The Farm
66 x 88
It's a flimsy!
I've gone back and forth on names for this but finally am going to settle on The Farm. When I was a young girl I used to spend the summers on my grandparents' farm. Those were good times and I couldn't wait to get to "The Farm" every year and play with cousins, help Aunt Marie in the garden, read Uncle Leo's old books, enjoy grandma's country cooking. It was a magic place and I learned many things from my grandmother and listened to her stories of survival during the depression era. I vowed when I grew up I would live on a farm and I do. When I was sewing these blocks with farm and garden themed fabrics it brought back lots of memories of "The Farm".
I modified a pattern from Kathy Doughty's book Adding Layers that she called House Party. Her version was shorter and had a border with appliqued items all around but I don't really like borders or to applique so I made it longer for a nice sized lap quilt. Maybe it needs a plain green border ( farm field?) or something to tie it all together? I'll let it simmer awhile before I decide if it needs one.
Actually I'm not really even sure I like it all that much now that I've completed the top so maybe I'll like it better with a plain border. It was a lot of work with all those Y seams to join blocks around a center square and then Y seams again to assemble blocks on the diagonal.
I still have pieces of some of these fabrics and I'm thinking of a different version of The Farm now.
As I explained earlier in the month this was my UFO #109 and I decided to dig it out of the box and get it to flimsy stage before month end. And so I have.
Note: We play a monthly Random Numbers game on the Stashbusters Yahoo Group to help those of us with lots of UFOs to move them forward. #109 was one of the random numbers drawn for February. This is my first year to join in the Random Numbers game and so far it has helped me to move my UFOs forward. There is also a Stashbuster UFO Challenge to help move UFOs forward. I won 40 FQs last year. Fun and Games!
That was a lot of work and a lot of Y-seams! Maybe a simple border would calm it down.
ReplyDeleteYou are very ambitious to tackle all of those y seams!
ReplyDeleteI squinted for a while at this one to figure out how you pieced it. Lots of Y seams seems to be the answer! Fun fabrics :)
ReplyDeleteY-seams, yuck! You did a great job getting this quilt to a flimsy stage. It kinda reminds me of the broken dishes (butterfly wreath quilt) I am making with the way the colors go on the diagonal, but of course this is much more complicated.
ReplyDeleteAnother beautiful top finished! Colorful and fun fabrics! I checked out the book I have and it's not in there. It's not like I don't have any other quilts to work on. Right now, I'm making Fractured for my nephew in red, white and blues. It's fun to sew and comes together fast once you do all the cutting. It is the first pattern of hers that I've used so far.
ReplyDeleteI like it --- colorful and I think you captured the fun of your memories. It has that kind of "feedsack bright" look! I'd love to find the print you used with the boots, gloves and gardening tools -- do you know what line/maufacturer that was from and if it's still around?
ReplyDeleteLove all your happy happy farming! (Your theme quilts always amaze me - what a deep stash you have, Grandma!)
ReplyDeleteHaving just survived my own battle with y-seams, I can say we sneer at y-seams, don't we?
Your hands and your eyes also must have been tired when you got this one finished! It is very colorful! ---"Love"
ReplyDeleteI have a ton of really good farm memories. My best friend lived on a farm, and we had so much fun playing.. all that space to explore and invent things! And sometimes I would help.. like picking cukes, and I got a really bad sunburn. Getting lost in the corn was always a highlight.
ReplyDeleteI had to take that Verify test about six times, but I finally passed. Whew!
ReplyDelete