Saturday, July 16, 2011

Farmer's Wife Mini Blocks

For some reason, cats are obsessed with fabric and quilts. It doesn't matter if I put down a single quilt block or a full sized quilt, there is likely to be a cat sitting on it within 5 minutes. My kitty has even been known to settle down sitting across stacks of fabric.

It occurred to me a while ago that this is the perfect excuse to make a mini quilt! This was my Sienna can have her very quilty spot to lay down without having to be in the middle of my project. I've been itching to join in The Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-Long, but am waiting for my EQ7 to arrive so I can finalize my fabric selection. So this weekend I decided to make Sienna a quilt with miniaturized Farmer's Wife blocks while I wait  for my software to arrive.

So far I've made 4 blocks.  

Mini Farmer's Wife Blocks

Each block measures 4" x 4" (compared to the original 6" x 6").

Mini Farmer's Wife Blocks

My plan is to do 3 across and 4 down with a thin strip of Kona Ash sashing in between, but I'll settle on the final size once I can lay them all out.

Mini Farmer's Wife Blocks

I'm really enjoying the colors I've pulled so far. If they look familiar, it's because I used them for my June blocks for the do. Good Stitches bee. They were still sitting on my sewingcoffee table taunting me for the last few weeks.

Mini Farmer's Wife Blocks

I've been considering this as the color scheme for my main Farmer's Wife quilt, but I'm concerned about needing to buy more fabric and being able to find the same prints - especially for the green circles.

Mini Farmer's Wife Blocks

Solids would be the easiest to ensure I can keep enough of, but that seems too plain to me. I think I read in The Farmer's Wife Yahoo Group that this quilt takes some 11 yards, so I definitely wouldn't have close to enough with what I have of these prints in my stash currently. Anyone have a good idea how much fabric I should buy ahead for this? I've been using the paper piecing method. So far it doesn't seem to be using much fabric...

My current list of fabric options for the final quilt are:
  • The above fabric selection.
  • The same colors as above, but all solids.
  • Grey + Chartreuse
  • Grey + Red
  • All one line of Momo (It's a Hoot if possible)
  • All Happy Mochi Yum Yum (Pretty, but already being done by someone else.)

Thoughts?

<3 Kelsey

Linking to Fabric Tuesday.

35 comments:

  1. What lovely blocks - Sienna is so lucky!

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  2. Hi! The comment below was from me, Janine. I don't why it didn't come up as rainbow hare so I'm trying again. I'm enjoying browsing your lovely blog :)

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  3. Thanks so much for stopping by and your lovely comments. I'm so glad you're
    enjoying my blog! ^_^

    <3 Kelsey

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  4. What about adding solids to the fabrics you have? You can added lighter and darker shades. I like the contrast between solids and prints.

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  5. A possibilty, but I only have about a yard of 3 of the prints and only a
    half yard of the other, so it'd likely have to be a lot. Definitely a
    possibility I will consider though....

    Kelsey

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  6. Gah! I thought the 6" blocks were small! :) These are great! I really like the combination of prints and solids for this QAL...but that doesn't help your question. :)

    Thanks for linking up to {Sew} Modern Monday!

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  7. Actually the 4" didn't turn out so bad since I am using the paper piecing
    method rather than templates. I bet one could even go down to 3" if they
    love tiny piecing. :)

    I'm leaning towards buying a line for it since then it can have the matching
    colors balance out the chaos from all different blocks, but it's still so
    hard to decide! I'll probably wait till my EQ gets here and scan in a bunch
    of different fabric and get a better idea that way.

    Thanks so much for stopping by! I *love* {Sew} Modern Monday!

    Kelsey

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  8. Wow! And I was just griping about how tiny some of the triangles are yesterday - and you've made them smaller!!! They look really great :) I think some of the It's a Hoot prints are awfully big and might not translate well in teeny-tiny pieces, but I think sticking with a color combo, a pulling from various lines of fabric, might be your best bet. Good luck!

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  9. We call our cat quilt quality control! Lovely wee blocks!

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  10. Paper piecing (instead of the templates) really makes tiny piecing so much
    easier though!

    And I agree, except for the smallest of prints, the prints will mostly get
    lost in a quilt like this. It's more all about the color with such itty
    bitty pieces. The one advantage a line has though is cohesive color
    throughout. I am thinking It's a Hoot might not work the best, but am still
    attracted to using some line with good color.

    Thanks for stopping by!

    Kelsey

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  11. Our quilt quality control is split into two parts. Our son inspects the
    stitches and colors, and our cats inspect for roll-all-over-ability. ;)

    Kelsey

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  12. Very fun blocks! I like the simple fabrics you used! It makes the blocks looks clean and crisp!

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  13. Thanks! Definitely was very intentional. With all the different blocks I
    felt like mixing too many different prints would leave it all feeling very
    chaotic. I can do scrappy in a repeating quilt, or cohesive fabrics in a
    sampler quilt, but I have trouble with a scrappy sampler quilt. Needs
    something to tie it together for me. :P

    Kelsey

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  14. cute! i love mini versions of things. if your cat is anything like mine, it won't want anything to do with this project once it's finished, lol. they just like to be all up in your business while you're working on something!

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  15. My guess is they will still be up in my business when I am working on other
    stuff, but hopefully they will use it when I'm not sewing. They do still go
    and sit on the quilting stuff periodically even when it's not being worked
    on.

    Like when I just had the fabrics pulled for this and wasn't working on it at
    all I found my cat sitting across both stacks of fabric lol. I took that as
    a sign of her approval of my choices. ;)

    <3 Kelsey

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  16. Neat looking blocks, love the fabric. Just a tip.....having her own quilt won't keep your cat off of what you are working on at the moment....trust me....and my 2 cats! Happy Sew Modern Monday!

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  17. Haha! Probably not, but it will give her something to enjoy when I am not
    quilting. :)

    Kelsey

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  18. LOL My miniature doxie preempted one of my quilts like that. And we've had cats that hide in the stuff animal collection, too. Love your blocks, too.
    Stopping in from Fabric Tuesday. My link is http://carolburris.com/grandchildren/first-project-for-the-new-grandchild/

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  19. Animals sure do know how to keep us laughing. :)

    Thanks for stopping by! Love the swaddling!

    Kelsey

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  20. Love your fabric choices for the FWQAL! It is amazing how changing the patterns to modren fabrics makes them look so different and so wonderful.

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  21. Wow, you have one spoiled, but lucky cat.

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  22. She is *definitely* spoiled. But we make her work for it by demanding
    copious amounts of cuddling/snuggling/kisses. ;)

    Kelsey

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  23. What wonderful bright colors! Blocks look great.

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  24. I love the bright colors you used. Blocks are coming along great.

    BTW I'm hosting a Fabric Giveaway over at my site and giving away 12 FAT quarters. Swing by if you get a chance: http://www.jaqsstudio.com/2011/07/fabric-love-19-fats-and-fabric-giveaway.html

    -Q

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  25. Thanks so much! I also went over and entered your giveaway! :)

    Kelsey

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  26. Hi Kelsey - I created a blog directory "for the creatively inclined" and would love for you to sign up - it's free...just add your links over at artseebloggers.com

    ReplyDelete
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