Farmer's Wife Blocks - Blocks 107 Windblown - 92 Streak of Lightning - 29 Economy

Block 29, Economy  

The great irony of this one is that it's called the economy block because with careful calculations, you can be thrifty and enlarge a quilt with a minimum of fabric.  I've done it before ...  But the instructions for this were for paper piecing, which notoriously wastes fabric.   I only needed to make one in this style ...  but I am considering making another one just because I am rather fond of this block.  ;-)

The bird is leftover from another project -- the carrying case/tote I made for my Singer Featherweight.

I took some advice from Portlandia and "Put a bird on it!"

 

Block 107, Windblown

 

This one really wasn't too bad, once you learn to make the half-square triangles.  Then it's just a matter of lining them up and sewing them together.  You'll notice the dark triangles on the bottom.  Those were supposed to be light blue, but I goofed when I was trimming the HSTs, and I didn't want to start from the beginning.  So I looked through my scrap pile and found some leftover from previous blocks.  Instant design choice ...  The dark blue adds some gravity (like an anchor) and keeps the other colors flying -- in motion.  Although -- I have to admit, that defies one of Doug Johnson's cardinal rules of Art:  Put the dark heave stuff on top, let it press down on everything else.  If that's the case, I guess I could just flip this block around ...

 

I had to use my Quilter's Moonshine (2 capfuls of vodka in a spray bottle with 1 cup water) on this one as it didn't want to lay flat.  That causes some distortion of it's own, but it's still better than it was before!

 

Most of the leaves have fallen off our trees here--except for a few tenacious oak trees.  

 

I've always liked this block -- esp. because it's featured in the Quiltmaker's Gift storybooks, and accompanying quilt patterns.  

 

Block 92, Streak of Lightning

Then there's this one.   I was thinking I only had 2 blocks to work up this week, then I saw this one, and my heart kind of sank.  This block as laid out was kind of a dud, IMHO.  I know -- They can't all be winners.   I have to give Handmade Karma credit for mixing up the fun blocks along with the duds in such a way that we get them all done.  The duds get pulled along with the energy and charisma of the prettier, more fun blocks.   

The instructions recommended cutting out all the pieces and stitching it together.  I've been quilting long enough to recognize when a certain technique might be more appropriate, so I did my own thing here and strip-pieced 4 2-1/2 inch strips into what Nancy Zieman (Sewing with Nancy) called stratas, and then subcut them into 1-1/2 inches and arranged them.   I think it worked out much better -- and makes for a more stable, well-behaved block.  Less distortion than compared to the windlblown block above.

With these 3, I have 20 of 111 blocks done!

Tutorials from Handmade Karma for Week 9.

See Handmade Karma's full set of Farmer's Wife blocks and tutorials.