a 50 x 60 in quilt or close to it.  I was also given a small amount of the gold and reddish fabric and the black.  I ran out of the gold so went into my stash when I got home and added the greens.  I also ran out of the black but knew it was the same block of which I had a bolt.  I also had to come up with a center block.  Of course the panel squares were not square so had to take that into consideration when figuring out the center block.

Our Guild had an open sew day at a local facility and I took several of the Farmer's Wife blocks to construct there.  This is the result of that day.  I had one other block but I had the measurements wrong so had to bring it back home.  Even home, I messed it up twice before coming up with a ho-hum block!

I did these three blocks yesterday.  The first one I did using the fast "Flying Geese" method rather than making half square triangles so it was super fast!  As you make four at a time with this method, I had 2 left over which I used today in a block!!

This is one of the two blocks I did today.  These were a little trickier than some and took a little more time.    This is the one that used the left over flying geese from the first of the three blocks above so you can see the truer color there!

This was the second block done today and definitely more challenging.  I had to use templates for all the pieces. 

Some Boring Quilts and an Update to the Farmer's Wife Blocks!

These are the three quilts I have made for our Habitat for Humanity program at quilt club.  We donate one to each new house that is built for this charitable organization.  They are all pretty much alike except for the different scrappy fabrics that they use.  Everything is made with 2 inch strips and the trees are basically 4 of these strips sewn together and then using a 45 degree or 60 degree template to made the top.  I am going to incorpate some different trees in the next one I make as well as add a row of sky on top of the houses.

 

Here are just a couple of the blocks I have done since I last posted.  Lots and lots of half square triangles in this last batch which took a lot of time and patience!

Here is the latest status of the blocks done.  There are 66 here so I still have about 45 to do to get the book done.  I disciplined myself not to do anymore until I finished machine quilting the above quilts as well as basting and starting the machine quilting on the Passacaglia quilt.  I have made some progress on that as well.  The quilting will not show for the most part as I haven't particularly cared for the ones I saw done that had hand quilting (which I would NEVER try on a quilt with pieces this small!).  It is easier than I thought it would be as I don't have to make big sweeping movement of this largesh quilt as the "blocks" are all pretty small.  I am free hand stitching in the ditch for the most part.

I will get back to my Farmer's Wife blocks after a day of dyeing tomorrow with friend Dianne.  I am going to experiment a little tomorrow so we shall see!

One last block!