Blogger's Quilt Festival ~ Spring 2015

Welcome to my entry in this Spring 2015 Blogger's Quilt Festival.  (And please excuse the far from Spring-y photo!  This quilt was photographed and gifted at Christmas time.)

All the fabrics in this king size quilt are from Kansas Troubles by Moda and I used the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt book.  I made a few tweaks, adding setting squares and triangles to make the blocks larger, and so setting alternating blocks on point.

This quilt was made as a gift for my mother and father and took me about 3 years! I really enjoyed putting the blocks together, it was like an interesting puzzle every time. However, I tend to like chain piecing and letting my mind wander, so this took me a long time to do and I didn't alway choose to do it as it was a brain bender and not the meditative calm of chain piecing and simple patterns. (I quilt to relax!)

Then, I quilted this myself on my home machine!  Here is a link to my original post about this quilt if you would like more information.  Enjoy all the rest of the entries in the Blogger's Quilt Festival!  And please consider casting a vote for me here, in the Large Quilts Category!

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

LINKS TO MY PREVIOUS ENTRIES:

Fall 2014- Hand Quilted Category (winner!!)

Fall 2013 - ROYGBIV category

Fall 2013 - Baby Quilt category

Spring 2013 - Bed Size Quilt category

Fall 2012 - Quilt Photography category

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.

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!

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.

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.)

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??

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

Continuing with the Giant Quilts Theme...

Meanwhile I'm hand quilting the giant Swoon quilt, this Farmer's Wife quilt is sitting and waiting (much like it usually has since 2011 when I started it...) Yes, these are colours you don't usually see on my blog. It's a gift for my parents.

I'm pretty happy it is all together and I love all those little blocks.  But.  How, how, how shall I quilt it?  How.

 
I think I did myself a favour by making it in two parts to quilt separately, and then join after quilting. I hope this is a favour to me and I don't mess it up. I also think I might use something with a bit more polyester for batting than my usual. I don't want this one to crinkle as much as I want most of my other quilts to.

Any other tips for me?

Farmer's Wifing and a Cutie

Hey, did I mention I am doing the Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-long? Well, I am not so much quilting along as I am doing it whenever I feel like it. Here is my latest completion:


I am actually up to block number 62 in the book, but this one was skipped...I was not feeling into teeny tiny triangles at the point I encountered that one first. I have tackled it however. These colours are my mom's colours, and it will eventually be a king sized quilt for her and my dad.

And a cutie picture and comment for you too:


He looks happy snuggled on the couch here, but since this picture was taken, he got sick with a stomach flu. There has been a lot of quilt and couch snuggling going on... and quilt washing going on here. One day he was snuggling up with me watching me doing some hand sewing. I stopped because I ran out of thread and didn't want to get up. He waited for a bit and then chirped out "Poke dat quiwt, Mom!" Yes, darling, I will. I do love to poke quilts.

Kansas Winter Log Cabin

Completed a Kansas Winter Log Cabin quilt last night.  I used 2 Kansas Winter from Kansas Troubles honey buns, some quilter's linen from Robert Kaufman in natural, backed it with Flannel Days from Kansas Troubles and bound it with Kona solid in Espresso.  This is a Christmas present for my mom.... shhhh!

Farmer's Wife

My progress so far... This will be a king size quilt for my mom and dad. The traditional colors are my mom's style. Kansas Troubles by Moda was a perfect fit. I love making these, they are so fun to put together, like a little puzzle. I've been cutting out the fabrics for the blocks and putting them in little baggies when I have a chunk of time. Then I can pull out a baggy, sew up a block when I have a few minutes. And voila, instant quilty gratification.