Farming Friday

Its Farming Friday, and I am still on track making my blocks for my Farmers Wife Sampler Quilt.
Having decided to blog every Friday  about my FWSQ and the blocks I have made is  certainly motivating me to make sure I have something to show of my FWSQ blocks, so I have a really good feeling I will get this quilt made sooner rather than later!

Gentleman's Fancy

This block was made using a paper pieced pattern from the FWSQ Yahoo Group.

TIP: If your have never done any paper piecing  before then I would recommend choosing an easy block to start with.  This block is a easy block to paper piece.

Streak of Lightning

A very easy block – I had no problems figuring out the quilt maths for this one!

Postage Stamp

Another very easy block, no problems sewing this one together!

Bowtie

Another quick and easy block, I see a pattern forming this week!

Weathervane

This block was not quite so easy as all the rest,with all those half square triangles, it makes it a little difficult to press.

TIP: With this block make sure you press your seams open.

If your making FWSQ Blocks let me know so I can see what you have been up to.  And if your not then why not join in.  A new group has just started on Flickr for the Farmers Wife Sampler Quilt 2014. It’s a lot of fun joining in sewing with other people making the same blocks, and its interesting to see how the same block can look made with different fabric.

Have a Great Weekend and Thanks for Stopping by.

I won a Giveaway–Gypsy Wife

 

I have been meaning to write a blog post about this for a while now and only just got around to doing so!

Just before Christmas I won a giveaway on instagram.

I was thrilled and lucky enough to win this bundle of goodies from Camille at  Queen Bee Fabrics.

Camille sent a wonderful package, which Included the Gypsy Wife Pattern Booklet, a gorgeous 15 piece  Liberty of London Scrap pack a mini tape measure, some fabric covered elasticated buttons and a charm pack.

This particular pattern is by Jen Kingwell, it  is completely different to the quilts I normally make but I love how bright and scrappy it is and I am sew so looking forward to putting it all together.

I did have a little play and made one of the mini blocks.

 

 

Another pattern I love by Jen is the Green Tea and Sweet Beans Pattern and I would also love to make this quilt.  So if anyone has a used pattern they have finished using, please let me know.

So I now have a few projects started for this year already. Normally I start and finish one project. Maybe it’s a good thing to have a few different projects on the go at the same time! maybe not! time will tell.

How about you, what projects have you started this year?

Single Wedding Star Mini Block

I managed to do a little bit of sewing at the weekend.

I made another infinity scarf. The fabric is a knit fabric so comes on the bolt much wider than quilting cottons so I actually had enough fabric to make two! I am a little addicted to infinity scarves at the moment thanks to my friend Cindy who showed me how to make them when  I went on my quilting retreat in November.  They are so easy to make and this scarf took about 20 minutes to make!

I made a teeny tiny Single Wedding Ring Block.   I could not believe how small it turned out!

See for yourself.  I plan to make three more blocks and make a mini to decorate the walls of my sewing room.

You can find the free pattern to make the block on Hopes blog When Inspiration Strikes. 

At the moment we are experiencing the coldest weather in Minnesota in over a decade.  It is –19F (-31C) so extremely cold but add the wind chill to that and according to Accuweather it a RealFeel of 41C.  I will not be going anywhere today and may try and sneak in a little bit of sewing!


So did you manage to sew at the weekend.  I would love to see what you made so leave a comment so I can check out your blog and see what you made.

Farmers Wife Quilt Sampler Friday

One of my goals this year is to make a Farmers Wife Quilt Sampler.  I am hoping I have not bitten off more than I can chew!  I plan on making this a King sized quilt. 

So here are the first 5 blocks that I have made.

Block # 2 Autumn Tints

There are 111 blocks in this sampler so I will either repeat or add some other blocks.

Block #20  Churn Dash

Each block measures 6 inches finished. As you probably guessed I will be using Bonnie and Camille fabrics for my Farmers Wife Quilt.

Block # 80 Single Wedding Star

also known as Rolling Stone

So far I have really been enjoying making these blocks.  I made all these blocks by figuring out the math's and rotary cutting them.  The book does provide a CD with templates, but that then requires you to print off all the templates for each block, which is something I am avoiding at the moment.

Block # 111 Wrench

Block #31 Evening Star

also known as Sawtooth Star

This is one of my most favourite blocks, and I have made this block a number of times in the past for Bee Blocks.

So now the weekend is here! What plans do you have for sewing tonight? 

I came across a free pattern for a  mini Single Wedding Star block over at Hopes blog When Inspiration Strikes.  Its tiny! so I have plans to have a go at making one tonight. Hope also has some quilt patterns on Craftsy which is where you will also find her free pattern for the Single Wedding Star/Rolling Stone block.

Hopefully I will get to share my mini block with you sometime over the weekend.

Happy Sewing!!!!

Happy New Year

 

My first blog post of 2014!!!!!!


If your a follower of my blog then you will already know that 2014 was an extremely difficult year for me and my family with lots of uncertainty at times and lots of changes.

We sold our home in Wisconsin and moved to Minnesota, so not a big move, but an extremely trying move, with house buying falling through, our dog getting extremely sick at the same time, and people trying to rip us off left right and centre, including a not limited to realtors, HVAC repair man, vets, the list is endless.

We moved in August and 2 weeks later our eldest son went off to college.


Then sadly we lost our beloved big boy Murphy in October.  So to be honest I will be happy to see the back of 2013.



During 2013 quilting and sewing kept my sanity, it was my escape!!! I did manage to complete and finish a number of quilts. But since moving I have only managed to do a little bit of sewing here and there.

I went on a quilt retreat in November for a much needed escape and had a great time, the best retreat I have been on thanks to all the sponsors that donated prizes of patterns, fabric, and templates.

I did complete a quilt top, but have yet to add the border and backing and get it quilted so that's one thing to add to my 2014 to finish list.

Rear Windows designed by Amy Walsh

(sorry about the photo! late at night iphone photo)

Christmas in our new home was just the four of us.  So it was a quiet Christmas, just how we like it.

So now I am excited to start a New Year.  This year I hope to be a little more organised with my blog than I was last year!

I have a few quilts that I want to make this year and a few projects I want to complete:

Flower Girl by Bonnie and Camille - I have the fabric cut out already.

Gypsy Wife - I won the pattern in a giveaway, which I just realised I forgot to blog about! (another blog post I need to write about)

 

Green Tea and Beans – This is another pattern by Jen Kingswell and I would like to add this to my ever growing list, If you have already made this and want to get rid of your used copy then please send me a message!

City Sampler Quilt - I have started making blocks for this quilt, way back in June but then we moved. 

 

Farmers Wife Quilt - I started making blocks for this quilt in October 2013.  So far I have made 12 blocks and I am really enjoying the process, I would love to finish this quilt in 2014. If I get organised this week then I will blog about some of the blocks I have made so far!

So what do you have on your to do list for 2014?  Any quilts that you plan to make? what about sewalongs? are you taking part in any?

Quilts made in 2013

Doing a little bit of house keeping on my blog today and thought it would be fun to show a post of all the quilts I have made this year.

 

If you want to see more pictures of a particular quilt, then just click on the photo and hopefully it will take you to the post.

Bloglovin

Just getting round to claiming my blog with bloglovin! I would be happy you to follow me.  Also blog posts have been a little thin lately, as I got sucked into instagram, so check me out on instagram too, its updated much more than my blog, but hopefully in the new year that will all change.

Cut Ups Quilt Retreat

I had a fantastic time at retreat.  Not much sleep or rest but lots of sewing, lots of eating and lots of fun with this group of ladies.

I received so many prizes from the sponsors I contacted that I was able to make up goodie bags for everyone.  Which included either patterns from  Atkinson Designs, Alison at Cluck Cluck Sew, Emmaline Bags, and Camille at Thimbleblossoms. 

Included in all the goodie bags was a postcard from Sara at Sew Sweetness to enable them to choose a bag pattern from her shop.

A few of the ladies have already contacted Sara and I look forward to seeing the bags they make with the patterns they chose from her store. She has some amazing patterns, and my favourite is the aeroplane bag.

 

Hawthorne Threads, Dear Stella and Westwood Acres donated fat quarters, so they were also split up and added to the goodie bags. In all the excitement I forgot to take photos of the goodie bags! But let me tell you they were full of awesome things! Patterns, templates, fat quarters!!!

Deep Blue Templates donated friendship star templates for everyone and I also had custom Tumbler  templates with the Cut Ups logo made for everyone.

 

 

And I made a sample with the mini tumbler template 2 days before I left to show  an example of what could be made with them.

Debbie loved this template so much, she went out shopping to Joanne's and bought fabric to play with it, here she is with her Tumbler Mat. She even managed to buy the same fabric I bought a year ago!!!

Rachel at Stitched in Color donated 2 patterns and the lucky winner was Diane.  I am not too sure what patterns she chose yet.  But here she is hiding behind her sewing machine!

 

Cindy was lucky to win the Robert Kaufman fat quarters, I loved these!

 

 

Jenny from Sew Kind of Wonderful, donated 2 rulers and 6 patterns, so these were split into two prizes, Debbie and Terri were the lucky winners of these awesome prizes. Terri had asked one of the other ladies to bring her quick curve ruler with her to retreat so she could have a play, so it was even more fun when she won her very own ruler!

 

Joanne is our organizer for the Tiny Tim Christmas Tree and was given the $25 gift certificate from Pink Chalk Fabrics as a Thank You for all her hard work. She was also the lucky winner of a fat quarter bundle sponsored by Alison Glass Designs. Joanne spent the weekend working on her English paper piecing project.

Dena is the organizer of our quilt retreat every year and also the organizer of anything we tend to do at quilt group, she received a $25 gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop and she was also lucky to win a Prize of 2 patterns from Rachel at Stitched in Color!

Mae was the lucky winner of a fat quarter bundle by Alison Glass Designs.  Here she is with one of the quilts she made that weekend!

As you can imagine there was a lot of sewing going on and lots of quilt tops made by this group of ladies. 

 

Again a big thank you to all the sponsors who donated prizes and made this and even more fun weekend.