It is the end of the first week on the Farmer’s Wife sew along, #fw1920eppsal. The pace of the event is two blocks per week, so I am decidedly ahead of the game already. I have five finished blocks to show today.

#1 Attic Windows

With this block I learned not to remove internal papers before photographing the work.

#2 Autumn Tints

This was a very straightforward block.

I skipped over #3 Basket because I wanted to see how Gnome Angel would deal with the handle. I watched a live video feed last night where she talked about the handle, and demonstrated a way to deal with it. Her suggestion was to wait until the end when all the papers come out to finish the block. So I will be making it without the handle, and presenting it that way for the time being.

#4 Basket Weave

I had trouble with the edges of this block and actually needed to rip the joining seams out into the block to ease them. I documented that process with photos and might do a post about it later.

This block dramatically demonstrated to me the problem of blocks expanding in size when pieces are added together. This is a potential issue when it comes to adding sashing.

#5 Bat Wing

This block was really easy to assemble.

#6 Big Dipper

Up until this block I had been glue basting my pieces. I decided to go old school and thread baste this one. I started out using 50 weight cotton Sewing thread to baste so it would not show as much in the blog photos. See the upper left. I thought that this thread was more slippery than the thread I had previously used when basting, so I switched to a white cotton quilting thread that offered more tooth thus gripping the fabric more. I was happy with the results.

To glue or to thread baste, that is the question. Gluing is faster. Thread basting seems to offer me more control. It takes a lot more time, but it is meditative, and in keeping with traditions of EPP.

Another thing noteworthy about this block is that I was careful to baste my triangles so my tails are all pointing clockwise. This is necessary in order to achieve proper nesting, which is especially important when eight tails meet at one point as they do in the center of this block.

I gently clipped the tails of these triangles before basting. I don’t think I will be doing that anymore.

I said I had five blocks, but the truth is that I have seven, but the last two have not been documented in the Farmer’s Wife Facebook Group yet, so I will leave them for the next weekly roundup.

I’ve decided to do my version of The Farmer’s Wife using Kona Solid Fabrics. I made my initial selection of fabrics, which you can see above, from my newly acquired Kona Color Card. It was really difficult trying to get a good variety of colors and values just working with small chips and trying to keep a memory of the colors I wanted while ignoring the colors I didn’t want. I did my best, however, to get started knowing I could fill in any gaps later.

Kudos, by the way, to The Fat Quarter Shop for packaging their yardage in exactly the same order as they are listed on the packing list. This is no small convenience when it comes to labeling yardage that is very close in color.

These colors were chosen to work with the first few areas that I will encounter in my color wash quilt. I’ve chosen to use the plan created by the fine people at Paper Pieces, the best source of pre cut papers for English Paper Piecing.

Here is the full plan as executed with patterned fabrics by Art Gallery Fabrics.

Here is a closeup of the area I’ll be starting with using Paper Pack #1 from Paper Pieces.

And here is a super useful chart showing how to overlap colors for a smooth wash effect. This chart happens to illustrate that the placement of blocks in the quilt sometimes differs from the placement plan, but I do not find that an issue.

I got the brilliant idea to choose additional fabrics by using a digital version of the color guide, my recently purchased and meticulously labeled fabrics, and my Kona Color Card. I came up with an extensive list of fabrics to order from The Fat Quarter Shop, but I’m holding off because I want to get moving with block construction. While I work on blocks I will let my thoughts about value and contrast jell. After all I’ve got sashing, cornerstones, and borders to consider.

The color guide line drawing is going to be helpful as I navigate my way through this daunting project. I’m psyched! Who is with me?

A couple years ago I started doing the 1930s version of the Farmer’s Wife quilt using the English Paper Piecing technique, EPP. I joined the Facebook group for the sew along. Only a few of us were doing the project with EPP. I was doing great, but I got distracted by my work with the Glorious Hexagons project, and my FW quilt officially became a UFO.

Starting August 24th Gnome Angel is once again doing a Farmer’s Wife sew along. This time she is doing it using the original 1920s book and she is doing it using the EPP method. I’m wrapping up my first Glorious Hexagons quilt, and want to stay the course, but how could I resist this new adventure?

To clinch the deal I realized that it was exactly a year to the day on August 24th when I posted my last blog post. This was a sign. It also seemed like a good opportunity to document a new journey. I had gotten distracted by cataract surgery last year, and by the time I felt ready to blog again catching up with GH progress seemed like an impossible task.

So here is hoping that I can get back into the blogging swing.