Getting to Know the Farmers' Wives

If you're at all interested in modern quilting--or really any sort of quilting--chances are, you've heard of the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt.  This book of 111 six-inch blocks has excerpts of letters written by farmer's wives in the early 20th century, in response to a prompt about their daughters' futures.  That may not sound thrilling, but if you've seen the quilts that have resulted, you too would feel the pull to this book.  In fact, the multiple Flickr groups for makers of these blocks have provided hours of inspiration, even before I bought this book.

My Sewing Buddy sent me a bag of scraps from Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley line.  Everyone should know how much I love DS by now--her fabrics, her books, herself--so this gift made me ecstatic.  Because the fabrics had originally been used in a log cabin quilt, there were some odd shapes and sizes.  I had to be creative in how to use them, though I did know I wanted to use them ASAP.  I ran out to Barnes & Noble, bought the Farmer's Wife book, and got started.

I've wanted a mini quilt for my cubicle, so I chose nine blocks and used a white background (as always).  I knew Hope Valley would make me happy every time I saw it, even while working!

The blocks are small, as I said, and use templates for all the piecing.  Some of the templates are so ridiculously teeny--that led to a lot of odd cuts from my rotary blade.  You can also see that my piecing isn't perfect, and I was perhaps a bit too trim-happy with some of the blocks.  But, as I'm the only quilter at work, no one is going to notice.

I free-motion quilted in lots of loops, which was mostly just fun!  I wanted to try something new.  I should've changed my needle for it--dang.

I backed the mini-quilt in Hope Valley that I used for Modern Maples, and bound it in a DS Quilts print (also used in my Modern Maples).  I added little loops at the top to hang it in my cubicle.  Genius, right?  I'm going to get a patent.  (Just kidding, I'm 100% sure I'm the last person in the world to think of this.)

The mini-quilt matches the Denyse Schmidt mug rugs my buddy made me, so my cubicle is extremely coordinated.  I love it!

In other news, I started another baby quilt!  For those of you counting, that's...five?  Is that right?  All for babies I know, or mothers I know.  That's crazy, right?  2012 and 2013 have been very fertile years.  Be careful out there, kids.

I'll have more information and pictures when it's done, but I decided to use Timber & Leaf for this new baby girl. I'm waiting on two more fat quarters to arrive, but so far I love it.  I hope she does too!