More Farmer's Wife Blocks

I found my design wall this weekend while cleaning out my sewing room.  Once winter is here again and I cannot take photos outside I will be using it, until then I'm going to enjoy the outdoors.  The days are getting shorter and the evenings are cool.  Fall is my favorite season, although each season does have its benefits.

Here are blocks 70 Prairie Queen, 9 Box, 72 Railroad, and 41 Friendship Star.  I'm still enjoying them, although I think I'm going to put them on hold for awhile as I'm starting to need the other template sets, and I'm going to wait until I can get them on sale.  I may run through the Marti Michell emails and see if there are a few yet that I can do with the sets I have.

Here are the blocks I have finished so far.  I have 8 of 111 finished, only 103 to go!  I have to wonder why I am continually picking these extremely large projects. :)  I think I'm going to try and get my Vignette Mystery blocks put together and drawn out so I can work on them while I'm waiting at soccer practice and games.  It is fall again and time to get the handwork out.

I'm linking today with Judy and BOMs Away.  Happy Stitching and thanks for stopping by.  --Kristen

I'm back :)

This week has been a busy one, but I did get a few more Farmer's wife blocks finished and a few more cut.  Hopefully I will get some sewing time soon. 

This is block number 84 the spool block.  I am using reproduction fabrics.

This is block number 80 snowball.  After finishing these two and looking at the next ones I'm noticing I've been doing some of the easier ones first.  I am still loving the Marti Michell templates, and I do have the information for the weekly emails.  You need to go here and sign up for the newsletter on the right hand side.  If you would rather just sign up by email, you can send an email here and say "sign me up for the Farmer's wife emails."  The weekly emails are so helpful and give you instructions to cut the blocks with fewer pieces.  If you can wait, there will be a sale on the templates in one of the emails (I was given this information when I called to order my templates).  You need to sign up by August 31 so don't wait.  Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Stitching!  --Kristen

Farmer's Wife Blocks...finally

I've had the Farmer's wife book for well over a year now, I've printed the templates off and had them sitting with my book for months, and I've had the fabric for weeks, but I just couldn't find it in myself to start them, until today.  Why today?  Because the Marti Michell templates arrived and they seemed too good to be true.  I started at 9:15 p.m. cutting and I had two blocks finished by 9:45.  I'm not kidding.

This is block 16 Calico Puzzle.

Here is block number 21 Contrary Wife.

What took the most time?  Choosing which fabrics to use.  I would definitely recommend signing up for Marti's biweekly emails starting September 2.  The templates definitely make cutting out the pieces much easier.  I wasn't so sure about them, so I only purchased the B set of templates.  She is going to have a sale on them, but you have to get the emails to know what the dates will be.

I'm linking with Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday and BOMs Away.  I will be back tomorrow with the link for the Marti Mitchell emails and hopefully some more finished blocks as I am only about 10 weeks behind. :)  Happy stitching!  --Kristen

FNSI

Last night I decided it might be nice to clean up a few loose ends. I started sewing all my left over scraps from making 1/2 square triangles and flying geese...

It was a little bigger job than I had thought it would be, but it feels great to have them all sewn at least into squares.  Now to decide which way to put them together.

Then I thought it would be nice to have all my Birdie Stitches BOM blocks put together so all I have to do is trace them and start stitching.  I have a couple of seams that are going to be taken out eventually, but last night I wasn't up for doing that yet.

The next three quilts are ones I found at Gold Rush yesterday.  They are all beautiful.  The pictures were taken with my cell phone, but still show all the work that went into them.  They were fun to see, and too expensive for me to acquire.  I hope they all find loving homes!

 

Thanks for stopping by and thanks to Heidi and Bobbi for hosting the FNSI.  I always enjoy virtually sewing with everyone.  Happy Stitching!  --Kristen

What a find!

Once a year a neighboring town has what they call Gold Rush.  Basically it is an antique show, but it isn't all antiques and it is miles of fun all outside.  We always try to spend a little time digging through other people's lost treasures.  This year I hit the jackpot.  I usually only bring $20 to spend so I force myself to get the best deals I can.  This year I got my money's worth!

This was my final purchase and I love it.  I collect milk glass and I have never seen anything like this before.  The best part...I got the seller to come down to 1/2 of his original price and fat quarters fit perfectly in it!

My first purchase was this milk glass bowl.  You can probably tell I collect the grape and leaf pattern.  It also has the grapes and leaves on the inside of the bowl!  I can't wait to start using it.

These next three finds made me rather sad.  They are beautiful and they were in a basket with a sign $2 each.  I cannot imagine how much time went into each one.  I told the woman selling them I was taking them home to save them from a worse fate.  She laughed at me, but I truly meant it.

They were all beautifully done and I left a lot more behind.  I have a towel rack where they will be displayed and cared for.  Tomorrow I will show you the beautiful quilts I found made out of feed sacks and all hand quilted. :)

I am linking today with My Romantic Home.  Do not forget that tonight is the FNSI.  I have a large pile of cut fabric that I will be working on.  Happy Stitching and thanks for stopping by!  --Kristen

WiP Wednesday

I finished it...and 2-1/2 hours before I needed to!  Yeah!  I started this embroidery on Sunday, though truth be told I traced it almost 5 years ago.  How sad is that?  I don't know what kept me from starting it, but once I started I couldn't put it down.  Yesterday afternoon I took a trip to my neighborhood quilt store and purchased the surrounding fabrics.  I'm so happy with the way it turned out, and it is the perfect day for it as the leaves are slowing dropping from our crabapple tree. 

We spent the afternoon relaxing in the backyard.  The sun is warm, but not too hot and there is a cool breeze to remind us that the warm days of summer are quickly coming to an end.  As I was finishing this pillow this morning I completely destroyed my sewing room...SO, I'm off to do a quick clean up and out to the backyard to do some fabric cutting for a new quilt.  I purchased some Christmas fabrics earlier today so I can start this.  Instead of using 16 fat eighths I'm using fat quarters.  Hopefully I'll have something to show soon.  I'm also hoping to get some Farmer's wife blocks cut.

I'm linking today with Lee.  Make sure you vote for the fabric she designed and entered in the Connecting Threads design contest.  She definitely has a winner in my opinion!  Thanks for stopping by and Happy Stitching!--Kristen

Where's Kristen?

I feel like that Where's Waldo game, except I'm looking for me! :)  I've had a great week of vacation, and I'm looking forward to the last few days off of work this week.  What have I been doing you ask?  Well, I have not been bored.

My Fat Quarter Shop Designer Mystery BOM arrived in my mailbox on Saturday, and it was all I could do to not work on it over the weekend.  I finished it late last night and I love it!  The colors in this quilt just sing happiness to me.  I guess I never realized how much I love yellow and red together.

My son and I spent part of last week participating in the Minnesota Quilt Shop Hop.  It is a statewide hop that is divided into sections.  When you visit each shop in a section you are eligible for prizes for that section.  You receive a free pattern and a free 5" inch square of the Minnesota Shop Hop fabric from each shop you visit.  When you have finished visiting all the shops in the SE Minnesota section you receive....

Fourteen half yard cuts of these moda fabrics...how cool is that?  It is like getting paid to shop!  As I was getting ready to photograph these fabrics I realized just how much I like them all.  I may have never picked them out myself, but I do really like them.

Of course I didn't just go to get all the fun free stuff, I did do some shopping too.  I found this book and could not leave it behind.  As you can see it has 70 projects all made out of felt...which I LOVE!  I keep trying to decide which fruit/veggie/tool/ornament to start first. 

I have one more project that I've been working on over the past couple of days.  It has to be finished by tomorrow at noon so hopefully I can show you then.

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I'm linking today with Patchwork Times, BOMs Away, and Fabric Tuesday.  Happy Stitching!  --Kristen

Design Wall Monday

I had so much fun last week looking at the blocks from my BOMs that I just had to see how my Vignette hexagons looked together.  I've been looking at these piles for so long I wanted to see how they would work.

They look so different when you lay them out.  It was also helpful to see what fabrics I've maybe used enough and which ones I definitely need more of.  A person sure can tell which fabrics are my favorites so far.

After looking at the Vignette hexies, I had to get out my grandmother's flower garden quilt and see how I liked those.  It has been quite a few months since they've seen the light of day, and I'm still loving these fabrics.

When starting this quilt 11 years ago I had no instructions and thought I wanted to outline each flower with an ivory pathway.  After working with the ivory, I then thought it might be nice to have a medium purple in between the ivory.  I hand basted all of the hexagons for this quilt and somewhere along the line I lost a bit of steam.  When I pick it up again glue basting is definitely the way to go.

 I'm going to be linking today with Design Wall Monday.  It is always so fun to see what everyone else is working on.  Thank you so much for stopping by!  Happy Stitching!  --Kristen

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas?!

This week has been a full week again, fun, but full.  Our son celebrated his birthday  this week and turning 11 is a great thing! :) 

Even though we have had horrible heat the last few weeks, I've been thinking Christmas.  I've also been thinking about all those Christmas ornaments I'm going to be wishing were finished in a couple of months.  I thought this Prairie Schoolar Snowman was cute.  He was a quick stitch too. :)

Hexies were on the agenda again this weekend.  The count is now at 65 of 140.  Slow, but sure progress. 

I'm on vacation from work for the next few weeks, and I have big plans to hopefully finish  some projects.  Of course you know how vacations go, sometimes my lists are way too big, but I'm definitely going to be trying!  :)  Thanks so much for stopping by!  Happy Stitching!  --Kristen

Design Wall Monday

My design wall (floor, desk) has been full for quite a while.  I realized the other day that I have been working on some BOMs for some time and haven't actually seen all the blocks together.  Today I thought it might be fun to see what I have as far as "almost finished" quilts.

This is the Birdie Stitches BOM.  When I went there now, there was a new block posted.  I really do enjoy these embroideries.  As you can see, I am three behind now.

Next is Cobblestone Lane by This and That.  There are two blocks to sew together and the quilt will be finished.  I really think I'm going to like this when it is complete.

These next two quilts are from a Thangles Buck a Block BOM that I participated in last year.  I liked both colorways and at a buck a month it was certainly affordable.  Now that I look at the blocks on the floor I'm questioning one of them...I bet you can guess which one it is. It is the bottom one in the top picture. They are both put together the same way so either it was a late night or the pattern said to do it that way.  I'm thinking I'm going to have to tear some threads. 

I have three blocks to finish for both of them.

Last but not least is my Fat Quarter Shop Designer Mystery BOM.  I like this one best of all.  The colors are happy and the blocks are fun.  As each month is a surprise, hopefully they won't disappoint.  I 'm not worried. :)

As I look back through these I notice that I did see a finished quilt for all of them except for the last before I started.  The Thangles BOMs did not have a color picture of the block each month, they were in black and white.  The This and That patterns all had a color picture and were printed like a regular pattern you purchase.  The FQS is a colored computer print out.  Birdie Stitches is a drawing you print out each month and you pick the fabrics.  Each are different in their own way, and I honestly have enjoyed working on them all.  Do you enjoy BOMs or are you a start it and finish it type person?  Do you like to chose your own fabrics, or would you rather not bother with that and use what is chosen for you?

It was fun to lay out the blocks and see what I have.  I am also dreaming about how to quilt each one and actually getting to use these when they are finished.  I usually like to chose my own fabrics, but my life has been very hectic, and I wanted to just work on my piecing skills.  With most of the BOM kits all I had to do was cut and sew which turned out to be very relaxing, and each month I had finished something.


I'm linking today with Patchwork Times and BOMs Away.  Thanks for stopping by and Happy Stitching!  --Kristen