Went to LQS today (gotta love birthday money). I came out with 22 batik fat quarters, and some batik yardage for borders. An rctq friend had sent me a magazine with a pattern in it that I had really admired.
I've washed, ironed, strung them out all over the floor and am now ceremoniously staring at them like I always do. Is anything better??
I was in a terrible funk and didn't even want to touch the sewing machine. Egads. I am cured!
Sherry
Yeah! We wanna see the finished product!
G> Went to LQS today (gotta love birthday money). I came out with 22
Good for you (and happy birthday a few days late!)! We'll be waiting to see the finished quilt now that the funk is gone.
Glad to hear it, Sherry! and a Happy Belated Birthday!! amy in CNY
Somewhat the same here. Finished YOYOVILLE and started paperpiecing a New York Beauty in batiks for upcoming grandson. Pale blue and pale yellow. I already had the fabric from a failed vision of several years ago. I'd forgotten how much fun paper piecing can be! Next up is a FARMER'S WIFE in batiks, 4" blocks. joan
That's looking really good, Joan.
Ooooo.....I want to do one of those. Does it look doable for the intermediate-level quilter? The blocks look okay, but I've never seen the patterns themselves from the CD. Batiks would be gorgeous, IMO. I've leafed through the book at the store but haven't bought one.
Sherry
There's a story that goes along with this. Two of the ladies in the quilt shop where I work (one more Sunday anyway) decided they wanted to do the Farmer's Wife in reproduction/Civil War fabrics. Our store manager took one look at the patterns and the cd with the templates and announced that no one would ever have the patience to do it 'that' way. (She's wrong about that, but she has a certain point of view.)
So she set about to make paper pieced patterns for each of the 111 blocks, plus the directions for the rough cuts for each one. At that point, I was so blown away by the amount of work she must have done to make it do-able, I signed on, too. Now we've got about 150 women signed up to do it as a Block of the Month. 11 blocks per month, choice of 6" or 4" blocks.
Yes, it is do-able. But I honestly think that doing it with the template method is beyond the patience (and maybe even skill) of the average quilter. In fact, if I were doing it that way, I'd probably hand-piece it.
I've done 2 blocks. I'm working from my batik scraps and did buy 2 yards of black batik. Some of that probably for sashing; some for the block piecing.
I apologize if I highjacked the original topic. It's just that I'm excited about quilting for the first time in a long time and was excited to see that someone else felt the same way. joan
After many of us went to the trouble of drafting the blocks from Farmer's Wife they have finally released a companion CD. The CD works with Electric Quilt version 5 or 6. You must have one of these programs loaded on your computer to use the Farmer's Wife CD. I have not used my copy yet so can not report on how well the program is constructed. I have opened the packaging and do not see any loading directions. As soon as I have loaded my copy I will report back.
The same publisher, Krause Publicati>>> >>
Oh, no; you're not hijacking. I appreciate the info. It's a beautiful quilt, and the book itself I thought was charming. But darn, I wish they'd include real rotary-cutting instructions. I'd love to see the quilt when you're done.
Sherry
Loading the companion CD into EQ was not automatic. My husband did something but who knows what. I will have to check my EQ instruction book if anyone wants to know how to add the Farmer's Wife CD file to their EQ file. When will publishers get their act together? A simple sheet of paper with a few lines of instruction would have helped. I feel Krause Publications does not respect quilters. They are just after our money when they produce such poor quality products packaged in such professional looking wrappers. (see post on next book in this series, "Hobo Quilts"). I plan to call the 800 number given on the CD and ask how to load. Let's see if they know.
Susan
Susan I really appreciate you sharing your expertise and evaluating these products. Although I'm a real collector of everything quilting...I haven't plunged into these product very much. And now I think I'll steer clear of them. My credit card thanks you!! Sorry I didn't get to see you last weekend at the show. Anne said she didn't see you Thursday night either. So I don't think I overlooked you in any way. Kathyl
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