I was busy this week making three blocks, and I invested approximately 15 hours of my life in the process. If these blocks look nicer than the previous ones, it may be because I decided to run the long basting threads around the back for the sake of presentation. I think the blocks look better, and I think I even enjoyed working on them more, so I will continue in this vein as I complete the Farmer’s Wife Quilt.

Here they are:

#78 Old Maid

Old Maid was made with the following Kona Solids: Parsley and Wisteria

#94 Susannah

Susannah was made with the following Kona Solids: Amethyst, Tarragon, and Wisteria

#49 Katherine

Katherine was made with the following Kona Solids: Amethyst, Thistle, and Wisteria

I have a few process photos to share with you.

Here is Old Maid coming together.

And Old Maid from the back.

Here is Susannah as I started to baste. It was at this point that I realized that Susannah has a shape in it that has to be reversed in the basting process. This had not come up in any other block before. While some blocks may not have been symmetrical, they had all, up until now, been composed of shapes that were themselves symmetrical. The pinned shapes above are not symmetrical.

Here is Susannah coming together.

I felt that Katherine was going to be particularly challenging from the standpoint of making sure that I got the colors in the right place. In order to keep myself from becoming confused I decided to cut only a portion of this block at one time, baste that portion, and then sew that portion together before moving on to the next portion. I found this a great way to stay organized, and I will probably continue doing this with the remaining blocks. This method will have the advantage of making the work more portable because I won’t have to keep so many pieces laid out on a flat surface at one time. I think I will set up a large plastic bag for upcoming blocks so they will be ready to travel if necessary. I can even choose my colors and include layer cake sized pieces of fabric for easy cutting on the road.

I can’t begin to guess the number of times I flipped open the book to check on the value of these pieces in the diagram for Katherine. I was constantly double checking.

Katherine had the same non symmetrical shape as Susannah. I was trying to be careful, but I messed up, and I managed to baste the shape incorrectly one time. Snip, snip, spritz, spritz, press, press, and I was back in business. You can see the mistake in the photo above in the upper left.

Katherine didn’t come out exactly perfect along the edge. It is very hard to get that intersection of four points perfectly straight, but I think I will be able to ease it in when I add the sashing. I am thinking more and more that the sashing is going to be as finely pieced as the blocks. It will almost be like making a second quilt.

And here the blocks are together.

What a week. I look forward to next week and to the next two blocks. This quilt has really taken over my life, but I promise that I will get back to work on Kona Log Cabin Quilt. I have actually been working on it in the background, but I have nothing new to post about yet.

I am linking up to the Link Party over at Gnome Angel. Stop on over and see what everyone else is up to.

Belle was considered to be a challenging block by many because she had “Y” seams. However, one look at Belle, and I knew she was going to be a breeze to complete because she was MADE for EPP with those “Y” seams. Not only that, but she had only had 12 pieces, some of them being quite large.

Coral, on the other hand, was a throw back to the trials of Caroline. She had 24 pieces, like Caroline, with many of them being triangles. Yet, there were at least a few squares and rectangles to ease the way to the completion of Coral.

#13 Belle

Belle is made with the follow Kona Solids: Artichoke and Peridot

 

#24 Coral

Coral is made with the follow Kona Solids: Amethyst and Thistle

The first thing I did when piecing Coral was to sew together the three pieces that make up the rectangle that gets paired with the other long rectangle. Those four pieces make up the center of Coral. I had long suspected that it might not be enough to simply cut on the lines of the diagrams when making these blocks because of the added width provided by the overlap of the fabric to the back of the paper pieces. A reader suggested the same thing when commenting on my post last week. She suggested cutting away the lines rather than merely cutting through them. I know that this is probably the best thing to do, yet it adds an entirely new level of tedious precision to the process. I did not do it for this block because I wanted to measure the difference when I went to add that pieced long rectangle to the single long rectangle in the center. The difference came to 1/16 of an inch. I’m still on the fence about trimming vs. cutting. As the blocks become even more detailed I may not be able to avoid trimming.

 

Process photo of work on Coral.

There has to be at least one process photo.

Another reader last week answered my question about which direction to turn the seam allowance on my triangles. She said to be consistent in turning in either a clockwise or a counter clockwise direction. Upon digesting that information, I  realized that I had been doing that instinctively all along. I knew this because I found it nearly impossible to turn the corners in the opposite direction when I attempted to do so. So I knew I could only have been turning them in one direction. I guess that was what allowed me to finally tame my tails last week.

All of my blocks.

The two blocks I made this week were a slight departure in terms of color use. I had originally planned to use both violet and green in every block. However, so many blocks involve only two values, so I decided that I would make some of them with only violets, and some with only greens. The sprinkling of blocks above proves to me that this color strategy will likely be successful in the final layout.

I think it is tremendously inspiring that some of the participants on the Facebook group for this QAL are moving ahead and producing blocks before they have been assigned. Because they have shared their industry with us, I have been inspired to try to do the same. I have printed out a couple of blocks that I think are particularly well suited to being done with EPP, and hope to attempt them soon. These blocks are: #46 Jewel and #44 Iris.

I picked up some heavier weight paper to use for my paper pieces. I got some 32 pound laser paper from Staples this week, but have not used it yet. I will use it for the next two blocks and report back on how I like it.

The Facebook group continues to be an amazingly helpful and positive place thanks to the diligent efforts of the admins to keep it that way.

I am linking back to Gnome Angel’s Link Back Party. Come and see the beautiful work being produced by everyone, and take a look at what others have to say on their blogs.

I am also linking up with Jessica’s Monday Morning Star Count over at Life Under Quilts.

Yesterday my husband and I attended the Chesterfield Township Historical Society Heritage Day. My husband’s cousin is the President of the society. Having seen my Facebook posts, she thought I would enjoy seeing the quilts on display. She was right about that. I think you might enjoy seeing them too, so here they are for your viewing pleasure.

The quilts were displayed in a Quaker Meeting House draped over benches, and also hanging from the upper level.

I found this to be a delightful way to display the variety of quilts in such a small area/ It also allowed people to get up close and view the details by walking through the isles. The only down side was that you didn’t get to see the entire quilt.

There were far too many quilts to take photos of each one individually, but I have taken individual shots for a few of the quilts that particularly caught my eye. Let’s start with the quilt toward the front of the photo above.

I think I am going to have to put this on my bucket list of quilts to make. This would be a great way of using up teeny tiny pieces of Kona Solids. I can see it done with bright colors for the tiny triangles using a variety of subtle gray colors for the background areas.

Here is a quilt displaying a delightful combination of patchwork and appliqué. It deserves a few close ups.

I was told that this quilt featuring flying geese is particularly meaningful to the township. It has diamond patches in the centers of the blocks with information on them. Here is a second view of the same quilt.

What would a quilt display be without the obligatory Wedding Ring Quilt?

We have a Pinwheel on display utilizing white sashing.

Here is one I can’t name, but I can guarantee you it was hand pieced with either a traditional method or with English Paper Piecing. EPP would have been my preferred method of tackling it.

And, of course, we must show the beauty of the two color quilt. I’m pretty sure that you would call this an Irish Chain.

I don’t have a name for this, but it is some type of a star.

I don’t have a name for this either, but it is definitely a Half Square Triangle party taking place.

I almost didn’t take this photograph because album quilts are not my thing at all, but I am glad I included it to show that the display was inclusive of appliqué even though it was heavily weighted toward patchwork.

Let’s have a look at the quilts displayed above:

You’ve got to love a log cabin quilt. I know I do.

Last we’ll take a peak at the Quilting Bee taking place, which visitors were invited to participate in. I didn’t try my hand at quilting on the frame. I already know that I prefer to lap quilt. It was early in the day when I took this photograph, but we have one woman taking part in the fun already.

Some of these quilts must have been done recently because the the display was described as being “antique and contemporary quilts on display.” You would have to get up close to tell the difference because even the contemporary quilts were vintage in design. It didn’t seem productive to try to guess which were antique and which were not. They were all well crafted, and as far as I could tell, none were machine quilted. I didn’t get close enough the ones that were hung high to know that for sure, but it was a Heritage Festival and the quilts followed through on the theme, so I would imagine that machine quilting would probably not have been in keeping with the theme.

Photo Credit: Laura Bennet

Tuesday night I attended the monthly meeting of the Central Jersey Modern Quilt Guild. Our challenge for the month was to make a quilt with just two colors, or to bring in something that was just two colors that had already been made by us or by someone else. This challenge was proposed at just the time that I was deciding what colors to use for my Farmer’s Wife Quilt. Initially I had thought that I might make the quilt a secondary color themed quilt using Violets, Greens, and Oranges. However, the challenge helped me make up my mind to go with only shades of Violet and Green.

Although my quilt is nowhere near done, and will take over a year to complete, I had finished six blocks. What was even more significant, and of potential interest to the group, is that I had amassed an amazing number of Kona solids from which to choose as I continued to work. So I clipped my Kona flowers together and brought them to show to the group along with my six blocks.

I received a great complement from one of the guild members, who upon examining my points, proclaimed me the “Queen of Precision”. I did not hesitate to accept the crown. I said with no false modesty, “Yes, I am.”

Last week I received 23 half yards of Kona solids from the Fat Quarter Shop. Twelve of those colors were new, and I am showing them below.

Peridot, Limelight, and Cabbage

 

Pea Pod, Artichoke, and Lime

 

Bright Periwinkle, Thistle, and Wisteria

 

Tarragon, Amethyst, and Ash

This yardage came packaged in two zip lock bags. The Fat Quarter Shop does a beautiful job of fanning out the yardage so you can see each piece. This order came to $80.50, which is exactly enough (plus 50 cents) to avoid shipping charges.

This is what they looked like when they first arrived. The fabrics look even better once the plastic has been stripped away.

There is something I did not previously realize about the way these fabrics are packaged. The Fat Quarter shop places the yardage into the bag in the EXACT SAME ORDER as the names of the fabrics are listed on the packing list! If you are ordering solids this is tremendously helpful in sorting them out. I will never again need to try to match up fabrics with the tiny fabric swatches on the Kona Solids Sample Card.

Now I feel a little bit foolish about this post.

If you want to see what my guild is up to, just search Instagram for #cjmqg

 

The blocks are getting harder, and the heat is definitely on. In this installment of “The Farmer’s Wife Saga” I am going to show my two blocks for this week. I am also going to talk a little bit about my process. Then I will share my thoughts for the future of this quilt.

#14 Betty

Betty is made with the following Kona solids: Artichoke, Thistle, and Peridot.

#20 Caroline

Caroline is made with the follow Kona solids: Bright Periwinkle, Wisteria, and Cabbage.

Caroline from Behind

I share a photo of Caroline from the back side to begin the discussion of my process. This photo illustrates the complexity of Caroline. Get a load of all of those tails, especially those converging at the center of the block, and also at the centers of the two pinwheels which make up the upper right and lower left of the block.

Caroline is the first block composed entirely of triangles. This proved to be a challenge in terms of basting and matching up points at the center of the three locations mentioned above.

Here are a few things I was aware of as I worked on the triangles that make up Caroline:

Placing pins along the diagonal edge and placing the head of the pin to the right made it easiest for me to baste because the head of the pin was as far away as possible from my starting point.

I found it prudent to begin basting triangles at the 90 degree angle corner of the triangle to give myself a good start before tackling the corners that would produce the tails.

I was able to remove the pin on the smaller triangles after making only one additional basting stitch along the first side of the triangle. With the larger triangles I waited until I turned the first sharp corner to remove my pin.

I am still a little bit unsure about which side of the triangle fabric I should be placing uppermost when turning those acute angles.

I found the small red Clover clips to be very useful in holding the edges together when joining my pieces, especially for matching seams. (The above photo shows this process with Aunt, as I had not documented it with Caroline.) That is my lap by the way… one of my favorite photo staging areas for fine details.

Speaking of deTAILS, let’s talk about tails…

Man, they do stick up.

I could not imagine that I could tame this beast… the beast with eight tails.

I thought of clipping the tails, but somehow that seemed unnecessarily cruel, and somehow not right, as well as fraught with possibilities for regret if it did not go well. If you EPP, how do you deal with your tails?

Well, I finally decided to pay attention to one tail at a time and try to flatten each out in relation to the tail nearest it, and eventually I got them to nest. Then the application of some heat managed to put those tails in their places as flat as they could go. I am wondering if I should do a tiny bit of tacking with thread to keep them in place.

I think the points match up rather well considering how hard it is to see what you are doing with all of those tails wagging in your face when you do the stitching at the the intersection of all eight pieces.

I didn’t get out a timer for these blocks, but my best guess is that Betty clocked in at about three hours, and Caroline may have taken as many as five hours. Let’s not even talk about the time spent documenting and blogging because that doesn’t count. I do that because I must.

I have been paper piecing hexagons now for about two and a half years. In eight hours of time I imagine that I would have been able to cut, baste and assemble enough hexagons to cover ten times the area that these two little squares will cover, but that isn’t really the point. The issue is, do I want to continue spending my time this way, when there might be a better way to do this? Perhaps there is a more appropriate way to complete this project. At the risk of seeming shallow, I have to admit that part of my conflict comes not only from the amount of time this project will consume, but also from knowing that there is going to be nothing about the appearance of the finished product that will suggest that it was hand pieced. It will look like a machine pieced quilt. There is something about hexagons that say, to at least the experienced quilter, “I was hand pieced.” You can hear that declaration from twenty feet away. I like that.

I definitely want to continue with the QAL, but perhaps I should look at this as an opportunity to learn something new. Maybe I should be buying the Marti Mitchell templates and trying traditional hand piecing. It would be another way of relaxing with hand stitching. There is a lot of excitement for the templates in the QAL Facebook group discussion. I imagine that hand piecing with the templates would be faster than the EPP approach I am taking. Perhaps I should consider learning to do Foundation Paper Piecing. As much as it would tie me to the machine, which I hate, it would provide me with a new skill.

It is worth noting that my finished blocks are measuring slightly larger than the prescribed finished length. This error is between 1/16 of an inch and 1/8th of an inch. Luckily it is consistent. But I should take it into account when I go about finishing the quilt.

One of the things I worry about a little bit is how I am going to finish this quilt with sashing. I have pretty much rejected the idea of engineering my squares so I can recover the quarter inch seam allowance. It is something I don’t want to worry about as I baste. Plus if I am going to do the blocks with EPP, I want to EPP it all. I am considering drafting a sashing with a variety of gray fabrics that are light in value. I’ve done a few sketches, but if I go this route I am likely to drag out the old school drafting tools and draw out a portion of the sashing to scale. I may even “hide” some hexagons in the sashing to “prove” that the work is EPP.

In most likelihood I will continue with EPP at least until I have completed enough blocks to do a sample with EPP sashing.

Stay tuned.

I’d like to hear from you. If you are doing the Farmer’s Wife with EPP, how is it going for you? What challenges have you encountered? Do you have any plans for sashing?

I am joining in the fun of The Farmer’s Wife Link Party over at Gnome Angel. Thank you Angie Wilson for giving us the opportunity to share our blogs in this way.

I am also linking up with Jessica’s Monday Morning Star Count over at Life Under Quilts.

I fleshed out that central medallion with five more blocks this week to bring it to a 3 x 3 configuration. I need six more blocks to finish off the 3 x 5 configuration I am seeking.

After I have my medallion blocks finished I will need 41 blocks of a more random nature to create the frame for the medallion.

I may already have that many additional blocks, but I may create a few more so I have some options when it comes to making selections as I assemble the final quilt. Any blocks left over may find their way on the back of the quilt in a more modern layout. Did I hear you say, “Alternate Grid”? Or maybe you were thinking, “Slice and Dice”?

This is a report on my progress for the first week of the Farmer’s Wife QAL which has been organized by Angie Wilson from Gnome Angel. We had three blocks to do this week named Becky, Bonnie, and Aunt. Moving forward we will be doing only two blocks per week. It will take us a year to complete all of the blocks for this quilt unless we are doing a reduced size version with fewer blocks. Some members of the QAL are already talking about doing two quilts simultaneously.

This QAL is based on the book “The Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt” available from Amazon.

I have chosen to do my blocks using English Paper Piecing as my method. It is my intention to complete the entire quilt using this method, yet I am intrigued by the idea of attempting foundation paper piecing by machine. You know, that OTHER kind of paper piecing, the kind most people mean when they say “paper piecing.”

I must say that the Facebook group for this QAL is a flurry of activity with over 4,000 members already. Some of them are in a bit of a tizzy because the feed for the group is taking over their Facebook lives. I, however, am enjoying the flow of beautiful blocks in the group as well as the chatty discussion to which I strive to contribute in a meaningful manner.  Thankfully I have learned how to unfollow the group so it doesn’t flood my Facebook feed. Yet it seems that I spend most of my time with these lovely people.

Here are my three blocks for this week in the order in which they were assigned and completed, all in Kona solids:

#12 Becky

This one will definitely be redone. I am not loving the dark purple.

#16 Bonnie

#8 Aunt

This is the first time that I have ever used EPP techniques with ANY shape other than a one inch hexagon. I was naturally hesitant to attempt this QAL using EPP, but so far it is working out okay. We are starting with the easier blocks, so things will get harder as we go along, but I imagine that my skills will build to meet the challenge.

You may be looking at these blocks and asking, “Why would anyone do these blocks with EPP when they would be so easy to piece by machine?” The answer is that the more complicated blocks will not be so easy to piece by machine, and I want to do the whole thing with EPP as a matter of princple, even the very simplest of blocks.

Here is how I went about doing these blocks with EPP.

I started by printing out all three blocks from the CD, and then cutting them into pieces on the lines of the diagrams to obtain my paper pieces.

I pinned each piece directly to the fabric and simply cut around the paper freehand leaving enough fabric to baste under. I could have used templates if I had wanted to, but the EPP method does not require templates at all. The paper piece is not only your means of stabilization, but also your guide to cutting.

Here is a small square pinned to a piece of Kona Pansy.

The pieces below are for Bonnie.

I basted my pieces and sewed them together. You see Aunt in process below.

I was very nervous about the triangles. Triangles did not pop up until Aunt. I had gotten quite adept at basting squares and rectangles. I was afraid I would not fold the paper under accurately enough for triangles, but the edges matched up fine with the inner square, and my points turned out okay. I was a bit thrown by the little tails that the triangles created but I think I managed them alright.

I am using 20 pound copy paper for my paper pieces, but I think it would be worth it to invest in a ream of something a bit heavier, especially for those blocks with really tiny pieces.

Here is how Aunt looks from the back. I keep the bulk of the basting threads to the front because they are much easier to remove that way.

As regards presentation, I am not thrilled that I had to pierce the fabric to do the basting. It kind of ruins the presentation for the blog. I don’t like showing my basting threads when I photograph my blocks so I stopped piercing my fabric for my one inch hexagons a long time ago. I could have used glue on these blocks, but I am not a fan of glue, although it was looking like a good idea after I saw how much time it took to do the basting on these blocks.

There was a tutorial about doing these blocks with EPP posted by Lucy from Charm About You. I recommend that you read her entire blog post, but I will share a tiny bit of what she said here as it relates to thread basting. In that tutorial Lucy recommends that you baste with thread if you are going to EPP the whole quilt. She said that it will last, and that you need the papers to stay in place to sew it all together. That made sense to me. She had many other good suggestions about completing the pieces with EPP, but I urge you to visit her tutorial to benefit from her experience.  I suggested on the Facebook page that I might glue only the INNER papers on more complicated blocks and use thread basting on all pieces that make contact with the outside edge. Lucy responded to my comment and said that she thought that was a good way to go. It was good to have my instincts confirmed. I found it interesting that Lucy showed us how to recover our quarter in seam allowance on an EPP block if we planned to incorporate EPP blocks with other techniques. I never would have thought of that on my own. I can tell that this QAL will be a great learning experience with bloggers like her sharing their wisdom.

Next week I will have two new Farmer’s Wife Blocks to share with you.

If you are interested in joining in on the QAL you can find out more about it here.

The more the merrier. Let’s make that Facebook Feed Fly!

I joke a little about how some of the members are frazzled by their feeds, but I must say that, by and large, this is a calm group. Moreover, they are incredibly kind and helpful group. Most are truly interested in seeing the work of others and commenting in a positive tone to encourage. I anticipate learning a great deal from these ladies.

I am linking up with Angie’s link up over at Gnome Angle.

I am also linking up with Jessica’s Monday Morning Star Count over at Life Under Quilts. Those of you visiting from the Monday Morning Star Count might want to scroll down a few posts to see what I have been up to during the last two weeks.

It should be no surprise that I follow a blog called The Hexie Blog. Today the author of that blog, Julia Wood, posted a question from one of her readers about adding border strips to a hexagon quilt. I’ll let you read that query for yourself on The Hexie Blog.

Since I have had experience fleshing out the edges of hexagon pieces in just this manner, I decided to write to Julia and summarize my process incase she wanted to pass on the information to her reader. I referred her to a post in which I showed two such projects, and promised that I would take close up photographs of the corners and the edges of the one with the wider borders, and get back to her with those images today. I decided that the best way share them with her was to share them with you right here.

First let’s take a look at the images:

Here is the upper right corner of the panel. Notice the “seam” joining the side strip to the top strip. It isn’t a seam. It is appliquéd in place. This is the secret.

Here is the right side of the panel. The edges of the hexagons were lined up with a ruler to insure that this was straight. By the way, notice that I fleshed out the border of the hexagon work to match my border strips. It isn’t necessary, but I think it adds to the effect.

Here is the top side of the panel. This edge was also lined up with a ruler.

Here is a closeup of that “seam”. Even close up it is hard to tell it is done with appliqué.

You’ve seen the pictures. Now, for additional clarity, you can read about the process:

I cut strips for all four sides allowing for some extra length to be cut off later. I also allowed for an extra half inch to go under the edge of the hexagon work (measuring from the part that would be farthest from the outer edge). I guess you could call that the equivalent of a seam allowance.

I added my strips to the left and right sides first leaving at least a half inch of extra fabric along the end of the strip to fold under later. (More about that below.) I placed the strip on the table and laid the hexagon work over top of the strip. I pinned every hexagon and measured with a ruler every time to be sure I was placing the hexagon the right distance from the edge of the strip.

Edit: Actually, there is an alternative way to do this, and it may have been the way I actually did it. It was over a year ago that I did this border, after all. The alternative method is the lay the hexagon work face down on the table. You then take your strip and line the edge up perfectly with a reference on the reverse side, like the top edge of a row of hexagons. If you do it this way you will have to pull out the pins and pin them again one by one after flipping the work. You will also have to cut a wider “seam allowance” for the strip depending on what reference you are using. Either method will work, and I think they are probably equally time consuming.

After sewing the left and right sides to the strips I turned back the excess on the ends of the strips and pressed to get a sharp edge. These edges would be hand sewn to the top and bottom strips along with the hexagon edge. This avoids the need to figure out how to piece a “frame”. (By the way, as a side note, I would not recommend piecing a frame and trying to lay out the hexagon work on top of it. That approach is fraught with possibilities for distortion.)

The top and bottom strips were pinned into place in the same manner as the strips on the left and the right. Then they were hand sewn.

There is one thing about which one should be particularly careful. You want to be sure that neither the strips, nor the hexagon work, be stretched in the process of joining. It would be easy to get the unsightly ruffling effect you sometimes see on quilts along the edge if one or the other surface were stretched in the process of joining.

Incase you did not take a look at the post linked above, here is a shot of the project from which I took the detailed photographs above. It is a panel I have used to hang between my dining room and kitchen to keep the air conditioning in the dining room.

Edit: After publishing this post I went over to The Hexie Blog to read the comments on the original blog entry where the call for help was made. Interestingly enough, one of the comments was from a woman who said that she is doing the quilt in “The New Hexagon” by Katja Marek. She said that Katja has them appliqué the sides to their borders, fold down the top and bottom edges of the side borders, and then appliqué to the top and bottom borders. I guess great minds think alike. We both came up with exactly the same method independently of each other. That isn’t actually so amazing though, because it isn’t that complicated a method, but it is still interesting to me that it happened that way.