Barnyard Buddies is ready to quilt

I'm very excited about this quilt, and just couldn't stop working on it yesterday until the whole top was sewn together.  For now I'm calling it Barnyard Buddies.  It's about 72" square. 

The 9 blocks in the circle are Lori Holt 12" Farm Girl Vintage (books 1 & 2) blocks.  The rooster block is fairly recent, but the others are at least 4 years old.  I pulled just the 8 animal blocks to use with the barn block for this one.  I still have 45 more Farm Girl Vintage blocks, at least.  But they will get used in some other project.  

The pattern is a simple one from the book Circle of Nine.  I have to thank Mary for the inspiration.  She has blogged about pattern books she likes lately, and I found myself looking through my own books to see if I had them.  And surprise - I did have them but hadn't made anything from them yet.  This Circle of Nine book has such interesting ideas, and there is actually more than one book.  But I only have this one of the books.  I'm sure I'll use the book again because I love this layout. 

I had sketched out my idea on graph paper and colored it in with colored pencils.  Then I did the math to figure out how much of each color fabric I needed.  Wednesday I went to The Pin Cushion to find just the right 30s reproduction prints to make this one.  And Thursday . . . I cut and sewed.  

I'm in LOVE with that yellow in particular, and I'm not even a huge fan of yellow.  It's kind of an egg yolk color, and has tiny little apples on it.  Perfect scale of print too.  I bought a little extra, so I'm sure it's going to show up again when I'm using 30s prints.   

 

Laundry Line - next steps

Everyone - including me - is probably sick of watching me drag my feet on this Laundry Line project.  I'm happy to report that I have finally made a little progress.  Block 8 is done. 

Block 9 is done.  Yay!!  

Now I can begin to work on the sashing, which just might take as long as the blocks did since it's made of 1" wide strips and 1.5" squares.  The pieces are cut but need to be sorted and distributed somewhat randomly among those 9 blocks.  Planned randomness . . . and yes, these Kim Diehl projects do tend to force me out of my comfort zone.  Which is one of the reasons I do them, plus I like the looks of the finished products.  

I'll get there eventually, but in the meantime I will putz along on Laundry Line.  And work on lots of other projects in between like usual.

What else will June bring for goals?

**  I picked up a quilt yesterday that needs binding.  

**  New Saturday Sampler sections come out this week.  Those are always fun!

**  Purple - something - for Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month.

**  keeping up with the Farmers Wife Sampler blocks

**  make the top for the Circle of Nine/Barnyard Animals quilt (UFO blocks)

2021 UFO Challenge - June focus

 For June, the number 5 was drawn for the APQ UFO Challenge.  There are 3 items on my list for #5, but one of them is already done. Yay!!  

The other 2 things on the list are my Farm Girl Vintage 12" blocks, and a Pick a PIG.  Well, I posted about this month's PIG yesterday.  So, now I need to focus on putting together a quilt top or two using the blocks from the 1st Farm Girl Vintage book, which I made several years ago. 

I pulled out the project box and there are 54 blocks in there and that would allow enough for 2 quilts. I think I’ll use 42 of them in a simple setting with sashing.  Layed out 6 blocks wide by 7 blocks long will are a decent sized quilt.  It may or may not end up with a border.  And I’m playing with the idea of using the barn block and 8 animal blocks in a Circle of Nine layout for a second quilt.  I played with some options, and think this one will work really well.  Do you play with design ideas using grid paper and colored pencils?  

There are a few blocks - like the rooster - in this group from the Farm Girl Vintage 2 book, but most are from the 1st book.  Lori Holt offered some of the blocks as downloads before that second book came out, and I did buy a few.  A soft brown solid was purchased for the sashing, maybe a year ago.  If I end up with 42 blocks in quilt #1, and 9 in quilt #2, then I’ll still have 3 blocks to use for something.  

The Sew Vintage group I'm part of worked our way through the first FGV book back in 2016-17.  Maybe we began in 2015 - I'm not sure.  I also was part of a challenge with a small Facebook group, so I made both the 6" and the 12" block every time.  I’ve made ALL of the blocks from the first book, and several from the second book.  

My quilt using the 6" blocks was finished during the summer of 2017.  This quilt is hanging over a quilt rack in my living room currently. It's so bright and cheerful in those 30s reproduction fabrics.  

Design Wall Monday - Pick a PIG monthly goal

 One of my goals this year is to Pick a PIG each month to bring a step forward.  Three of the canvas cubes in this shelving unit contain those PIGS.  And yes, there are more in another drawer (or 2) on the other side of my sewing room.  Too many Projects in Grocery Bags - basically kits not started.  But admitting I have a problem is a good start, right? 

So, I'm working on paring those down this year.  And I'm being realistic enough to know that just because I pulled something out of a drawer doesn't mean I'll finish it that month.  But it brings the project out into the light of day, and hopefully will be a step closer to being made. 

The project box I emptied by making the Brick Street quilt now holds a new PIG to play with - Starry Checkers.  It's a wall hanging/table topper that was part of a Sew Sampler box from my Fat Quarter Shop subscription.  I think this would also make a very sweet baby quilt.  The Sew Sampler box contained the 2 charm packs and the pattern.  

I've dug into the stash and found a grey for those star points.  It's a lighter shade of grey than the picture on the pattern, but I think it will work just fine.  The white background is going to be scrappy white-on-white as I always have plenty of that in the stash.  This PIG is ready for some forward progress, and should be lots of fun to make.  

A long weekend

Saturday was a chilly windy day, and a busy day. The youngest grandchild is Jack who will turn 6 this week, and his birthday party was swimming at an indoor (thankfully) aquatic center, then pizza and cake in a nearby park.  

The cousins and a few friends were all there.  He was getting a little frustrated when it was time to blow out candles, because the wind was blowing the candles out before he could try.

Before the party, the hubbie and I went to Best Buy to look at new computers.  Our home computer has been trying to die for a couple of months now so it is time to replace it.  I was spurred into action on Friday when my work laptop lost its mind too.  Since I still have 3 online students it’s pretty critical that I have working technology.  Plus I need more than just my iPad.  I’m a tech junkie I admit.

One final red week

 I've had a LOT of fun this month using red.  I didn't make all of my usual RSC blocks in red, but I did use up a lot of red in other projects in May.  

My focus really ended up mostly on patriotic projects with a quilt top completed for our Quilt of Valor group, a table runner, and a good start on a second quilt for Quilts of Valor.  I did make the Country Bunny and the Home Is blocks in red.  And I made a couple of Roll On blocks in red.  One of the pillowcases made this month is even Spiderman red, and one of the Saturday Sampler blocks had a lot of red.  There was also quite a bit of red in the Rectangles quilt top.

This week alone I made 24 Boxed Squares blocks.   That brings the total up to 50 blocks out of the 90 I think I'll need for a quilt top.  These will probably be an "all summer" kind of project until I have enough for the quilt top. There are a LOT of different prints here, so I'm planning to make plenty of them with more fabrics that read closer to solid to tone down the whole thing just a little bit.

I'm linking up with the RSC group today.  And I can't wait to see what color we are doing in June.
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Blocks, blocks, blocks

 Wednesday I had nearly all day to just sew.  It was so much fun to play in my sewing room - and I'll fess up that I do have a bit of a mess on my cutting table again.  

I made 12 more Boxed Squares blocks, and cut the pieces for 10 more.  There are 38 completed blocks now for that next Quilt of Valor.  And I've used up quite a few of the smaller leftovers from that patriotic fabric drawer that has been overflowing.  

And I'm all caught up with the Farmers Wife Sampler blocks.  These are Big Dipper, Bowtie, Birds in the Air, and Peace & Plenty - all 6" finished blocks.  

We are 13 weeks into this challenge, so we have 26 blocks completed.  And there are still LOTS to go, but I'm having fun and making 2 per week is manageable.  So far these are all made from the leftovers of a few years worth of Kim Diehl Simple Whatnots projects.  

I do have one block from this week that needs a bit of tweaking.  The Big Dipper block is just a little too small, but it can be fixed.  Maybe I'll make smaller seams to match the quarter sections - or I could just frame it with more of the light background and then trim it to size.  Either option will work out.