Tag: Laurie Aaron Hird

Turkey Tracks: February Farmer’s Wife Blocks

Turkey Tracks:  February 6, 2016

February’s Farmer’s Wife Blocks

From earlier posts, you know that a group of us at Coastal Quilters (Maine) are spending this year making the 99 Farmer’s Wife blocks from Laurie Aaron Hird’s book, The Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt.

We set of goal of making two blocks a week, or eight a month.

Since February is a short month…  OK, since I am addicted now to making these blocks, here are my February blocks.  Each block has a woman’s name, and I have only one more “b” name to go.

I am putting on the setting triangles as I go, and I am loving these bright modern fabrics.  (Leftovers are going into a hexie project.)  Each block, even the so-called “simple” ones, takes a fair amount of time to make.

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Autumn:

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Ava:

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Bea:

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Becky:

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Belle:

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Betty:

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Blossom:

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Bonnie:

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Turkey Tracks: First Eight Farmer’s Wife Blocks

Turkey Tracks:  January 19, 2016

First Eight Farmer’s Wife Blocks

Along with a group of Coastal Quilters members, I’m making the 99 Farmer’s Wife blocks–as detailed in an earlier post.  We’re doing eight blocks a month, or about two a week.  The 99 blocks will make a queen size quilt.

I am foundation piecing mine as these are pretty complicated blocks for the most part.

Here are the first eight–which took me some time, though I am getting faster as I do more of them.

I am LOVING the modern/contemporary fabrics I’ve chosen in these blocks.

Here’s how I’ll set them–and you can see that I’m putting on the outer triangles now–mostly as a protection for the very bias edges.  I remove the paper backing to stitch parts together as I get more accuracy that way.

This is the setting used in the book:  The Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt, Laurie Aaron Hird:

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Here’s an alternative setting:

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Or, one could do sashing with cornerstones.  The cornerstones could add a measure of coherence to a busy quilt.

Here are the individual blocks up close–each is named–and each is accompanied by a letter written to The Farmer’s Wife Magazine back in the 1930s.

“Augusta”

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“Alice”

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“Anne”

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“Aunt”

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“April”

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“Addie”

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“Aimee”

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“Ann”

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There are two more “A” names, and then it’s on to the “Bs.”

February is a SHORT month…

Turkey Tracks: THE FARMER’S WIFE 1930 SAMPLER QUILT

Turkey Tracks:  December 30, 2015

THE FARMER’S WIFE 1930 SAMPLER QUILT

Fellow quilter Becca Babb-Brott brought this book and project to the attention of the Coastal Quilters in early December.

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The Farmer’s Wife was a magazine in the 1930s for…not just farmers’ wives.  Remember that America still had a largely rural population in the 1930s.

The book contains 99 classic quilt blocks from the 1930s–each with a name, like “Lola,”–and an excerpt from a farm wife letter to the magazine–often detailing life conditions in the 1930s.

We are going to try to make two blocks a week for 2016.  The book comes with a CD that has directions to all the blocks, including foundation piecing if desired.

There are at least four of us who are going to participate.

Want to see some of the blocks all made up?  Take a look at Katy Jones’s blog right now.  She’s been making the blocks and has pictures of them on her design wall.

Source: Quilt Monkey

Katy Jones is a popular British quilter, and the blog is colorful and fun.