1930s Farmer's Wife Sew Along

As if I needed something else to focus on . . . I've decided to follow along with The Gnome Angel and The Fat Quarter Shop in the 1930s Farmer's Wife Sew Along.  I may not make all of the blocks but I'm going to play along as much as I can.

The first block posted for the group to work on is #12 Becky. Here is my version made with my 1930s fabrics. It's a little busy, but I like it and I made it in less than 15 minutes over my lunch break today.  The blocks are all 6.5" square.  The second block is #16 Bonnie but I haven't gotten that one made yet.  If you enjoy oral history this book is for you. Each block has a story with it and for me that is part of the joy! 

I've decided I need more solids to go in these to break up the 30s prints. That gives me something to look for on the shop hop bus trip this weekend doesn't it?

And on the Gnome Angel blog you'll see her version made with some very fun modern fabrics. 

Design Wall Monday - binding

I decided on the striped binding for my Halloween block swap quilt. It's ready to go as soon as I have a chance to work on it again - maybe tonight after work or tomorrow night. This will be a crazy busy week so who knows whether I'll have a chance to get back into the sewing room.


Check out the other Monday design walls at Patchwork Times.

Week 39 Status of the Stash

In this week: 6.5 yds
In this year: 170 yds
Used this week: 0 yds
Used this year: 159.5 yds

Stash is ahead by 10.5 yards and the gap is widening!

I bought 2 yards of extra wide backing for my Halloween quilt on Monday and the quilt is already back from the quilter and ready for binding.  Yay!!  And I purchased the 30s jelly roll yesterday during a 20% off sale at The Pin Cushion following a WONDERFUL trunk show by Diane Gubels. 

I got in quite a bit of sewing last week since the hubbie was gone all week on a golf trip. This week he'll be on the road for work, but I'm not anticipating much sewing time. I'm taking Wednesday off to help my daughter's family move into a new (to them) house. And Friday morning I'll be on a bus headed for our guild shop hop bus trip. I'll have some major additions to the stash next week I'll bet. But it will be a lot of fun adding to the stash.

RSC15 Sampler is taking shape

My orange blocks are done and the orange row as well.  So 4 rows are completely set together and it appears that we have 4 more star blocks to make. And there are 8 more alternate blocks although most of those are partially made already. Only two more colors to add!!  

Check out the RSC15 project on http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/. I am absolutely loving this sampler and am so glad I decided to sew along instead of just making my own rainbow blocks like last year. Of course I really liked my quilt from last year, but I'm a sucker for samplers so this has been tons of fun.

Ready for binding

My Halloween block swap quilt is all ready for binding. Bonnie at The Pin Cushion did the quilting with spider webs all over. Those webs just POP on the border which is just what I wanted. 

The backing is purple and I have enough for binding but I also have enough of the stripe for binding. What do you think? Stripes or purple?

Check out more Friday Finishes at http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2015/09/finish-it-up-friday-92515.html 

Twirling Blades

The last orange sawtooth star is done and now I'm working on the alternate blocks with orange in them. By the weekend I'm hoping to have the bottom 2 rows of my RSC15 Sampler all put together.

Scalloped edge

My first attempt at a scalloped edge . . . is satisfactory. Not great, not bad . . . but it's OK.  I need to finish up a little more hand quilting on the border of this one. Then I'll count it as done and show the whole thing.

Design Wall Monday - RSC15 updates

One more RSC15 block is made. This one is called Twirling 9 Patch. It went together so fast.

This weekend we got a glimpse on Facebook of this quilt as it will look all finished and I'm even more excited about this one. Looks like the last 2 months' colors will be brown and a light green/mint green. And there is one more orange block I think.

Go to Patchwork Times to see what is on everyone else's Design Wall Monday.

Week 38 Status of the Stash

Nothing added to the stash and nothing finished this week. But this weekend, I've had plenty of sewing time since the hubbie left Saturday morning for a week-long golf vacation with a group of guys.  My September pieced block for Saturday Sampler is finished, and so is the miniature version.

In this week: 0 yds
In this year: 163.5 yds
Used this week: 0 yds
Used this year: 159.5 yds

There were a few other small sewing tasks completed this past week - but involves individual blocks again, so no yardage counted as used YET.

RSC15 Whirler

This is sampler block #19 and it's called Whirler. I used 3 different orange fabrics in this one.

We can really imagine how this quilt will look now that we are into month 9. And I'm loving it.

Saturday Sampler

Finally finished the hand blanket stitching on this applique block for Saturday Sampler. This was the July block. I've kept up on these and the pieced blocks so far, but have fallen behind in the appliqued gingerbread people blocks. 

The pieced block for September is red and white. And the applique block (matching this one) has aqua, green, and red. I hope to get the pieced blocks done this week and then start on the applique. I'm thinking the applique one would be a perfect hand stitching project to take with me on the guild bus trip in 3 weeks.

Week 37 Status of the Stash

Well - I added 6 yards to my stash this week, but it was purchased for $7 a yard and will be ideal for backing. So no guilt involved in this purchase. I did have a small finish this week for 1.5 yards used in the little Halloween table topper. And I can check off another UFO with that one even thought it ended up being something different that it originally was planned.  

In this week: 6 yds
In this year: 163.5 yds
Used this week: 1.5 yds
Used this year: 159.5 yds

Status of the Stash: I'm behind my stash again by a 4 yards.  

All of the rest of my sewing was individual blocks for a variety of projects. But variety keeps me from getting bored, so it's all good. 

Saturday was split between enjoying some "quilty" social time at Saturday Sampler and Sew Vintage, followed by a neighborhood golf outing and party.  A great fall weekend with warm sunny days following cool crisp mornings. I love this time of year!

Trees and more trees

I've only made 3 so far, but am seriously tempted to make a couple more of these tree blocks.

This is one of the swap blocks we can make for the guild bus trip coming up in 3 weeks.  Because the shop hop bus trip is going to the beautiful Black Hills, participants can make these tree blocks and enter them in a drawing to win several of them.  

We can also choose to do a star block, and so far I've only made one of those. But I think more are in my future. More blocks entered means more chances to win.

An unplanned finish

This was one of the other things I worked on Monday and managed to finish it up completely. This was a set of 4 Jacob's Ladder blocks made with 2 Halloween prints last fall. I was "playing" with blocks for the Halloween block swap and this was the result.

I actually had enough fabric to put some borders on this and turn it into a wall hanging, but the borders  didn't happen right away. Monday morning I looked through the items hanging on hangers in my sewing room closet and saw this. On the spur of the moment I decided to just quilt it and bind it as is.

So I did some simple lines and stitch-in-the-ditch quilting on my machine.  The batting was a scrap left over from another quilt and the backing is just a piece of orange solid that was in my stash. The binding is actually from the border strips that were waiting.  And it's done!  I'm counting this as another 1.5 yards used.

Saturday Sampler

Labor Day sewing was something I have been looking forward to and so far it is living up to my expectations. Lots of accomplishments. 

I finished the 2 miniature versions of the August block. The second one really tested my patience. Now I can get back to working on the appliqué blocks again. 

Week 36 Status of the Stash

I had some progress this past week that used up quite a chunk of fabric, and I only purchase 1.5 yards. Hey I needed to add to my orange selections as this month's RSC15 color is orange.  

My Minnesota wall hanging and the Halloween flimsy used up a total of 7 yards of fabric.  Can't wait to get the Halloween one quilted because it will look great in my family room in late October. 

In this week: 1.5 yds
In this year: 157.5 yds
Used this week: 7 yds
Used this year: 158 yds

Status of the Stash: I'm ahead of my stash by a 1/2 yard.  Yippee!!!

No sewing today, but I did get a round of golf played. This was the only round I've played since the first week of August. We had 30 mph winds on the front nine and it looked like it would rain any second. But the wind died down and the rain missed us, so we played all 18 holes.  Maybe some sewing will happen tomorrow since my hubbie will leave in the morning for a business trip and my house will be very quiet.

First finish of September

I picked up the Minnesota shop hop fabrics during a quick stop (Fabrics Plus in Marshall) on my way to a reunion. I bought 6 fat quarters and used up almost every bit of it in this table topper or wall hanging. It can be whatever it wants to be. There is one FQ of the large print left and a little chunk of the red.

The backing is a white, black, red remnant of backing used on another quilt ages ago.  Black binding was from my scrap bin.  And just a bit of hand quilting was all it seemed to need.  A finish and I can check off about 3 yards used up.

September goals

I promised myself that I would get back to setting some goals for the month. And since it's already September 1, here goes . . . a month of small projects.

• lose 5 pounds (or maybe that isn't realistic)
• Rainbow Scrap Challenge - orange blocks (2 or 3)
• Saturday Sampler pieced blocks for September
• Saturday Sampler mini pieced blocks for August
• finish Minnesota wall hanging
• 2 new rows for Row By Row Experience
• Farm Girl Vintage block for Sept.
• choose backing & deliver Halloween quilt to LAQ for quilting
• yellow/grey/white baby quilt - This is going to my daughter's sister-in-law IF baby is a girl. If it's a boy, then I already have a quilt ready to gift. 

My motto is: "if I write it down it will happen".  Maybe . . . we'll see.