Farmer’s Wife Challenge Update

I took apart the two Basketweave blocks I put together wrong and stitched them back while actually looking at the pattern, which helped immensely!!!

Since I had already squared up the blocks, when I sewed them together, they didn’t come out quite square, but close enough. 

I plan to mail the 6 1/2 inch block to one of the Farmer’s Wife FUN Challenge participants as just an extra, not part of the actual swap since it’s not quite perfect.  I will be using the large 12 1/2 inch block for a civil war repro quilt I am making for my brother-in-law.  Here it is with the two most recent blocks I received from my partner in the Block Swap Adventure. 

I am taking a break from the Block Swap Adventure this year.  It was fun, but I am part of a bee in 2012 and plan to do two quilt alongs this spring which will take up a lot of my free time.

So, onto the actual blocks I made for the FUN Challenge.  I started with this block first.  It was my first block using a template (as opposed to rotary cutting which was in my comfort zone), and it turned out great.  I always make a block for myself before I make one for someone else, just to get my bearings because I want the other person’s block to turn out better.  I was happy with this, so I went ahead and made 2 more.  (Notice anything yet???)

Here they are in all their not-put-together-right glory:

Yes, after not following the Basketweave pattern correctly, I went ahead and made THREE MORE BLOCKS without doublechecking the layout.  This block is called Seasons.  I finally cut into a friend’s beautiful fabric and made a block that doesn’t actually exist in the Farmer’s Wife Sampler!  Luckily I have made a new block with a different fabric combo that is done correctly. 

So, I finally got myself organized and was able to get two blocks done correctly for the FUN Challenge:

Here is a close up of the fabrics and the colors are pretty true on my monitor:

I will be mailing this one out to one of the FUN Challenge participants. 

Farmer’s Wife #4 Basketweave Block

One of the members of the Farmer’s Wife Yahoo Group posted a photo of her #4 Basketweave block on her blog and commented that she thought it looked somewhat Swastika-like.  I decided to make the block just to experiment with the color placement. 

I am splitting the construction of the blocks for the FWS with a partner with whom I swapped fabric, and she is making the basketweave, so I decided to make one that measures 12.5” and then one that measures 6.5” to put in the Farmer’s Wife Holiday Challenge.  The larger block I will include in quilt for my brother-in-law; the smaller block will be exchanged in the holiday challenge swap.

This is the layout with the darker colors in the center:

Ultimately I chose to put the darker color in the outmost position.  My two blocks turned out like this:

And then, ha ha!, when I finally uploaded the photo I realized I  made the blocks wrong.  So, I’ll be getting my seam ripper out and fixing the placement of the quarters and see how it looks.

I enjoyed making those blocks so much that I got busy and made a whole bunch more.  I finally took the plunge and made a few blocks that require using templates and I had so much fun putting them together.