Friday 13 February 2015

Long Lost Farmer's Wife

Do you have a UFO that lurks somewhere making you feel guilty?  



My guilt-ridden long-lost project is the Farmer's Wife Sampler.  Can you believe it was the summer of 2011 when these 6" blocks were all the craze and I tried to join in the the Farmer's Wife QAL?  2011!!!

I'm not entirely sure what happened to me with these sampler blocks.  I stitched 26 of them and then stopped.  I didn't fall out of love with them at the time or anything, I think I just committed to other things with other people (swaps, Bees and such) and so making these as extra for myself got shoved aside.  I did try several times to resurrect the project but then found somewhere along the line I'd lost heart for it, packed it up on a high shelf and left it hibernating for a VERY long winter!

Last summer, I sort of decided that I didn't want to progress any further with the blocks and decided to repurpose the fabrics for my apple core quilt.  I'm glad I did it.  That decision freed me from feeling obliged to finish something just because I'd started.  Well, sort of ...



You see, while the fabrics were used up, the 26 little blocks remained unloved in their plastic storage.  I thought about throwing them away or even giving them away but wasn't just ready to make the break.  So they have waited patiently for me to make up my mind.  This week, they began to whistle "coo-ee Sa-rah",  " coo-ee", "ahem, COO-ee, Sa-rah", "oi, you, we're up here".  I couldn't ignore them any longer.  They deserved a little attention so I played around wondering what to do and ended up laying out 25 as a mini-sampler.  (The 26th block was very badly pieced anyway.)


Happy with the layout, I started to add slim sashing strips

 
followed by 2.5" borders. I think these little blocks will be happier now and they are looking pretty even if they're not quite floating my boat personally just now.



I will quilt them with a simple diagonal grid which you can see I marked up with my hera marker.  It's 38.5" square and when it's finished I think it would be a good one to donate to our Bee Blessed baby quilts pile which will eventually go to the Mother and Baby HIV Unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.

Oh, it does feel better to have given these blocks a new purpose and release them from their captivity!

So, what do you think you will do about your guilt-ridden UFOs?



6 comments:

  1. Aw those wee blocks are so cute sewn together like that! Perfect quilt for RVH. When I read your first sentence/question my answer was 'yes, several!' But as I'm remaining in complete denial about them, I guess the answer to your last question is 'absolutely nothing!' Jxo

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  2. It's a really cute quilt! I'm not sure about any guilt-ridden UFOs...I'll have to search the darkest corners of my sewing room (and memory) to see if I have any!

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  3. I started quilting in late 2011 and at the time Tula's Prince Charming was in vogue but selling out fast. I managed to stock up on the lot, planned a big complex 2 quilt affair, drew up some templates and... folded the lot up and put them on top of my fabric shelves until I could work out how to make the shapes I did the templates for. I'm still waiting...

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  4. I love it and think it'll be a brilliant baby quilt! I luckily don't have too many UFOs at the moment, just a lot of to-dos alongside purchased fabric sitting uncut and making me feel guilty!

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  5. What a great way to solve the 'problem'. A quilt in the hand is always better then 10 in the stash!

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  6. I have a few, yeah, only a few... The one that comes closest to this is the Tula Pink 100 modern blocks. I got to 38!

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