I’ve been working through the various corners of my home that have been niggling at me lately. And by that I mean irritating me because they are cluttered and unorganized. I tackled my sewing area over the weekend and ended up rather enjoying the process. I sorted through my more recent fabrics and was finally brave enough to break the fabrics out of their bundles and sort them by color. This was actually very hard for me to do, but I know that I need to that to be a bit braver and more creative in my fabric choices.
Are you involved in the epic 1930’s Farmer’s Wife Quilt-Along? I’m actually sort of involved in two of them. The first on is organized by Very Kerry Berry and she seems to be working through the book in order. I hand pieced the first block (above), which was actually really fun–but it came out the wrong size. I have a feeling the template printed out at the wrong size (it couldn’t be me, right?!).
The second, more epic QAL (with over 3500 people participating worldwide) is being run by Gnome Angel. She is skipping around the book, starting easy and showing different ways to make the blocks. It’s the first week and I’m already behind, but I do think I have my fabric choices worked out for the first block. It’s actually quite time consuming to cut fabric for just one block at a time. These blocks have some especially tiny pieces. I’ve been practicing my 1/4″ seam, to make sure that I’m as accurate as possible. I’m not planning on making the full 99 blocks, but just enough for a lap-size quilt.
The book is really charming and fun to read, with actual letters that were printed in Farmer’s Wife magazine during the depression. I love to see how the struggles of raising a family are truly universal. The strength and fortitude of these women is very inspiring. I hope that I can actually continue with this project throughout the year and not let it drop, like so many of these types of projects do. Progress, not perfection is what I’m going for here. I want to enjoy the journey and take my time with it.