The Farmer's Wife, Blocks 13-15

I just completed the next set of blocks for my Farmer's Wife quilt.  I know, the quilt-along isn't being called the Farmer's Wife any more, but I bought the book and love the colors in the quilt, so I've decided to continue to call mine by its original name.  The challenges for me this week were (a) triangles, (b) tiny pieces, and (c) tiny triangles (!$@%!).

We made a second Basket block this week.  The first one didn't have a handle -- on purpose, but some folks thought it was a mistake.  So this time the block has a handle made of triangles.  However, to me the triangles were more evocative of flowers in the basket, so I used scraps of the pink floral from my English paper-pieced pincushion.  It took some thought to figure out how to actually piece the block, but I'm pleased with the way it turned out.  

Basket block #2

The second block is a Scythe.  It isn't in the Farmer's Wife book, and I couldn't find any reference to it in my initial poking around the web.  The first time around I made it wrong, using squares instead of the brown-and-white four-patches.  Turns out some other people had the same problem (Randy posted a clarification).  Once I figured it out (on my own!), I still had trouble.  I really don't know what happened with the little 4-patch in the bottom corner.  I re-sewed, re-cut and re-sewed again.  The truth is, I was in a hurry to finish it before leaving town for a week, a guaranteed recipe for disaster!

The Scythe block

Last, and definitely least is a Cut-Glass Dish block.  Inconsistent seams contributed to so me of the problem, but pressing seemed to cause the most significant problems.  I used Best Press spray sizing and even steam at one point, but those triangles had minds of their own.  I am so disappointed in this block -- I know I can do better!  I plan to make another one and use this one for practicing my free-motion quilting (LOL!).  Quilting over all these seams should be a great chance to learn how to maintain an even stitch length.

The Cut Glass Dish block (though I called it a few other things, too!)

With the two Bonus Blocks and the extra Calico Puzzle block that I made, the Farmer's Wife project now includes 15 blocks.  Now about 10 percent of the way done!