When Lori Holt put out her first Farm Girl Vintage quilting book, my sister Cheryl and I wanted to do a Sew-Along. We planned ahead that we would first look through our stashes for suitable fabrics, and then supplement with purchased fabrics. We then took each of our fabrics that were large enough to at least divide into two fat quarters or fat eights and cut them in half. We kept one half and mailed the other halves to each other. We also decided on a common background fabric, and bought enough for us both to have the same. With that done, we made lists of the blocks we particularly liked and shared them with each other. Lori plans her patterns so that each block can be made into a 6-inch or a 12-inch block. They can then be laid out in multiple of arrangements. Our assignment was to sew two of any blocks we chose, regardless of size. We could use the other person’s wish list in our choices, or work from our own. Then we sewed for a month or so, sharing our progress, and giving sneak previews. When we both declared ourselves done, we mailed each other their blocks. I ended up having enough blocks for three quilts, because I like to sew double bed size or twin quilt size.
Above are the quilts that I made. They are all a combination of each other’s blocks and fabric choices. Two of mine were gifted, and the third was hanging on the wall for photographing after I finished quilting it. When my daughter-in-law, Suzanne, (who blogs here: https://www.wifeinthecountry.com please visit and leave a comment) came to visit and asked where it came from, I told her it was one of the Farm Girl Vintage quilts. It did look different from the other two, because I added 6 inch blocks and added hand quilting to some of the blocks. It was my favorite of the three. Suzanne asked if she could have it, and I was pleased to gift it to her, as she helps me out in so many ways. So that was the first sew-along.
We picked this March for the kick off month for season two sew-along using Lori Holt’s Farm Girl Vintage 2 quilt book. Over the winter we got our copies of Lori’s second book, made our wish lists, shopped for fabrics, discussed background choices, divided our stashes, mailed our fabrics to each other, found more “so cute can’t do without it” fabrics and mailed again. We are now busy at our sewing machines making blocks. I decided to do all the twelve-inch blocks first. The pictures below are the first two 12 inch blocks I have done for my sister. I will make more posts as we sew-along.
