It’s always amazing to me what I can accomplish when I don’t want to do something else! I finished the last flying geese blocks of the “On Ringo Lake” mystery quilt last week and I felt like I couldn’t look at anything from that quilt for a while.
About the same time, I had to get something off the shelf where my Farmer’s Wife quilt was and knocked it off so I had to pull it out and re-fold it and I forgot how much I love that quilt! I had pulled my 1930’s Farmer’s Wife blocks out of the bin while I was digging around and this got me to thinking – maybe I should finish these blocks.
I didn’t realize I had 17 blocks finished and there are 99 in the book. So… I started working on them again and putting my flying geese blocks (from “On Ringo Lake” quilt) in between like leaders and enders. Now I have 26 1930’s Farmer’s Wife blocks finished!
I forgot how quick and addictive they are. My only problem is having enough 1930’s fabric on hand. (I’ve ordered more.)
This book is a little different from the last one because there are many different directions for the blocks on the disk. They give rotary cutting directions for some parts of some blocks – some blocks you can cut out completely with just a ruler and rotary cutter. There are paper piecing patterns for almost every block. I tried one block that way.
Most blocks still seem to work best by using the templates. I use the templates and my ruler on top of them & my smallest rotary cutter (which is not shown here in the picture.) I have to do a lot of moving around the cutting board. It’s a little awkward but it works for me.
Some blocks are easy.
Some are a little harder.

So the thing about this quilt that I didn’t like was the finished layout. The blocks are set on point but with a zig-zag type of sashing in between and then 4 of the blocks are cut in half and half of the block is at the top of the quilt and the other half is at the bottom of the quilt.
I just really hate when quilt blocks are cut in half but that’s just me.
I’ve been working on sketching an alternate layout for this quilt. Unfortunately, I think there’s only so many ways to make a quilt with blocks on point so it will probably look a lot like the original Farmer’s Wife quilt. I think I’ll use white sashing strips since these quilt blocks are very light in color. I’m wondering how it would look if I use different colored center blocks between the sashing and then maybe I’ll use that 1930’s green for the setting triangles.
Depending on how many rows I use, I may only need 84 blocks or if I make it more of a square quilt, I could use 98 which would be almost all the blocks from the book. I may do that if it’s too hard to choose which ones not to make.
I’m sure the layout of this quilt will evolve depending on how things work out. I really love adding to the blocks on my design wall and then being able to look at them and move them around.
This will be a MASTERPIECE whatever arrangement that you decide on!!!!! Thanks for keeping us posted on your progress. HAVE FUN with it!!!!!
Thanks Joyce!