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Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Farm Friendliness or Color Revealed



One of my favorite categories in the juried exhibition at QuiltCon was the "Modern Traditionalism" catagory.  So many of us quilt precisely because it links us back to the history of women making beautiful objects, by hand, for family and friends.  And, yet, we are looking for a way to put our own stamp on this tradition.

One of the bees I am participating in this quarter is a "sampler" bee, so I went to my bookshelf and pulled out my favorite go-to block book:


The block I chose was the "Farm Friendliness" block, pictured here:


I made a couple of test blocks...only to realize I flipped the corner triangles---oops.

Ah, well, I decided I liked it that way anyhow.  Then I started playing with the way this layout could look depending on your value choices:

Version 3
Version 1
Version 2

Next, on to color choices. The drawings above provide layout for a twin sized quilt, consequently I needed to raid the stash for a color I had a LOT of...and here you have it.






While I chose fabrics, the monkeys played "bedtime":



Here you have the results of the cutting process.  That is 24 blocks, each comprised of 9 squares, 8 of which are seamed...so that is a grand total of....drumroll please...408 pieces!!!!!










The pile of chain-pieced rectangles...







With all this seaming and triangles, there are A LOT of places to screw up (if you are ME).  Needless to say, I was spouting a few expletives at one point last week.  After one row, I decided to take a break.  Here, is the beginnings anyway:


Forgive the light---there are not a lot of places in this 100-year old house to photograph something this big and I am just not trekking out in March snow (!!!) to pin it to the fence!  

Now...just 20 more to go!! What do you think?


Part of:



  Plum and June

7 comments:

  1. That is such a gorgeous block. Thank you for the inspiration!

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  2. Just love the blues and turquoise .... hurry, carry on ... can't wait to see the progress. Phew ... all that cutting out ... just the thought. How long did it take? Oh yes ... came across your blog via the link up :-)and have signed up!

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  3. Thank you Jessica and Erica for checking out my blog! The cutting took a couple of days, because I only get snippets of time here and there. Hopefully the next rows will go together easier! (I ran out of Kona Snow for the last few centers, so need to order some more! LOL)

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  4. Wow that looks great. Love the colors and the block! Good luck on the finish should be beautiful.

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  5. I love it! What a great way to show how the quilt would look with different fabrics.

    Thanks for linking up!

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