Modern Farmer's Wife: A Finished Quilt!

{A Picture Heavy Post}

I am so happy to say that my Modernized Farmer's Wife Quilt is finished!!!  I know I finished it in less than a month, but it seemed to take a long time.  I estimate that I spent over 65 hours actively working on it.  (More late nights than I would like to admit as someone who normally doesn't sew in the evenings.)  That doesn't include all the time that went into choosing the blocks, enlarging them, and writing up the posts for each.  (In case you missed it, I have included the sizes to rotary cut each block in my Modernizing the Farmer's Wife Series.)

Not only is this the most detailed piecing I have ever done, it is also the most intense quilting I have ever done (20 hours on one quilt).  So be prepared for a lot of pictures.  ;)

I quilted the sashing and cornerstones with wiggles and dogwood quilting.  (For more information on how I quilted it check out my previous post.)

I custom quilted each block with combinations of orange peel, dogwood, wiggles, loops, straight lines, and a few feathers.  Here are a few of my favorites.

This block used some of the smallest pieces and I love how it turned out.

This is four 6 inch "Contrary Wife" blocks.  I think I need to make a whole quilt with this block.

I could really show close-ups of every block, because I am thrilled with how it turned out.

I was brave and put the Kona Snow on the back, and it looks so neat.

The blocks look amazing on the back too.

I used the dark green for the binding.  It is my husband's favorite color and tones down the pinkness.

And here is a picture of the whole quilt!  :0)

Oh wait, did you want to see the front?

It turned out even better than I imagined or planned.

Quilt Stats #123
Quilt Name:  Modern Farmer's Wife
Pattern:  Enlarged and altered blocks from the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt book.
Layout:  Inspired by Katie's Sampler in the book Vintage Revival Quilts.
Fabric:  Kona Snow and various Northcott marbled fabrics
Amount Used:  About 21 yards
Batting:  Hobbs 80/20
Size:  About 94 x 112 inches
Date Finished:  January 2015
What I learned:

• It is good to stretch myself every once in a while.  
• Taking breaks during quilting is very important with such a large project.
• And lots more included in the various posts of my Modernizing the Farmer's Wife series.

This quilt now lives on my bed, and I love sleeping under it.

I will be decorating my bedroom around it.  Hubby has agreed to a light blue paint and installing new trim.  I will be making matching table toppers and pillows.  I can't wait! (But it will probably be a little while.)

Be sure to click on the Modernizing the Farmer's Wife Quilt link if you want to check out any of the other posts in the series.  And you may also want to check out Jodi's blog (Tales of Cloth). I found out after I finished my top that she is doing a year long quilt along enlarging the blocks in the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt book.  Hers will be in Red and White.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I am linking up with Finish it Up Friday and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop.  I am so happy with my first complete finish of 2015!!!

Modernizing the FMQ: Episode 11

Machine Quilting with my Tiara~

I have been having a lot of fun quilting my Modern Farmer's Wife quilt, and I have to say, "I love my Tiara!!!"  Okay, maybe I can calm down now.  ;)

I have so much room for quilting a large quilt with Princess El (short for elephant, because she's huge).  And I set up a lot of tables around me to support the weight of the quilt.  I actually sit in a little U-shaped space. My Koala chair helps a lot because I can set the height for whatever feels good at the moment.

So the first thing I did was try stitching in the ditch with a special ruler (this is the Handi Quilter Versa Tool).

It took way too long and was awkward.  I found that if I put my head really close to the machine that I could see well and stitch in the ditch pretty straight.

It went much faster, but it still took two hours, 1 large bobbin, and 28,300 stitches to stitch in the ditch around all the sashing and cornerstones.

After I stabilized the quilt, I used my Pfaff to zig zag around all the edges.

Then I quilted the sashing and cornerstones with wiggles and X's.

Half of the X was formed when quilting the rows, and the other half when quilting the columns.  This special ruler helped a lot.

Once the X was quilted, I used the Versa Tool to quilt a dogwood flower.

(The little black knob is part of my stitch regulator.  I always keep a finger or two on it while quilting.  Thanks go to Cheetah for taking the the two pictures above.)

I love how the cornerstones look with the sashing.

It took 4, hours, 2.5 bobbins, and 81,400 stitches to quilt all the sashing and cornerstones.

I decided to quilt each block individually using similar designs including:

Orange peel quilting...

More dogwood quilting with the Versa Tool...

Loops...

Straight lines...

and any other combination.  ;)

When I needed a break from the quilting over the weekend, I did the handwork on the binding.  I figured if the edges were all quilted it wouldn't matter if I added the binding before the entire quilt was quilted.  (You can see my binding clips in the upper right hand corner of the picture.)

After 14 hours, 6 more bobbins, and another 118,900 stitches the quilting was finished.  All in all, it took 20 hours, 9.5 bobbins, and 228,600 stitches to quilt this.  That is the longest I have ever spent machine quilting one quilt!  (Although a lot less than the 200+ hours I spent hand quilting a similar sized quilt.)


Here is a sneak peek at the finished quilt.  I am waiting for some better weather and (hopefully) sunshine to take some nice pictures.

Now I want to redecorate my bedroom to match this bright, cheerful quilt.  Hubby has agreed to paint!  :D

Click on the Modernizing the Farmer's Wife Quilt link to go to the introductory post.  It includes links to all of the episodes sharing my ideas for ways to modernize the Farmer's Wife Quilt.  I have included the sizes to rotary cut the enlarged blocks in case anyone else wants to make a modernized farmer's wife quilt similar to mine.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I am linking up with Let's Bee Social and Needle and Thread Thursday.

Modernizing the FWQ: Episode 10

Finishing the Quilt Top~

I have been working on modernizing the Farmer's Wife Quilt since January 1st.  I have enlarged many blocks, made repeats of some, and combined others so they all finish at 12 inches.  Then I added borders to the blocks.  After I got borders on all of the blocks, I played with the placement of them on my design wall.

There was barely enough room for all the fourteen inch blocks there, so I took over the family room.  :D  This is the largest quilt I have made since 2007.  It will finish about 94 by 112 inches.  I forgot how much bigger a queen/king is than a twin.

My layout is inspired by Katie's Sampler from the book Vintage Revival Quilts.  I love that my quilt combines the Farmer's Wife with one from Vintage Revival.

Luckily after moving some furniture and taking apart my modular sofa, I was able to lay out the entire quilt.  What a difference the sashing and cornerstones make!  Cheetah helped me move some of the blocks around to find this setting we both liked.

There was even enough room for my sewing machine cabinet.

I was able to get all the rows sewn together in one evening.  I used numbered flower pins to keep the rows in order, and moved them back into my craft room for pressing.

Here they are all nice and pressed and ready to sew.

I moved the sewing cabinet back into the craft room for this step.  I can't handle a messed up family room for long.

After twelve long seams, I had the top together!  I didn't want to risk taking it outside with all that cream, so here is an indoor picture.

And here are my helpers sweetly staying off the quilt (at least for a little while).

It is now all basted and ready for some custom quilting.   I decided to be brave and put Kona Snow on the back.  My quilting will really show.

Now that I have finished the top, I thought I would share some notes on fabric usage.

Kona Snow is my background.  I used about 2.3 yards to make the 30 blocks, 3.3 yards for the sashing, and 8.5 yards for the backing (three 102 inch pieces).

My light pink is a Riley Blake blender in bubblegum, and the rest of the marbled fabrics are from various Northcott fabric lines including Stonehenge and Toscana.  I used about 15 inches of each of the eight colors for the 30 blocks.  I used 14 inches of each of the eight fabrics for the block borders and cornerstones.  So purchasing one yard of each of the colors was a great idea.  I have about a quarter of a yard of each color left, but I like having the left overs without being too close.  (I only have 7.5 inches left of the light blue.)  I can use what is left for coordinating pillows and quilts or can use it for a scrappy binding.  I am still deciding.

Click on the Modernizing the Farmer's Wife link if you have missed any of the posts in the series.  It will take you to the introductory post with links to all of the episodes sharing my ideas for ways to modernize the Farmer's Wife Quilt.  I have included the sizes to rotary cut the enlarged blocks in case anyone else wants to make a modernized farmer's wife quilt similar to mine.

XX,
Jasmine

P.S.  I will be linking up with Let's Bee Social, Needle and Thread Thursday, Finish it up Friday, and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop to share this finished top.

Modernizing the FWQ: Episode 9

Finishing the Blocks~

Once all 30 blocks were made, I needed to add borders to each block.  Remember that this was my layout which was inspired by Katie's Sampler from the book Vintage Revival Quilts.  She blogs at Swim, Bike, Quilt.

In the book and on her blog, she mentions cutting the border strips a little extra wide and then trimming down the blocks to the size you want. This method works so well on sampler quilts if your scant quarter inch seam isn't perfect.  It really helps for those times when someone turns on her machine and forgets to move the needle one position to the right.  ;)

So I cut all my strips a quarter inch wider and a half inch longer than necessary.  I cut my cornerstones out (4.5 inches square) at the same time.  It used about 14 inches of each fabric to cut these out.  (Some used a little bit less because they only bordered three blocks or I was able to get pieces from the strips left over after making the blocks.)

I was able to do chain piecing and worked on one color at a time.

After the border was on each side, I trimmed it down to 14.5 inches with my 15 inch square ruler.  (I love this ruler!)

There is more waste doing it this way, but I think the accuracy is worth it.

As I was squaring up the blocks I put the trimmings into this quart sized jar.  It was nice keeping the trimmings off of my cutting table.

When I was to the purple layer Cheetah walked in.  I asked him, "Isn't this the prettiest garbage you have ever seen?"

He looked at me like I was a little nuts and said, "What?  Are you putting that on your blog?"

A little while later (now at the blue layer) my husband walked in and said, "Oh, do you want me to throw this away for you?"

I quickly said, "No," as he was already reaching for the jar.

Without missing a beat he said, "Oh, is it going to be a decoration?"  Isn't he the sweetest?  Please tell me I'm not crazy or a hoarder for keeping this.  I am thinking about making the top into a pin cushion, but wonder if I should put it in a smaller pint sized jar instead or if they would look too squished.  :D

Once the blocks were finished with borders I put them up on my design wall and played with the placement... for an hour... or two.  I don't know if you noticed, but there are seven blocks of every color, plus one pink and purple combo, and one blue and green combo.  I am so glad I chose to make the blocks that way.  I like this rainbow layout better than the scattered one in my original drawing.

I totally love how the blocks turned out with the borders and recommend this method for sampler quilts and bee blocks.  It really helps preserve points if your blocks are not all exactly the same size.

My next post will show how it looks with the sashing and cornerstones.  Spacing out the blocks makes a big difference.

Click on the Modernizing the Farmer's Wife link if you have missed any of the episodes in this series.  It will take you to the introductory post with links to every episode.

XX,
Jasmine