Three more Farmers Wife blocks finished

I'm getting really close to the end of my farmers wife block making. There's probably 20 left to do. Woohoo!!

This one up above is cat and mice #17.

This red one below is Country Path #24.

And my Christmas one is called Wild Geese #104.

Getting ready for baby

Yesterday my daughter stopped by work to visit me. Most of you know I work at a quilt shop....so while I worked, she shopped. I'm in the process of making her some burp pads for her baby boy...due in July. She picked out some of these fabrics from Moda Bartholo-meow's Reef. The backs will be plain white flannel...front will be one piece of fabric or patchwork...probably do a few of each.

   

Another purchase of hers was a pack of Block Frenzy fabrics. Each month and a half, we have a Block Frenzy drawing for 12" blocks. Winner takes ALL the blocks made!

 For every block you make, your name goes into the pot once. They have to be made from that months fabrics...this month it's April Showers. The little packs are five fabric about 8 or 9" square for 2.75.

I made two blocks and jenn will be making a couple. We hope to win all the blocks and make a cute sampler quilt. 

The one above is my first entry.

This is some of my scraps from making the blocks...have enough to make one more block...maybe a postage stamp block?

Anyone can enter...no matter where you live. Mail the 12" (finished size) to Hearts to Holly Quilt Shop to enter.

 Another project that got a little time today is my farmers wife quilt. Some of the setting blocks got finished so I added a couple of rows to my quilt....getting there ;)

Oh, so while I was taking pictures of my quilt, I thought I would take one of another project...but not of a quilty nature.

 Al painted the porch floor outside my sewing room...now it's nice and clean and white...a perfect backdrop for my pictures. I don't think either of us realized that bonus.

Here's the first burp pad...never made one before so I'm just winging it on size, etc. The fabric is Storybook. There are adorable airplanes and clouds on it... Perfect for a little boy.

On the back I have the flannel and two "pockets" to catch large spit ups. Now to make a bunch more and maybe some Peepee Teepees. Anyone know of a good site for some free patterns for either of these?

Garage sale blocks

I had a garage sale last year after I cleaned out my sewing room. There were a few projects I had started but knew I'd never get around to finishing....this is one.

 I sold a bunch of these star blocks to a friend who then made more, sashed them up ..and wow...look how pretty! It's nice to see another of my UFOs finished up...even if not by me.....Nancy, can I have it back now?!

More Farmers Wife Blocks

Finished up two more Farmer's Wife blocks. I'm doing two different quilts with these. One will be all 30's reproductions with solids. The second will be Flower Sugar fabric from Lecien.

This one is Peace and Plenty #64.

This one is called Country Farm #23. 

More farmers wife blocks

I finished up four more blocks for my Farmer's Wife quilt...three of them are here (missed getting a pic of the fourth one).

This first block, which is my favorite of the group and was the hardest, is called Silver Lane #79.

 This one is Night and Day #59.

And this last one is End of Day #30.

The one not pictured is Peace and Plenty #64. I'll try to upload a picture of that one tomorrow. One thing I'm finding with some of the blocks is that they work well as foundation pieced blocks. The one above, #30, and #59 are two that could be draw up in EQ. I printed off the foundation patterns for both....much easier and more accurate.

Making a diaper cake for Jenn's baby shower

This isn't my usual project but jenn's baby shower is coming up and a diaper cake was on my to-do list. They're really easy if you use rubberbands to hold all the diapers till you can get a bow around them. Jenn found this cute little stork at a party store....had to have it as a topper. She wants everything to be navy and white...and very simple. Nothing too over done. Our stork is as crazy as it gets.

So when is she due with our grandson?...sometime towards the end of July. Can't wait!!!

Scrappy strip coverlet or quilt

I know,I know...I've really neglected my blog. A lot has been going on in my life lately so I'm just now catching up with things. 

This is a finished UFO coverlet (not really a quilt, no batting) made with 30s scraps. The binding is finished and the quilt is hanging at Hearts To Holly. These are 9" square blocks worked on white sheeting...flip and sew method, starting with the center strip. No hand sewing on this one...machine stitched binding.

These are a few of my latest  30's and vintage reproduction type fabrics. Al and I spent a few weeks in Florida which gave me a chance to visit a few different shops.

At a cute little shop in downtown St. Pete's I found this adorable octopus from moda. You can find the pattern on Moda's Bake Shop site.

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I'm thinking of making him out of these new fabrics we got in...Bartholo-meows Reef:

Well, that's all for now. I'll leave with a picture of my wonderful grandpuppy, Harry. He just got a haircut and shave so he's all set for warm weather...now if we would just get some!

At our annual quilting retreat

 Just a short post today because Jenn and I are at Hearts to Holly Quilt Shop annual quilt retreat. Jenn is working on her Christmas quilt and is determined to finish the top by Sunday.

 I'm quilting my "shirtings" quilt. With any luck it'll be done tomorrow.

This morning at Chattertime one of the quilters brought in her completed star quilt... I just loved the fun, bright colors.

Working on Farmer's Wife Blocks

Worked on some Farmer's Wife blocks the other day and really liked how this one turned out. I used a solid as the background. We are doing Penny Haren's method through Hearts to Holly Quilt shop. She has lots of shortcuts in her way of making these. This one was all foundation paper pieced. Took a while but comes out very accurate.

Christmas block swap quilt finished

This is one of my recent finishes. Finally got my Xmas quilt top off the UFO list. This is three years of swaps with ladies I met online. We swapped the stocking blocks one year, then swapped ornaments  another year and the first year I won a block drawing of Christmas blocks. It'll be a nice memory quilt.

Celebrating Grandma

Last week Grandma, who was 105, passed away very peacefully.

Many of you know that she was the one that taught me to sew... years and years ago. I think I was about 7 when she first sat me down at her machine (so about 50 years ago...WOW!).

 

There are so many things that she taught me over the years but sewing is what I'm most thankful for. There is hardly a day that goes by that I'm not stitching on something. It's so much more than a hobby.

 

My parents, cousins, siblings, and other family and friends celebrated grandmas life this weekend. We all had wonderful memories and stories to share. All the old pictures came out which sparked more memories (and lots of tears) of her and grandpa. She had touched so many lives in her 105 years and we feel so lucky to have been able to call her our grandma.

 

Much of the family is spread out around the country so there were some that just weren't able to make it. And the weather! Bitterly cold with lots of snow...felt like Minnesota (that's where grandma was originally from). How appropriate.

 

I had a chance to visit with my cousins, Laura and Eric, from "out west". When we were young, we would get SO excited to hear our WESTERN cousin were coming to visit. You know kids...we pictured them living on the wild west, with cowboy hats and horses...:)  Laura and Eric flew in for the funeral. I am so happy they did! We had a good chance to talk and catch up but mostly share memories.

 

All of us loved the "picnics" in grandma's yard. She had a HUGE garden and lots of lawn for us to run around on. Grandma let us climb around in the house attic (with the secret pull down stairs), the barn attic and the potting shed (what a great playhouse). We would play dress-up with her old hats and dresses. We'd eat tomatoes fresh from the garden (take the salt right out there). She'd make the best potato salad, baked beans, deviled eggs and desserts. It's funny that those picnics were just about everyone's favorite memory.... something so simple. Grandma, you'll be missed. 

 
 

Deb, Lisa and cousin Laura