I have been quietly hand stitching in the evenings and have finished a couple more Farmer's Wife 1930's Sew-along blocks. Both of these blocks were hand pieced, to see my hand piecing tutorial click here.

#69 Mrs Keller
As someone that doesn't do well with change, I really admire the author of this letter for her determination and acceptance of the fact that her and her husband needed to return to the farm. "I was determined that I would go to that farm and like it, in spite of myself". The grey Carolyn Friedlander print represents the town and the Cotton + Steel Sprinkles is for the farm. The central fabric is both sad and happy, it looks like tears but the colours are very pretty. It turns out that she was not unhappy living on the farm, "We work together and plan together. To be sure we have had disappointments, but they are part of life, so we meet them together".

#21 Carrie
Another letter that focused on triumphing over adversity. I used Liberty fabric for this block. The brown pixels and the blue swirls are for the "the dust [that] fogs over us when it blows". The roses are for the fact that the family felt "blue" until they decided to go to Sunday School and the lesson was a "balm to our tired souls]... Now we sing as we work, and next year is another year".

I am still catching up on blocks though I'm choosing to skip a few here and there. I currently have 52/99 blocks and suspect I won't actually sew them all, preferring instead to make a quilt when the sew along finishes rather than to try and make all the blocks. The OCD part of me really hates that but I think it's more realistic and enjoyable for me to just make the blocks I like and actually have a quilt*! Does anyone else have this struggle?! Would you make them all or prefer to finish with what you had?

* I have decided on a layout, other than the one in the book, that doesn't require me to have all the blocks completed. I'm ok with that.