I am now caught up with both Farmers Wife 1930's qals...
#5 Anne ...Reminds me of Anne of GG, Miss Anne with an "E"...
I paper pieced this one. The letter attributed to Anne is another great one, I love the part about a friend's smile is a beam that brings summer into the soul...oh my, yes!
#6 April This one I traditionally pieced and tried to follow the author's coloration...kind of makes the star look a bit wonky, yes?
The letter attributed to April is a nice little ode to SAHM's...of course I enjoyed that one :) Though I am not one to can red beets in my kitchen with light countertops...I started planting yellow beets last year just for that reason...ha!!
Now, I am turning back to my little project following along in spirit with Patty's QAL... 
Aren't those the cutest churn dashes?!! My version is a bit different than hers and just uses the churns and pumpkins. I hope to get done soon enough to display for Halloween!
You can get her full pattern here at Elm Street Quilts.
Here is my Farmer's Wife block #12 Becky...because I live an out of order type of life... and the other qal here at GnomeAngel posted these this week. I am not sure how these two qals will match up, Kerry's is the one I started with...but I am thinking this might motivate me to finish quicker than a year from now? maybe? I know I always am more motivated to do these things at the start.
I thought that these two blocks would be perfect to showcase the measly amount of 30's yellows I have in my stash. The letter attributed to Becky is titled "Quit Merely Existing" and is quite inspirational suggesting we not ignore our obligations but to make sure to live a full life in between!! Have I mentioned how much I love these little letters from the past?
This is the other out of order block for today, Bonnie #16. I also love her letter and wish I could quote from it directly. I will just say that she suggests we live our life with "lovingkindness", this woman has a beautiful spirit and wonderful faith.
This is how I have decided to store my FW1930sqal fabric, it is a Reisenthel basket I bought on clearance years ago and all fabric plus the book fits well with space for...dare I say...a bit more :) Maybe a bit more yellow to balance out all that pink and some more solids, perhaps? I am loosely storing them ROYGBIV style with the solids tucked in the front.
Sorry for the poor photo, it just started to rain as I was taking it so there are...ummm...buckets, and ahem...stuff in the shot as well. I ask that you focus on the fabric and my ingenious method of storage and ignore the mess, lol!
In life outside sewing news, I am a bit more than halfway through applesauce preserving for the winter. Much of what I have made has already been eaten or given away :) This is what remains so far. About a half bushel of apples remains to make more jars of applesauce and a full bushel is left of apples to just eat as is! We have been richly blessed with a good apple harvest this year, for sure.
As you can see, Kris has deviated from the patterns as given...ahem...no big surprise, perhaps...but I decided to simplify the block designs for my sanity and in order to produce blocks I can be happy with. Miss Alice did not behave for me and in order to honor the woman's letter...she suggested she remembered her mother stopping to play with them as kids and to the value of being less worried that all the housework was done than that they felt loved and valued...I simplified in order to get on to other tasks this week but still keep up and not skip any.
Such as making my family homemade chunky applesauce from our apple trees:
I am not sure if I should put these FW blocks on IG or not as they are not "to Pattern". But I am overall pleased with them and, well, it's my quilt, right? :)
Lots of good tips for these blocks provided by Kerry on her blog qal here.
So I drug my friend Marie out to my house to play with my new blocloc DIT template set to make stars awhile ago...today she returned the favor and taught me to use the Rapid Fire Lemoyne Star ruler...
It took me three tries but I finally achieved center perfection on the last one :) It didn't photograph as well because there is a bit of an optical illusion with the darker cube pattern. But I assure you, perfection, lol!!
Now, go figure...I always have to change things about...This was supposed to be two 6 1/2" blocks but I finished the larger one at home without trimming it (didn't have the ruler at my house) as you are supposed to and ended up with an 8 1/2" block?!!
Hehehe...less waste, or just luck that it worked?! Or skill...yes, I will go with skill...hehehehe
And, Sorry, Marie...this was in my mailbox when I got home...you'll have to come see it :)
I may have to shelve sewing for the rest of today and sit on my patio with some pink lemonade surrounded by corn and drool all over my new book!
I started my third leaf from Soma's (Whims &Fancies) maple leaf pattern yesterday afternoon to celebrate the first day of Fall but just finished it this morning because I got distracted by outside chores.
I am using Anna Maria Horner Fabrics for these and really love the results! Soma's pattern is easy to follow and so much prettier than a traditional Maple Leaf block!
My first two:
In other news, I went to see the new Ray exhibit at the Children's Zoo in the town near us and was able to "pet" several of them. Very nice exhibit and great fun :)
First 2 Farmers Wife 1930's blocks are done, yay!! I was very grateful for the tips provided by Kerry on her blog qal here.
I definitely had an easier time with Addie and used traditional piecing to put this one together...Many of my blocks will be done in pinks as that is the color I seem to have the most of in 30's fabric - bubblegum pink...this was a bit of a surprise to me!!
Aimee is not perfect...but I am happy with her :) I used paper piecing for this one.
Aimee's letter spoke of a blue jar to collect change in order to buy classic books...what a nice idea!!
I am posting these on IG under the tags #addieblock #aimeeblock
How nice not to be behind yet, lol!!
Back to the Stars...5 more to add to my pile!!
And, the rest of the story on the Puppy quilt...
It is washed, and looks great...crinkly goodness...
I will show the full reveal on October 6, my day in Lorna's Blog Hop...
linking to
Went to Office Depot and had my book spiral bound for less than 4 dollars in about 15 minutes. (I highly advise you leave and not watch the process - I briefly paused and watched him break the binding by folding it backwards...my book loving self almost cried out in pain!!) It does look very nice now though and will be much more usable as it easily stays open to each page.
Had just enough time during my wait to find a beautiful binder in their clearance section (who wouldn't want yellow?) and a package of plastic sheet protectors.
I plan to store the patterns before(most of this will be paper pieced, I think) and then the finished blocks with any notes after construction in these. Conveniently, there were 100 in the pack and there are 99 blocks. I have learned that this system keeps "stuff" together in projects like these by doing some of Barbara Brackman's QALs.
I need to improve my storage of 30's fabric for this project though as it is mostly in the "pile stage" :)
I dug out my 6 1/2" ruler, perfect for trimming and squaring up!
This is the paper I am using for the paper piecing patterns...the book comes with a cd for printing at home the templates and/or paper piecing patterns. I bought this paper at Target but the office supply stores and teacher supply stores have it too. It needs to be trimmed down to use in the printer as it is 9 x 12, but the difference in cost between this and the ones you can buy already the right size is worth it to me.
Ready for 30's Farming!!!
In actual farm news...Pears were pretty thin on our 2 trees this year...
We really enjoy pear butter so I went ahead and canned what I could...won't last long though!
I think the apples are about ready so there are a few more of those, thank goodness!!
Patty has a great QAL going on at Elm Street Quilts...I am loving to follow along but couldn't help marching to a slightly different tune.
I used her fun pumpkin patterns to make this center block for a table topper, I am looking forward to her pattern on Monday for churndashes...
Are you playing along? The full pattern makes such a cute quilt :) Find it here.
So I told myself that I was going to try and stretch the summer season a bit this year but my friends keep enticing me into Fall projects...what's a girl to do but sew pumpkins??
Luckily, I had all these oranges already pulled for Patty's QAL when I saw Carol's cute row pattern. You can see my assistant Kitty Kitty is pleased with the fabric pull. Always good when your fabrics match your cat :)
I made the "pumpkin without heart" but I think it has plenty of "heart" hehehe.
Go check out Carol's pattern and all the other great rows happening in their qal...there is even a baby chick...hmmmm...
So I mentioned that I pulled some orange fabrics to make some pumpkin blocks. I decided I needed nine little pumpkins...4 short and stubby ones and 5 tall thin ones.
I am using my friend Patty's pattern from her QAL going on here: http://www.elmstreetquilts.com/
Her QAL pattern has great directions and a
really fun quilt, you should go check it out!!
Never one to follow directions well, I
kind of have my heart set on pumpkins and churn dash blocks so I am taking
those patterns and making a slightly different interpretation.
But in doing this, I am missing out on several other fun blocks that she is visiting within her quilt, so be sure to check out how you are supposed to do it :)
Ok...now this might be a bit much eh? It's because my day to share isn't until October 6 so I can't show my progress.
Really, though...this is a good shot of the back, the fabric I chose to back my quilt with really hides the white Aurifil quilting...the texture is there though. I keep petting it as I bind!! :)
A little more info on the backing...it is a *gasp* sheet from Target. I saw a post from Amanda that prodded me to give it a try and so far, I like it. It quilted up beautifully and is incredibly soft.
I will admit to being a long tailed cat in a room of rocking chairs nervous about washing (it's a 60/40 blend) it but I will report back once that is done. I have heard lots of pros and cons on using sheets for backs but have never personally tried it. Can't beat the price, it was on sale and if I use both the fitted and flat sheet, that's 11 dollars a back. Had to squeeze this one to make it fit though as the quilt is 88" x 66" and it is a flat twin sheet.
Am I crazy...or am I about to finish some of the many tops to donate that I have hanging around because I couldn't afford backing fabric?? Or both...
I pulled some orange fabrics today so that I can make some pumpkin blocks...not sure where I am going yet but pretty sure I need a large-ish batch of these...
I am using my friend Patty's pattern from her QAL going on here: http://www.elmstreetquilts.com/
Her pattern has great directions and a really fun quilt, you should go check it out!! Her charts make my little engineer heart sing :)
Never one to follow directions well, I kind of have my heart set on pumpkins and churndashes so I am taking those and making a slightly different interpretation. Now I must decide on a background...hmmmm...
Hi, Little Girl!!
We received our chick order today...they are a nice, lively feisty bunch...yay!
We have mostly Buff Orpingtons with a few Isa Browns this go. I have missed the Buff Orpingtons, they are my favorites. We started getting Isa Browns because that's what the local feed store provided in the Fall. We switched to Fall from Spring several years ago after experiencing some nasty Springs with power outages. This year, Buff Orpingtons were on the list for Fall...so we made sure to order some!
In case you wonder, the Isa Browns are actually the better layers, I just really like the looks (fluffy big bottoms :) ) and personality of the B.O.'s better...
