Farm Girl Vintage is finished

 

Farm Girl Vintage.  This is definitely one of my favorite quilts so far. It's so whimsical and colorful!  Farm Girl Vintage was a project that spanned over 18 months with 2 support groups: my Sew Vintage face-to-face group and an online Facebook group. We were "assigned" 1 or 2 blocks per month and it kept me moving along on this because it was fun to see what others were doing too. Plus I finally cut deeply into the 1930s reproduction fabrics that I have been hoarding for years.

 

The top photo really shows off the quilting design (thanks Bonnie at The Pin Cushion) and has a pretty true color.  She used a white thread and the design is called Boulevard. I love it. The bottom photo shows off the blocks a bit better but I made my husband move into the shade so the color is off a bit. The quilt is twin sized but may end up hanging somewhere for awhile.

 

 

This quilt is even labeled - with another Farm Girl Vintage block. This barn block is the same as the one in the bottom left of the quilt, except I replaced the pieced barn door with a plain white square so I could write in it.  Now I have to decide what to do with the 50 remaining blocks - the 12" versions of these 6" blocks.  Two quilts at least could be made with those.

Farm Girl Vintage top is done

Farm Girl Vintage is now a finished flimsy! These are all of the 6" blocks plus the larger Silo Barn block in the center.  The outer border is actually a light blue with specs of red, yellow, and white. I absolutely LOVE this quilt.  And I still have the 12" version of all of these blocks waiting to become something. 

Wish I had a better picture to share, but this was the best out of several taken inside and outside.

Design Wall Monday - borders

 

Pieced borders are done on 3 sides of Farm Girl Vintage. These flying geese blocks are only 1.5 x 2.5" - very small.  I have about half of the geese for the last side done and hope to finish that side this afternoon. Then there will be another narrow white border, and then a wide blue print border. Can't wait to finish this top and get it quilted because I really love these blocks.

 

Check out the Design Wall Monday posts on the new site, Small Quilts & Doll Quilts:  http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/2017/06/design-wall-monday-june-5-2017.html

Adding borders to Farm Girl Vintage

 

Forgive the quality of this photo. With 30 mph winds blowing today, this was the only spot outside where I could lay the quilt out so it wouldn't blow away. 

 

The rows are all done and the first outer border has been added.  Unfortunately I didn't read the directions carefully enough. That white border was supposed to be cut 2" wide and I only cut it 1.5" wide.  Since the next border is pieced I'm afraid I'll have to do some math to make it come out correctly.  But it won't be the first time I've had to "fudge" a bit, and won't be the last time either.

 

Yesterday I stopped into my local quilt shop and found a 30s print that will become the final wide outer border.  I knew I wanted my pieced border to be red and white - to compliment that big red barn in the middle - so I picked a pretty blue that also had some red and white in it. The pieced border is made of tiny (1.5 x 2.5") flying geese, so it will take me awhile to get to the final border stage.

Farm Girl Vintage update

 

I spent only about an hour sewing on this darky and rainy day.  My basement sewing room was so dreary!  And chilly!  It just doesn't get enough natural light and I'm tired of trying to make floor lamps and Ott lights create enough good light. Sigh!!!

 

But one more row was added to the bottom of my Farm Girl Vintage quilt. I have 3 more rows of blocks to put together, along with the sashing and cornerstones between rows and at the top and bottom.  The blocks themselves are finished and the rows laid out.  Once those are done the plan is to add another 1.5" white border around the whole outside.  These are my small blocks - finishing at 6", and the finished quilt will be a generous lap size.

 

Then I'll decide if I'm going to do the prairie points when I add the wide outer border.  Of course I still haven't picked out a border fabric or even know what color I want to look for. I'm going to need to lay this out and stare at it for awhile before deciding on those last colors.  Design as I go . . .

Assembling Farm Girl Vintage

 

This barn and silo block is going to be the centerpiece of my Farm Girl Vintage. The pattern was for a 14.5" block (unfinished) but I need it to be 13.5" square instead because it will be framed on each side by 2 of the 6.5" blocks plus sashing with cornerstones. I had to do a little redesign to make this block work.

 

There are 52 of the little blocks, including the one I put in this barn block. So my next step is to lay them out and see just how many I want to use. Who knows - maybe I'll have to make additional ones. The sashing is white and I'm using up scraps from my 30s prints to make the cornerstones. Once I get this center section all assembled, then I'll decide if I want to do the prairie points and wide outer border like the book shows.

 

And I'll still have 52 of the big blocks to use for something else. Probably 2 something elses.  

Farm Girl Vintage - cow block

 

I still need to embroider a tail on both of the adorable cow blocks, but these are SO CUTE!  I have to admit that I've been tempted by the additional blocks available for download from Lori Holt (on the Fat Quarter Shop site). The cow was one of several that I've purchased and downloaded since the book came out. 

Farm Girl Vintage - Wooly Sheep

 

I had to do some major digging in the stash to find a medium grey that I liked for the Wooly Sheep block.  Grey just isn't a color that I buy very often.  It needed to be the right color AND play nicely with all of the 30s reproduction fabrics in the other blocks. 

 

"Black sheep, black sheep, have you any wool?"  Early in our marriage we farmed for 10 years on my husband's home farm. We ran about 750 ewes and 50 head of cattle.  That was a LOT of sheep, and lambing season was always crazy. About 1/3 of our herd was Suffolk sheep, with black faces and white bodies. Those lambs were often quite grey when they were born, and occasionally we would get a completely black lamb.  We kept a few of the black ewes - just for fun. Plus, the black wool brought a premium, so we kept it separate at shearing time. These blocks made me think of those lambs with a big smile.

Design Wall Monday - Farm Girl Vintage

 

I have enjoyed the Farm Girl Vintage book so much this past year, as I've slowly worked through the blocks with an online group and a face-to-face group. And the extra blocks that Lori Holt has sold online have added even more fun to the process. She released 4 new blocks on The Fat Quarter Shop website recently, and I just HAD to buy Zinnia! Isn't it cute? I might have to make more of these sometime.

 

Next up was the Peas and Carrots block. It has kind of a patriotic vibe with these red and blue fabrics.

 

 

There are still a few blocks from the book left to make, including the sheep block that I want to work on this week.  And I still have a couple of downloaded extra blocks to make, such as the cow and the turkey. 

 

Check out the Design Wall posts of other quilters at http://www.patchworktimes.com 

Farm Girl Vintage again

 

This is the Sunday Morning block. I think it is one of my favorites so far. And the next block is Welcome.  We're getting down to the last dozen blocks I think. Plus I still have a couple of the downloaded ones left to make, such as the cow and the turkey.  The little blocks are so darn cute! I just love them, and I know that making these has stretched my skills quite a bit. I'm no longer intimidated by small pieces.

 

I'm starting to think about how I want to put the small blocks together for myself. And I keep coming back to the layout from the book with the simple sashing and cornerstone plus prairie points.

Farm Girl Vintage

Feed and Seed is done. This was one of the more time consuming of the Farm Girl Vintage blocks, maybe because of all of the HSTs around the outside. It wasn't difficult to make, just kind of putzy.

 

I even followed the basic color scheme from the book with the aqua HSTs. The next one on my cutting table is Tumbleweed, followed by the Turkey block that I bought and downloaded. 

 

Yesterday I only had a couple of hours in the morning to do a little sewing since we had to venture out into the snowy weather for a doctor appointment. Just love driving 70 miles each way in bad weather!  I drove my husband to see the neurosurgeon to discuss surgical options on his neck. And his surgery is tentatively scheduled for Dec 28 to replace 2 disks in his neck. And it must be my age showing, because this surgeon looked like a kid - tiny (about 4' 11") young woman wearing gym shoes. She looks younger than my own children and actually could be.  But we liked her way of talking and explaining the options.

Farm Girl Vintage progress

These are all of the miniature Farm Girl Vintage blocks (except for the cat) that I've made so far from both the book and online.  There are 41 total so far and I've made both the 6" and 12" version of each one. The cat block was laying on my coffee table because I was embroidering the face and I forgot to put it back in the group before taking the photo. 

In the second row from the bottom the blue and pink block has the middle side pieces all reversed - OOPS! The full sized version is correct but somehow I turned those pieces when I made the little one. I may - or may not - fix that. 

I still have a few to make, including a couple of the downloaded blocks like the cow.

New Farm Girl Vintage block

 

This one is Autumn Star. Another beautiful block from this book. I knew when I bought the book that I would enjoy it, but had no idea how much fun I would have making each block.

 

The Sew Vintage group I'm in meets once per month and we've been working our way through the blocks and having some fun along with it. For our October meeting we've been challenged to make a block from the book but give it a Halloween theme. So the past 2 evenings I've been thumbing through those blocks and trying to come up with an idea.  Any suggestions would be welcome!!

 

Farm Girl Vintage

Another Farm Girl Vintage block is done. I love this pinwheel block. So, I'm caught up with Farm Girl for both the online group I'm following and the face-to-face group I'm in. It's really exciting to lay these blocks out and play with some combinations.

 

Right now I'm leaning toward breaking the large blocks into more than one quilt. The kitchen and food themed blocks would make a great wall hanging. 

Farm Girl Vintage

After working this morning, I had the afternoon to play in my sewing room. So much fun!

I pulled out the Farm Girl Vintage book and cut the pieces for 2 blocks: Old Red Barn and Furrows. This barn block is just too cute.

With the whole afternoon available I also made my Saturday Sampler blocks. Those may be another post.

 

 

Here kitty, kitty

Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet has issued several companion blocks to go with her Farm Girl Vintage designs, and I've been unable to resist most of them.  I've downloaded the pig, the birthday cake, the bumble bee, and now the cat. The face still needs to be embroidered onto this one, but otherwise the kitty block is done. And I still have a couple of additional downloaded blocks to make. 

I wanted my kitty to be grey and I just didn't find a grey 30s print. I even looked online.  And the only grey fabric of any kind in my stash was either too dark or too modern. So I went shopping-  and ended up with this medium grey. It kind of looks like knitting when you look closely.  

I've had a personal goal of improving my piecing accuracy and making small blocks has been a great tool for working towards that goal. There are 40 pieces in this block, and when you look at the 6" version that means some of them START at 3/4" square. That is kind of crazy! But I have to say the mini blocks have become my favorite of the two.

Lori Holt has great instructions, both for cutting and for piecing.  She uses clear drawings of each step. And I've found a process that really seems to be working for me now.  I lay all of the pieces out as I cut them onto a flat design board with a flannel type surface to hold them. I make sure to lay them out in the general location where they will go as I sew. That helps me when hunting for the right pieces, especially when the dimensions are often similar. And I've been sewing the same step on both sizes at the same time. That has also helped a lot plus both blocks are done at the same time.

Mama Chicken - FGV

A new Farm Girl Vintage block has been added to my collection of FGV blocks. As always, I made both sizes. I've been looking forward to making this one because I think she is so cute. And just maybe I'll make her little chick next.

Sunflower and Crops

I broke down and made the Crops block from Farm Girl Vintage to go with the sunflower block.  And of course after I finished them both then I saw my mistake in the bigger block. The darker colors of the leaves were supposed to be on the bottom. Oops! My orange leaf is upside down. I may just leave it alone - unless that OCD part of me decides I MUST fix it.  And now that I look at the photo I see more clearly how crooked that bottom section is. So I might be picking this one apart after all. 

This week I want to catch up with the Facebook group and get the Kitchen Window and Baking Day blocks done too. But who knows what the week with actually bring in terms of sewing. 

Milking Day

I finished another Farm Girl Vintage block called Milking Day.  I used a non-1930s grey for the top of the milk can (because it was there in my scrap bin) and I'm not sure I like it. However . . . I am not redoing these blocks since I have both sizes done. It will hopefully just disappear in the quilt when it's all done. 

Penny Pig

Penny Pig is a bonus block from Lori Holt that goes with the Farm Girl Vintage blocks, but is an extra purchase.  Recently I purchased 3 of her extra blocks but this is the only one I've made so far. Isn't it cute? 

I can't wait to make the cow block too. Maybe later this week. 

I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday at http://www.patchworktimes.com