Farmer's Wife Sampler quilt

When I started quilting last August, and started to read quilting blogs, everyone seemed to be making a Farmer's Wife quilt and I really liked the blocks and finished quilts that people posted, .  So I bought the book to see what it was all about.

I loved reading all of the letters and learning about farm life in the 1920's, but now it's about time I started making some of the blocks.  I decided I wanted to make it all in fabrics from one line to give it a lovely cohesive look, and chose Marmalade by Bonnie and Camille.  I love the blend of aqua, pink, red, grey, green  and yellow and I've wanted to use this line ever since I first saw it.  I was overjoyed when I saw that Simply Solids had the Layer Cake in their sale so I snapped it up without batting an eyelid.  I thought that one layer cake would need a bit of extra fabric added to it and so I started hunting for good matches, when I saw that Pink Castle Fabrics in America had the whole of the Marmalade line, plus matching solids, at sale prices.  I just had to get me some. I wanted yardage for the sashing, border, setting triangles, cornerstones and binding, as well as a few extra prints to supplement the layer cake. I worked out that even with the extra postage, import duties and PO collection charge, it was still going to work out cheaper than buying it in UK, so an order went in.  It only took 10 days to arrive and it came straight to the door with no import duties, so even cheaper than I'd hoped.  Along with it came a gift of 3 half yard pieces of fabric to add to my stash!  That's good service!

Whilst I was reading the book I noticed that it didn't lay flat and kept closing, so it was obviously going to be difficult to keep it open when I wanted to work from it, so I took the book to Kal-kwik and had it ring bound.  It makes so much difference and only cost £3.90 to have it done.

I'm going to make the lap size quilt which needs 50 blocks and I hope to make at least one block a week.  Maybe this will be ready for the finishing stages the week after next Christmas.  That's what I'm hoping for.