I'd like to apologise to those of you not remotely interested in the Farmer's Wife quilt along. I am apparently incapable of posting about anything else at the moment (apart from my giveaway! Go there and enter now).
I made these blocks on the weekend, and there was a moment when I thought I might get blocks five and six knocked out too, but sadly we had to go and socialise with real people (apparently talking to your sewing machine doesn't count as a social life), so no dice. Probably it's a good thing - I could so easily get addicted to churning out these little 6" blocks. Each block is a mini-education in construction and colour selection, especially for a reasonably novice quilter like me, and the satisfaction of getting each one sewn is totally disproportionate to their diminutive stature.
Block 3 - Basket
- The grey is the square dot from Sherbert Pips for Moda (on the whole I'm not the hugest fan of this line, but I think the dots are fab), the yellow and blue floral is from Toy Box II by Sara Morgan for Blue Hill Fabrics - I love the teeny yellow pinwheels in this print.
- Rather than print out the 6R template, I just cut one triangle using template 6 ironed onto the back of the fabric. Ingenious, no?
- This was my first ever attempt at hand applique. It's not very good. In the absence of the time/inclination to actually look up any tutorials I just winged it. Possibly a tutorial would have helped. I'm banking on the quilting to flatten it out somewhat.
- I've never been the biggest fan of basket blocks. I have no idea why, as normally recreating traditional blocks in modern fabrics really excites me (possibly more than it should do), but to me the basket block just never looks that striking, no matter how cleverly it's reproduced. I still feel the same after actually making one, albeit not very cleverly.
Block 4 - Basket Weave
- Nope, couldn't tell you the name of any of those fabrics. Actually, I could if I went through my selvege bag, but I can't be bothered just now. Leave me comment if you want to know and I'll happily check.
- I made this block by piecing three 1.5"x14 strips of fabric, then cutting that piece into three 3.5"x3.5" squares.
- I'm rather pleased with the effect of the graded yellows in this block. As with the other blocks I've made, I'm not making any effort to match the values/tones of the original block designs, just pulling a combination that pleases me for each block.
It's not too late to join the quilt along - this one is likely to go on for the next year or so for most participants, so do come on over to the Flickr group (315 participants and counting!) and join in/be inspired/get slightly scared by the prolific piecing of some members.
