Fabric Scraps Obsession, Farm Girl Vintage Blocks, ScrapHappy

ScrapHappy April 2024: Scrappy Farm Girl Vintage Sampler and a Mystery

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

It’s the 15th of the month and time for my monthly “ScrapHappy” post as part of the ScrapHappy group I belong. At the end of this post I have a link to the other blogs participating in this monthly event in case you’d like to check out their ScrapHappy posts.

In last month’s ScrapHappy post ScrapHappy March 2024: Revisting Farm Girl Vintage, I shared that I had pulled on a rather old quilting “UFO” – a VERY SCRAPPY sampler based on patterns from Lori Holt’s book Farm Girl Vintage, in which I had completed 19 12-inch-blocks.

Now a month later I realized I should start actually working on completing it since I pulled it out and talked about it! While going through everything in the project box I came across a MYSTERY that I will discuss a little further in this post.

First I got all 19 12-inch-blocks up on my design wall, so I could make it real that I was actually going to work on this quilt (smile):

Then I looked through all the scraps and a couple fat quarters/section of yardage I’d set aside for this project, removed them from the bag I had them in and filled the project box with them:

Now comes the MYSTERY: While doing this I discovered at set of 25 log cabin piecing like small blocks in several stages of piecing, along with scrap fabric cut for additional rows around each block:

What the heck??!!??!

I couldn’t figure out what the heck I was planning to do with these, it did not make sense. It had been several years since I worked on this quilt and all I remember was that I was tired of having the quilt unfinished and was planning to do something to quickly finish it. But what was I planning to do with these 25 blocks in progress??!!?

It was very frustrating and I started to just set them aside and donate them to one of the local charity thrift stores (fabric scraps are very popular items) when I was done with the quilt.

But then I looked (three times it took me) through the  Farm Girl Vintage book and discovered there is a block in the book that looks like what I was trying to piece – the Haystack Block:

Image credit: from the Farmgirl Vintage book by Lori Holt

And I had already made one of these blocks:

But the mystery was not solved because why was I trying to make 25 of these blocks in apparently a smaller version?!?!??!

Have you guessed it yet? Did you solve the mystery with what I’ve just shared so far?

(I thought about just ending the post here and making you wait until tomorrow to find out but I am not the quilting Agatha Christy, so I will just tell you, ha!)

I remembered two things:

  1. There are TWO block size options in the Farmgirl Vintage book – you can piece a 6 inch or a 12 inch finished sized block; and
  2. There are various block layout/setting options in the back of the book

So looking through the setting options in the Farmgirl Vintage book I discovered this setting called Square Dance:

Image credit: from the Farmgirl Vintage book by Lori Holt

So I must have planned to make one more 12 inch block and then set the blocks in this setting using 6 inch blocks like in the image above.

I did discover that I might have needed 30 6-inch-blocks to accomplish that setting with 20 12-inch-blocks. So I was 5 blocks off, but at least I solved the mystery and now knew I had devised a plan and hadn’t lost my mind and was randomly piecing blocks – ha! (Have some fun and do the math and see if I am right…if you are really bored…)

So with the mystery solved, I was able to form a plan of what I want to do to finish this quilt:

  1. Keep this same setting idea – use the Square Dance setting layout
  2. Instead of 1 more 12-inch-block, make 6 additional 12-inch blocks to make the quilt 25 12-inch-blocks/ a 5 by 5 12-inch-block layout
  3. Complete the in progress 25 6-inch blocks and make 10 additional for the 35 needed for the Square Dance layout for 25 12-inch-blocks (again, feel free to check my math/count for how many 6-inch blocks I need for the setting)

Yay! Now I can move forward and plan to report more on the progress on this old UFO in May’s ScrapHappy post.

POSTSCRIPT

While sorting through the project box I also discovered these:

I’ll discuss them next month in my post on this quilt and what I might do with them (I have to think through it). I seem to be obsessed with not throwing away these flour bags!

As promised, here are the bloggers that participate in the ScrapHappy monthly posting event, check out their blogs linked below for their ScrapHappy posts:

Kate @Tall Tales from Chiconia , Gun @Rutigt – G Adrian, Eva @bambisyr-evaj, Sue @From the Magpie’s Nest, Lynda @Life on the Farmlet, Birthe @Birthes rom, Turid @Den syende himmel, Tracy @It’s a T-Sweets Day!, Jan @The Snail of Happiness, Moira @The Quilted Snail, Sandra @Wild Daffodil, Chris @chrisknitsews, Alys @Gardening Nirvana, Claire @Claire93’s Blog, Jean @onesmallstitch, Dawn @DawnGillDesigns, Gwen @Deep in the Heart of Textiles/Textile Ranger, Sunny @The Adventures of Team Wil-Sun, Kjerstin @Quimper Hittys, Sue @Going Batty in Wales, Vera @lifebyacompassnotaclock, Ann @Ann F Stonehouse Quiltmaker, Dawn @myquiltprojects, Carol @Quilt Schmilt, Preeti @Sew Preeti Quilts, Viv @Where the Journey Takes Me 2, Karrin @Karrin’s Crazy World, Amo @View From Our Hill, Alissa @ Snakes & Cranes, Lynn @Tialys, Tierney @tierneycreates, Hannah @quietwatercraft

Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

29 thoughts on “ScrapHappy April 2024: Scrappy Farm Girl Vintage Sampler and a Mystery”

  1. Love the 12″ blocks you’ve made so far, especially the ‘bowls’. They remind me of the vintage pyrex bowls I found while emptying what had been my mom’s kitchen cabinets this winter. =)

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  2. What a hoot this was! MYSTERY BLOCKS. I swear there was a time in my life I’d never have forgotten something I was half way through making – but that time is gone and I’m glad I’m not alone 😆

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      1. I just finished knitting a sweater and amended the pattern a lot. Many scribbled notes. I am really proud of myself because I typed up a clean copy right away. Because I know what will happen, I’ll get out the messy pattern in a few months and say, oh, I know this one turned out well, let’s make another color, and…be totally unable to figure out any of it.

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  7. Maybe the “flour sacks” become intertwined with an Art Quilt – somehow related to the history of either the sacks, the mills or even the type of flour. I’d go on with my musing but I know you see where I’m leading this too… I know there were clothing made from the sacks to a point where mills created designs that made the clothing look even better…

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  12. What a fun discovery! I love the blocks you have made and the fun fabrics! Those flour sacks are a real find too – I wouldn’t be able to throw them away either, and I don’t even sew 🙂 Can’t wait to see your finished quilt!!

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  13. You simply have to finish the Farm Girl quilt. It is such a charming design and you are nearly there!

    I too have those moments of What Was I Thinking? when coming across half finished projects.

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