Farmer's Wife Quiltalong - Week 1

Years ago (probably at least 15!) when I went to my first quilt show, one of the vendor booths had a huge sampler quilt with probably 100 different 6 inch blocks.  This particular one I believe was made with Civil War reproduction fabrics, because that was a big part of the stock in this vendor's booth.  Since that day I have wanted to make one of those sampler quilts.  I am not sure why I have not done it yet.

Last month on Instagram I saw someone post about a sampler quilt quiltalong based on 

The Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt: Inspiring Letters from Farm Women of the Great Depression and 99 Quilt Blocks That Honor Them  .  I fell in love with this quilt immediately, and decided to join in on the quiltalong!  (If the Facebook group is any indication, so did about 3000 other quilters.)

The photos in the book are based on 1930s reproduction fabrics, but I decided I did not want to use those.  Instead I bought a curated fat quarter bundle from the Fat Quarter shop.  It includes a palette that is rich tones of red, yellow, blue and green.  I will carry around samples so that I can add more fabrics as the year long quiltalong progresses.

Here are my fabrics and book:

This week was the kickoff of the quiltalong, and we made 3 blocks- Becky, Bonnie and Aunt.  This quiltalong is set up so that we do the easiest blocks first, and work our way up to the harder ones.  For Becky, I paper pieced the smaller sections, then rotary cut the other pieces.  I did Bonnie totally by rotary cutting and piecing, then I did Aunt entirely paper pieced.  I want to be back in the paper piecing groove before we hit the harder blocks!  For each block, I choose one fabric that I used in the block before it, then choose different fabrics for the rest of the block.  I am hoping this method will help me avoid using the same fabrics together all the time, but also spread the fabrics throughout the quilt.

Here is a photo of my first 3 blocks, along with my lovely assistant Honey.  I'm sure Honey will claim this quilt as her own.  

Linking up with our hostess GnomeAngel for the linky party!