Friday, July 13, 2012

Fig Tree Farmer's Mistress Quilt

I knew from the start there was no way I'd keep up with the Farmer's Wife QAL so along with a few others I termed us the Farmer's Mistress, around when I want it, but no commitment. Which is exactly how it has turned out.
There is a flickr group devoted to those doing the quilt, and most are doing 3 a week I think.
I'd decided from the start I was going to use only Fig Tree Quilts fabric since Joanna's fabric has played a huge part in my quilting journey.
She was the first designer I was drawn to and learned about the whole idea of lines, designer fabric etc.
My first attempt at sewing without a pattern, and quilting and binding was with Urban Indigo.

My first Moda Bake Shop project used Whimsy.

   So as you can see a lot of firsts with Fig Tree.

 Since I knew this quilt was going to be a long term project, taken out and put away many times, using lots of different techniques, I figured an all Fig Tree quilt would be representative of my journey.
My plan was, and still is, to have at least one fabric from each of Joanna's line in the quilt. That is 22 lines at present. And some of the lines are impossible to find, especially her first two, which came out before I got hooked. Thankfully Joanna has a few scraps left and has agreed to send me some, and a few others I've recently found because of destash sales, or shop that weren't online now being online. So I'm pretty sure eventually ever line will be represented in at least two fabrics.

Since my first introduction into the world of fabric a lot has changed, and my tastes have grown and altered as well. I still love Fig Tree, the sweet nostalgic feel, soft colours, and romantic prints, but I've also fallen in love with more modern designers, and some which don't really fit any description except "I like!".
But this quilt will be only Fig Tree.

So why am I telling you all this now? or again I think.

Because the other day I was feeling kind of blah and wanted to sew but didn't think I had the right mind set to work on anything important, like new pattern projects etc, so I pulled out the box of Fig Tree and my Farmer's Wife book and made 5 new blocks.
 
 One of them isn't in the book, I just made it for the heck of it. And you can see I was definitely feeling blues. Oddly I didn't use my favorite blues, which are from Urban Indigo, Folklorique and California Girl.

I now have 10 of the 111 blocks. Yeah so not getting this done anytime soon. Especially since I'm doing the math to figure these all out without templates because that STILL blows my mind, how any editor in this day and age of quilting thought a quilt book using only templates was a good idea, especially when sooooo many of the blocks are simple and we all use rotary cutters now.

3 comments:

Cat said...

You are farther along on this quilt journey. I own the book. That's it! It is on the I would like to make this list. Love reading about your journey. Hugs

sandra said...

What a cute idea, I to am a big Joanna fan and love all of her fabric.Just keep doing it when you are up to it and it will finally be done. Have fun. Blessings Sandra

Karen said...

I LOVE Fig Tree. I love Joanna's aesthetic. Even her blog pictures reflect that. I am trying to do a scrap vomit quilt (I'm a Ginger Monkey) with only Fig Tree. Definitely won't get all the lines.