The Farmer's Wife comes with a CD containing all the templates you will need to create the blocks.Each template is on a page of its own... this was the one downfall I found to the concept of the book and CD combo, because you have to print out 106 sheets of paper, with each piece of paper containing pretty small templates.
You can download a zip file here which has files which have all the templates listed for each block... be warned though, this will require you to print 111 pages.
I am a recycler and I hate wasting paper, so I copied all the templates and combined them into as few sheets as I could, I ended up with 13 pages containing all the templates, a big difference!
My sister and I decided that we would not do the blocks in order, but rather, each pick a block and try to do one or both for the following Friday, if we only made one, then we would make the one we missed for the following Friday.
My sister chose Block #21 Contrary Wife, so that is the one we worked on.
For new wanna be quilters, I will show the methods I use in quilting, they work for me...
So finally, you get to see the colours I have chosen for some of my Farmer's Wife blocks...
...aren't they just delicious...
...speaking of delicious....
... no, I didn't just eat a whole package of macaroons... I pulled this out from my recycling bin
from which I created a template of my own...
... I wanted to have a clear template so I could fussy cut my fabric...
...this block only uses two templates....
... I took my newly made clear template, and I taped on a small piece of paper, to which I placed my ruler from diagonal corner to diagonal corner in both directions, marking a small line and where the points met, this was the center of my template...
...which I pierced with a pin...
...then I took a red pen and made the hole slightly bigger and left a small red mark so I could easily see the center hole....
...I took the template and positioned it so that the red hole was directly in the center of the piece I wanted to fussy cut......then I took my water erasable pen and marked two edges of the template....
...these would be my cut lines...
...then I took my square ruler and squared up the cutting area by placing the edge of the ruler against each of the lines, and then cut out the square using the new cut lines as my "squaring" up lines...
... now, as I mentioned, this block only calls for two templates... but I didn't want to cut "all those triangles", so I cheated and used the half-square triangle method instead...
...so, I cut two squares out of one of each colour of fabric...
...on the lighter coloured fabric, I drew a line from one corner, diagonally to the corner on the opposite side using my water soluble pen, then I marked two lines, one on either side of this line, at a 1/4 inch distance from the center line. Placing one square of each of the colours right side together, I then sewed directly onto the two outside lines....
...after sewing the lines, I cut down the center line....
...creating my half square triangles...
...I usually press my seams open as opposed to the well known method of pressing to one side... I prefer that my blocks feel like they are more uniformly even - I only press to one side on odd occasions when a particular join would work better that way...
...and there we have it, two perfectly completed blocks... whew, I actually made it for Farmer's Wife Fridays!
...I just love these colours...
...two blocks you ask... well, you'll just have to wait to see what I have planned for each of them...
Live, Love & Laugh!
Hugs....Heather
Heather, I like the colors you picked for your first block... very warm! This looks like fun... hmmmm! And thanks for the tutorial and idea on making your own templates. Looking forward to following every Friday! G
ReplyDeleteHi Sis,
ReplyDeleteLovely done! I like the colours too!
Yours looks much nicer than in the book, strange how it is the same block but colours and fabrics make a big difference.
I look forward to seeing more!
Hugs
'luv Theresa