Two Quilt Finishes!

Now that Groovy Guitars is done and out of my quilting queue, I’ve hit the ground running to finish up other in-process quilts. This week I finished up both a little baby donation quilt and my longest-standing UFO (unfinished object) - my Farm Girl Vintage quilt!!

Let’s start with Farm Girl. I started this back when Lori Holt did her quilt-along, at least 3 years ago. I had chosen the 12” size rather than the 6” size because I was a fairly new quilter at the time. And frankly, I had issues with HSTs and flying geese and keeping points and maintaining proper seam allowances and .... and....

But with time and practice, my skills improved, even to the point where I was able to put these sometimes-wonky blocks together into a cohesive whole. Yes, it’s readily apparent that I now need to work on my photography skills....

Farm Girl finished at 70x82”, and I quilted it with loops on my Bernina. I would say that this size is about the limit of what I’m comfortable wrangling with on my home machine.

The backing is a farm print I bought on clearance at Connecting Threads last year, and I also used almost all its remnants to make a matching binding. Many of my favorite blocks are not represented in the 30 I chose for this quilt because they were used in the Autumn Sampler quilt I finished last January (see this post).

I still have leftover Farm Girl blocks and will probably make a donation quilt from them. They’re currently making friends in the Parts Department.

The other quilt I finished this week is a donation quilt made from a charm pack of Horizon by Kate Spain, a few extra solids and some leftover oatmeal-colored background fabric. It finished at 41x46” after washing and shrinking.

Today I’m linking up with Sarah for Whoop Whoop Friday and Alycia for TGIF (Thank Goodness it’s Finished) Friday.

These were also goals on my Quarter 3 Finish-Along post. Although I didn’t link up with the hosts (and am therefore ineligible for prizes this quarter. I was in Africa at the time.), I am using the QAL as motivation to check items off my list. The Farm Girl quilt was #9 on my list and the donation quilt was #6. You can see my goal-setting post HERE.

July: One Monthly Goal

Welcome to July - the second half of the year already!! And even though I will be out of the country for almost half the month (going on a humanitarian trip to Kenya), I know I will still have time when I get back to knock out a quilt (she said, perhaps overconfidently....)

Last week I pieced together many of my Farm Girl Vintage blocks from Lori Holt’s 2015 quilt-along. I had been procrastinating on this one because my finished block sizes - it was one of my first major projects - varied by a half inch. But now that I’ve got a a few years and finishes under my belt, it was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  So here it is, a finished top. And the backing is already pieced (one long seam, it was easy) and waiting.

My goal for July is to get this quilt basted, quilted and bound.  

Since I’ll return on the 20th and probably spend Saturday the 21st sleeping and/or suffering from jet lag, I may not get started on it until the last week of the month, but it’s still very do-able. Unless I return home to a huge mess. DH is staying home to work, tend cats and the garden and “batch it” (play the bachelor) while I’m gone. Seriously, though, I’m only kidding about the mess. However, I do expect to return to a needy hubby, cats and lots of produce to put up!

Linking up to the July goal setting OMG linky party at Elm Street Quilts.

Just Call Me “Farm Girl”!!

Yehaw!  It’s been a hot and busy week here, and the theme around our little homestead (all .25 residential acres of it, LOL) has been farming.

Let’s start inside where the air conditioning belies the heat outdoors. I got a wild hair this week to pull out a well-aged UFO and stitch it up. Don’t ask me why - I guess I’m just sick of my UFOs nagging me.  These Farm Girl Vintage blocks date back to 2015 (I could’ve sworn it was longer....) when Lori Holt published her Farm Girl book. Anyway, I have way more blocks than would ever fit in a single quilt, so I picked my 30 favorites that were left (some I used in my Autumn Sampler quilt) and finally tackled this beast.

I call it a beast because I’ve been dreading putting it together. All I can say is that my piecing accuracy has greatly improved over 3 years. These blocks that were supposed to be 12.5” unfinished, actually ranged from 12” to 12 1/2”. I had to sew little strips on a couple to make up the difference that I couldn’t cover with the sashing. But I did it, and I can’t even say it’s even close to the worst quilt top I’ve ever pieced, LOL. Seriously, it measures 70x84” consistently. Whew, I dodged a bullet. It also helped that I decided to forgo cornerstones...

The backing is a cute farm-y print that I picked up from Connecting Threads for $2.76 per yard about 18 months ago. The five yards were the perfect amount that enabled me to sew a backing with just one vertical seam. Now, both the top and back will go onto hangers in my stitching room closet until next quarter.

Part 2 of this Farm Girl saga is a tour of our South Forty. That’s the south 40 square yards of our backyard, LOL. I may have mentioned that we’ve been feasting on spinach and lettuce over the last couple weeks. This week we’ve added peas and yellow crookneck squash to the mix. We could add apricots if there were more than 23 on the entire tree, LOL. No, I didn’t really count them....  But the birds are getting most of them because they are too high up for us to reach, even with the ladder.

I was hoping we’d get enough so that I could make one batch of apricot jam, but at this point we’d settle for each munching on one unblemished apricot that falls to the ground without bird pecks on it. Yeah, that one above looks nice, doesn’t it? But you ought to see the reverse side....

So, look at the growth! Those in the front left are tomatoes. The early girls are in the lead, naturally. They’re about the size of a small plum, but still green. That’s OK. I’m hoping they hold off until I get back from Kenya around the 21st of July. Maybe, maybe not.

The grape vines have covered the trellis nicely, giving us lovely deep shade on the patio. Of course, most of the time it’s too hot now to be out there between 11am - 7pm. But we do have the occasional cooler morning or evening, and we love to eat out on the patio when we can.

Here is a picture of the crookneck squash. There are three in the picture below, and they will be the next ones to be ready, probably in 2-4 days. We are having the very first one, already picked, with our chicken mole’ (the Mexican dish, not the varmint, LOL) for dinner tonight.

And here are the peas and the Tom Thumb butter lettuce. We get our seeds from Cottage Grove (Oregon) Seed Company, and they say this lettuce is their staff favorite. It withstands the heat well and is mild and delicious. For many vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, tomatillo, onions, potatoes), we use starts from local nurseries.

The spaghetti squash are already growing like.... squash. Since scale isn’t obvious in this picture, you’ll just have to believe me when I say this one is already about 7” long. Most of the other ones are smaller, which is good. I’m hoping that they too will hold off for 2-4 more weeks.

My newly-planted coneflowers are blooming. The picture below should be considered proof of Truth in Gardening. See those weeds all around the rock? They were not there when I pulled weeds on Monday, three days ago. I shudder to think of how many weeds I’m going to have to pull when I get home from vacation...

And here are the flower pots along the front walkway. Someone asked me (when the comments feature was broken) what Talavera was. These pots are Talavera - Mexican folk art. I love the bright colors patterns.  In the neighborhood, we are known as “the house with the colorful flower pots”.

And here’s a view that shows all the pots, the walkway, some newly spring-planted perennials to fill out some of the front beds, and the green (some) and parched (some) grass. Again, Truth in Gardening.

And speaking of parched, I’m going to go treat myself to a diet root beer float (a glass of Diet A&W root beer with a scoop of Halo vanilla ice “cream”). Two Weight Watchers smart points.....  I’ll see you back here on Saturday for my scrappy sewing June roundup.

Goals for Quarter 2 Finish-Along

It’s time to post and link our list of proposed UFO finishes for the 2nd quarter of the year. I love setting my quarterly goals with the 2017 Finish Along ladies! There is nothing more satisfying than finishing a goal (UFO - unfinished object - sewing or crafting goal) and crossing it off the list. Plus, each finish is an opportunity to be included in fantastic prize drawings. There are no real quilt police making us work on these, just a fun group that lets us set up possible goals - as many or as few as we want.

And now, here are my second quarter goals. I’ve got 7 of them this quarter, just like last quarter. I finished 6 out of 7 last quarter, and am carrying over the Flower Market quilt. So let’s start with that.

1.  Flower Market
EDITED TO ADD:  FINISHED! Blogged about HERE.

All I have left to sew on this one are two borders, but one is a chevron border made of waste HSTs from cutting the main blocks.  Once that’s done, it just needs to be quilted and bound.

2.  Crayon Quilt.

EDITED TO ADD: FINISHED and blogged about HERE.

I have several ongoing Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects, and this Crayon Quilt (Color Me by Emily Herrick) was one I started last year. Because I don’t want to finish all my RSC projects in the same month, I am choosing to finish this one early. Currently I have about 5 blocks (crayons) made and need 6-7 or so more.

3.  Flag Quilt

FINISHED AND BLOGGED ABOUT HERE.

I made one extra block last year as a signature block for a Lori Holt Retreat. And now I have all the pieces cut out for the rest of the quilt It would be great to finish up this patriotic quilt this quarter so I can have it ready to use on the 4th of July!!

4.  Let it Snow

This is a cute pattern by Heather Mulder Peterson. I got it to about the halfway point last Christmas season, but had to put it aside to finish all my Christmas quilting obligations. I would like to finish this early this year, because I have at least one more Christmas quilt I’d like to make later on in the year as well as a tree skirt. (Note: I am still using my first-ever patchwork piece, a red, green and gold patched and yarn-tied tree skirt that I made in 1980. We have used it every single year since then. It has a big red ruffle around it and was vintage two decades ago, LOL!!  I really need a new one).

I will probably add an extra border or two to this, or more trees, as the pattern makes it more of a large wall hanging and I would rather have a quilt.

5.  Farm Girl Quilt.

All the blocks - and then some - are made. Gee, I must have 55 or more twelve-inch blocks. Yes, I’ll probably have to do some streamlining. Maybe make 2 Farm Girl quilts??  They need to be sashed and sewn into a flimsy, then quilted and bound. But the hardest part will be selecting and placing the blocks.

6.  Mad Scraps X+ Quilt.
EDITED TO ADD:  FINISHED!  Blogged about HERE.

I just started this one a couple days ago using my basket of multi-colored scraps. Well, to be honest, I have thrown in a single-colored chunk here and there for variety.  These are 10-inch blocks, and I’m not yet sure if I want 30 blocks (for a 5x6 setting) or 42 blocks (for a 6x7 setting). We’ll see what the scraps have to say about it.

7.  Big Game Quilt.
EDITED TO ADD;  FINISHED! Blogged about HERE.

This is another pattern by Emily Herrick, and the custom top was made for me by Pattern Jam. I did one of these for one of my sons-in-law last Christmas, and the other SIL then wanted one too!  So, this is for Chad, and I will give it to him in June since he was stationed out of the country for last Christmas.

And that is my list. I am continuing to make about 6-7 monthly small kennel quilts (I call them quilt-lets) for the Best Friends no-kill animal shelter here in Salt Lake City. They are for the cats and small dog who are adopted out. The quiltlets are small, ranging from 12x18” up to 20x24”. I think of them as big placemats, LOL! And once the assembly line is set up, I can whip them all out in a matter of a couple hours. Last Monday I delivered 21 quilts that I made in the first quarter, and it made my day!!



PS
For more details on the 2017 Quilt Along, or to see all the lovely projects that others are working on, click on the Finish Along button in my right sidebar or go HERE.

In the Pink - Finally!!

With the busy days of summer, I thought I would never get to sewing my pink scraps. I’ve had the cats/kittens and Dresdens cut out for a couple weeks, along with the RSC Sampler blocks. But other things intervened until mid-week, when I was finally able to put the (sewing machine) pedal to the metal!

What would pink be without two litters of kittens with their mamas? If it looks like other colors are showing through, that’s because they are. Ahem. I just lazy-pinned these over my Aria quilt blocks on my design board.

And then below are the Indian Hatchet blocks for the RSC column-along. I decided to do those in the darkest and brightest shades of pink. They are sewn into one long strip but sort of U’ed for this picture. Again, lazy.

But you can see them below, actually sewn in what will be their permanent position between the teal pinwheels and the brown whatever-they’re-called’s. Until the other colors are sewn, this is as far as I care to venture with putting these together. They will not be in rainbow order, obviously.

I mentioned in my last post that I had been to a Farm Girl Vintage Retreat last week (I went to one last year, too, since they are local). Lori Holt has released a cute new Farm Fresh fruit stand pattern as well as four new blocks: watermelon, peach (in my case I am calling it an apricot), peas and carrots. Any of her 6” block patterns fit into the jar, and I plan to complete my fruit soon. There are nine jars, and my first two are below.

A couple posts ago I mentioned that I was doing a red, white and blue flag block as a surprise for the retreat guest of honor, Cathy P from Tasmania. Well, actually I did three (as did most of us); one for CathyP that we each signed, one for Lori Holt, and one to keep for ourselves. So we all signed each others’ blocks, and mine is below. I will finish it into a quilt sometime next summer before 4th of July.  No rush now, hehehe.

The pears and the strawberry are for future jam jars. I have no idea why I sewed my strawberry pink. I am going to re-do it in reds because strawberries are red, aren’t they? I also want to do honey (using a 6” bee block), cherries, blueberry (using blue fabric on the cherry block), and then a couple veggies I haven’t decided on yet.

And that’s it from my sewing room for now. I expect to work on my pink Dresdens and pink vintage sheet rail fence blocks this week. But every day next week I have something going on: Monday my granddaughter Lauren will be here. Luckily, she loves to sew (and I bought her some cute flamingo fabric), so we may get some sewing in. On Tuesday they’re FINALLY coming to do our rain gutters and heat tapes. Wednesday is pretty open, but Thursday will be spent with my cousin and her daughter to help them set up their Etsy shop. I have given them most of my inventory (vintage patterns, vintage fabrics and other things). I will probably keep my vintage sheets for a few more months - and the laces will be sold off at a retreat I will be attending in September. Then I’m free!!!

I’m linking up to Angela’s Scrappy Saturday. Why not come and check out the pinkness?

Have a great weekend!


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Quarter Three Finish Along Goals

Hi! I’ve been so busy for the past two weeks, I sometimes don’t know if I’m coming or going.
I will share some pictures below, but first I want to list my goals for the 3rd Quarter Finish Along. The Finish-Along is hosted by several lovely ladies who work their tails off to coordinate our goals with our finishes, hosting link-ups and gathering prizes from so many fantastic sponsors. If you have never looked into this, try the linky in my sidebar or go HERE to see the 3rd Quarter Goals of the many participants.

Without further ado, here are my goals:

1.  Shane’s Magic Carpet.
You’ve seen it in my goals before, but hopefully this will be the last time before I finish it. I intend to work more on finishing quilts this quarter rather than starting any more.

2. Notting Hill Quilt.
This project has always been to add 2 blocks per month to what I had at the beginning of the year. I have sixteen completed and plan to do 2 in July and 2 in August. It then just needs to be sashed, quilted, bound.

3.  Aria Quilt.
The blocks and rows are all sewn, and about half of them are sewn together. A good hour would allow me to finish this top. I will have to piece a border and backing with all the leftover fabrics. I plan to send this ASAP to a professional quilter because it will be a queen bed-sized. If I hurry, I can get it back by the end of the quarter.

4. and 5.  Cat Quilts.
I have 8 litters made. Each litter is a 24x24” square consisting of a 12” mama cat in the middle surrounded by twelve 6” kittens. The litters will be set 2x3 with sashing and should finish about 54x74”.  The two quilts will have some different colors, so when I finish, you’ll be able to see that they are actually two separate quilts. I have some cute cat fabric to back both of them. They’ll be Christmas presents for the 2 granddaughters who are cat crazy like their grandma.

6. Farm Girl Quilt.
This one has been on and off my lists for a year. I have enough blocks to finish the quilt in a 7x7 setting. (By the way, see the new watermelon block? I just made that at the Farm Girl Retreat last wee - more about that below).

The problem here is that I was really a beginner last year when I started these. Yes, I had been quilting for 2.5 years at the time, but I had never learned the finer points of flying geese, measuring 1/4” seams, etc.  The blocks range from 12” to 12.5” finished, in various eighth-inch increments.  I hope I’m up to the challenge of fudging on the sashing to make up the differences. And I think cornerstones would accentuate the issue, so those are out for sure. We will see how it goes. Needless to say, I am much more careful on getting my blocks more accurate. It’s a continual challenge...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Last week we had another Farm Girl Retreat at Thimbles and Threads with Lori Holt. This was called our Instagram Farm Girl Retreat  (#igfarmgirlvintageretreat) because we were there to greet our friend Cathy (Tazzie) Purdon from New Zealand, who is visiting the USA for 5 weeks. So the whole IG group of friends was there, as well as some of Lori’s “peeps” - her personal group of crazy and delightful friends. There were 22 of us, including teacher Lori and guest of honor Cathy.

At the retreat, Lori introduced four new blocks (coming soon) and her Farm Fresh Quilt Pattern (now available at the Fat Quarter Shop). It was pure craziness and laughter with all these women. Beth B (@kitqueen) made everyone their own IG block. Isn’t it cute? She has the most infectious laugh! And several other ladies, including Lori, passed out gifts for everyone.

Here is Lori and Cathy P just as they were presented with the USA Flag Blocks that each of us made for them. They will each have enough (signed) quilt blocks to make their own quilt.

Lori Holt and Cathy Purdon

L-R: Cathy K, Betty, Kristie, Rae Anne, Suzanne

Joanna Cotton and me

Can you believe this amazing dress (below) that Cynthia Horst (@dreamquiltcreate) made for herself from selvages?!?

I met some incredible ladies and had a blast. Yes, I did feel totally out of my league, but as always, I learned a lot and made new friends. It was wonderful, and I was certainly humbled to have been invited.

Finally, apricot season is here. If hubby and I are not out picking apricots (and cleaning up our and our neighbor’s yards from them), we are dehydrating them or I’m making jam or freezing quart after quart..... It looks like an apricot tornado in my kitchen. And did I mention that my daughter Megan is visiting from Seattle this week??

And then there are the contractors. Today they measured for new sliding shutters for our sliding glass doors. The rain gutter/soffit contractors will be here Tuesday to do their repairs and install heat tapes. DH has just about finished making the new porch pillar bases (they are 3/4 installed), so I will be painting the pillars next week. And I have a month to paint the kitchen (and get someone in to paint its ceiling). The shutters arrive 3rd week of August, as does the custom light fixture we are having made from a woodworker on Etsy. Once the kitchen is done, the living room demolition will start. And somewhere in there will be vegetables to harvest with grapes following after that.

At least I’m not bored!!

Happy New Year 2016 and 2015 Recap

Happy New Year to you!  I want to extend my thanks and gratitude to my friends and readers for following me here or in our personal off-line lives. Staying connected is, to me, an important part of life, and the older I get the more I know and appreciate that. I wish you all a happy, healthy, safe and prosperous New Year 2016 from the bottom of my heart.

2015 was, for me, a good, happy and productive year.  Creatively speaking, I was primarily a crazy quilter (crazy quilting; the art form that arose in Victorian times whereby women pieced together fancy fabrics in random patchwork and then embellished it with stitching, beads, etc) for the last 15 years. Crazy quilting is very time consuming (but enjoyable!). It takes a lot of time just to do one block. And while I did do embroidery and crazy quilting this year, my main focus was on traditional quilting. It is refreshing to have finishes come along more often!  

So, here is a pictorial of my finishes this year with minimum commentary. 

Quilt for son Shane

Birch Trees Quilt for DGS Easton

Pow Wow Quilt for DH Bruce

2-layer skirt for DGD London

Here I must insert a picture of Lori Holt, the quilt world’s own Farm Girl herself. I was lucky enough to attend one of her retreats in June.

Lori Holt

2015 was the Year of the Farm Girl in the quilting world, and although my Farm Girl Quilt is not yet assembled, I do have 49 blocks (of 49) completed. I still need to do our pillow shams and then shuffle around and decide on placement. The Farmhouse block, below, represents that huge effort. Watch for my Farm Girl Quilt and matching pillow shams to be completed in the 1st quarter of 2016

Farmhouse block

What Cancer Cannot Do Quilt for Cal

Pink and Green Patchwork Quilt for Emma

Several times during the summer, my dear granddaughter Lauren came to spend the day and we sewed. I have shown pictures of tote bags, zip pouches, etc, that we made during those fun times. But the Piece de Resistance of our combined efforts was this lovely school backpack that Lauren completed just before school started. I am so proud of her!

Lauren and her backpack

The one crazy quilt I finally finished this year was started in 2012. There will be more about this quilt in February after it is published.  I list it here just for a minor reference.  :-)  I also have another CQ finish which is not shown, but will also be in that magazine. Again, more in February.

The Black Needlepoint Crazy Quilt

Farm Girl Cozy Cottage Pillow

Four scrappy pincushions for Christmas presents

Two sets of clothes and quilted play mats for granddaughters

20-21 zip pouches for Christmas gifts (only a few shown here)

17 pillowcases for gifts. Again, only some shown. 

Lighted Christmas Tree Wall Hanging

Rainbow Orbs Quilt, Shams and bedskirt

Rainbow Orbs is, by far, my favorite finish of 2015. Its bright, in-your-face colors bring me joy every time I look at it.  The cats approve, too.

I Spy Quilt

Helen’s Garden Quilt

That pretty much sums up my creative year. What fun it was! And today, New Year’s Day, I will begin straight away on 2016 projects.

Hugs,