Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2013 Wall Hanging Quilt

Amy's Creative Side is hosting the Spring 2013 Blogger's Quilt Festival ! I have always enjoyed participating in the festival and it just keeps growing! There is an amazing amount of talent out there and this festival proves it. I am entering two of my companion mini's this time around.

This is my most recently finished quilt for the Fab Little Quilt Swap on Flickr. It is the Sun Star Quilt. I have entered it in the Wall Hanging category.

The quilt measures 16" x 16" and is made with the paper piecing method. I machine quilted it with stitch in the ditch, pebble quilting and infinity loops.

If you want to see more of this quilt you can see the original post HERE.

You can vote for your favorite quilts in each category and enter your own quilts for great prizes! Have fun!

Blogger's Quilt Festival Spring 2013 Doll/Mini Quilt

I love the Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side and it's that time again! There is so much quilt "candy" to check out and get awesome inspiration from. I thought I would join in the fun and post a couple of my mini quilts from the past year.

 The first entry will be in the Doll /Mini Quilt category. It is my Good Luck Star mini that I made for Doll Quilt Swap 13.

If you want to see more of this quilt, you can find my original post HERE.

The quilt measures 16" x 16" and was made using the paper piecing method. I hope my partner is enjoying it!

You can vote for your favorite quilts in each category and enter your own quilts for great prizes! Have fun!

Farmer's Wife Friday - Seeing Spots!

 Welcome Farmer's Wife fans! Hope you've had a great week! I had a wonderful week with my parents visiting. The hardest part is watching them drive away. Yesterday was hard, I miss them already!
This week's blocks has me seeing spots and gave me one super simple block and one more complicated block. Snowball is about as easy as it gets. Large squares and HSTs.

 The next block is called Spider Legs, first of all eewww on the name! I think spider legs are just about the creepiest thing on the planet, I'm sure there could've been a better name for this one. Right? Shudder.

Photo: Camille Roskelley

 This block actually came together easier than I thought it would. Just a lot of cutting out as usual. I have taken to using Camille Roskelley's method of cutting out my pieces. Basically cutting out multiple pieces at the same time using a rotary cutter. And laying out your blocks next to your sewing machine so you know how to stitch them. (BTW, doesn't Camille have the prettiest hands?)

I also got one of these. A rotating mat! It was mentioned as something that is needed for a class I'll be taking soon, so I used my Joann's coupon and got it. It is awesome for Farmer's Wife blocks! Especially using the cut a bunch at a time method. 
Do you have any hints or tricks for making this little blocks? I'd love to hear them! And here's your chance to share what blocks you are making, it's time to link up!
Here are the link up rules:

• Use the linky tool and link your blog posts or flickr pictures of Farmer's Wife blocks.
• You must LINK back to this post within your post. You can also grab a Farmer's Wife Friday button (on the right side bar).
• Have fun reading all the posts! Don't forget, everyone loves a nice comment! 

If you haven't made blocks for a while, get moving! It feels so good to keep going on them. Next thing you know, you'll be seeing spots too. ;)
Have an awesome weekend!

{Faith} do. Good Stitches Bee Blocks

 I finished up my do. Good Stitches blocks for this month and thought I would share them along with last month's blocks!

April's blocks for the Faith circle were simple trianges! I love a simple block and it's amazing how it can turn out so cute. Sometimes the simpler the better. Anita at Rhubard Patch asked us to use pink, orange and low volume scrappy.

If you are interested the directions are: Cut 3 1/2" x 6 1/2" rectangles, one color and one of a low volume. Sew together for a 6 1/2" square block. Bam, that's it! As usual, I can't wait to see how this one turns out.

For May's blocks Debbie, Blue Ridge Girl asked us to use the Film in Fridge Scrappy Triangles tutorial. I love a block that uses up my scraps (they are a little out of control right now). I think you can tell by my blocks that I love happy, bright colors!

I am just loving being involved in the bee. It gives me a chance to try new blocks and do a little good in the world. Nothing better! Be sure to come back tomorrow for Farmer's Wife Friday!

Giveaway Winner & FLiQS Quilt Received!

 I just had to share the amazing mini quilt I received in the Fab Little Quilt Swap (FLiQS)! Isn't it gorgeous?! I mean the amount of work that went into this quilt is overwhelming, I'm sure it was a hard one to let go of and I'm so grateful to have been the recipient!

Here is the back of the quilt, she made a handy little hanging pocket, how awesome is that?

And a close-up of the tag. As you can see it was made by Stacey Day - StaceyinStitches from Canada. She is truly an artist!

Last but not least, the fabulous quilting! Beautiful feather stitches that just add to the beauty of this star. I still can't believe all of the precise work that went into this, just look at those perfect points! Thank you Stacey, it is truly an honor to have it. It will hang where I can admire it everyday. :)

 

  I hope all of you had a wonderful Mother's Day! We had a great weekend that included a visit from my parents! There is nothing better than spending Mother's Day with your mom. They were able to come to my daughter's Summa Cum Laude dinner celebration for their school.

So proud of my two little Smarty Pants! And so grateful I get to be their mom. It was a wonderful evening and had an awesome Mother's Day. Love you mom, thank you for all you are and do!!

 Now for the winner of my Sew Mama Sew giveaway! I'm sending the lucky winner a copy of "my" book Sweet Celebrations and a Simply Color charm pack!

I had 424 entries and using Random Number Generator the winner is:

Congratulations Tanya!! She has been contacted and I am shipping out today! Thanks for all your entries and welcome to all of my new followers!

Farmer's Wife Friday & Giveaway Reminder!

 Happy Farmer's Wife Friday y'all! Hope you had a chance to work on your blocks this week! I will admit that I only finished one block. And I'm not even going to share with you this week. I know, right? Instead I'm going to save it for when I have at least two to show you! Sorry, it was a busy week. :)

  What I am going to share with you is how I keep this project organized! When I first started my Farmer's Wife in 2011, (yes, 2011!, now you know why I want to finish this up!) I was looking for ways to keep organized and came across the Pleasant Home blog. I love the way Jodi decided to keep herself organized and I just went ahead and copied her!

 

Basically she keeps all of her templates in a three ring binder with a beautiful picture of an original Farmer's Wife Magazine. First step was to buy a 1/2 binder, I chose white. Next, find a picture online. I Googled Farmer’s Wife Magazine and a few vintage covers popped up. The minute I saw this one I knew that was it! I love the colors, the floraly dress and hey, she’s blond like me! She quickly became my cover girl.  

 

 Inside I keep all of my templates in plastic sheet protectors. Just put a piece of paper in each page and you can store templates on the front and the back. I keep mine in 10's. 1-10, 11-19, 20-29, etc. Nothing fancy, but it works!

  I loved Jodi's idea of taking notes while she made the blocks. She just made annotations in her book, but I decided to make a block record sheet. It has the block #, block name, templates used, date completed, main colors and notes. If you would like to use it you can download a copy HERE.
What are some ways that you keep yourself organized? I would love to hear more ideas!
And I can't wait to see your blocks, it's time to link up!
Here are the rules:

• Use the linky tool and link your blog posts or flickr pictures of Farmer's Wife blocks.
• You must LINK back to this post within your post. You can also grab a Farmer's Wife Friday button (on the right side bar).
• Have fun reading all the posts! Don't forget, everyone loves a nice comment! 

 As a reminder that today is the last day to enter my giveaway of the Sweet Celebrations book & a Simply Color charm pack for Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day! Giveaway ends at 5 p.m. PST and I will pick a winner tomorrow! Good luck!

Super Card Trick Block Pattern!

When I joined the 4 x 5 Modern Quilt Bee I wanted to find a new block that had not been used much before. I'm always on the search for fun new patterns. I went back to an old pattern booklet I have called "Best of Blocks from Quilter's Newsletter Magazine." The blocks are all made using templates. I tried to make one of the blocks once and it had like hundreds of templates and it was a disaster! But I thought it would check it out again anyway.

I found the pattern for this block and thought it was kind of cool. A lot like the Card Trick block, but with more "cards". I decided I would convert it to a paper piecing pattern so that it could be more precise.

It took a little bit of troubleshooting, but I figured it out! I call it Super Card Trick and you can download a PDF copy of the pattern HERE! 

I have not included basic paper piecing directions. But you can find them on the web. This is a great one by Faith at Fresh Lemons.

 So here are the blocks I made for my little Bee Hive #8. This member wanted pinks & purples.

This member wanted all shades of purple and gray.

 

 This member requested turquoise, yellow-orange and gray.

 This one black, grey, white and a pop of mint green!

 

 It's so fun to see them all together!

Here is the one I made for myself. It might just be my favorite! I thihk I have fallen in love with the colors I have chosen.

Here are all the blocks I received, don't they look awesome? A couple more rounds of this bee and I'll have enough for a quilt!

 If you decide to try the Super Card Trick block, I would love to see it! Post it in my Craft Sew Create Flickr group. Happy Quilting!