Marti and Me again.

I love how using the Marti and Me templates make me look like an experienced piecer. These templates are just amazing. This particular month we did a faux Carpenter's Wheel and boy did they make it easy. After cutting the pieces, I did not trust that they were going to turn out so I tried to lay it out by looking at the picture and couldn't do it. Then I had my 15 year old help and she gave up. The next day I placed all the pieces back in the order that I cut them and decided to follow the directions to see if it worked. And it did!! My daughter was even amazed out how it turned out since we couldn't even get the puzzle to fit together.

The difference between this and a real carpenter's wheel are the squares. The original block pattern have all the squares the same size. I cannot stress how much I love that Marti has done all the work for us.

This is going to be the center square of a Texas quilt. It would look spectacular using the recent block patterns that were given out with the Quilt Across Texas tour.

I love the red and aqua colors chosen for this one.

Here are a few more including a Christmas version.

It is so fun to go and see what everyone has come up with each month. One pattern can look so different just by the colors you use.

Churn Dash Drama

The Quilt Asylum held a Churn Dash block swap recently, in which I participated. It is my first block swap and was quite a challenge. My first set of blocks would not come out to the 9 1/2" size that was required. After I had cut all the pieces and started sewing, I decided I should measure these blocks. Well, they ended up being put aside after I tried to rip some apart and work them into the proper size. That was way too time consuming.

I had started my Farmer's Wife blocks using the Marti Michell templates and decided this is exactly what I needed to make my blocks come out to the proper size. I bought the appropriate templates and started out to make my 84 blocks. After testing the size and finding the templates did indeed make perfect 9 1/2" blocks, I am now hooked on these templates.

Now the drama is what to do with these blocks. I don't know that I want to just slap them together, although, I really do want a traditional amish looking quilt someday. My thoughts are to cut them up and re-sew them together. Kelleigh has drawn up a couple of ideas for me and so I may play around with those designs and then decide. Bonnie had cut a couple of blocks up and sewed it in this manner.

It was fun laying out the churn dash blocks and organizing them by colors. Kelleigh enjoyed putting them in some sort of order.

The Farmer's Wife

Just before I left on vacation I started my adventure into The Farmer's Wife quilt. I have had the book for quite some time and knew someday I wanted to make this quilt. Lucky for me, it has become the latest rage and now I have lots of friends joining in on the adventure. The book has some great letters from the 20's of women who commented on whether they would want their daughter to marry a farmer. It is quite fascinating to read. The book does not give you exact instructions for the blocks but there are several groups out there helping with directions.

Here is a picture of the finished quilt. There are 111 blocks in the book and some quilters have chosen to do a smaller version. I am not making any decisions at this point as to the size of my finished quilt.

We saw lots of farms on our trip through Michigan and Canada. I couldn't help but think about the lives of the women who live on the farms.

I have chosen to use the Marti Michell templates to do my piecing of the blocks. Yet, another thing I have been wanting to do, perfecting my piecing. I am happy with what I do because I am not a perfectionist but I never want to give anything away because I don't like people to see my corners not matched up. This was a perfect plan...The Farmer's Wife and Marti Michell templates. I am happy with the first blocks that I did but feel even more confident that the next ones will be better.

One great thing about this quilt...it is all coming from my stash!! The Marti Michell templates do cost money but are worth their price because you get perfect piecing every time. I have another blog post to write proving the worth of these templates. They are saving me from pulling out my hair right now on a swap I have committed to participate in. I love gadgets that make my life easier!