Farmers Delight

Last week, I showed you how I straightened and edited an image of an antique quilt I found on the Quilt Index.  This week I have been obsessed with redrafting this quilt and knew it needed to be my next Electric Quilt tutorial.

1880's Farmer's Delight is a quilt pattern specific to the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. This fine example was made in the 1880's with a tremendous variety of late 19th century fabrics. It is very well quilted in a clamshell pattern. Measurements are 76" x 88". This quilt was exhibited at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, Massachusetts in 1994.

Farmer's Delight Block Close Up

The biggest challenge in drafting this block is the number of triangles in each ring.  The first ring has 27 colored triangles, the second 34 and the third 42.  Patch Draw is limited with 60 spokes and Easy Draw partitioning is limited to 15.  So I couldn't make it work.

I finally decided I needed to adjust the number of triangles for the sake of sanity.  If I make the number of triangles divisible by 4, both Easy Draw and Patch Draw will work a lot nicer.  And my guess is that few would notice that I now have 28, 36 and 44 triangles per ring.

See how I drew my slightly altered Farmer's Delight in my latest Electric Quilt tutorial.  I used PatchDraw within Electric Quilt for drafting the block.

Here is my drafted block from the Electric Quilt tutorial.

Farmer's Delight Block from Electric Quilt Tutorial

Here is the full quilt.

Farmer's Delight Full Quilt Layout from Electric Quilt Tutorial

And for those who are wondering -- I am not planning to piece it.  I was perfectly satisfied with recreating it in Electric Quilt.  I will leave the piecing to another brave soul.

Featured Product:  Modern Maze

Dawn's Quilt Shop in Alexandria MN used my Modern Maze pattern for their feature quilt utilizing the Minnesota Shop Hop fabric.  This quilt has a completely different look than my "solid background" sample.

Stop by the shop to see the quilt in person and to purchase a pattern and the fabric.

Dawn's Quilt Shop MN Shop Hop Quilt using Modern Maze pattern.

Dawn's Quilt Shop - Close-up of Modern Maze quilt.

Dawn's Quilt Shop - Close Up of Modern Maze Quilt

If you can't make it to her shop, you can purchase a pattern here.

Happy quilting.

Kari

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