1930s Farmers Wife: Rambling Peony

I call this one rambling, because it is the most unstructured block making I have ever engaged in. There was something about this block (perhaps it's million tiny pieces?) that made me need to take it bit by bit, which probably ended up being not very easy to follow. But I picked up some good tips along the way, so if you've stopped by for the 1930s Farmer's Wife blog hop, hosted by Gnome Angel and Marti Michell, I hope you still find this post useful!

I decided to English Paper piece mine, which took me an entire day. But I settled on EPP because a) I didn't want to have to cut all those tiny fabric pieces accurately, b) I didn't want to try get those teeny pieces through my machine, c) I didn't want to have to iron between each teeny tiny seam. EPP, while slow, was the easiest option for this block in my opinion.

The first thing I did was colour-code the block print out so that it matched the book. The I chose fabrics that were kind of similar in colour because I knew I would get confused easily. Oh my, I'm glad I did this! SO, SO much easier to follow!

And then this is where the rambling began. I almost dove in and cut up the whole block, but I just knew, in this interrupted life of mine, with little ones underfoot, that I would lose pieces. So I decided to make it bit by bit. This is a really different stitching method to what I would usually choose, I would generally start in the middle and work in rounds. But today, this felt like the best way to eat this elephant. One bite at a time.

And so I stitched (and sometimes unstitched - there were mistakes) all through the day...

...bit by bit....

...until it was done! Which, I can tell you, feels like quite the achievement!

Now that it's done and the photos are all snapped, I can see that my prints don't read as one colour as much as I assumed! Teeny tiny pieces only show teeny parts of a print, and in a busy, 6" block I would next time use a solid or two, or many a tiny dot print.

And do you know what else I learned? I really enjoy tiny EPP! I didn't at all expect to. But I spent the day scheming up all kinds of little pretty things. Stay tuned!