Turkey Tracks: The Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt is FINISHED

Turkey Tracks:  March 14, 2017

The Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt is FINISHED

This project–99 foundation pieced blocks–many of them VERY DIFFICULT and time consuming–took a year to make.  A group of us at Coastal Quilter’s (Maine) took on this project in January 2016.  We decided on 9 blocks a month, and if it weren’t for the encouragement and stimulation of these other quilters, I don’t think I would have ever finished this project.  All of us have completed all 99 blocks, two of us have totally finished, two of us have quilts at longarm quilters, one “very busy” of us with a larger family has all her blocks finished, and one of us elected from the beginning to make a smaller quilt and is finished with her blocks.  I call that a roaring success.

Each of us used different fabrics and different backgrounds, and all of the quilts are GORGEOUS! We will bring them all together at a Coastal Quilter’s meeting when everyone is done, so I will get pictures to share of the others then.

Here’s mine–and I’ve even washed it.  This is a BIG QUILT.

Because I used this zig-zag setting, I could either “halve” four of five of the blocks or chose a different setting.  No way was I cutting any of these blood-sweat-and tears blocks in half!!!  And I thought this setting made the quilt too long and narrow.  So I added two rows on either side and floated the extra blocks.  I did have one extra block, to make 100, and it went into the body of the quilt.  I love this setting.  I had visions of quilting down the length of the zig-zags from the front of the long arm, but that would have meant quilting each of the blocks individually, and that would have been way too time consuming for me.  And would have probably involved a lot of thread changes.  I decided it was way too involved for me, so I used one of my favorite pantographs, “Simple Feathers” by Anne Bright.

Right now, it’s living on the living room couch where it totally perks up the room.

I chose this bird fabric for my backing and used a darker (than the front) teal blue/green solid for the binding.

I quilted with a thread that matched the teal/green surrounding fabric that just disappeared into the quilt.  I didn’t want anything to take away from the blocks themselves.  I washed it, which I almost never do until needed–I wash all my fabric before quilting with them as the chemicals in the fabric bother me–so it is all crinkly and cuddly.

Here’s a pic of a few of the blocks.

Author: louisaenright

I am passionate about whole, nutrient-dense foods, developing local markets, and strengthening communities. View all posts by louisaenright