Farmer's Wife 1930s Fabric Ideas: Melinda from Quirky Granola Girl shares her quilt

When I was preparing the post about fabric for the 1930s Farmer's Wife quilt along, I knew I wanted to ask Melinda of Quirky Granola Girl to share a few of her pictures from the first Farmer's Wife 1920s Sampler quilt and the Pony Club book.  She has a super eye for colour and puts together lively combinations.  I remember her rejecting blocks and remaking them in different fabrics and totally understood that attention to detail.  You can find Melinda's blog here, on Instagram here and on Flickr here.  She is also a guest blogger for the 1930s quilt- along.  Enjoy, you are in for a treat!

Hi All!

Kerry asked me to share a few pictures and talk about my Farmer's Wife Sampler obsession passion.
Here is a picture of my first Farmer's Wife Sampler as a quilt top.

I had never made a sampler before and once I started, I was addicted.  I love how each block is it's own challenge, how a single block feels like a finished project and how I never get bored making them.

For my first Farmer's Wife Sampler, I used my favorite fabrics in my stash (it has 354 different fabrics in it).  When designing fabric combinations, I strived for color contrast, value contrast, different print scales and differing design styles.  My theory is when I put all of the work into piecing these blocks, I want each little triangle and square to shine.  I even went so far as to remake 14 blocks that looked muddy to my eye and I don't regret it a bit. 

This block has 30's repros, low volume background and a bright, modern graphic print to make the square in the block stand out.

Here is a block with a Japanese sewing print paired with a crosshatch.

This block shows two florals but vastly different colors, tones and scales.

When I looked at my fabrics, I also chose the largest scale fabrics that I *had* to include and then looked through the blocks to match them up to the right pattern.  This one combines a novelty print with a graphic print.

I'm hand quilting that sampler so I can enjoy each block all over again.

For my Farmer's Wife Pony Club Sampler, I decided to use all Anna Maria Horner fabrics plus solids.  That has been an all new challenge since AMH uses a lot of bright colors, many florals, often large scale and very few low volume prints.  Here is a picture of four of my blocks.  I hope they show ways to achieve contrast in color, tone, scale and print style even with one designer's fabrics.

I don't know what my fabric theme will be for my Farmer's Wife 1930's sampler.  I'm considering a focus on more modern graphic prints and stripes.  What fabrics are you thinking of?