Farmer's Wife Blocks - Geneva (36) & Georgia (37)

Went with orange this week as the key color.

Geneva (36) - Went with a simple coloring for this block.  Went together so quickly!

Georgia (37) - This was a straightforward and fun block to assemble.

Every 9 blocks calls for a group photo.  

Here are blocks 28 through 36 - (Dolly, Doris, Em, Eva, Fanny, Farmer's Wife, Fern, Flora and Geneva)

 Here are blocks 19 through 27 - (Carolina, Caroline, Carrie, Cat, Charlotte, Coral, Crystal, Daffodil and Dinah)

 Here are blocks 10 through 18 - (Ava, Bea, Becky, Belle, Betty, Blossom, Bonnie, Bride, and Carol)

Here are blocks 1-9 - (Addie, Aimee, Alice, Ann, Anne, April, Augusta, Aunt, and Autumn)

Interested in playing along?  These are from the book -   Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt and there are two great quilt alongs with plenty of tips and ideas.  VeryKerryBerry  is doing the blocks in numerical order while Gnome Angel is doing them in order from easiest to hardest.

My fabrics are from Moda Fig Tree.  There are so many different versions underway right now - so much inspiration out there!

Happy Stitching!

Can you fall in love with a quilt?

Want a closer look?

I finished my Allietare quilt top by that very talent designre  Bonnie Hunter.

We don't get very many snowy days here in NC so I had fun taking photographs in the snow.

What's that?  You want a closeup to see those gorgeous fabrics?

I am thrilled with how this turned out - as I imagine you can tell!   It finishes (roughly) at 63'' square and I'm hoping that a piece of gold fabric that has been in my stash for a really long time is big enough as the backing.  Finger's crossed.

I've joined Bonnie's linky party here - come see the other Allietare quilts!

Finishing this quilt top was my January goal as part of Red Letter Quilts OMG.  (This was my goal post.)  I'll be joining the linky party here.

Finally, I love linky parties and will be joining these fun parties at  Blossom Heart Quilts,  Sew Fresh Quilts and Freemotion by the River.

Happy Stitching!

Word 16 linky party ends soon

January is moving forward at a fast pace!  You've got just a few more days to enter your mini in the Elm Street Quilts Word 16 linky party and have a chance to win prizes from great sponsors.

I made quilts for my sisters and mom for Christmas.  I've been blogging about why they choose their words - Simplify, Gratitude, Dream, Courage as well as my word choice of Discover.  (This is a tutorial for my version of a Word quilt here.)   Anything goes though - just get your word on fabric!

I hope you'll make your mini and enter the giveaway soon!  Can't wait to hear your word for 2016.

Happy Stitching!

Farmer's Wife 1930's - Fern (34) & Flora (35)

I had fun with this week's Farmer's Wife blocks.

Fern (34) - I don't have much green in my the scraps of Fig Tree I am using but I certainly needed to use a little of it in a block called Fern.  A bit more contrast might have been good but I'm happy with how the block turned out with the Y seams and will not be taking another shot at it!

Flora (35) - I've more orange fabric available than any other.  For the next couple of blocks, I'll pair orange with different browns.

I know you are seeing these blocks all over blog land. These are from the book -   Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt and there are two great quilt alongs with plenty of tips and ideas.  VeryKerryBerry  is doing the blocks in numerical order while Gnome Angel is doing them in order from easiest to hardest.

My fabrics are from Moda Fig Tree.  There are so many different versions underway right now - so much inspiration out there!

Happy Stitching!

Fun FMQing

In a recent clean up of my sewing space, I discovered many things I'd forgotten about including a set of fat quarters that I had always intended to sew into a donation quilt.

I used a disappearing 9 patch block (so fun and fast!) and had my baby quilt assembled in no time!   For the backing I choose a yellow gingham that I found in my stash.

I had so much fun this weekend FMQ this one.  It was big enough to feel challenging on how to move the quilt around but not too big to feel overwhelming.

More photos once I get the binding on.  Trying to decide between a (very) scrappy binding or a solid blue or green based on the best match I can find in my stash.

I will be donating this quilt with a goal of finishing it soon.

The majority of my sewing (quilts or otherwise) is for friends and family.  Many of them have been gifted to celebrate happy occasions like significant birthdays.  But others have been gifted to offer a long distance hug to someone who is going through a tough time or perhaps an illness.

I think of this as a handmade hug.  A gift that keeps on giving because each time it is used, the giftee gets to remember how much someone cared about them.

Is that how you think about your quilts when you gift them?

Throughout the month of February I want to celebrate giving quilts and other handmade items to those who need a hug.  On my Elm Street Quilts blog, I'm calling this Hugs.

Will you help me spread the word and turn February into a month of handmade hugs?

Happy Stitching!

Farmer's Wife 1930's - Fanny (32) & Farmer's Wife (33)

This week's blocks went together without issue (happy dance!)   And since I just did number 33 out of 99, I am officially a third of the way done!!   (double happy dance!)

Fanny (32) - I am in love with this one - both the design of the block and the color combination.

Farmer's Wife (33) - I like doing blocks with a single color and a neutral background.

These blocks are from the book -   Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt and there are two great quilt alongs with plenty of tips and ideas.  VeryKerryBerry  is doing the blocks in numerical order while Gnome Angel is doing them in order from easiest to hardest.

My fabrics are from Moda Fig Tree.  There are so many different versions underway right now - so much inspiration out there!

Happy Stitching!

Allietare Blocks are now all complete!

Happy dance for me.  All the blocks are now made and top assembly is underway!!

Colors of the fabric are not quite right in the photograph (inside hall light on a dark evening doesn't make for a great photo!)    While the colors aren't right, you can see the quilt pattern looks spectacular!   Bonnie Hunter is a talented designer!

I decided to go with a square layout which required 16 of one block and 9 of the other.  Since I only made roughly a third of the units during the quilt along, I had 10 more blocks to make to achieve this layout.

I was a busy bee!

Now on to the assembly!


Happy Stitching!

Farmer's Wife 1930's: Em (30) & Eva (31)

Back to the Farmer's Wife blocks!!!

I didn't do any over the last three weeks through the holidays.  Partly because I had other sewing I wanted to get to.

But also because I was not excited by the number of pieces in this first block!

Em (30) -  there were about a ba-zillion pieces in this block. (Ok, maybe not a ba-zillion but there were over 80 of them!)  This came out better than I thought - not warped and everything matches up to where I intended it to be!

Eva (31) - compared to Em, this block was easy.  I probably should have tackled it on a different day though because I ended up not doing my best job.  I may remake it - we'll see.

I know you are seeing these blocks all over blog land. These are from the book -   Farmer's Wife 1930's Sampler Quilt and there are two great quilt alongs with plenty of tips and ideas.  VeryKerryBerry  is doing the blocks in numerical order while Gnome Angel is doing them in order from easiest to hardest.

My fabrics are from Moda Fig Tree.  There are so many different versions underway right now - so much inspiration out there!

Happy Stitching!

VW Bug

When I was a kid, my dad had a red VW.  He loved that car although he couldn't drive it in the rain (no working wipers) and it had rusted all the way through in spots.  He eventually sold the car and then bought a 1974 yellow VWand fully restored it.

This car can be driven in the rain although he probably doesn't take it out of the garage on days when it could get muddy.  He enjoys showing the car at local car shows and taking it out for a drive on a nice day.

His VW was my inspiration for this mini quilt I made him for Christmas.

I really wanted the VW applique to pop so I used an extra layer of batting and did some initial quilting to just outline the car.

And from the back

And then carefully trimmed away the excess batting.

Then I made my quilt sandwich.  In addition to some thread painting, I made some waving lines as if to suggest it was flying driving a light speed.

My dad loves it!

This mini sure was fun to do.  In hindsight, I do wish I put it on a neutral background with some amount of a low scale print on it or maybe even gotten all fancy and made a road scene.  When I was creating it, my head kept thinking it would take up more of the space than it actually did.  (I sized this to be placemat sized so my dad would have that option.)

I'd never tired this technique with the batting before - it was fun!

Happy Stitching!

Allietare Assembly Underway!

The big reveal of this year's Bonnie Hunter's mystery Allietare arrived on New Year's Eve and the quilt is spectacular!  This is shaping up to be the favorite of the 4 I've made so far.

I've been making roughly 1/3 of the clues each week.  It was so much fun to assemble as many of the blocks as I could with the pieces parts already on hand.  The quilt is set on point and there are two main blocks plus a border block.

Based on the layout I've chosen (quilt will finish roughly 70'' square), I need 16 of this first block.  I had enough piece parts to make 10.

And I'll need 9 of this second block.  I had piece parts to make 5 so far.

I've not starting assembling the quilt top yet - want to finish all my blocks first - but I did lay everything out on my design floor.

Isn't this just a great design?

I have enough fabric on hand for the quilt size I need except for the black.  I'll need some for the 5'' border and for the binding.

I can't wait to go explore all of the other quilts from the link up here on Bonnie's blog.

On a different topic, have you chosen a word (or phrase) that becomes your focus for 2016?  Join me in putting that word onto fabric - anyway you want! - and then share it and join my linky party!

There is terrific sponsorship from Chalk Lots and Green Fairy Quilts with prizes to be awarded (randomly) to participants!   

Come join the party!!

And speaking of parties ......

Heidi from Red Letter Quilts is starting a new monthly goal setting party.  I've always found great motivation in these so will be joining and linking up here.  My goal for January will be to get the blocks all assembled and sewn together.

I'll also be joining these fun lnky parties at  Blossom Heart Quilts,  Sew Fresh Quilts and Freemotion by the River.


            

And if you've read all the way to the end (thank you!), here is one more photo of my Allietare quilt.

Happy Stitching!

ALYOF - 2015 finishes inspired by a linky party!

I love setting goals.  I am motivated by declaring the goal out loud and then holding myself accountable for that goal.

Sound familiar?  Do you work the same way?  That is why this blog is so very important to me.  I document it for myself - kinda hold myself accountable.  But I get so much positive feedback and encouragement from others, that even not finishing is also ok.

For 2016, I choose a word for the year - Discover.   I blogged about it here.

I'm very excited about it.   Do you have a word - or a phrase - that will define 2016 for you?
Join me in putting that word onto fabric - anyway you want! - and then share it and join my linky party!

There is terrific sponsorship from Chalk Lots and Green Fairy Quilts with prizes to be awarded (randomly) to participants!

   

Come join the party!!

For the last several years, a major source of inspiration to get to a finish for me was the monthly Another Lovely Year of Finishes challenge.

At the beginning of each month, you set your goal and then blog about your finish at the end of the month and join the party. Shanna and Melissa have done a terrific job hosting this party month after month.  Thank you both for all of your cheer-leading and encouragement!

This week is the final party celebrating our 2015 accomplishments (linking here).  (Sadly, it is also the final ALYOF party.)

I participated 11 of the 12 months but choose to make my mosaic of the 9 finishes - quilt tops in some cases, quilts in others - that were my ALYOF goal.

Row 1:  Snapshots (Dec), Holiday Wishes (Nov), Pretty Puppies (Oct)

Row 2: Peanuts Gang (Sept), Summer Stars (Aug), Hello Moon (June

Row 3:  Farmer's Wife (May), Elmer (April), Grand Illusions (March)

Thanks again to Shanna and Melissa - you've been terrific party hostesses!


Happy Stitching!