Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Farmer's Wife Quilt

Farmer's Wife Quilt


Hey everybody!! I finished the Farmer's Wife Quilt this past week!  Here it is in all its giganticness in my driveway, being held up in -20 degree weather by my husband (6 feet, 1 inch tall) and my 19 year old son (6 feet, 3 inches tall) and standing on blocks of wood.

Farmer's Wife Quilt

This quilt was conceived in 2011 while on a trip with my sister to Seattle. We stopped in a quilt shop, we stopped in a book shop and I found a jelly roll of Kansas Troubles Perennials and a copy of The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt. The colours are my mom's style and I was itching to try the sampler quilt - so it made a great reason to get started on a quilt for her. Obviously. And much more fabric than a jelly roll later, plus a few years, here we are!

Farmer's Wife Quilt

I managed to quilt this behemoth on my little home machine (which has quite a small throat space) by doing it in two, separate horizontal parts. I joined the top pieces then sewed the backing together by hand and carefully quilted over the area right down the middle.

Farmer's Wife Quilt

Astonishingly, I didn't get any puckers - which means that I must have been helped by a quilting fairy. (I was totally prepared for failure as events leading up to this quilting were decidedly not smooth. I reversed the direction of the two pieces, which meant that I quilted right to the edge of the WRONG edge on one piece. Which meant I had to pick out the quilting in about a two dozen different spots, re-quilt farther back from the edge, which meant I had to bury threads on the starting and stopping spots of the re-quilted sections - about 2 dozen sections as I said - and then go back to the side I left un-quilted along the edge and quilt that section. ALSO, while pressing a fold in the cream muslin backing to prepare it for hand stitching the pieces together after the quilting was done and the top was joined... I scorched it brown with my iron!! It was right smack dab in the centre where one might not ever see it, but I still needed to fix it and ended up making a 3" by 4" patch that I hand stitched over top of the scorched area, and then requilted over.)

Farmer's Wife Quilt

Anyways, I am VERY pleased with how it turned out. And so is my Mom! And my Dad even picked up the Farmer's Wife Sampler book and looked at it while I was stitching down the binding over New Year's at our house and we chatted about quilts and quilt history and how they are made. So that was fun!  When can I start another one??

Farmer's Wife Quilt

QUILT STATS:

Pattern: Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt
Fabric: Various lines from Kansas Troubles by Moda
Thread: Aurifil 50 wt in 2325 for piecing and quilting the top (2021 in the bobbin for quilting)
Backing: Kona Premium Muslin in Natural
Batting: Quilter's Dream Blend
Size: King

26 comments:

  1. What an heirloom! Beautiful job! Are their any repeat blocks in the whole King size beast?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your quilt is absolutely beautiful, My favourite fabrics to. You should be very proud of yourself,

    ReplyDelete
  3. What an accomplishment! Your mother must be so proud of you and delighted to receive such a wonderful gift! Beautiful work as always!

    ReplyDelete
  4. A true labor of love! Well done!! It is absolutely gorgeous!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Congratulations on a magnificent finish. It is beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  6. It looks amazing! Great job!

    It's interesting that you quilted it in two panels - I took a Craftsy class that showed how to do that, but I haven't tried it yet. Good to know it came out so well for you!

    ReplyDelete
  7. It looks amazing. Congratulations!

    ReplyDelete
  8. What an amazing quilt with the most wonderful colours. I love it. Great accomplishment!

    ReplyDelete
  9. It's amazing, Carla! And all that frustration at the end... and you really want to make another one? :-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Just amazed about what a diligent and giftet Quilter you are! Thanks a lot for showing us!
    Wonderful job!!!!
    Another one.. does that mean another Farmer`s Wife Quilt or just another Quilt in general?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Heide. And yes, I think I'd like to make this quilt again, in a different colour palette. But a smaller one. And maybe after a little while. :)

      Delete
  11. What a wonderful quilt! LOVE it.:)

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a great job! Your parents must be proud to have it! I'm now very tempted to grab my Farmer's Wife book off the shelf and start piecing!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Congratulations - it's a beauty. A gigantic beauty, but a beauty none the less. It looks wonderful against the snowy backgrounds and I'm certain that it will be cherished.

    ReplyDelete
  14. It is beautiful and makes me want to make one too.

    ReplyDelete
  15. It's so beautiful! What an accomplishment! I really love the way you laid it out with every other block on point. It would be amazing for you to do another one in your colors. I'd love to see what that would be!

    ReplyDelete
  16. What an incredible gift for your mother!!! I can't believe you could part with it. I do love that book. Every time I start reading the essays I wish we could me to a farm. Someday I'd love to work up the blocks, too. But Gypsy Wife needs to be done first.

    ReplyDelete
  17. This is incredible! How big are the blocks with the little extra dark brown border around them? I am working on mine right now and I just LOVE how you made them a little bit bigger. The dark brown just ties everything together! :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. I have looked at a lot of Farmer's Wife Quilts, and this is definitely my favorite. It's gorgeous.

    Do you mind if I ask what size sashing you used? 1 inch? 1.25inch? 1.5 inch?

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Jennifer! Thanks. I believe the sashing strips were 1.5" cut and finished at 1".

      Delete
  19. Amazing!! I love it, the colors are so beautiful… very good taste!!
    Congratulations!

    ReplyDelete
  20. I feel that I came late to the party, but I am compelled to tell you that you are an inspiration. Your quilt is absolutely beautiful. I too have collected the Kansas troubles line of fabric to do my sampler from. I'm sure to pop in here often for color and design ideas. Thank you so much for sharing. Smiles, Beth

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...