1930s Farmer's Wife Quilt Along - Book Giveaway

Hello! Happy Tuesday! I have some exciting things to share with you today.

Now, unless you've been away on some fabulous remote island on vacation with no internet access you have probably heard by now that there is a big Quilt Along starting up at on September 28th. I am very happy to announce that I have been invited to be one of the bloggers on the 1930's Farmers Wife Quilt Along hosted by Angie at Gnome Angel and Fat Quarter Shop. You can find out all about it on Angie's Blog. Here is a link to Frequently Asked Questions that have been coming in about the Quilt Along. You can also join the Facebook Group and join in on the quilting fun with 2700 other quilters around the world! There is also a Flickr group too!

"The Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt" is written by Laurie Aaron Hird. This is her third book. I am also working on my 1920s Farmer's Wife quilt which was her second book. Many of you know that I re-started that quilt this year. The quilt along will focus on the 1930s book and the 1920s book will not be a part of it but you can of course interchange the blocks from both books in your quilts however you like. I will be working on both quilts simultaneously and I do not plan to mix my blocks for mine.


Fat Quarter Shop has generously give me, as one of the bloggers on the Quilt Along, a copy of "The Farmer's Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt" book. I had already ordered a copy not knowing that I would be one of the official bloggers so I am very happy to pass on the generosity of the gift of this book from Fat Quarter Shop to one of my blog readers. I will have a Rafflecopter at the bottom of the post for you to enter. Due to the cost of shipping the book I must limit this giveaway to Canada & USA addresses.


My Fabric pull for my 1930s Farmer's Wife Quilt.
 I am sewing my 1930s Farmer's Wife Quilt with a mix of fabrics including "Fog City Kitty" and "Pam Kitty Garden" by Pam Kitty Morning for Lake House Dry Goods. I am also including some Lake House Dry Goods text fabrics (Lake House Favourites and Lake House Seed Catalogue), some Allison Harris "Oh, Clementine" fabrics and a few others from my stash. I might add a few more Pam Kitty fabrics if budget allows and if needed.


This is the 1920's book called "The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt." This book is not part of the Quilt Along starting at the end of this month but it is the book I am currently working with. We are waiting to all start sewing together so in the meantime I am sewing 1920s blocks and reading the letters from the Farmer's Wives in the 1930s book which I am finding very uplifting.

The first six blocks from the 1920s book. I am sewing in "Strawberry Fields" by Fig Tree & Co. for Moda.
Tips from my experience:

Okay, so as I mentioned, I restarted my 1920s quilt this year... this was before I even knew the 1930s book was coming out. There were a few mistakes that I made with my original 1920s quilt that I will share with you here in the hopes of saving you from the same mistakes.

First: Sew with fabrics you love! I was trying to make my quilt authentic to the book and while the quilt in the book is, of course, beautiful, I was not enjoying working with the darker more Civil War Repro colours. I am much, much happier sewing with Strawberry Fields.

Second: Make absolutely certain before you print out all 100+ template pages that you have your printer set to 100% - no scaling. Actual size. Not "fit to page". I did not do this and I printed them all out too small. So all my (20 sewn) blocks were .25 to .5 of an inch too small.

How I Intend to Proceed with my 1930s quilt:
I have chosen my fabrics (which I love!) and I have printed the regular piecing templates. I intend to piece my 1930s quilt the same way as my 1920s quilt which is stacking fabrics for efficient cutting and rotary cutting (very carefully) using the paper templates under my plastic ruler. There will be other methods covered by the other bloggers on the year-long blog hop. We'll see if I decide to change my mind as we go along. :)

Please enter the giveaway for the book and if you are not at a Canada or US address you can find the book purchase the book here:

The Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt: Inspiring Letters from Farm Women of the Great Depression and 99 Quilt Blocks That Honor Them by Laurie Aaron Hird for Fons & Porter/F+W; RRP $28.99 – Click here to purchase.

 I hope all of you will join in the fun as we all sew this quilt together.


a Rafflecopter giveaway