WIP Wednesday 07/27/2011

We have been sick at my house...again. I'm pretty sure that the baby brought home some horrible cold germs from the pediatrician's office that were spread around to everyone else! Before I got sick, I did manage to get almost all caught up with my quilt alongs.


The Skill Builder Sampler is coming right along. I was missing the instructions for one week, but I'm going to go back and do it.

The most recent block is the Arizona. I really like how it all came together, but I am tired of HST for a while. I'm working on another quilt top of them and I've had enough for a while!

I went ahead and made up 3 more of my embroidery 101 blocks. I LOVE they way they all look together. I'm very excited about the way this is working out. I was a little unsure about my fabric choices at first, but I really like them now.

I also completed two more of the Farmer's Wife blocks. I like both of them, but the pink and orange points didn't match very good in the middle. I think I'm going to undo it and try again! I am having a really hard time getting the pieces accurately cut for these blocks. I think I'm going to have to just trace the templates and then use the scissors to cut the pieces. I've been using laminated templates and trying to rotary cut them with the help of a ruler, but I think there is too much slippage. The blocks come together so easily, but if the pieces are exactly right, they don't look great. Any suggestions from anyone who's working on this?
I've also been slowly working on the quilting for the plus quilt. I can only do a little bit at a time before I get so frustrated that I have to stop!

Be sure to check out what everyone else is working on over at Freshly Pieced!

Skill Builder Sampler #3

The third block in the Skill Builder Sampler is the churn dash. I really like this block, but not really my version. I hope that when it's put with all the other block it will be a little more lively!

July Second Saturday Sewing

Second Sewing Saturday was very successful this month! Christy and I both made skirts for ourselves and our daughters. Heather finished her purse and Marie got her quilt all quilted! Ashley joined us and scrapbooked while we sewed. Her organized supplies were quite impressive.
I didn't get any pictures of our skirts, but Christy did.

Heather and Marie working away.

Baby boy thought it was fun to sit with us and eat cooooookies.

Marie's finished quilt top! All that's left is the binding. I'm so impressed with her first sewing project!

Heather finished her Pleated Purse, just in time for a fabulous beach vacation!

Embroidery 101: Block 2

Since I've been good about updating as I go, I don't have anything really to link up to WIP Wednesday. The only thing I haven't shown you yet is the second Embroidery 101 block. When I rinsed it to remove the tracing pen, it kinda dried a little stretched out looking. I'm sure it will look better all put together.

I used the Perl cotton for the purple butterfly. I only have purple and the verigated green, so I hope that I'll be able to work one or the other in the rest of the blocks.

Block 3 is posted and I hope to get some of it done this weekend.

Farmer's Wife Begins

After seeing all of the beautiful blocks popping up all over the internet, I couldn't resist joining in on the Farmer's Wife Quilt Along. If you don't know, Farmer's Wife was a magazine. In the 20s they held a contest, asking for letters answering the question would you want your daughter to marry a farmer? There are 60ish letters in the book, I think. The rest of the book is 111 blocks to go along with the letters. The letters are the best part in my opinion and I really like the blocks. When I think of farmer's wives in the 20s, I picture these dirt poor women with a hundred kids, just dead tired from working all day just to survive. Obviously this wasn't the case. The letters are beautifully written and express how much they really loved their simple lives as farmer's wives. I can't imagine anyone today writing such beautiful and eloquent letters. Even if you don't make the blocks, the book is worth looking at.

I'm not really sure how I'm going to go about making all the blocks, but for now I just started at the beginning and made the first 3 I thought I could easily do. The blocks are only 6.5 x 6.5, so they come together quite quickly. Cutting the pieces is the hardest part so far!
Attic Window

Autumn Tints

Basket Weave

I hope to post the blocks I've made every Tuesday.
I'm going to try to do at least 2 a week. The actual quilt along started a few weeks ago, so I'm going to try to do a couple of extras each week to get caught up. I'm very excited to see the top come together!

Embroidery 101: Block 1

I finished the first block for the Embroidery 101 Quilt along. I really like it. I wasn't able to find Perl floss to match the colors in my fabrics, so I'm mostly using regular floss. The green for the grass is verigated Perl. I really like just using a touch of it.

I also finished the blocks for Margaret's Hope Chest Quilting Bee. To be honest, I don't like them very much. The requirements were that one block needed a white cross and one needed a blue or black cross. I think they will probably look great in a whole quilt, but that's a little hard to see without the other blocks.

This weekend is Second Saturday Sewing. There's talk of lots of project finishing and some skirt sewing. Here's hoping someone takes pictures!

WIP Wednesday 07/06/2011

Back in January I made a list of my quilty goals. Since the year is half over, I thought it would be a good time to check in on that list! These are my finishes.


Cuckoo Clock
Noah's Rainbow quilt
Ballerina Dress
Zigzag Quilt
Easter egg shirts
Tie onesie
Apple purse
4th of July wreath
Car cozy
Kindle covers
Sew Fresh Fabric Bee
Libray Bag
Green scarft
Thrist Store skirt
Knitted face cloths
Mad Hatter embroidery
Pin cushions
Margaret's Hope Chest Quilting Bee

These are my projects that are in progress:

Fairy Quilt (Top finished, needs back and quilting)
I-Spy (half of a top)
Hexi (will probably NEVER be finished)
Charm baby quilt (Needs an border and then a back)
Birdie Stitches (Finished through June)
Embroidery 101 (Everything cut and first block embroidered)
Skill Builder Sampler (Have first 2 blocks done. 3 posted)
Plus Quilt (Just need to finish quilting and bind)
Margaret's Hope Chest Quilting Bee (Need to finish one more block)

Of my Lofty Quilt Goals, I've been faithfully working on my Birdie Stitches blocks. I also made a zigzag quilt. I haven't done the orange quilt with the Jay McCarroll fabrics, but I haven't forgotten about it either! I used my reproduction fabrics for the plus quilt instead of a grandmother's garden, and I'm happier with that! I feel like I'm doing pretty good. My goals for the rest of the year are to finish the fairy quilt, the Birdie Stitches quilt, the charm baby quilt, and to keep working on the Skill Builder Sampler and Embroidery 101. I also have a confession to make...I've become a farmer's wife. I bought the book and have the templates all made. I'm just waiting for a little bit of fabric to get the blocks started. Hopefully by the end of the year I'll have half of the blocks made!

Please go check out the links at Freshly Pieced!

4th of July wreath

Like I said before, I signed up for Mollie's All in the Details Embroidery Project. I've been kind of a slacker about it, but I did get this project done.


This week's projects were all about adding things to your embroidery...here, beads and sequins.
I really like how the 3 circles I did turned out. I should have done a few more, but I was afraid I wouldn't finish it and then I'd just have this half done 4th of July wreath sitting around in November!

Yesterday Mollie posted a free Freedom pattern with a cute little Liberty Bell on it. I think I'm going to shrink it down a bit and stitch it up to add to my wreath. I'll post again if I do. Hope you all have a safe and happy Independence Day!