finally, a finish

I promised that I would have a fast finish on my Q4QAL list and I do.  I bound the mini finally and it is complete:

This pattern is so old that there aren't even any pictures on the Moda Bake Shop post where I got it.  It was designed by Sheryl Johnson of Temecula Quilt Co. and there is a photo on their website as part of a collection of small quilt patterns available for purchase:

And here is mine:

a little bit done

I skipped out on exercising yesterday - I'll do it today after work, I swear - and headed home to get into comfy clothes and start sewing.  I puttered around my sewing room, not doing a whole lot.  Every time I looked at my list it seemed that everything required either cutting or hand work ... nothing was ready to be sewn.  So I did some straightening up.  You know, you may think I totally flaked on the Farmers Wife Quilt-A-Long because I haven't even mentioned it since July ... but I haven't.  First, my aunt died, and then the kids came, and then I started focusing on Christmas project timetables.  But the fabrics sat in my big basket next to the cutting table, then at some point were dumped on the hearth to make room.  So I sat down and organized them last night so that they would be ready when I had more time again, maybe in January.

That little woven rag rope basket is one of the things I "inherited" from my Honey's ex by moving into a house that she had vacated.  I love its versatility in my sewing room.  It's just the right size and has held so many different parts of projects as they've been in progress.  Sometimes it's the unexpected things that make you happy.

After doing some straightening, I went up to the TV room to watch Eat Pray Love as I sewed some more of the bias strip onto Kaleidoscope.  Being 41 and having gone through my own midlife crisis awakening, I could relate to the story, but it did remind me a lot of Under the Tuscan Sun with Diane Lane.  I enjoyed it nonetheless.  And the bias strip is about half on the quilt, so another movie or two should finish it.

Work has been slow this week so I finished the October Fab ShopHop.  In doing so, I came across a great little Halloween fabric line by Alexander Henry called The Ghastlies.  I realize that I'm a little late to the party here, since the Ghastlies is in its second printing already.  I began wracking my brain to figure out a way to use these fabrics, which have a pretty large scale scene, and then bought some today.

 Aren't they just adorable?  Apparently the table on the left is 12.5" wide, and the tallest witch on the right is 10" tall.  So I've got to design something that uses them well.  One will be backing fabric.  The other I'll cut in 12" blocks and alternate with pieced blocks.  They remind me so much of Edward Gorey's art, which my Honey just loves: 

Speaking of my Honey, one reason he's a Halloween adorer is that his birthday is next week.  I've been trying to brainstorm what to get him, but what do you give a man who has everything?  I'm going to have to do a little shopping while he's away with his girls this weekend and see what I can find him.

For now, I'm headed out for a sushi lunch with a colleague.  It's the first time all week I've left the office for lunch and it's sorely needed.  Plus, I'm famished!  I can't believe that I never had sushi up until about a year ago ... what did I spend so many years missing!?

FWQAL Week 4

Last night I worked on two more blocks:

From left, #12, Broken Sugar Bowl; #6, Big Dipper.

You might notice that I did not use the focal print I had used previously, but a few prints from my stash that coordinate with my earlier blocks, show below:

I note that I tend to use one very busy print and a lot of tonals or solids to coordinate.  Just my comfort zone, I suppose.

One more night and I will be caught up with this week - Week 5 - but I'm not all that sure it's going to happen.  Tonight we are hosting the 18-year-old son of a friend, he has been hiking the Appalachian Trail and is stopping by for a homecooked meal, shower, and sleep in a bed after logging some 700 miles since March.  Although I imagine it will be an early night for everyone, I'm rarely motivated to hit my sewing room later in the evening, and I need some extra sleep myself.  We'll see if I do any sewing tomorrow night.

FWQAL Week 3

My aim this week with no kids around is to get caught up with the Farmer's Wife Quilt-A-Long blocks.  I think they're in Week 5, and I'm just finishing Week 3, so it might be possible.  Anyway, here is what I did last night:

On the left is block #2, Autumn Tints; on the right is #57, Morning.  I chose to skip ahead and do that one because of this thread on the Flickr group - it's really about block #100, but someone mentioned this as being challenging and probably needing to be paper pieced, so I thought I'd try the traditional method first.

Here's the funny thing:  this multicolored square fabric was the third and final focal fabric I bought for the three different sets of blocks I'm making here (I figure I'll make three small sampler quilts from each colorway).  I was regretting the print when I began cutting templates, because it seems so large and varied.  I thought it would go better in the large pieces like the #2 template on the left, than being sliced and diced into small pieces - that diamond in the center of Morning is actually NINE pieces of the fabric cut and sewn back together.  But the odd thing is, I like the way it turned out better in Morning than in Autumn Tints.  I think that the first one is just too busy, especially because you're looking at squares next to four-squares.  I might end up redoing that one in a different print.  And no, my focal print does not need to be in every block, but I do want a sense of continuity in color, so it will be in most of the blocks I make in each set.

I admit that I more prefer to work in the blues and greens that went with the paisley, and the teals and purples that went with the spots, so those are probably what I'll go back to in order to catch up to weeks 4 and 5 this week.

I think the nicest part of making these blocks is that my Honey was relaxing with a beer in the big easy chair in my sewing room, venting about his day, as I was cutting the pieces.  I didn't have to choose between spending time with him and working in my sewing room.  :-)

First two weeks - caught up!

It's official - I'm in the Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-Long.  I've got four blocks done and I'm seeing why people are enjoying this so much.

Clockwise from top left:  #1 Attic Windows; #4 Basket Weave; #9 Box; #5 Bat Wing.

I am doing two at a time in each focal print - I have a third print to do, but since we are in week 4, I can get caught up pretty quickly. 

There are two main things I am enjoying about this.  One is that I'm finding bits and pieces in my stash that go with these prints and it's so much fun.  I have so many random scraps or 6" squares of fabrics and have never had any idea of what to do with them.  When something matches the focal print so well, it's like a little celebration happening in my sewing room.  I start flipping through the book to find something to do with it.

The other thing, surprisingly, is working with the templates.  I've never had the patience for templates - I do the math and cut strips and squares and such.  But after reading the words from those who started on time, I thought I'd slow down and do the templates (and this was confirmed after measuring some of the templates and finding my Omnigrid ruler wouldn't get as exact as the templates).  Angela has a good blog post on the ease of the clipped corners here - it reminds me of Inklingo although I haven't gotten around to trying that yet either - and it really is lovely how the tiny pieces just match up.  The only thing I need to worry about is my seam allowances.  True, it can take three times as long to cut a block than to sew it, but because of the pace of the Quilt-A-Long, I'm not finding that annoying.

Tonight is hand sewing night at my friend Kitty's house.  I am deliberating whether to bring the Drunkard's Path blocks I'm hand piecing (first time ever trying hand-piecing) or to bring fabric and book and templates and cut some more FW blocks.

FWQAL fabrics

Yesterday, after a grueling 11-hour day in the office, I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics on the way home.  As I mentioned in my previous post, their sale this week included fat quarters for only $0.99.  I ended up choosing yardage in three focal prints - the bright squares, the cool-colored dots, and the blue/green paisley - and then a bunch of fat quarters to coordinate.  Although their premium quilting fabrics were not on sale, I used a couple of 50% coupons and I ended up with sale prices on everything (plus my VIP 10% discount on top of that).  Honestly, I feel like I steal from that store sometimes. 


I also bought a Clover bias tape maker that I read about at Jillily Studio since it was 50% off ... I'd read about them and seen them often enough, but after such a glowing review I had to have one.  So 17 FQs, 3.5 yards of fabric, and a bias tape maker for around $35 ... not bad.

Rest assured, I have PLENTY of fat quarters, yardage and scraps to coordinate with these already, but part of the fun of fabric shopping is choosing things that match.  The woman at the cutting counter complimented my choice of fabrics, and I was surprised myself that I chose all modern fabrics.  Then again, Jo-Ann's doesn't exactly have the blowout selection like some of my favorite quilt stores.

I saw the book for sale there, and I think all quilting books are currently 40% off, whereas I ordered it from amazon.com at 34% off.  I seriously thought about buying it and canceling my Amazon order, but I also ordered the third book in the Hunger Games series to read with my son this summer, and wouldn't get my free shipping on it.  Amazon is estimating delivery date between tomorrow and Saturday, and honestly, I have enough to do without beginning on these yet.  In flipping through the book I see that each book references various template numbers, and when I get it, I might sit down and create templates before I even begin cutting and sewing fabric.  We have had a Netflix DVD sitting in front of our TV since November so that sort of thing is good TV-watching activity.

I have already told my Honey that I need some quilting time tonight, and I'm looking forward to a rare weekend with absolutely NOTHING on tap.  Although I swear I will devote some of that time to curtains, tonight I want to get caught up on some other projects, like my Civil War Chronicles BOM.  I recently downloaded the Blogger app to my Droid and am looking forward to taking some more pictures for anyone who might be reading.

Farmer's Wife Quilt-A-Long

Well, I didn't make it to Sit & Stitch last night and I'm feeling slightly guilty.  I knew it was going to be a stretch to get everything together, especially since I had a 3 PM court date for the case to which I was appointed the CASA representative, and as usual, the docket was backed up.  I didn't get out of there until 4:30 and home at 5, which would have given me about 40 minutes to change, collect my sewing stuff, eat something for dinner, and get back on the road.  Sewing is what I do to remove stress, and when it actually becomes MORE stressful, it doesn't work for me, so I left my sewing room in half-packed disarray and instead my honey and I ordered pizza and both got out our work laptops to finish up some projects for the day.  On the bright side, it was a beautiful evening; I was actually getting chilly sitting on the back porch.

Anyway, one of the reasons I began this blog now is for the Quilt-A-Long I read about over at The Happy Zombie.  Monica linked to Amanda and Angela, who had put together a fun little project to make all the six-inch blocks in the book, "The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt: Letters from 1920s Farm Wives and the 111 Blocks They Inspired."  Well, I ordered my copy from Amazon and am waiting for it to arrive, and of course, the question top of mind right now is which fabrics should I use?  Monica is sewing them in her own fabric line, and since I am not brilliant or renowned enough to have my own fabric line, I guess I must go with a plan B.  A look at the Flickr group indicates that people are doing these in modern fabrics, in 1930's repros, in tonal solids, in red & white, in florals, and in Civil War repros.  Well, I am all 1930's out, with Elephant Parade recently finished and a Bow Tie next on deck for hand quilting, I have a red & white Jacob's Ladder UFO that's been waiting for years for a flying geese border, and I'm also halfway into the Civil War Chronicles Block of the Month as pictured below courtesy of the Fat Quarter Shop:

I should probably take it as a sign that Jo-Ann Fabrics is currently having a week-long sale on fat quarters - $0.99 each - and go let availability inspire me.  Then again, I'm also considering buying yardage of a single focal print and then a bunch of coordinating fat quarters for the blocks.  Or who even says that all 111 blocks have to go into ONE quilt?  I could make several smaller ones in various colorways.  I'm not fond of sampler quilts myself anyway, so I will probably donate the final product(s) to Margaret's Hope Chest or one of our guild's charity initiatives, which is one reason I'm considering using Jo-Ann's rather than stocking up at one of the many local quilt stores.  I suppose if I wanted to be truly authentic, I'd just use fabrics from my stash, and I'll probably use some of those too, but really ... what's a new project without new fabric?

The advantage to being behind in the QAL is that I'm already learning from others' mistakes.  Note to self:  use the templates and don't try to convert them into math.  Actually, if I buy the FQs at Jo-Ann's, the little pieces of cardboard they put in there to fold them up all neatly should double well as templates.   Win-win.

(Oh, and PS - we have a whole weekend at home with no kids until he gets them Sunday afternoon, so I PROMISE I will work on some curtains this weekend.)