Farmer’s Wife 1930’s – Coral, Old Maid, Susannah and Katherine

Wow, can you believe it’s been 4 weeks since this crazy ride began? I am constantly amazed by the sheer number of people stitching along, and the incredible inspiration that everyone has been producing. The variety of blocks, despite using the same design is fabulous.

 

 

I missed an update last week because I posted the Belle y-seam tutorial for you, so here are my week 3 and 4 blocks all together. What fun!

 

 

I thought a sneak peek of some of my block backs might help you. I press my seams mainly to one side, which makes it much easier to line up the seam intersections. If you missed the tutorial for Coral, find it HERE.

Big tip – before cutting anything out, spray your fabric with starch – I love Mary Ellen’s Best Press Clear Starch Alternative 16.9 Ounces-Scent Free. Give it a good iron, then you will find that stabilises all the bias edges on your triangles and helps reduce fraying.

This week we had a lot more triangles… and I decided to try some fussy cutting with plaid as well…. it didn’t fail, but it wasn’t a raging success either.

 

 

I think a lot more planning would be needed to even start to match all those lines up, but the end result, Old Maid, is still pretty cute! I’m happy with the light grey solid fabric really just framing the plaid shape and not competing with it.

Next we had another double block day, hooray! These two were easy to make together, however I used a slightly different method than Angie for adding the small triangles – I cut rectangles to the size needed for the blocks, and then stitched my triangle over the end of them. I was able to chain piece them all, before trimming off the pink solid and pressing the seam over, just like adding a flying geese triangle.

 

You will notice that I pressed all my seams to the side here, including the seams joining the four quarter components together. To enable the centre to lay flat, I “spun” my middle seam. If you haven’t learnt that trick yet, it’s worth doing. It totally changed my block piecing technique. You’re going to be seeing it here a lot!

 

 

Here is beautiful Susannah, pink and grey and fresh. Find Angie’s version of Susannah HERE.

 

 

My technique for block 49, Katherine, was basically identical. One of my corner triangles didn’t flip down far enough, so I left the backing fabric uncut. It adds a small amount of bulk but will ensure that when I join the blocks up at the end, I have a more accurate seam line to follow. You can see it above, on the bottom right corner.

 

 

Katherine just came out so sweet! I love the mix of pink, garnet and the aqua floral print. The majority of the prints I am using in this quilt are from Pam Kitty Morning’s ranges for Lakehouse Drygoods. A great selection of them are available from Fat Quarter Shop. If you missed Katherine before, find Angie’s tutorial HERE.

I have been resisting temptation and working just block by block, but I couldn’t resist putting them up together for a group photo. 10 blocks out of 99 finished is a great achievement!

 

 

So far I’m really happy with them. I know that in future blocks I will tweak the colour balance (a little too much pink lately!) but overall they work really well together!

As always, my thanks to Marti Michell for supplying me with her fabulous templates. They really do make piecing these tricky, tiny blocks so much easier. If you haven’t tried them, I can honestly recommend them.

 

How’s your farm progressing? Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Just keep working on at your own pace and enjoy the journey!

 

 

**Disclaimer** There are affiliate links contained in this post. I appreciate your support to keep me stitching and sharing my ideas for free with you all!

 

Please be aware that there may be affiliate links in this content. Your support allows me to keep creating for you!