Farmer's Wife 1930's QAL: Mrs. Lloyd

Kerry of verykerryberry is smart and knows I have a little thing for samplers.  My first Farmer's Wife quilt (based on letters from the 1920's) is still in the hand quilting process.  My Farmer's Wife Pony Club blocks should make an appearance on my sewing table again soon, and just this last week I worked on my Gypsy Wife Sampler.  How could I ever resist the 1930's Farmer's Wife book?  Obviously I could not.

Jay McCarrol's Habitat City Planning in teal

Michael Miller Cotton Couture in Jewel and Paprika.

Kerry asked me to post my version of a block last February.  At that time, I decided to make this quilt with vivid color in a single value.  After making that first block, I pored over my stash to find prints from my stash that could work.  Then I dug through my solids color cards for Kona and Michael Miller Cotton Couture and ordered all of the vivid solids in that value. 

At the DCMQG guild meeting this weekend I cut and pieced a few different sampler blocks. 

 My first version of Mrs. Lloyd

 Jenny

 Aunt

Caroline

For the Mrs. Lloyd block, I didn't do anything fancy with the piecing.  I measured the templates to cut the squares and pieced them.  For the flying geese portions of the block I used the rectangle and two squares method to make them.  I did use a lot of starch because starch is my best friend when it comes to precision piecing.  As I mentioned in previous posts, Michael Miller Cotton Couture and starch don't always get along.  I used a liberal amount of liquid starch on the fabrics before cutting.  Then after piecing I only used a spray bottle with a mix of vodka water to get crisp pressing of seams.

It turns out that I'm not loving the single value and vivid color look in fabric combinations other than my original three.  I'm not sure why. 

Some experiments are good to stick with and follow through to the end.  And some are not.  I remade the Mrs. Lloyd block with my original fabrics. Now I'm changing my sampler plan to using only three fabrics. (!!!)  If you know me at all, limiting my palette to three is crazy hard.  I think this could be a fun new experiment.  Eventually I hope to share more about it here.

If you haven't started the Farmer's Wife 1930's Quilt Along, join in now!  I only have two blocks done so it won't take long to catch up to me!  Don't forget to tag your Farmer's Wife blocks on Instagram with the hashtag #fw1930sqal, and tell me about your sewing experiments in the comments. 

Farmer's Wife 1930's QAL: Grandma

Kerry of verykerryberry knows my weakness for samplers.  My first Farmer's Wife quilt (based on letters from the 1920's) is still in the hand quilting process.  My Farmer's Wife Pony Club blocks are packed for our move later this month, as is my in-process Gypsy Wife Sampler.  So, why not start a new sampler?

Last summer, Kerry was kind enough to invite me to blog for her quilt along.  She started sewing and blogging her blocks in September.  For five whole months, I've been meaning to join in, but I was stuck on a fabric theme.  Soooooo stuck, epic, quicksand stuck.  What would make this sampler new for me?

I finally figured it out four stinkin' days ago.  Based on an inspiring instagram photo from Monica of mountainofthedragon,  I decided to use vivid colors with very little value difference.

Jay McCarrol's Habitat City Planning in teal

Michael Miller Cotton Couture in Jewel and Paprika.

Value is determined by how light or dark a color is in grayscale--baby blue vs. navy, pink vs. burgundy, peach vs. dark orange.  When there are many colors in a quilt, you can look at a black and white picture of the fabrics to help determine if you need more value changes in your fabric selection.  In my sewing, I tend to choose a lot of medium value fabrics and need to push myself to add lights and darks.  In sampler blocks, it is generally accepted that using a mix of light, medium and dark fabrics helps highlight the piecing and design of the blocks.

This time, I decided to ignore that advice and am using a single value.  I'm really excited about this experiment. Check out this black and white picture of the three fabrics I chose for this block:

I have a thing for starch in my sampler blocks.  Frequent starching allowed me to use templates to piece nearly all of my first Farmer's Wife quilt blocks.  Some previous FW and Pony Club blocks were so stiff they could nearly stand on edge.  However, I have found that the Michael Miller Cotton Couture does not play nicely with repeated starching when pressing.  The fabric is fine and smooth, doesn't accept starch well and tends to bubble up along seam lines.  I decided to starch my fabrics just once and then paper piece this block.  That allowed the fabric to play nicely yet gave me a smooth finished block

I precut my fabrics for paper piecing by tracing the triangles a little bit bigger and then measuring the bigger size square to cut them from.  I colored the paper piecing directions, too.  It's a good thing I did because I still had to start over with section A once and B twice!  I guess I'm out of practice with paper piecing. 

So, this first 1930's Farmer's Wife block was a long time coming, but I think it was worth the wait.

Tag your Farmer's Wife blocks on Instagram with the hashtag #fw1930sqal, and tell me about your sewing adventures in value in the comments.