Scallops, scallops and more scallops!! {Farmer's Wife}

Part of me hasn't wanted to share this post - I wanted to wait until I could do a big reveal. But I love reading about the process, and I assume others do as well.
And this process has been a VERY long time coming. I started my Farmer's Wife quilt in January of 2012, and with my plans to hand quilt it, it won't be done anytime this year.
Back in March of this year I called it good with making my Farmer's Wife blocks. I stopped at 42 blocks and pieced it into this pretty, pretty top. 

And then I started scheming a border. I had A LOT of fabric left over. And then it came to me. Scallops!

Scallops started coming together in April 2013

I wish I could remember how I figured it out, and how I made my scallops, but I honestly have no clue. I made 2 sizes with the plan to alternate them. And back in April I spent a lot of time working on hand basting them. (My method: iron freezer paper template on back of fabric, take a running stitch around the curve of the template in the seam allowance, then pull so the fabric hugs the template. Give it a good press, remove freezer paper. Ta-da! Pretty scallop ready for applique.) But then it my husband went away for a training and I didn't spend my evenings sitting on the couch watching TV with him, so they got set aside. And I realized I didn't want to wait til he is back home and we are back sitting on our couch to finish them, so I pulled them out last week, and finished up basting. It's really boring.

 

And then I started appliqueing. Thankfully everything worked according to my plan size wise. I swear the hand appliqueing of the scallops is going faster than basting them did. 

 

I just finished up one strip (with 17 of the 64 scallops!) Right now it's a bit wobbly because my scallops strip ended up a bit too long, I maybe should have smooshed them together a bit more. I really don't want to redo it though...I guess we'll see. But I LOVE it! 

 

Here is a close up view, I pressed towards the scallops which just added to the wobble. 

{I apologize for the poorly lit phone pictures. Fabrics used on my Farmer's Wife quilt are mainly Ruby by Bonnie and Camille, with a few pieces from Bliss and Vintage Modern, and coordinating solids.}

Farmer's Wife Progress

I've been in a sewing funk for a few days. I finished up a super secret quilt a few days ago (but I can't share it til September-ish, so enjoy that little sneak peek). And I've been basting A LOT of Happy Go Lucky hexies for a project that may just take me all through summer to piece, but that's ok, I'll be outside a lot with my girls. But that means there hasn't been a lot of sitting at my sewing machine.

 

I decided to combat the funk by putting together Farmer's Wife. About a month ago I figured out how I wanted to set my 42 blocks, and got them prepped. The inspiration came from here, the regular borders were too big, but it was nice being able to square up all the blocks to the same size because of the extra background fabric.

I'm so pleased with how it has turned out so far. I tried to not over think the layout, just looked at it a few times in B&W to check for balance. Now I'm mulling over a few border ideas, but I don't think it's going to be 100% done for awhile. I'm trying to decide if I could do it justice with some simple quilting, or if I should save up my money for FMQ or something more custom. I guess we'll see. =)

42 - The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything - FWF

42 Farmer's Wife Blocks (technically 44, but they won't be making their appearance on this quilt top). I'm hanging up my Farmer's Wife hat folks. I've been attempting the task for over a year and I am just done. I've looked at my bin everyday trying to will myself to pull it out, to piece together just one more block, and I can't. So instead I'm finishing it where it stands now.
And actually this'll be a great size for hanging on my bedroom wall, so that is a definitely plus.

pardon the really poor instagram picture

I'll be setting the blocks like City House Studio did hers. I'll probably throw on a pieced border since I still have a bunch of fabric. I need to play around with the layout a bit more, make sure design and color are balanced, but I'm glad to see this come to an end.

Change of Plans

Thanks to those of you who responded on my Farmer's Wife thread, and I am happy to hear that there are still people watching/following along. You may have noticed the complete lack of Farmer's Wife the past few weeks, honestly I haven't even thought of sitting down and making a block.
Right now I am working my butt off on a custom order quilt (with plans of developing it into a pattern, which means too much time staring at my computer screen, and then testing out the pattern again), and I have 4 more requests for custom quilts. On top of those exciting prospects there are a few quilts I want to make for myself, tops I need to get quilted for my shop...etc.
So I think for the time being Farmer's Wife is going to be very sporadic. Maybe some days I'll knock out 4 blocks and then you won't see any again for 2 months. I'll keep posting, and I'd love to see the progress you all are making in the blocks, so please continue to share them in the Flickr group.
Thanks friends!

Farmer's Wife Week 16

Block 76 & 97

Next week we'll be making blocks 30 & 96

Farmer's Wife Week 15

Blocks 21, 62, &74

This week we celebrated my husband's birthday. It was pretty low-key with his traditional pumpkin pie rather than a cake, and just spending time as a family, but we did have fun making party hats, including for our girls' stuffed animals and visiting the local Air Force museum.

Bee's stuffed lamb Bo being a party pooper

My loves in front of a ginormous plane.

Farmer's Wife Week 14

Yet another Monday came and I hadn't made my Farmer's Wife blocks. Usually about mid-morning I realize it is Monday and think "Oh crap my blocks!" then I get to work so I can post pictures that day. That is NOT the point of hosting a fun quilt-a-long! So instead of just making this weeks blocks, I also made next week's blocks. Now I am on a roll and just want to keep making blocks! And I might just do that, because I am sure to get burned out in a few days, and then I don't have to think about it again for a couple of weeks, lol.

Block 27 Darting Birds & Block 89 Steps to the Alter

Next week we have 3 blocks, 21, 62 & 74 don't worry, it is a good balance of difficulty.

Farmer's Wife Week 13

Block 91 Strawberry Basket

Block 106 Wild Rose & Square

Next week we'll be doing blocks 27 & 89. I hope you all had a wonderful Easter.

Farmer's Wife Week 12

This week's blocks were a bit of a relief after those meanies we dealt with a few weeks ago. I even cheated with the handle on my basket and just machine stitched it down (something I NEVER do!!) I don't care for it and it likely won't end up in my finished quilt. 

Block 35 Flower Basket

Block 46 Hill & Valley

Next week's blocks are 91 & 106

Farmer's Wife Catch Up - Weeks 10 & 11

Block 43 Friendship Path

Block 55 Linoleum

Block 33 Farmer's Puzzle

Block 110 Wood Lily

I still need to make the blocks for this week but I'll post them as soon as I do. Today was spent finishing up Swoon and fixing Wood Lily and figuring out that Y-seam on Friendship Path (which I was so focused on I didn't realize I put my corners in the wrong spots). I hope you all were able to get caught up on the blocks. I'm thinking we'll probably take another break in the summer, we'll see.

FWQAL Spring Break

I've decided we need to take a Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-Long Spring Break. I'm behind, which isn't good as the hostess, and because I am stressing about it, I am not getting anything else finished.
So we'll resume quilting-a-long on April 2nd with Week 12!

Quick FWQAL tip!!

If you are paper piecing your blocks and using the templates from the Yahoo group - on Block 110 Wood Lily for some crazy reason it broke half of the block up differently than the other, which will make it so you need to sew a stupid Y seam. Just STOP! Don't do it! You basically just need to make Four of Unit I, Four Unit C, and Four Unit G, with the square in the center. Ignore the rest of it!
I'll add photos tomorrow so this makes more sense.

Farmer's Wife Week 9

Is this thing still on?! Please leave a comment to let me know you are still around, quilting a long or just rooting me on!

Block 13 Buckwheat

Block 56 Maple Leaf

Next week we'll be making blocks 43 & 55

Farmer's Wife Week 8

Block 23 Country Farm

Block 77 Seasons

Next week's blocks are 13 & 56. 13 makes me glad I am using paper piecing now. =)

So, do you have a favorite block so far? I really like my Block 20 Churn Dash and Block 44 Gentleman's Fancy. I just like how my fabric selection turned out and the contrast in the blocks.

Farmer's Wife Week 7

Block 44 Gentleman's Fancy 

Block 101 Wedding Ring

Did you notice I tried to pick somewhat Valentines-ish blocks? Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
Next week's blocks will be: 23 & 77

Farmer's Wife Week 6

Block 92 Streak of Lightening

102 Whirlpool

Next week's blocks are: 44 & 101


Don't forget to upload your photos to the Flickr Pool!

Farmer's Wife Week 5

Block 58 Mother's Dream

Block 73 Rainbow Flowers

Next week's blocks are 92 &102

Seriously I ♥ Paper Piecing! =)

I'm all caught up! And they are all so happy and perfect. Paper piecing totally feels like cheating. 

I ♥ paper piecing!

Seriously, if you are having any issues with your Farmer's Wife blocks this is so the way to go! The blocks I've already made were about 6"but none of them perfectly so, and none of them the same. Paper piecing - they are all finishing at 6 1/2"

Seriously check it out!!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/farmerswifesampler/files/Foundation%20Patterns/
Remember you have to belong to the yahoo group to access the files.
Save the pdf file to your computer then print from that, set it to "no scale" or "100%" otherwise it'll make up it's own scale, and that is no good. On my new printer I had to do 100% as there was no "no scale" option.

I haven't watched this whole video, but the first part is awesome and exactly how I do my paper piecing (well I don't use as huge pieces of fabric, esp for a center piece like piece one, but other pieces, esp ones oddly shaped I used a good extra amount of fabric). I hope it helps you all.



Now between my happy new fabric and perfect paper piecing I am so in love with the Farmer's Wife project, and can't wait to get caught up (again) and digging into next week.

@#*&%

We finally got our new printer, and I am trying to print out paper piecing templates from the yahoo group.
They print out at the most random sizes, and the only common size I can get with adjustments is with the block finishing at 6 1/4"
Has anybody else printed out paper piecing templates? Do you have issues or is this just user error?
Plus because I am slightly neurotic, I now want to paper piece all of my blocks so they are the right size. Argh!

edited - - I think I've figured it out. If you change the scaling to 100% it prints out so that the block will finish at 6.5" Which is fine if they all do it. Which means I will be remaking all the blocks, yet again. Blargh.