Is there a difference in the Farmers wife quilt and the civil war quilt. I was looking at buying a book and couldn't decide between the two. They both have diary's and articles in them. And they both look like they are done in civil war fabrics.

thanks

I'm no expert .... I believe the Civil War has more applique than the Farmer's Wife. And also, I think the block sizes and number of blocks differ.

Of course, the difference in the patterns of each block ... and the overall look you want.

There's no rules sayin you must use the fabrics that the original designer has!

The main difference would be in the fabrics. Both have common blocks that were made during their time period and are still made today. The Farmer's Wife blocks are just blocks selected by Laurie Aaron Hird for her book. Civil War quilts are often patterns of blocks compiled by the quilt designer. Sometimes the Civil War quilt is duplicated from a quilt that was made during the 1860s or in that era and that is in a museum or family collection.

The farmers wife quilt was made by Laurie like the other post said.
She added letters that were sent into a magazine in the 1920's? asking the women if they would want their daughters to marry a farmer. it is really neat to read all the letters.
The quilt has no historical basis. As in its not a repo of an old quilt.
It is a sampler of all old blocks with names that go with the letters that you read.

The Civil war dairy quilt and the same concept only this one uses women's diary excerpts from the civil war. This quilt too does not have any historical basis but is merely blocks that go along with the story


I have the farmers wife. I enjoy reading all of the letters it is neat to see into the lives of farmers wives back then.

On both quilts you choose the fabric you want to work with.
I choose scrappy muted tones for mine.
If you do end up doing the Farmers wife quilt this board has several people doing this quilt. Look in the blocks of the month forum. Threads with the title FWS are farmers wife

good luck!

Thanks for all the replies. I ordered the Farmers wife. I had a gift card to amazon so I decided to get it.

Jan