The Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Quilt-Along

Have you heard about the biggest quilt-along of the year?  Angie at Gnome Angel is hosting a year-long quilt-along (say that ten times fast!) to make the epic quilt in Laurie Aaron Hird‘s new book, The Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt: Inspiring Letters from Farm Women of the Great Depression and 99 Quilt Blocks That Honor Them.  The quilt-along begins September 28th and we will be making two 6″ blocks a week, for a total of 99 blocks.

Angie will be sharing tutorials with guest bloggers each week (I am happy to say that I will be one of them!), so you can learn all of their tricks, tips and secrets for making each block.  If you would like to join in (and you know you do), you can find out all of the information on Angie’s blog at the Farmer’s Wife FAQ.  There is also a Facebook group with almost 2000 members already!!

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I have been very busy planning my Farmer’s Wife Quilt.  The quilt can be rotary cut using templates and free-pieced, or you can choose to paper-piece the more difficult blocks.  I normally paper-piece as much as humanly possible, so I have decided to challenge myself by HAND-PIECING all 99 blocks.  I really wanted to stretch my skills, and it’s soccer/swimming/ballet season (when is it not), so it should be the perfect project to work on while sitting at various sport practices.  Two 6″ blocks a week shouldn’t be bad to hand sew, right???? (I’m soliciting encouragement here.).

The printable templates are included with the book, but I am planning to use Marti Mitchell’s Perfect Patchwork Templates to cut my pieces.  She is working along with Angi to provide a list of templates that will be needed to complete the quilt (This info is also in the FAQ).  I will probably English-Paper-Piece the sharp “Y” seams.

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I am still waffling on my fabric.  It’s so hard to decide!

I was thinking of using my stash of Japanese prints along with this bundle of Modern Background Paper by Zen Chic:

 I LOVE this combination, but I am worried that the Japanese prints are too large scare for the 6-1/2″ blocks.

My other choice is this:

On the right is London Calling by Robert Kaufman and on the left is my collection of Liberty prints.  I thought I would use the Liberty prints and mix in some of the London Calling.  They would be paired with coordinating Kona Solids.

I am leaning towards using this combination, but I don’t know if I want to hand-piece lawn fabrics!

My third option is to simply go scrappy, scrappy, scrappy and utilize my entire stash.  I have a month to mull it over and I think I will make a couple samples to help me decide.

Are you planning to join in?  It’s going to be a fun year!