Getting closer

I had a great time sewing with my guild this weekend.  And I finished some Farmers Wife blocks!  I've mentioned before that I'm redoing some that I have made already.  A few people have mentioned that I'm crazy, and I'm pretty comfortable with that.  I do have reasons behind my madness, so I thought I'd share a little bit of that here.

 

I made the log cabin block above and wanted to change it immediately.  It just doesn't shine.  I like the balance of the design and the colors in the aqua and cerise version of courthouse steps a lot better.

 

I like this checkerboard okay... but I don't love it.  The colors don't mix well and the background is boring.  I do, however, love the yellow, pink and gray version below.

 

The red, yellow and gray in the ribbon star above always looked too creamy together and didn't sparkle the way some of my other FW blocks did.  Then, I made the text and green version below, I am much happier.  Green has been my favorite color for a long, long time and more of my green stash was begging to be included in this quilt.

 

I made the red and yellow star of hope block to challenge myself to use a color combination that doesn't speak to me very much.  And...it still doesn't speak to me.  But the typewriter fabric below?  That just screams cute and it had to be in my finished quilt.

I don't think you can tell how bright the above version of hovering hawks is.  I had to turn the color saturation down so far just so the picture didn't vibrate off of the computer screen.  The shades of blue and orange in that block remind me of elementary school markers and I think the rest of my Farmers Wife quilt is a bit more subtle than that.

Plus, I found that stinkin' adorable bunny fabric below.  Maybe putting adorable bunnies on a "hovering hawks" block isn't wise, but it sure looks cute from here.

Thanks for letting me jabber on about my Farmers Wife blocks again.  I just have five blocks left!!!!

I should learn my lesson

I basted my Mommy Neighborhood quilt yesterday.

I ran out of basting spray.  I couldn't use pins because I am hand quilting it with my frame.  And I have no flippin' idea why I stretched it out on the floor.  It took me the whole. darned. day. to complete.  My plan is to densely quilt this with perle cotton, so I thought I had better densely baste it.  Well, crawling around on the floor all day has done a number to my back and my hips.  So, please don't follow my lead.  If you decide to thread baste something and you have any option at all to put it on a table, please do.  This has been a public service announcement.

Other notes I want to add about this quilt:

• the houses in this quilt are only about 4",
• the green strips of lawn were inspired by this quilt,
• I made four of the blocks, but the other thirteen were made by the ladies in this bee,
•  I have two tutorials posted for making tiny house blocks if you are interested:  one and two.

Something is in the air...

I don't know how else to describe the sewing productivity over here.  Maybe there is something about Maryland, or the lack of local friends to visit or the fact that my sewing studio is no longer in a damp basement....  Either way, I'm grabbing this energy and running with it. 

This one is called Mommy Neighborhood.  The blocks were made by myself and my mom friends from ravelry.  I twisted their arms to form a quilting bee and then asked them to piece some wonky house blocks so I could make a quilt where we all lived in the same neighborhood.  Since the group is spread throughout the states plus two in Finland and one in Australia, this is the only way that we could all live in one place.  

I also have a finish from this week.  I made this Baby Bliss quilt from some prints of the Domestic Bliss line and a few strips of solid aqua.  I adapted my Four Corners tutorial to make this smaller version.  This whole quilt is made with fabric, batting and thread that needed a good home.  I think this summer quilt will get donated when I find the right charity. 

I skipped taking a picture of all of the blocks laying on my floor for another new quilt.  Those will have to wait for another day.  I did cut the fabric, mark, sew and trim them enough HST's for a throw-sized quilt all in one day.  But I don't think I'm completely crazy.  Do you?  Go ahead and be honest.  :)

Definition of Love

I call this quilt Love, Love, Love.

  

It has Amy Butler Love, Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy and DS Quilts, solids, some Japanese dot fabric, Lizzy House stripes and pearl bracelets, and Anna Maria Horner Innocent Crush to bind it---all of my fabric loves in one quilt.   It is one giant log cabin block with dense straight line quilting, which makes me swoon.  It has lime and aqua--two of my favorite colors--combined with a pinky red that I adore.

 

But, perhaps the best example of love that this quilt shows is in the video below.  My husband willingly stood outside in a slush storm for me to get a picture. He had to wait and wait for the wind to calm down for even a second so I could get a shot.

That is a lot of love.

Happy Little Finish

My friends in the May Moms Bee made me tiny house blocks ages and ages ago.  I have another 17 of these blocks that I'm working into a quilt top, but it was getting unwieldy.  So these 4 houses get their own special place on this mini quilt. 

I used this mini as an opportunity to try a colored border and try quilting with 12 wt thread.  I know many people choose to use very thin thread so it disappears into the quilt but this one definitely doesn't.  You may also notice that the texture of the quilt is different.  I used a fleece interfacing because I originally was going to make this into a pillow.  Once I changed my mind to a mini quilt, I couldn't use my usual 100% cotton batting any more.  The combination of the fleece and the 12 wt thread gives this a different texture than I would normally choose.  I'll admit I didn't like it at first.  It took a day to get used to it, but now I'm very happy with this finish.  I'm so pleased, in fact, that I'm sending it out to a very special friend.  I think it will bring a smile to her face.