Some of you may remember when The Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt Book was first published back in 2009. It got really popular in quilting circles around 2013 and 2014 and Quiltstagram exploded with beautiful examples like Camille Roskelley’s. While going through things in my little sewing nook, I found a box full of my own quilt blocks. I started this around 2015 and made about 40 blocks. While sorting through them, I saw that some of them were really badly pieced and some were missing, thanks to the many moves my sewing space has had. I’m in between big quilting projects so I decided to figure out which ones were missing and needed to be redone, and got to work piecing one or two a week to replace them.
I’m not sure if I’ll keep working on this quilt, but it was fun to do a little old-fashioned piecing with my scrap baskets. If I want to make the queen sized version then I’ll need to make 110 of these blocks and they’re not that simple to put together because of how awkward all of the templates are. It’s amazing to me that ANY of these have come out the correct size, but I can confidently say that my piecing skills have improved significantly since I first started this project nearly a decade ago.
The templates for this quilt are all on a CD-ROM that’s included with the book. I don’t even have a computer that reads CDs anymore but my past self was very smart and saved all of those files to my Dropbox. So I have easy access to all of the templates despite it being old technology! If anyone has the book but cannot access the templates anymore, then I’m happy to share mine. I don’t think we need to worry about copyright issues because I’m confident that even the most experienced quilter in the world wouldn’t be able to do anything with just these templates — the book is necessary for putting the pieces together!
Today is another short and sweet post – it’s very early and Colton is still not sleeping well, so I need to run. I’m hoping to get some time with my knitting needles this weekend as well as the book I’m loving right now (A Place on Earth). I hope your weekend is full of exactly what you need. I plan to be back on Monday for the first official One Little Word link-up for 2023. Until then – take good care.
The Cozy Burrow 
What a beautiful quilt, Katie … I can’t believe anyone finished it, let alone created those stunning pieces. How fun to discover that your own skills have improved since you first picked it up! I do hope you get some time this weekend with knitting and a book. Port William is always a lovely spot to visit!
LikeLike
Mary – I am LOVING my visit to Port William. Why haven’t I read ALL of Wendell Berry’s books??
Thanks for your kind words about my quilt squares. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve made ANY of the squares and I’m not sure when/if I’ll return to it, but it was fun to work on when I did! Maybe I’ll finish the quilt in 50 years?
LikeLike
Your past self was very smart, and so is your present self — and how validating to have such concrete examples of how far you’ve come in your craft (or one of your many crafts). Hope you have a nice, cozy weekend!
LikeLike
Thanks, Jordy! I hope your weekend was wonderful. There’s no school for Colton today because of a teacher workshop, so we have an extended weekend. I’m going to need another weekend when it’s over 😉
I hope you’re ready for the polar vortex heading our way!!
LikeLike
Goodness they look fiddly, maybe you could make one a week then it’s not an onerous task. Enjoy your weekend.
LikeLike
Cathy, “fiddly” is the perfect word for these blocks – thank you!! I think my goal with this quilt is to finish it in the next 50 years. Ha!
LikeLike
I laughed a little at the mention of a CD-ROM — I don’t even remember the last time I saw one of those, and I’m pretty confident my kid has never even heard of one! I think one of the great things about this type of project is that it’s lots of smaller pieces put together. Overall, there’s a lot to do, but making one square feels like something easy to achieve.
I hope the weekend is a good one!
LikeLike
Hat’s off to your past self! Always fun and rewarding to see such improvement. I love the vibrancy of the squares. But holy cats, that quilt sounds like quite an endeavor.
LikeLike
It’s a crazy project that will probably never be completed, but it was fun to make a few more squares!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I had that book but never made the blocks. I made a bunch of the quilts from the Civil War book by the same author. Think I sent those to Goodwill. In our house we have so many archaic computer gadgets including external cd-rom reader, Zip drive, and even a device that reads floppy discs. Why? But as I have said, one of us is a keeper 😉
LikeLike
How funny that you have all of that technology in your house still! That would drive me bananas :p
I think I have the same Civil War book that you mentioned? I’ll have to check the author. The one I have is to remake the quilts used to communicate along the Underground Railroad. I’ve made some of the blocks but not a full quilt yet!
LikeLike
What lovely blocks! (or perhaps better said is what lovely fabrics Katie!) That makes me chuckle a bit… my dear departed much loved mother in law grew up on a farm and she luxuriated in doing all kinds of things her mother never had time to do keeping up with the farm! (quilting was one of those things!)
LikeLike
Your quilt blocks look so nice! Early in the pandemic I started to make a block a day from this book using scraps. I couldn’t use the CD rom and had to draw the designs on to 6″ squares of card stock. It was all very fiddly! I made about 25 of them and then I lost interest and stopped. I decided to use them for smaller projects and so far have made potholders, mug rugs, and a pillow top.
I haven’t read that Port William book, but I loved Jayber Crow and Hannah Coulter.
I hope you have a great weekend!
LikeLike
What a sweet collection of little quilt blocks. Like Mary, I can’t believe anyone finished the entire project. Scrappy quilts have always been my favorites.
LikeLike
Such pretty fabric and lovely squares. I hope you do more and finish it!! I may need to look for that Wendall Berry book!
LikeLike