WIP Wednesday #5: Mainly About the Farmer

Another WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced. With a family reunion and cooking for 19 this week, I only have a few more Farmer's Wife blocks to add today.  Group shot above of the first 16: my fabrics are from my scrap boxes mainly, and I make myself use something vintage, thrifted or upcycled (from repurposed clothing) in every block.  I'm pretty happy with the mix of colors and not worrying too much about the final look of the finished quilt.  I think it will all work out.

Block 15: Buzzard's Roost.  Both fabrics in this one are from a recent trip to the Goodwill Outlet, where I found several scraps of interesting fabric in one bin.  I generally don't use large-scale prints, especially in such small blocks, but this one was interesting.  It ends up looking very modern even though the fabric is older.  For people who are following along with the block analysis and cutting, the central square was cut 3.5", the larger triangles are quarter-square triangles cut from a 4.25" square (twice diagonally - you will have two triangles of each color left over) and the smaller HST triangles are cut from  2 3/8" squares (once diagonally).

Block 16: Calico Puzzle.  This isn't puzzling at all, just a straightforward 9-patch variation.  Squares cut 2.5", triangles cut 2 7/8".  I'm not so sure about the color combination now, but it's very similar to the kind of quilts I loved when I first started quilting in the (gasp!) 1980's.  I needed more green to balance that #6 block, Big Dipper.  But what I think I'm going to need to do is put in more of the lime green, because it's just a lot brighter than anything else and really jumps out at me.  And I want more red, and yellow.

Part of the cleaning for the family reunion was in the girls' room, where the floor was at last cleared and vacuumed for the two sleeping bags in addition to the two beds.  In the process I took this picture of the valance I made several years ago when we remodeled and painted that room.  My youngest is the artist who makes the wall decorations...

... and the under-the-desk decoration, made from Bendaroos.  Why she felt the need to put up a fake spiderweb when she doesn't like real spiders is beyond me, but she's certainly creative.

Here's the quilt, 12 years old now, that the lovely ladies of the "Hearts and Hands" quilt group in Denver made for me when I was expecting Tertia and preparing to move out here.  I don't think it's ever been shared online before.  It's a real beauty.