Branching out

I finished three more blocks from the Farmer's Wife book.   (psst: #59 and #57 are on my all-time favorites list)

But, I've also been branching out.  Many of the Farmer's Wife blocks I have left have so many fabrics and teeny tiny pieces.  Yet, I have many mid scale prints left that have to be in this quilt.

I have adored the Tallahassee block since Penny's paper piecing workshop.  I'm so excited by how this turned out.  Tutorial and templates at Quilters Cache.  (I couldn't get the templates to print at 100% with scaling turned off, but it worked when I scaled prining to 105%.)

The twelve triangles block was more fun than I thought it would be. I did the block math and piecing in my own way, but there is a tutorial for the block at Quilters Cache.

I got the idea for the Twist block from Quilter's Cache, but I changed the size and changed the construction slightly.  I also wanted to fit more of the text of the center print in the block, so I used some pintucks on the back side of the fabric.

Don't you just love the simplicity of Greek Cross blocks?  I used the tutorial by Faith at Fresh Lemons, but I changed the sizing.

I have 31 blocks left in this project.  And my biggest issue is fitting all of my very, very favorite prints in.  I guess that isn't a bad problem to have.

Headlines

Today is my birthday and I am blessed with a little time to myself while Henry is out at the park with a babysitter. So, I'm not going to spend a lot of time blogging. I'll just cover the headlines, instead.

We had a fun Easter weekend. We may or may not get an egg kit again next year, but we are definitely adding the googly eyes and markers to all future egg decorating adventures.

This may be the homeliest and cutest hippo ever.

In sewing news, I'm up to 90 blocks for my Farmer's Wife quilt. Ninety!

I think they work together, too!

Lastly, I spend a little time each birthday looking around me at the things I accomplished in the past year.  This cutie right here makes me one proud momma.

That's the brief recap of the news over here. I hope you all have a grand day. I know I plan to.

You are all so awesome

Thank you again for the kind, supportive comments. Things are still a bit uncomfortable, but I'm so glad to have a this place to talk about and think about quilting things. 

This square dance block was started last October.  The triangles weren't working out and I had a dusty blue solid in place of the crosshatch.  You'll have to trust me that it didn't work at all.  Since then, I've come up with a new (for me) strategy for getting the triangles to match up.  I starch the crap out of the fabric and...(drumroll)...I use the templates.  I've been trying to do all of the quilt math on these blocks and rotary cutting everything, but using the templates to cut the little corners on the triangles first is really helping me match up the seams better.  I know, shocking revelation to use the templates that came with the book, right?

I was having the same triangle problems with the tiny geese blocks.  So, more starch and templates used here.

The HST's and I are getting along well, so I still quick piece these and then trim them down to the correct size.  And starch, starch, starch.

Maybe when this quilt top is finished it will stand up all by itself with the power of starch?





This little block here was a travesty.  I think I made this one back in August of last year.  I love the Suzuko Koseki print, but I don't think it is strong enough to go up against all of the bright colors I have in this quilt.  And that pearl bracelet print is fantastic, but way too large of scale for this project.

So, I made version 2.

Much better, dontcha think?

Wishing you all well and happy sewing!

Thank you!

I really appreciate the comments I've been getting lately on my Farmer's Wife blocks. We are still working on some family adjustments over here, therefore I'm still plugging away on the traditional blocks. I'm running into the hard ones soon, so I'm starting to slow down.

Because my family life is a little stressed, I'm not feeling chatty. But I still want people to talk to me. Does that make sense? Anyway, your comments brighten my day. Talking about fabrics and block construction comes easily when other words don't.

Wishing you all peace, and happy piecing.

Truth time

I was encouraged by Jennifer to share all of the blocks I made last week. I guess it was a little silly to claim to be on a bender and then hold back some of my crafty craziness. I'm also sharing a few frank comments about the blocks as I go.

Four winds has sooooo many HST's but soooo worth it in the end.

I wanted the red key fabric to stand out on this block. I don't think I was successful, but I do like the overall effect of the tiny diamond DS fabric and the diamonds in the block design.

I may redo peace & plenty.  The blue ribbon flowers is a favorite fabric and I don't think this block does it justice.

This one seems a little jumbled with all of the prints, but I'm not touching it.  I love every square inch just as it is.

The point in the center of this spider web was wicked hard to get right.  But, I used my trusty seam ripper and straightened things out with some hand stitching.

This corn & beans block was a thorn in my side.  I finally finished it but those gaps in between the triangles may still merit some work.  Although, this block was so difficult that I may never be brave enough to tackle it a second time. 

I adore this one.  The color and tone contrast may be low but I love these two fabrics together.

I don't want to talk about how much I had to unpick on this block.  Let's just say that the one of the downsides of the Farmer's Wife book is the lack of instructions for sewing the blocks.  And parallelograms seem to be my downfall.

I paper pieced the quarters of this block. Even though I had to redo one quarter of it, this block ended up much faster than I initially expected.

This block is SO stiff with starch!  I didn't want a repeat of the corn & beans block fiasco.

When I saw the pattern for the bouquet block in the book, I thought I'd skip it.  But I love the goofy fabrics I picked so much that this block may be one of my new favorites.

The rest of the truth is that I'm not showing you how badly I goofed up two other blocks. You'll just have to be patient until I take more quality time with my seam ripper.

On a bender

Is there a 12 step program for quilt sampler blocks? I may need one. I've made 15 blocks this week. I've only included five photos here because even I know that 15 is obnoxious.

I'll probably work on a couple more tonight....
My other projects are probably feeling neglected, but I can't help myself.  These are quite satisfying.