Farmer's Wife Friday

Welcome to Farmer's Wife Friday! I hope you will find inspiration to keep going on your Farmer's Wife Quilt, or to start one!

I actually had a pretty productive sewing week! I was able to finish my Pillow Talk Swap 10 pillow and I finished a bag for my daughter that I will show next week. I also squeezed in a couple of FW blocks so I don't get too far behind.

I was worried about the Spider Web block because of all the angles. I was worried there would be some Y-seams to deal with. But it was actually pretty simple to piece. And the Spool block was as simple as HSTs and squares. Easy peasy! So not too bad and I have two more blocks down, and only 27 left to go, gah!!
Can't wait to see what kind of progress your doing, now's your chance to show and tell.
Here's all you do:

1. Link up any post or picture from the past week that features your Farmer's Wife quilt progress.
2. 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).
3. Have fun reading all the posts! Don't forget, everyone loves a nice comment! 

Have a great weekend!

 

Pillow Talk {Swap} 10 Finished!

This is my 3rd time participating in and it's the 10th round of Pillow Talk Swap on flickr! It is an awesome swap because it's such a usable item. Who doesn't love a pretty new pillow? My partner this time around said she loved gray, teal, light blues, orange & yellow and that she loved chevrons. Well, I hope this will work!

 I thought about using HST, but I found a paper piecing block template on Six White Horses called Sharp Chevrons. I just love the tiny white borders on each of the chevron stripes! And that kind of precision works best with a paper pieced project.

I printed out multiple pages of the block pattern and taped together a bunch of them to create long strips. Then just spent a LOT of time paper piecing! The one problem is if you make any mistakes you have to undo the entire thing to fix it. Like I didn't realize that one of my strips was too short and I had to unpick almost a whole row to fix it! Sigh...luckily it didn't happen TOO often ;).

There is one thing I wish I could change, which I didn't really catch until the top was complete. I had tried to space out the colors but not have them be too much teal, orange, yellow, gray, teal, orange, yellow, gray, etc. I wanted some randomness but I also thought it would look good to have it be "framed" with one color. I chose orange. So the top and bottom stripes are orange. What I didn't factor in was the puffiness of the pillow. Once the form was inside you kinda lose the top and bottom stripe. That was kind of a bummer. I tried to change it, but I had already ripped off my papers and it just was not working. So I had to leave as is. I still love it, but it does bug me a little.

 For the back I thought I would try a new technique. I have done an envelope style and covered buttons, but never tried a hidden zipper. I found an great online tutorial at Amy Made That! and was on my way. 

 I found a zipper that matched perfectly and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. It' s always fun to learn a new technique.

 Speaking of new techniques, I also decided to try machine binding on this one. As you can see in the picture above. From the front you can't even see it. On the back there is just a nice stitching line all the way around the binding. It worked better than I thought it would. It's not perfect by any means, but man does it cut down on time, whoop!

 

 For the quilting I used simple straight lines. Because there were stitching lines when I pieced the strips together, I just used those as a guide and it worked out pretty well and made the lines less noticeable.

Well partner, I hope this is what you were looking for! Can't wait to see what I get too, I will keep you posted!

Farmer's Wife Friday Decisions

Happy Farmer's Wife Friday everyone! First of all, no I did not get any blocks made this week. We are down to the last few weeks of school and I think they are the busiest time of year! And getting to be quite expensive I might add. Instead of saving Christmas money, I need to start saving end of the school year money!

Question: Have you considered what the size of your quilt will be? Are you going to make all 111 blocks? I've noticed not everybody does. They may have decided they don't need a quilt that big or they didn't realize all the work making this little beauty of a quilt is! Whatever the reason, it's been interesting to see the diversity of all the different sizes of this quilt are out there.

Here is an example of a full-sized, using all 111 of the Farmer's Wife blocks. It was beautifully made by Elizabeth Green.

 This quilt was made my Svetlana at s.o.t.a.k. handmade. She wanted a twin-size quilt but was ready to be done by 42 blocks. So she added a wider sashing and a nice border. I thinks it looks crisp and beautiful!

Monica over at Happy Zombie totally changed it up and made a really modern and original version of these more traditional blocks.

This little beauty made by Helen Phillips contains 50 of these happy little blocks.I love the aqua floral she used on her border triangles.

Here's a sweet little baby size quilt made by from the blue chair. It's made with the Bliss line just 18 little blocks, so cute!

And how's this for sweet! Made by Sandra at Cherry Heart, she calls it Farmer's Baby. LOVE it!

So what do you think? Are you going to go for all 111 blocks? Or will you have a Farmer's Girlfriend, Child or Baby? :)
It's time to link up your Farmer's Wife updates, can't wait to see what you've made! Here's what you need to do:

• 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! 

Have a wonderful long weekend and I hope some farming is involved!

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!