WIP Monday?

There is no "work" going on here, LOL.  I am still in my pajamas playing on the computer though I should do something about THAT soon before the morning gets away from me!  I do NOT want to be out grilling brats come noon time, looking like this.

It is not for a lack of anything to do.  While I hand appliqued the orange parts of the carrots, I still need to machine applique the carrot tops.  The backing still needs seamed----Mom, you recognize that piece, of course and I think I will pretty much shoot what is left. April's tulips and leaves could be hand appliqued and hiding behind all that stuff is a pair of
slacks that needs the waistband re-stitched in spots where the thread  unraveled.  I've got a QOV to bind too.

Yesterday I wasn't interested in doing any of that stuff.  I allow myself to go off on other tangents because I know that is what sparks my creativity.  I had spent a good part of the week doing paperwork and following up on things for Bama Belles and Friendship Quilters.  In between, Angellyn's quilt.   There are still a few more items on the "to-do" list in that area but there are slowly getting dealt with.

So what has captured my attention?  Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt but not because I have seen anything online about it.  LOL, I have since I told Norma yesterday what I was up to.  She sent a link and that leads to another link, and another......well, you get the idea.   Turns out there is a whole Flickr quilt-a-long  group out there posting their blocks from the book---who knew?

Some back story----I had bought the book way back in August 2010 with birthday gift money that the Belles had given me.  I bought the book for the letters, not the block patterns.  Well, there really are not patterns, per se, anyway.   It all uses templates which all have an assigned number.  The CD that came with the book has the templates in pdf form and prints out one per page.What a waste of paper/ink just to measure something out to rotary cut it!!   Once I found out there were groups dedicated to doing this quilt, then I found the resource links.  Tips, Helps and Corrections to the book. There must have been a whole lot complaints similar to mine  because there is a free download for the templates organized by BLOCK, rather than a numbered one per page HERE.  That is an improvement anyway.  Still not quite there for me though.  They list a companion CD that would work in EQ 6 but I don't even see it sold by Electric Quilt though they do give FAQs section about it.  Getting closer maybe if I ever intend to piece these blocks.

I don't know if the author was trying to replicate the 20's era or not with her block choices.  As I was searching for the block I know that  BlockBase had dated a couple of the blocks to the mid 30's meaning that they would not have been in existence at the time.  The Farmer's Wife letter writing contest was held in 1922  just after World War I and before the depression.  The magazine posed the question  "if you had a daughter of marriageable age, would you, in light of your own experience, want her to marry a farmer?".   Would I want to replicate that quilt exactly----no. I have no desire to make some of these blocks and I know I would be doing some substitutions or maybe not four of the same motif in one block.  The author probably did that with jumping time periods.

The funny thing is, I hate the coloration of what is supposed to be a 20's era quilt on the cover of the book.  I love the IDEA of the quilt sampler like this but the fabrics had no appeal to me--- ugh, muddy browns, grays, dark, dark, dark fabrics. So not "me"! IF I were to actually make this quilt, I would move up another era at least to the 30s which I love.  I see that some of the flickr group and various bloggers are making them in today's modern palette but I would want to use my stash instead and just buy some background yardage.   Some friends are doing the Dear Jane and I have thought about that quilt for years but I do not know of anyone locally, doing the Farmer's Wife sampler.

Enough musing for the day----I didn't get any cleaner or dressed in the intervening hour that I have been surfing or writing this.  I love a good bit about quilting and I love the shared history of it too---and I am having fun.  That other stuff can wait a bit longer.