· · · ·

Announcing the Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt Sew-along

The Farmer's Wife 1930's Sew-along: Learn to sew the 99 Blocks from Laurie Aaron Hird's book The Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt" with Angie Wilson of GnomeAngel.com, Fat Quarter Shop and From Marti Michell Perfect Patchwork Templates. Find out more here: http://gnomeangel.com/farmers-wife-1930s-sampler-quilt-sew-along/

The day has finally come where I can share the news I’ve been sitting on since May… Starting Monday 28th September Fat Quarter Shop, Marti Michell and I will be hosting the Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt Sew-along. The sew-along will run for a year and over that time you’ll get to make some amazing blocks that will test and stretch your skill set and at the end of it all you’ll have a fabulous quilt.

Over the course of the year Marti and I, along with 25 Guest Bloggers, will share with you various ways of making the blocks in the Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt by Laurie Aaron Hird.

You will need to purchase this book to be able to participate in the sew-along as no measurements or paper piecing templates will be provided as part of this sew-along.

Marti will be providing free conversion charts with cutting and sewing tips to help you make the blocks using her fabulous From Marti Michell Perfect Patchwork Templates. I’m really excited about this because I’ve been using Marti‘s templates to make my version of Lucy Kingwell’s Smitten and they’ve given me so much confidence and added more depth to my patchwork skills.

The book provides foundation paper pieced patterns and cutting and piecing instructions for all 99 blocks, but we’ll be showing you a variety of ways to make the blocks so that you can learn, stretch and cement your skills. We’ll be covering everything from hand stitching, machine piecing, english paper piecing, paper piecing, fussy cutting and more.

The goal of this sew-along is to help you build your patchwork skill set and try things you’ve not done before. There’s 99 Blocks in the book, you can do as many or as few as you would like – it’s totally up to you.

I will be posting a block tutorial every Tuesday and Thursday (Australian time). Marti will be posting the conversion charts every Tuesday and Thursday (US time). You’ll find the information on our respective blogs, but don’t worry there will be links every where so you’ll be able to find it easily.

Our Guest Bloggers will be posting their tutorials on Wednesdays and Fridays (their time). At the beginning of each Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt Sew-along Month (around the 28th of each month, US time) the Fat Quarter Shop will be posting a round-up of what blocks we’ll be covering and which bloggers will be showcasing their work that month so you can get a hint of what’s to come.

Instead of working through the book from front to back, Marti has grouped the blocks so that we can concentrate on making the blocks that use similar techniques and templates together. We’ll be starting with the easiest blocks in the book and working our way up to the more complex, with a few surprises thrown in a long the way to keep you on your toes.

Don’t worry if you fall behind, we’ll be stopping along the way to let you catch your breath and get caught up.

We’ve also broken the year up into quarters so that at the beginning of each quarter you’ll get a list of the From Marti Michell Perfect Patchwork Templates you can use to help make the blocks. The brilliant thing about the templates is that you can use them for more than just making this quilt, which is something not a lot of other templates can say! They’re also really great for those of us that have a weakness for fussy cutting. The templates will be used in conjunction with the conversion charts that Marti will be releasing as part of this sew-along.

The Fat Quarter Shop also let me go a little bit nuts in their store and curate my very own bundle that you can purchase to use to make your Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt. I was so thrilled to be able to wave the Aussie flag and so I’ve selected a lot of the Ella Blue’s Ella Basics range which has such a great selection of prints from their Australian designers. (Plus it meant I got to put a kangaroo in there as well!) I’ve let my inner girl out to play on this one too and I’ve selected some fabulous fabrics from Pam Kitty Fog City with a couple of little surprises in there as well. (I have such a weak spot for cherries and roses!) It’s a great rainbow of awesome and I really hope you’ll love working with them as much as I will. Even if you don’t use all the fabrics in your sample quilt, they’re a great range of stash builder basics so you just know they’ll be useful across all your projects.

We’ve worked really hard to bring you a selection of bloggers, some new and some established, to help you see the unlimited possibilities in the Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt. All of us will be working with different styles of fabrics, bringing different aesthetics and different skills to the project. We’ll be announcing the bloggers and introducing you to them over the coming weeks to give you a bit more of a reason to join us.

Each Sunday I’ll be hosting a link up so that you can come back here and share your work. You’ll also be able to share it across social media using the hashtag #FQS1930FarmersWife. You can also tag it with #FQSfun to share your amazing work with other Fat Quarter Shop fans. There’s also a Facebook Group (click here to join) that you can join to share and connect with others participating in the sew-along.

There’s going to be prizes and maybe a swap or two along the way to keep things exciting and help with the motivation. Sound like fun? I can’t wait! It’s a minor miracle I’ve made it this far along without exploding from the nerves, excitement and joy of it all!

The Farmer's Wife 1930's Sew-along: Learn to sew the 99 Blocks from Laurie Aaron Hird's book The Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt" with Angie Wilson of GnomeAngel.com, Fat Quarter Shop and From Marti Michell Perfect Patchwork Templates. Find out more here: http://gnomeangel.com/farmers-wife-1930s-sampler-quilt-sew-along/

Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt Sew-along in a nutsell:

When: Starts 28th September

Monthly Overview: Fat Quarter Shop Blog, around the 28th of each month (US Time).

Block Tutorials by GnomeAngel: Every Tuesday and Thursday (Australian Time) on GnomeAngel.com.

From Marti Michell Template Conversion Charts: Marti Michell’s blog, every Tuesday and Thursday (US Time).

Guest Bloggers: Every Wednesday and Friday (their time).

Link Up: Sunday at GnomeAngel.com (Australian Time).

Facebook Group:  Join the Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt Facebook Group by clicking here.

FAQ’s: You can find answers to some of the questions that we’re being asked by clicking here.

Book: The Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt: Inspiring Letters from Farm Women of the Great Depression and 99 Quilt Blocks That Honor Them bLaurie Aaron Hird for Fons & Porter/F+W; RRP $28.99 – Click here to purchase.

Fabric Bundle: 1930’s Farmer’s Wife Sew Along Fat Quarter Bundle Curated by Angie of Gnome Angel

From Marti Michell Perfect Patchwork Templates will be available on the Fat Quarter Shop website shortly.

Map showing participants: Click here to add your location marker to the map. (Make sure not to add any personal information as it’s viewable by the public! Password to add your marker is “quilt” – without the ” ” marks.)

Mailing List: If you’d like to get all the Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt Sew-along news straight to your inbox then click this link to join The Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt Sew-along mailing list. (Your details will not be shared with any third party businesses and will only be used to share information directly related to the sew-along.)

You can grab the sew-along button here and share with everyone that you’re participating in the Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt Sew-along. Just copy and past the code below.

Button size 2000px squared:

GnomeAngel.com

Button size 300px squared:

GnomeAngel.com

In a lovely coincidence the fabulous Kerry (of Very Kerry Berry) will be hosting a Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Quilt-along as well over the same period. You know the saying “the more the merrier”? Well in this case it’s an understatement. This is one of those amazing situations where you can get twice the sew/quilt-along for your buck and you can participate, learn, share and connect across both sew/quilt-alongs. If you’d like to learn more about Kerry’s quilt-along please click here. I can’t wait to see all the amazing things that Kerry will be making, sharing and doing over the next 12 months!

If you have any questions feel free to contact me via my contact page, leave a comment or track me down on social media.

So, who’s with me?

While you wait for your book, fabrics and the sew-along to start why not join the Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sampler Quilt Facebook Group and get to know each other before we get started! (Click here to join.)

PS. Monday’s Fun Things to Click On will be back next Monday!