Farmer's Wife - Week 1

We are beginning our Farmer's Wife Quilt Along!

We decided to start out doing two blocks per week, then will re-evaluate as we go to see if we feel we can do more. Our blocks will be 6 inch blocks, so all templates are for that size.

This week we are making Block 6, Big Dipper, and Block 10, Bow Tie.

Block 6, Big Dipper

For Big Dipper, we will follow this tutorial to make four 3 inch hourglass blocks.  Once the four blocks are complete, sew them together with the colors oriented properly.

Farmer's Wife - Block 6 - Big Dipper

 
Here are the things I like about this tutorial:

1. It shows measurements for the size we need for a 6" or 8" block.  No size adjustments needed!
2. The "twirl" ironing in the center of each hourglass block to help the center bulk is a must-learn tip. This is something I learned while making my pinwheels & 16 patch scrap quilt and it helped immensely with the bulk. 

One thing to note, when sewing the first two units together, they should be flip-flopped.  This will result in the colors being opposite and the bulk of the seam allowances will be opposite.  That's what she means by nesting the SAs (seam allowances), and her note about having the top seam allowance go toward the needle is correct, but she doesn't say why; it is to help with "creep".  If done with the seam allowance on top going away from the needle, the top layer might creep so that the seams don't line up nicely.

Block 10, Bow Tie

We are creating this block with foundation paper piecing.  You can download the template I created for a 6 inch Bow Tie block here. NOTE: be sure you print the template at 100% scale, not "Shrink to Fit", to be sure it's the correct size.  I'll start adding a one inch square to my templates for a sanity check.

Farmer's Wife - Block 10 - Bow Tie

See our completed blocks here!

See instructions for Farmer's Wife - Week 2