Famer's Wife

Last night I was feeling nostalgic and started looking though all my blog post, well there were two things that struck me. Firstly how I complained about not having time to quilt before I was a mother, what was I thinking! The second thing was how long some of my current projects / fabrics have been hanging around. Some had been in their current state for a couple of years.

This post may look like I'm starting a new project, I am in fact moving stuff out as I've had this fabric in a baggie for over three years. I first brought this cream, blue and brown fabric with the intention of making Nearly Insane. I even started my first block while I was pregnant. Lets just say it didn't go well (I nearly chopped my pinkie off) so it was put aside.  Then last year I took the project to retreat where I looked at the fabric and the Nearly Insane book and realized that I wasn't going to even attempt to make that quilt in the next few years.

Then I started to notice a few Farmer's wife blocks being made and even one of the girls from guide started to make one.  Over Christmas I picked up the book. Now these block look doable. I think I could make this. DH even likes it and thinks it go nice on our bed. So now that I have an opening in my focus projects I decided this was the perfect old / new project.

Here are my first two blocks: 

 # 4 Basket Weave

# 2 Autumn tint

I think I'm going to have to come up with a way to pick the block order, otherwise I can see myself doing all the easy blocks first.

Floss

Sew Day

On Saturday my guild had a sew day and I was able to go for most of the day -yeah.  It was a fun day, sewing during the day then going to friends for supper and cards, what more could I ask for. 

It was about all the sewing I got done this week, but I did finish a couple of books that I was only half way thought at the start of the week.  I decided to take a project that I hadn't worked on for a while but had been on my mind lately.  This floral quilt I purchased the fabric for in 2007 and have worked on it on and off ever since.  I have made all the HST and pinwheels, etc so it only need the borders added and the applique boarder made.  I am planning on doing the applique by hand and I think it will be the next hand project after the stitchery I'm currently working on. 

I love how this changes each time the net border is added,  here is what it looked like at the start of the day and at the end.  This is not my normal colour palette but I think its so pretty and will look great it my guest room when done. This would be the closest I ever done a quilt to the pattern.

I also wanted to share this heart Little Miss decorated.  I help by painting the big pink heart and show her where the letters ended.  I think she did a great job. I know, I'm just being a proud mama.

This week progress

1. Red and While - sew a couple of rows together

2. Jungle - no progress

3. Floral quilt- added border

4.

5. Mouse stitchery- no progress

6. Tall stitchery - no progress

7. Guild BOM - no progress

8. Growth chart - no progress

9. Jar table runner - no progress

Stats

Completed projects - 0

New projects - 0

In progress - 8

To see what other are working on visit WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Small Finishes

This week has been super busy which has not allowed for much sewing but I did get two small finishes.

This little dolls quilt came about because of the bonus dolls quilt I made a couple of weeks back. When I made that one I decided that I would add it to my friends daughter 3 birthday present. She also has a twine brother and I was trying to keep they present somewhat similar, a couple of people indicated that their sons also played with dolls quilts so I decided to make him one too.  I use some square I already had cut and tried to pick out boyish ones. I hope he likes it, will find out in a couple of weeks.

For the other little quilt, I stitched the bear when I was on vacation last year. My mum does a lot of handwork so I was looking for some to do while I was there. Found a bear quilt pattern and borrowed one of the bears from it, that I grab the background from her stash and borrow some of her floss. This was the first stitchery I did as a stem stitch and found it a lot quicker than doing back stitch.  Its a bit of a mix of both stitches as I would find myself switching without realizing it.  Once back form the visit I found the boarder fabric in my stash and was very pleased with how it matched the colours I had chosen for the bear.

This week progress

1. Red and While - no progress

2. Jungle - no progress

3.Doll quilt - finished
4. Bear stitchery - finished
5. Mouse stitchery- made binding
6. Tall stitchery - some stitching
7. Guild BOM - no progress
8. Growth chart - no progress
9. Jar table runner - no progress

Stats
Completed projects - 2
New projects - 0
In progress - 9

To see what other are working on visit WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

WIP Wednesday - Focus projects

Since my last WIP Wednesday I have completed piecing the blogs for my jungle quilt. This was the main focus as I wanted to free up the design wall. I have now remove it from the design wall and I have to admit that this is were a lot of my quilts become UFO, waiting for me to add the boarders.  For this one I'm am just planning simple black borders to frame the blocks, lets hope it doesn't have to wait too long.

I put the red and white blocks up on the design wall and to my surprise I had miscounted ( a few times) and actually had 32 blocks instead of the 30 I needed. I thought about making 3 more to make it longer but decided I liked the size that it was so will use the extra blocks on the back.  Then the sewing stopped. It took a couple of days to work out why. I am not the biggest red fan and I needed a break from red. The quilt  is still on my design wall and I distracted myself with a couple of smaller projects.

This is one of the things that made me decide that I need a group of focus projects. This is a few projects that I can work on so I don't get stuck, and stop sewing, but still not loss the project in the pile of UFOs.  I decided on having 9 and trust me there are more ready to be added when some of these get finished.

 So here the 9 are including any progress since the last WIP Wednesday post 2 weeks ago

1. Red and While - on design wall

2. Jungle - blocks and sashing sew together

3.Doll quilt - started.

4. Bear stitchery - border added

5. Mouse stitchery- border added

6. Tall stitchery - still stitching

7. Guild BOM - no progress (waiting for borders)

8. Growth chart - no progress (need to finish quilting)

9. Jar table runner - no progress (ready for quilting)

Stats
Completed projects - 0
New projects - 1
In progress - 9

To see what other are working on visit WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Stitchery and Doll Quilt

Were did the week go, more to the point where did January go? I found the last couple of weeks to be quite busy, I seem to book all our physicals and Dentist appointment in January so it make it a little more hectic than normal.

I haven't done much sewing, still working on my home sweet home stitchery, but I did manage to do a little sewing this weekend. I made a quick doll quilt top, and added borders to two stitchery from when I was on vacation. I stitched the bear while my mum did the Christmas mouse for me, I didn't think I could get his face just right. I also pieced the batting from my small scraps so should hopefully finish these up quickly.

WIP Wednesday 2

This week I finished my bonus doll quilt and worked on my jungle quilt.

On the jungle quilt I completed all the vertical sashing and have started on the horizontal. I love the change in appearance of this quilt as the sashing is added. I'm thinking of doing a plane black boarder and have started to think about the quilting. I'm normally a just do enough quilting to hold it together kinda girl, but I think this will need more, but I have no ideas at this point as to what. I would welcome any suggestions.

I have also been working on a stitchery project, which I'm about half way thought the stitching. I'm not the fastest at this and often do a bit to keep my hand busy when I'm watching TV.

Projects-
Red and white - no progress
Jungle - sashing
Doll Quilt - finish
Tall stitchery - in progress

Stats
completed projects - 1
New projects - 0
In progress - 3 (will add more when I mention them on here, but currently no progress on anything else)

To see what other are working on check out WIP Wednesday

Dolls quilt and Bookmark

My first two finishes for 2012, they are both small, but a finish is a finish.

The first is the bonus doll quilt made out of the extra triangles from my Red and White quilt. My friend daughter will be 3 next month so I will be adding this to her birthday present. I am very happy with how it turned out. I love how fun the polka dots boarder is, but I love polka dots, so not surprise there.

Next finish is this bookmark. I did the stichery awhile ago (about 6 months ago) and then its just been sitting there waiting for me to applique it to the felt backing. I'm not sure what took me so long.

This was from a kit that my friend brought and after making one she passed it onto me, and there was enough floss to make this one, and I think there may be enough floss for another one too. Will see if anyone at guild would like to make one or I may make another to use as a gift.

Floss