We have had a short vacation away from assigned blocks on The Farmer’s Wife Quilt. As much as I promised that I would get ahead, I barely kept pace. I put off the two blocks assigned a couple weeks ago, and took my good old time finishing them this week.

#9 Autumn

Autumn uses the Kona Solids:
Pansy, Peridot, and Celery

When I first looked at Autumn I did not like her at all. I knew that I had to change her to suit myself. Quite frankly, I found her boring. I decided to start piecing her from the center. After finishing the square with the four Pansy colored triangles in the corners I knew that I wanted to make the outer rectangles with Celery rather than Pansy. This way the small inner rectangles would not be so isolated in the block. This would also fix my biggest complaint about Autumn. She was boring because she used the same color for three separate contiguous areas of the block. BORING! When the large outer rectangles were no longer assigned to Pansy that problem was immediately solved.

Now Autumn is one of my favorite blocks. Even though the little Pansy triangles are the same color and contiguous with the larger Pansy triangles they are more interesting to me now as they peak out from the center square.

#86 Priscilla

Priscilla uses the Kona Solids:
Morning Glory and Pansy

The interesting thing about Priscilla is that English Paper Piecing allowed me to make her with fewer pieces than called for in the design. I was able to combine a few pieces that in the original design were the same color, but composed of multiple pieces.

Next week I should be receiving a new assignment of two or three blocks. Back to the old grind.

I am very late posting my progress this week. I had my blocks finished by Monday and could have posted then, but I was very caught up with reading about the new Weight Watchers Points Plus plan on the Weight Watchers web site and also on various Facebook groups to which I belong having to do with Weight Watchers. I’ve been a member of Weight Watchers for over 40 years, and have had my ups and downs. I even worked for Weight Watchers for six months back in 2006 and 2007. I had planned to make it a second career, but I gave it up when we moved rather than look for a new location to work for Weight Watchers.

I have always been quite open about my weight loss journey and maintained a daily blog over on Spark People for over a year when I lost weight using the Body Media Fit armband, which has since been taken over by Jawbone. In any case, I might choose to blog about the new program and my success at maintenance since I have been under goal now again for a few weeks. The new Points Plus program is the biggest innovation in Weight Watchers in over 50 years. There is a lot to be excited about. Maybe I will write more about that in a later post.

This past week we had two blocks to complete, #55 Malvina, and #22 Cat.

#55 Malvina

Malvina is made with the Kona Solids:
Sweet Pea, Thistle, Wisteria, and Amethyst

Malvina From Behind

There is a story behind the creation of Malvina. I generally use only as many fabrics as the diagram shows in the book when I create my blocks. Malvina was shown in the book with only two fabrics. She was kind of boring in my opinion. I was really happy that I waited to start work on Malvina. Because I waited I was lucky enough to see the work of Tracy Holzer, which caught my eye as I was looking at the Farmer’s Wife Facebook Group feed. I was impressed with her choice of fabrics because they brought forth a star shape that exists in Malvina, but which isn’t apparent if you make her with only two fabrics. Tracy’s work is shown below. The star shape is subtle because there is not a lot of contrast in the value of the green and brown. I like that. I tried to emulate that in my color choices as well.

Malvina as Adapted by Tracy Holzer
Work shown with permission.

What is especially nice in my opinion about being inspired by Tracy’s work is that we struck up a conversation on Facebook about it. She then looked me up through the Gnome Angel Linkup Party. Having found my blog she make a few comments on the blog post previous to this one, and our conversation continued there. This is exactly how a QAL is supposed to work. This is why I participate. I will be looking for Tracy’s blocks in the future and I hope that she will be looking for mine as well.

The second block of the week was #22 Cat.

#22 Cat

Cat is made with the Kona Solids:
Celery, Lime, and Limelight

Cat From Behind

Celery has become a staple choice in my Farmer’s Wife Quilt blocks. I had been wanting to use Lime and Limelight for awhile, but was a little concerned about how bright those colors are. I felt that the small amounts used in this block would play well with the celery. I am hoping to work them into future blocks.

We have one more week of assigned blocks until we get a few weeks off for the holidays. For me that means time to get ahead. Last week I was discussing my progress with a member of my quilt guild who has taken an interest in my Farmer’s Wife posts. I mentioned that I was making it a point to do an extra block every time a block is assigned that I had done ahead. I had gotten five blocks ahead at a recent sewing retreat in November. I told her that I do that so I continue to be five blocks ahead. She jokingly asked me, “What happened to Slow Stitching?” She knows I am a proponent of the Slow Stitching Movement. I replied, “They each take me about six hours to complete, you can’t get much slower than that!” You had to be there.

#10 Ava

Ava was made with the Kona Solids:
Amethyst, Thistle, and Celery.

The week started off with the assignment of Ava. It just so happens that I had completed Ava when I was at the CJMQG Retreat in November. So I started working on another block in her place so I would keep my position ahead of the crowd. I won’t reveal the name of the block until she is assigned. Later in the week Daffodil was assigned.

#26 Daffodil

Daffodil was made with the Kona Solids:
Celery, Pansy, Wisteria, O. D. Green, and Sweet Pea.

Daffodil From Behind

I was lucky enough to see some examples of Daffodil before I started work on her. There were a few wonderful versions of this block that utilized a greater number of fabrics than the prescribed three. Although I had taken a bit of a pledge to remain true to the number of fabrics called for, I decided to break that promise for Daffodil in order to make her a bit more dimensional. I also decided to make the flower purple. I could have used two very yellowish greens such as the Celery pictured here in the background, but I felt that if I was going to not make the flower yellow that I should make it purposefully not yellow, thus the choice to go with violets.

Daffodil is the first block that I have felt compelled to display on point. This block screams to be displayed on point. And while half of the blocks will eventually be positioned on point for the final quilt, they will not be displayed that way unless they scream for it as Daffodil does.

Daffodil was much harder to make than I anticipated. Here are a few process photographs of Daffodil.

Daffodil is one of those blocks with pieces that must be turned backwards before you pin them to the fabric and cut the fabric. If you don’t do the reversal the pieces will not fit together. If you reverse none of them they will fit together, but the image will be backwards, which is actually not a big deal. However, if you start reversing the pieces you must reverse them all.

I came up with the idea of labeling the colors of the pieces, which also served to remind me to reverse them. If I pinned the piece to the fabric and I could still read the color symbol I had failed to reverse the template. I did this at least three times and actually basted the pieces before I discovered my mistake. I had to do those pieces a second time. I am a slow learner apparently.

I am “attending” the Link Up Party over at Gnome Angel.