Farmer's Wife Finished Quilt Top

 About a month ago I finished my Farmer's Wife quilt top 

and I'm excited to finally share it with you!  

 

My trip on the Farmer's Wife Express started back in January 2012 when my bosses and I decided that we would start a Farmer's Wife Club at Just Sew (the quilt shop I work at in Highland, Utah).  We taught a different technique each month, including basic piecing, paper piecing, template piecing and applique so that by the end of the year we would have all 111 blocks complete. I learned a lot from teaching and participating in the club.  I learned that I like template piecing (I had never tried it before).  I learned about new tools for paper piecing.  I paper pieced really intricate blocks and I made dozens of new blocks!  I learned new methods for making half square triangles.  I tried Y-seams for the first time!  And I found out that tiny stuff - is actually really fun to make!  It was a great experience overall and I'm really glad I was a part of the club.

  

Originally I planned on making all the blocks but somewhere along the way I decided that I really didn't need another queen size quilt so I decided to stop at 83 blocks for a twin size quilt.  I feel good about my decision and still feel like this was a BIG accomplishment.

 I decided that I wanted bigger sashing than what the book called for so I cut my strips 2" wide.  I decided to go with the off-white sashing and setting triangles because I really wanted to keep the focus on the blocks.  And, to be honest, I didn't know if I could handle any more red at that point.  Let's just say that although I've always wanted a red and white quilt, I may be a little tired of it and have tried to keep my distance from it ever since :)

For the inner border I used a red tone-on-tone gingham print from Sweetwater's fabric line, Wishes.  I liked that it had a dark and a light red 

on it - to pull in all the different shades of red from the quilt center.  

Plus, who can resist gingham on the bias? :)  

 

Mitering the outer border was a first for me.  I'm just glad that the stripes were small and relatively subtle so that if I was off it wouldn't be too noticeable (and I was off - pretty much on all 4 corners :)  Unfortunately I don't know the name/designer of my outer border and backing but they both have a vintage feel that I couldn't resist.

I really want this to be hand quilted, but I know myself and know that will NEVER happen.  So I am going to take it to a local group of ladies that hand quilt for hire and all the proceeds go to buy materials for patients at the Utah State Hospital.  I think it will be a win-win situation but it takes 6-8 months to get it back so you won't be hearing any more talk about this quilt for a long, long time!

 On a slightly different but related note, I wanted to let you all know that I was contacted at the end of last year by Karen Walker who is offering a Farmer's Wife Quilt Revival class on Craftsy that sounds really interesting.  It's a year long class (similar to the Farmer's Wife club I was in) that divides the blocks into different categories and techniques, advancing in skill as the year goes on.  She teaches modern piecing techniques and you can sign up for all 12 classes or just a few - the choice is yours!  Head on over to Karen's Craftsy pattern store or blog for more details.

If you'd like more details about my FW quilt journey click 

on "Farmer's Wife Club" under "Labels" on my sidebar.

Happy Quilting!

~ Amber