Oh Dear ... a Sow-a-Long

and I'm hooked.

This morning I was reading Bonnie's blog post over at Quiltville's Quips & Snips.  I have had the same feelings she has about the Farmer's Wife quilt.  I've seen several groups being formed over the last couple of years, all with the goal of making a quilt from Laurie Herd's book The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt.   I resisted.  The quilt is 111 six inch blocks.  I'm still struggling with my 80 six inch churn dash blocks -- and they're all the same.  This is 111 different blocks, some of them appearing to have many many teeny tiny pieces.

But -- Randy over at Barrister's Block is going to make it simple.  She's introducing three blocks on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, along with instructions telling how she assembled the blocks.  Could it be any easier?  I'm definitely not committing to 111 blocks, but it'll be fun to see how far I get with this.


Check out her blog post on the first of February for the first three blocks.  I decided to make mine using up fabrics from my scrap bins.  It'll be scrappy.  The only rule I made for myself is the fabric must be at least ten years old.  I've got lots to pick from!  And if some of it ends up being only five or seven years old, who's to know.  I'm just guessing.  Some of the fabric is probably 20 years old, so it all averages out.

Randy started out with Block 4 from the book (Basket Weave).  Here's my version -

That was easy -- why not try another?

The second block is Block 21 (Contrary Wife)

So much fun -- I decided to tackle her third block, which was Block 6 in the book (Big Dipper)

I had to do some seam ripping with this one.  After making the hourglass sections, I stitched them all together.  Oops -- they were larger than 3-1/2".  I had to rip the sections apart, trim them down and stitch them back up again.

I was having so much fun I decided to go on to the three blocks demonstrated in  Randy's February 15 post.
In no time at all, I had three more blocks.

Autumn Tints

Box

and Calico Puzzle

I did try to convince Barb she should join the fun but she sounded like she's dedicating her sewing time to projects already started.  Maybe this tease will change her mind.  What about you Ann?  Did you say you were itching to do these blocks a while back?

Here are the six all in one -

It's a good thing I don't have to do anymore before March 7.  It's time to clean up the mess I made in my sewing room and get working on my February challenge quilt!