Wednesday, August 13, 2014

The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt


Hooray!  After 11 months of piecing (on and off, not every day) and 50 hours of quilting (spread over three months), my Farmer’s Wife quilt is finished!

Behold.


Do you know how hard it is to photograph a quilt this big?  Bad wind!


Signature at the bottom.


I.love.


Stats:
Approximately 93” x 103”
3 boxes of basting pins
50 hours of quilting
39.5 bobbins of quilting thread
Quilted with Juki TL2010Q
Began: January 2012
Completed: July 21, 2014


After marking the entire quilt with Crayola washable markers in varying colors, there were only two blocks with this yellow fabric that didn't get it all out.  And I'm sure a little spot attention will get it all the way out.  There are other blocks with the same fabric that had no issues, and plenty of other blocks with the blue marker.


 I frickin' love the feather border.  It was worth the marking and the work.


To be honest, after all the work, finishing the quilt was a bit anticlimactic.  I just put the last stitch in and put her in the washer.  Weird.  I guess sometimes a mammoth project will do that to you.  It was almost relief that it was done, but I did enjoy almost every part of this quilt.  **It probably doesn’t help that I entered the quilt in our county fair and am considering entering it in the state fair, so I haven’t actually put it on our bed yet.**


Each block is quilted differently.


I loved piecing the top because the blocks were all different – I never got bored.  I loved marking and basting once I finally decided to quilt it myself.  I loved the actual quilting because I couldn’t believe I was actually free motion quilting a queen/king sized quilt on my domestic machine and it looked decent!  And I love that I can look at this quilt on my bed every day as a reminder that I am awesome. 

And that’s not bragging.  The quilting (and even the piecing) is nowhere near perfect, but it is the best I have done to date.  I am going to be proud of that.  I tend to be self-deprecating and uncomfortable with praise, but I think we quilters need to remind ourselves that we have a special craft.  Not everyone can or wants to do this.  We are awesome for making quilts.  


**She won first place in her class at the county fair!  Admittedly there weren't many quilts, but I was proud to get a blue.  Now to decide on entering the state fair.  Possibly submit to a "real" quilt show???**

10 comments:

  1. What a beautiful quilt and what a great job you've done. You are right to be proud of it - it is awesome. There's so much work involved in a quilt like this. Congratulations on winning a prize too.

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  2. What a finish! Your quilting is fantastic and you deserve to feel really proud. Congratulations on your win at the Fair - it must have been a thrill to see it hanging there.

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  3. If I was with you I would stand and applaud! What a marvellous effort - congratulations on completing it! You have made a great job of it!

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  4. Are you kidding? Of course you MUST enter this at the state level! Congratulations on not only an amazing but a beautiful accomplishment! The blocks are great and your quilting is amazing....particularly the feathers in the border! Washable crayola markers! Yikes! Seems very brave but I will be giving this a try!

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  5. I read a bunch of reviews and blogs where they tested the different brands of washable markers. It seems the Crayola brand are the best, so I would only use those. I think I only used the black, blue, and purple colors.

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  6. Beautiful work! I love the dark border..it ties it all together. I can't believe you did all that quilting! That must have taken hours and hours. Do you have a favorite block?

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  7. holy cats ... 39.5 bobbins ....
    it is gorgeous! congratulations!!

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  8. Congratulations on winning first place!! You've done an amazing job on this quilt and I love your quilting so much!

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  9. Your friend Carrie (we attend the same church) sent me the link to your blog. You did a fabulous job!! I aspire to finish my FWS, but have only completed 36 of the blocks to date. I suffer from quilting ADHD, so always have at least 5-6 projects going at the same time. I pick up my FWS every few months or so and do a block or two. I'm sorry I didn't get over to the fair to see your quilt in person, but you should go ahead and enter it in the state fair. Again, just beautiful!!

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