Farmer's Wife Week 7

Well I forgot to post last week here is week 7  (we're technically on week 8 so look for that later this week.)

My squares aren't that square, but that's OK.  This quilt-a-long is a judgement free zone, and I'm a very new quilter.  I'm really enjoying learning new techniques w/o getting obsessed with perfection.    

I wanted to briefly talk about the templates.  They are really overwhelming to deal with, but I had a cool way of doing it.  I printed them out on card stock.  I hope the author redoes them so there is more than one template per page because there was SO much waste.  I then roughly cut them all out. I then used the adhesive laminating pages, you can get them anywhere, I was able to fit at least 10 templates per set of pages (hence my comment that she could seriously cut down the waste), and then cute them out precisely.  The templates were then put in ziploc baggies, labled 1-10, 11-19 etc...  For easy reference later.  This is a great system!  I hope others can put it to good use :)

Summer Sampler QAL!

Wow!

What is it with me and the quilt-alongs?  They are super fun, and have BUILT IN PACING!  I am not in a hurry, I can make one block a day!  It's all so fun.

week one

This particular QAL make 12" blocks, three a week for the next four weeks.  Totally manageable.  I didn't even need to buy fabric!   I've decided I want it to look like sherbets and ice cream!  Nothing more summery than sherbet colors!

helpful baby.

Farmer's Wife Quilt Along!

I'm hooked!!  - but we'll get to that in a min.. :)

This is what happened.... I haven't posted in awhile, mainly because there was nothing to post!

I visited my folks in upstate NY, and I sucessfully got my Mom interested in quilting!! YAY! We worked on the Swoon quilt, using Picnics and Fairgrounds from Joann and Kona Bone.  It is AMAZING looking.  Together we did six squares in two days!!  (while watching a 10 month old who can walk)  My Mom then finished the final three squares all by herself!! Her first quilting project and she made the most perfect 24.5" squares full of HST's and the like.  She is now working on the back and it looks great!  I am visiting again in July and will take lots of pics and post it up.  My Mom is a retired geometry teacher who knows how to sew quite well, so it's not too surprising she took to quilting like a duck in water.

When I got home, I was officially bored of Swoon blocks and decided to get going on a picnic quilt for the family, made from Hoopla by Moda.  It's super fun colorful fabric.  I got some coordinating solids, and I tried.. I did.  But I got what I now know is a "complex migraine" during the layout of it, basically I felt really crappy and it all culminated with me having what seemed like stroke like symptoms and going to the hospital (in an ambulance)... to be told that I was having a "bad headache", BUT did the right thing... a novice cannot tell the difference...  whatever.  I am totally fine, I have medicine and LOTS of tests ahead of me, but needless to say that specific quilt is on the back burner because it just has bad memories.

So I have this beautiful fabric, some (well alot) of which was purchased while on pain meds :)

Fabric looks SOOOO good when it's put in rainbow order

 I have been following the Farmer's Wife Quilt Along from the beginning, and I was afraid at first.  I am a very very novice quilter, I have only finished a few quilts, and while I have mastered the HST... I am not stellar at accurate cutting or sewing.  But, I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to indulge my short attention span and make a whole bunch of blocks only one time.  (Well, and a few twice if i really go for the gold to make a king sized quilt for my bed)

The are on week 6 now, so the first 12 squares are done.  I figured by NEXT Saturday I could have the 14 done that would get me up to speed.  Little did I know these blocks are RIDICULOUSLY FUN!!

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

I am all caught up! Hooray!  Flickr here I come!! 

I have to say after Swoon blocks which are enormous, these little tiny things are so cute! Such a blast!  Hopefully the colors will make some sort of sense when i'm done :)  But I am not even 10% finished!! It's WAY too early to tell.

Swoon

This pattern has been making the rounds on a number of blogs I read.  I then headed over to Simplify, and fell in LOVE with it immediately.  I have enough Just wing it fabric and Central Park from my other quilts this year to make 9 beautiful blocks!  (This made my husband VERY happy)

I have been feeling pretty crappy.  I have poison ivy all over my chin, neck and collarbone.  It's behind my ears, and has just surfaced on the back of my hands... basically I'm itchy and irritated and trying not to give it to the baby.  On top of that something we made on Sunday made my husband and I violently ill.  It's over now, I think it was eggs... but still UGH.  So the completion of the following block made me pretty happy!

Just wing it Tomato w/ Penny Lane Stripe

I'm not totally convinced about the stripe in this particular application... But I'm VERY happy that my first attempt at half square triangles, and flying geese turned out so well!

Just Wing it... my circle quilt

I used "Just Wing It" by Moda in this quilt.  I love these fabrics, and I have alot left so expect more!  I took the name to heart and tried to not over plan this quilt.  Each step was considered separately so the quilt would take me somewhere.  I am THRILLED with the final product. 

Each circle is made from a charm square, and is almost 5" in diameter.  I appliqued them on, and then quilted around each circle.  This seemed like an easy but tedious task.  I was completely wrong about that.  It was seriously difficult.  I own a standard sewing machine, and this quilt is about 41x48"... A picture is worth a thousand words here:

As you can see that's the ENTIRE quilt having to pass between the side of the sewing machine and the needle.  To make matters worse, right there is the button you press to stitch backwards, and every time the massive mass of fabric would press it!

My lovely husband, quilt model and stylist.

I put the winged flight large pattern on the back.  It's GORGEOUS!  I felt no need to do any piecing, this is just a fun beautiful back.  I also broke out the spray adhesive again... referring again to the above photo I have no idea how pin basting would survive the amount of crumpling I needed to do to get the quilt around, but the glue did a beautiful job!

I have some photos from before the wash, it's very smooth and pretty and it's easier to see the zig zag quilting I did in the corners.  I *gasp* "stitched in the ditch" for the squares, and around the circles.  It looks fantastic!  I read on some blog somewhere that it's not considered modern to stitch in the ditch, and frankly i'm really terrible at it and my "ditches" aren't lined up all that well making the stitching dubious at times, but i'm super glad I did it.  I put some fun zig-zag in the corners which looks great, I love the look of straight line quilting.

The binding is Penny Lane, and the most perfect stripe ever!  My favorite bindings are stripes! 

Today was a beautiful day!  This is a beautiful quilt!

Quilt Expo!

I went to my first Quilting Expo on Friday.  It was HUGE!!  I had no idea.  It was the Quilters Unlimited of Northern VA and there were over 350 displayed quilts from the members not to mention the vendors from all over the country who had dozens of quilts on display.

Everyone should check out a quilt show at some point.  It is a breathtaking event, so many hours have been devoted to making these beautiful works of art.  The vendors were also a huge draw for me, my closest quilting shop is almost an hour away.  I was lamenting this as I spoke to the various vendors and scooped up lots of new fabric and quilting tools, and apparently this is a normal thing.  Quilt shops are going out of business all over the country.  Many of them are also on the internet and Etsy, but (much like yarn shops... where I have already experienced this precise phenomenon) the fabric markup isn't enough to really support a brick and mortar store.  It is harder to pick out fabrics online, and in my opinion sort of takes away some of the fun when I feel obliged to buy a pre-made bundle because I can't trust my monitor to match colors.  There is another expo in September.  I cannot wait!!

I was with the baby in the Ergo, she is a sweetie-pie and even managed to sleep a little bit while I was there.  Here are some of my favorite quilts!  (These were taken w/my phone with a baby trying to grab and chew my phone, so the quality isn't hot... but you get the idea.

The Artful Quilter - Kaffe Fassett Stripes!

Westminster floral fabrics... this pic doesn't do it justice

Quilt guild quilt.

This is a very modern arrangement with very traditional florals, the juxtaposition was beautiful

A colorful Irish Chain Quilt

Awesome modern snowflake quilt

a contender for a quilt for my mom

I love rainbow squares!

Fab use of jelly roll!

My circle quilt backing has arrived!  Hopefully that can be finished up this week!!

Circle Top!

It's been a very busy week, I have a 10mo old and she is a busy busy bee!! 

Anyway I did manage to get the top of this quilt finished, and I ordered some snazzy fabric for the back.  I haven't decided on binding yet, but I am looking forward to quilting this. 

I actually cut out all the 6" white squares, I NEVER do this, seems so pointless to cut out and sew back together solid fabric.  This time I felt it would give me way more flexibility for the final quilt pattern.  It is still in development, but I'm getting antsy to get started.  I totally got the hang of the applique, and it was actually pretty fun!  My machine doesn't have blanket stitch, so I used zig-zag... It looks good.

The final design is perfectly symmetrical.  See you can take the graph paper away from the girl.. but she will then just make her fabric into graph paper...   I have not made a single drawing, so my challenge to myself on this quilt is still holding.

Tomorrow I am going to a quilt expo.  I have no idea what this will entail, but I'm hoping there will be pretty quilts to see lots of cheap fat quarters to buy!  I will probably post about that and show my new wares. :)