Farmer's Wife - Week 15

Our Farmer's Wife Quilt-along continues with three new blocks that will use a variety of techniques and are of varying degrees of difficulty.

• Block 18 - Century of Progress
• Block 46 - Hill & Valley
• Block 109 - Windows

Block 18 - Century of Progress

This block is assembled using foundation paper piecing.  It looks complicated, but it should come together fairly quickly.  You'll likely spend more time contemplating your color options.  I didn't follow the Farmer's Wife scheme, which is intended to depict a ferris wheel, with the "base" in a solid color.  I decided to try some shaded coloring here to get a 3-D effect, but I'm not sure how I'll do my final block.  The templates can be downloaded here.  Remember to print your templates at 100% Scale to be sure you end up with a 6 inch block.

Farmer's Wife - Block 18 - Century of Progress

Block 46 - Hill & Valley

For this block we'll make two sections the same way, starting with an hourglass block, then adding some triangles in various sizes and orientations.

If your hourglass blocks are identical and two colors, you can use the tutorial we've used before here.  The tutorial makes two hourglass blocks, so they will be the same.  Using the tutorial, start with two 3 1/4 inch squares, one from color A and one from color B.

If you are making the hourglass blocks out of more than two colors (like my coloring below) or want them to be different from each other, you'll need to piece them from triangles.  This page has templates for eight triangles. To ensure stable finished blocks, be sure to cut your triangles with the lengthwise or crosswise grain going in the direction of the arrows on the templates.

Once you have two hourglass blocks, make sure they are 2 1/2 inches square and trim them if necessary, ensuring that the center point is in the center as you trim.

The two green triangles that are on either side of the hourglass block can be cut from a 2 7/8 inch square by drawing a line down the center diagonally, then cutting along that line.  Attach these triangles to the hourglass block.

The blue triangle above the hourglass block will be half of a 2 1/4 inch block cut from blue fabric (use one block cut in half for each section) using the same method. Or, if you used the triangle template page above, these triangles will be the same size.  Attach one of the triangles to the top of the hourglass block (the other triangle will be used on the second section).  You should now have a large triangle.

Once again, the larger white triangles will be cut from a 3 7/8 inch square and sewn to the previous pieces.  You should now have a large rectangle section 3 1/2 inches tall and 6 1/2 inches wide.

Repeat for the second section, using the second hourglass block made from the tutorial (if you used it) and the second small blue triangle.  You'll need to cut new green and white triangles as above.

Finally, sew the two sections together and you are done.

Farmer's Wife - Block 46 - Hill & Valley

Block 109 - Windows

I have created a foundation paper template for this block found here. 

Farmer's Wife - Block 109 - Windows

See instructions for Farmer's Wife Quilt-along Week 14.