Maybe you've even started deciding how you want to arrange the blocks, making sure that you have a nice distribution of the blocks based on value, color saturation, similarity, etc. If you haven't, you'll want to be thinking about this step. Once you get a good arrangement, be sure to take a picture so you can reference that when all of your blocks become a jumble again!
In this post, I'll give you the steps you need to assemble your quilt top using the traditional Farmer's Wife Quilt layout. This has the blocks set on point with sashing between, "posts" at the corners of the blocks, and triangles around the edges to square things off. During your internet surfing, you'll see other ideas on how to lay out the quilt blocks and some of this may apply to those ideas.
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| Farmer's Wife Block Layout |
If you have made all 111 blocks, the layout has alternating horizontal rows of 7 and 6 blocks; 17 total, 9 rows of 7 blocks and 8 rows of 6 blocks. This leaves jagged edges which we'll fill in with triangles (half squares). So, you will need to decide on fabrics for three things:
- Sashing - strips that go in between the blocks (I'm using white)
- Posts - small squares that sit at the corners of the blocks - not shown in the layout above - where the sashing intersects (I'm using blue)
- Triangles - around the edges (Mine are green)
In the finished quilt, the sashing strips are 6 inches x 3/4 inch, so each strip is cut 6 1/2 inches x 1 1/4 inches. The corner posts are 3/4 inch square, so they are cut 1 1/4 inches square. There are two sizes of triangles; the larger ones along the sides are 1/2 of a 6 inch square, so we cut them from a 7 inch square; the small triangles for the corners are 1/2 of a 4 1/8 inch square, so we cut them from a 5 1/4 inch square.
Fabric Requirements
You will need the following amounts of fabric for each:- 1 1/2 yards of sashing fabric
- 1/4 yard of corner post fabric
- 3/4 yards of fabric for the triangles
Assembly Overview
Before you cut out all of your pieces, let's review the assembly process. There is one step I recommend in your cutting process for efficiency. For each block, you'll attach one sashing strip along one side, then attach a sashing strip with one post attached to an adjacent side (see image below). So you'll need a collection of plain strips and a collection of strips with the post attached. |
| Farmer's Wife Block with sashing |
Making the Sashing Strips
To create the sashing strips with the post attached, it's easier to do this by first sewing a long 1 1/4 inch wide strip of corner post fabric to a long 6 1/2 inch wide strip of sashing fabric, then slice that into 1 1/4 inch strips. Sorry I don't have a picture of this, but hopefully you get the idea.To cut the plain sashing strips, cut a 6 1/2 inch wide strip the width of the fabric, then slice it into 1 1/4 inch strips. You will need to do this several times (at least 4) to get the number of strips necessary.
You will need 111 plain sashing strips and 140 sashing strips with the corner post square attached. Additionally, you will need one sashing strip that has a corner post at both ends (not shown here).
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| Sashing Strips |
Making the Triangles
To get your triangles, you'll start with 14 seven inch squares and two 5 1/4 inch squares; cut them in half diagonally. If you can manage it, I recommend setting the larger squares so that the diagonal cutting line is on the straight grain of the fabric. This longer edge of the triangle will be on the outer edge of the finished quilt, so having that be a stable edge would be helpful. This is not necessary for the smaller triangles, as the two short edges will be the corners of the quilt. |
| Cut triangles with red lines along the grain |
Attaching the Sashing
We'll start adding the sashing strips to the Farmer's Wife blocks, but first remember that the blocks will be set on point. In this step we'll be keeping in mind the orientation (top and bottom) of the blocks as we want them to be assembled into the quilt. As mentioned above, sew one plain sashing strip to the bottom right side, then sew one sashing strip with the corner post attached to the bottom left side (see below). Do not sew sashing strips all the way around the block.Do this to all of your blocks.
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| Attach the Sashing Strips |
Next, we'll add the sashing strips to most of the triangles, as described here. I have used letters to represent each group of triangles. These letters will be important later on, so you may want to identify them somehow - maybe a piece of paper with the letter on it, pinned to each batch.
- A: Six of the large triangles will have no sashing added; these will be used along the bottom edge of the quilt.
- B: Six of the large triangles will have two sashing strips added, both with the corner post attached; these will be used along the top edge of the quilt.
Farmer's Wife - Unit B Diagram - make 6 - C1 and C2: Sixteen of the large triangles will have one sashing strip added, with the corner post attached; these will be along the side edges of the quilt. Eight will have the strip added to one side of the triangle and the other eight will have the strip added to the other side of the triangle
Farmer's Wife Unit C1 - make 8 
Farmer's Wife Unit C2 - make 8 - D: Two of the small triangles will have no sashing added; these will be used on the two bottom corners of the quilt.
- E: One of the small triangles will have one sashing strip added, with the corner post attached; this will be used on the upper right corner of the quilt.
Farmer's Wife Unit E - make one - F: One of the small triangles will have a sashing strip that has two corner posts attached at either end. You can add that additional square before or after you sew the sashing strip to the triangle, it does not make a difference. This unit will be used on the upper left corner of the quilt.
Farmer's Wife Unit F - make one
Take Stock
OK, so what do you have now? You should have the following units:- 111 blocks that have sashing added to the bottom edges and a corner post at the bottom-most point
- 28 large triangles, some with sashing strips attached
- 4 small triangles, some with sashing strips attached
Assembling the Rows
To get all of these pieces together, begin thinking of the quilt as diagonal rows. The rows have varying numbers of blocks in them and triangles at either end. See the diagram below; the red lines show how the rows are divided, and the triangle units are marked, depicting which version should be used in each spot. |
| Farmer's Wife Quilt Diagram |
Don't let this overwhelm you; just take one row at a time. Ignoring unit F for now, start with the first row, which is one Farmer's Wife block, a triangle Unit B on the right and a triangle Unit C2 on the left. You can add Unit F if you want to create this corner unit. See image below.
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| Farmer's Wife - First Row Diagram |
The next row has three Farmer's Wife blocks, a triangle unit B on the right and a triangle unit C2 on the left.
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| Farmer's Wife - Second Row Diagram |
Continue making each diagonal row as explained below. It may be tempting to sew each row to the previous one now, but consider waiting until later just in case you see a block that isn't turned right or you decide to switch some blocks. It's easier to make a change before all of the rows are together.
- Row 3: Five blocks, a triangle unit B on the right and a triangle unit C2 on the left.
- Row 4: Seven blocks, a triangle unit B on the right and a triangle unit C2 on the left.
- Row 5: Nine blocks, a triangle unit B on the right and a triangle unit C2 on the left.
- Row 6: Eleven blocks, a triangle unit B on the right and a triangle unit C2 on the left.
- Row 7: Thirteen blocks, a triangle unit E on the right and a triangle unit C2 on the left.
- Row 8: Thirteen blocks, a triangle unit C1 on the right and a triangle unit C2 on the left.
- Row 9: Thirteen blocks, a triangle unit C1 on the right and a triangle unit D on the left.
- Row 10: Eleven blocks, a triangle unit C1 on the right and a triangle unit A on the left.
- Row 11: Nine blocks, a triangle unit C1 on the right and a triangle unit A on the left.
- Row 12: Seven blocks, a triangle unit C1 on the right and a triangle unit A on the left.
- Row 13: Five blocks, a triangle unit C1 on the right and a triangle unit A on the left.
- Row 14: Three blocks, a triangle unit C1 on the right and a triangle unit A on the left.
- Row 15: One block, a triangle unit C1 on the right and a triangle unit A on the left, plus the small triangle Unit D on the lower right.
Final Assembly
Now you have 15 rows (diagonal) of blocks, triangles, and sashing. You still have options!You can sew all of the rows together to make the complete quilt top. You could also take the opportunity to use a quilt-as-you-go technique, which is much easier to manage if you want to use a standard home sewing machine to do the quilting or if you plan to do hand quilting. Check out the many great tutorials online for this technique.
Either way, a border in coordinating fabric will add a nice balance to the quilt; I recommend 6-8 inches wide, but consider the final quilt size you'd like to have. I've also seen other Farmer's Wife quilts with a small border all the way around the quilt, the same fabric and width as the sashing strips, before adding the wider border.
Happy Quilting and enjoy the finished product!
To see all of the Farmer's Wife instructions, visit my feature page on this blog.