Bee Blocks

 The holidays are upon us! It's amazing how fast they arrive. I wish I could just freeze time and make all my preparations first and then let it roll! But alas, here we go! So first things first I had some sewing bee items I needed to cross off my list. The top blocks are for my Faith Group of do. Good Stitches. It's been so fun to be a part of that group this year. And the founder, Rachel at Stitched in Color is having a fun celebration giveaway for group members to round off the year. Is it bad to say I hope I win? ;) The instructions for the Gemstone Block above can be found on Rachel's blog.

My second set of blocks is for the 4 x 5 Modern Block Bee. I decided to use the Broken Herringbone block pattern found at Play Crafts blog. I just loved the way it looked and it was a technique I hadn't used too much before- I'll call it Stitch and Slash! There is some waste involved, but I'm thinking totally worth it. I hope the ladies in the group like how they turned out. In this group, they pick the colors, you pick the pattern. I totally forgot to make one for myself! I'm using the same colors I chose last time, Aqua, Navy, Red and Yellow. I hoping to have enough blocks to make a whole quilt someday.

So two chores down, now I have to do some planning and figure out what I'll be making this season. But I'm hosting Thanksgiving next week and I'm filled with turkey terror! I've not been in charge of that for many years. Wish me luck!

 

Long Time Gone

Hello blog readers (are you still there?) ! I've missed you! It's taken me a while to readjust to things after our move and not having all of my creative supplies at hand (they live in the garage now) has slowed down my creating a bit. But I have been able to get back in a the sewing saddle for a few projects.

My daughter Maggie had a "Walk Through the Revolution" program at her school and needed a costume to wear to be a colonial girl.

 I found a simple pattern and a cute little blue floral print at Hobby Lobby. I actually had a two-fold purpose for this costume. Next year my other daughter, Sophie will go on a pioneer trek with our church youth. She needs pioneer clothes, so I wanted the dress to be able to be used for her too. So it's not overly "colonial" but I thought she looked pretty cute. I'll just make Sophie a pioneer bonnet and we'll be set! I love killing two birds with one stone, whoop!

The class did an awesome job and Maggie's part went well too. Such a cute program and we were just glad Maggie got to be a girl, when Sophie did it in 5th grade she had to be a general! :)

I also had a chance recently to catch up on bee blocks. Specifically the Faith Group blocks for Do. Good Stitches. I haven't signed up for any bees or swaps for a few months, but I couldn't drop my Faith group! They were very understanding and Debbie even made my blocks for me in August, awesome.

 

 The September "block" was actually a row quilt! So each of us did a row for the quilt. I chose to do a classic Lemoyne Star. Not hard to do, but visually appealing. Each person in the group chose a different row so I can't wait to see how they all look together.

For October the block was more improvisational. I actually prefer to use a pattern with set measurements and I'm not a big fan of "wonky", but these were actually fun to make. It's great to use up scraps and it actually wasn't too hard to figure out. Mine are not as wonky as some, but I think it will work.

Squares & Triangles

When the blocks are all put together the quilt will look something like this. Cool, right?

It sure felt good to do some sewing again, so good that I recently signed up for two swaps, yikes! The Doll Quilt Swap 14 and 4 x 5 Quilting Bee that I have joined before. I hope I haven't bitten off more than I can chew, especially facing the holidays. But I think I can do it, it's good to be back!

Farmer's Wife Friday

Hello all of you Farmer's Wife Friday followers! I just want to apologize up front for neglecting my little linky party. As many of you know, we had to move out of our home a couple of weeks ago and we still have not found the right home for us to move into. So we've been camping out at my parents house 6 hours from where we live. I've spent most days on the internet scouring the MLS and Craigslist trying to find "the one". Meanwhile the hubs has been staying with friends and working still and checking out homes here and there when I tell him there is one to see. I really got my hopes up yesterday for one, and then it turned out not as we'd hoped. Insert big *sigh* here. :) But I know that things can change quickly, so I still have hope the right home for us will show up.

 Needless to say Farmer's Wife blocks have not been my priority. I did make some time to sew up a couple of little pouches. One for a thank you to Debbie for making my Do Good Stitches bee blocks last month. It was so sweet of her and took a load off when we were right in moving mode. The other I made as a Girl's Camp Secret Sister gift for my daughter's church camp she's been attending all week.

 We also had a chance to celebrate a milestone birthday for my oldest, he's 16!! I cannot believe my 6'3" tall kid is that old. I mean where does that put me? Ugg. :) I love this kid more than I can say and I'm so proud of him. It breaks my heart to think I only have a couple of more years until he's flown the coop! It goes by so fast!

 So ladies I need some Farmer's Wife inspiration!! It was really my goal to finish my quilt this summer, and though that may not happen now I need a boost to keep me going! Please link up what you've been working on, I'd love to see what you've been up to. I'll keep the link open until Sunday night.

An InLinkz Link-up

Hope you have a great weekend, I'm off to Cali to pick up my girl from camp and see a house or two, wish me luck!

Farmer's Wife Friday Forgotten!

Hi quilty peeps! I can't believe it's Friday, in fact I forgot it was Friday! I am currently in the middle of a lot of boxes and denial. We have to be moved out next week and as of today we still don't have a place to go. But we are keeping our hopes and faith high and moving forward because that's all we can do! :)
I don't have blocks to share because I've already packed up my little sewing closet and my machine is in the shop. So I thought I would show you one of my favorite finished tops by Julia at My Rainboots Are Red.

Aren't the colors spectacular!? I just love the mix of Bonnie & Camille with other fun, bright fabrics. I am also planning on sashing with white. She did a fantastic job. If you'd like to see her post with more pictures click HERE.

If you still have some blocks to share this week, I'd love to see them! Here's what you need to 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! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Hope your weekend is Fab-U-Lous! You know what I'll be doing! ;)

Another Move

Well it's definitely official, we are moving! To where we just don't know. So I will have to admit, things are a little well, scary right now. We have only lived in our current home for 1 1/2 years and we were just feeling so settled. (the owner of our home wants to move back in) We are doing our best to keep the faith and know that things always work out in the end. But packing to move and not knowing where that will be is a bit daunting. We have not been able to find a place here where we live and we've been considering moving to St. George because we love it there. But there aren't many places available there either! And of course the hubs job is here. This is certainly not the summer I expected. But if you can count on anything in life it's change.

I would like to enlist your help if possible! I have a lot of fabric left over from my selling days. I was an Ebay Powerseller selling children's decorator fabrics. I have a bit of quilting fabric and some minky too. I have listed a bunch of it in my Big Cartel shop. The site is nothing fancy and I threw it together pretty quick so if you have any questions, just email me. You can find the shop HERE. I usually ship Priority mail and I will shove as much fabric as I can into a Flat Rate Envelope for $5.00 or a Flat Rate Box for $10.00. So if you see anything(s) you love, go for it!

I also plan on listing some other products and maybe even a quilt or two. And just think, you'll get some awesome stuff and be helping this little family of mine at the same time. :)

Thanks in advance, and if you're the praying kind, we'd appreciate your prayers!

Farmer's Wife Friday Linky!

Hello Farmer's Friday followers! I am still hanging out on vacation in sunny St. George, UT. We've actually had crazy couple of days. We got a call from our landlady who told us that the homeowners need to move back into our house and they would like us to be out in a couple of weeks! Now legally we have 60 days, but they have to be moved out by the end of this month and they would really like if we could be too. Oh the joys of renting! So....we've been trying to figure out the best thing to do. The rental market is really tight where we live in SoCal an not to mention prices so high! We have dreams of just staying here in St. George, but the hubs has no work here. So big sigh, the search is on and I'm still on vacation. Just when you think life if settled (we just moved in 18 months ago!).

  So admittedly I don't have any blocks to show you (again, arrgghh!), but I have picked out the fabric I will be using for the next two blocks. And sometimes that's the hardest part. :) Strawberry Basket was a no brainer, strawberry fabric! An then perfect coordinating prints. And for Streak of Lightning I kept with the strawberry theme, this time in blue an kept it super simple. That looks like a fun block to make.

 

 But lest you think I haven't done any sewing, I have! (just not the sewing I should've been working on:) It's been very therapeutic in the last two days. I came on this trip with my Honey Honey by Kate Spain Dessert Roll and a plan for a certain quilt. But I just wasn't feeling the pattern I had chosen and needed to come up with another one. I  quickly remembered a pattern from Moda Bake Shop and Lily Quilts called Hexagon Park. Perfect! Loved the hexagons and the white border. And it stays with the Honey Honey bee theme. I am loving the way it is turning out, I will keep you posted on this one.

I hope you've had a chance to work on your Farmer's Wife blocks, please share! Here are the linky rules:

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! 

An InLinkz Link-up

I had a suggestion to leave the linky open longer to allow for more link-ups! I think it's a great idea. I will leave it open for the weekend and end Sunday night at midnight. Hope you have a wonderful weekend, wish us luck on the house hunt, prayers are welcome! :)

Farmer's Wife Friday Link Up!

Happy Friday! I hope all of you in the states had a wonderful Fourth of July! It's one of our favorite holiday and we have a tradition of spending it in St. George, UT. Small town holiday at it's finest! :) So while I don't have any Farmer's Wife blocks this week, I'll share a couple of pics from our holiday.

 Our traditions include running (or walking, as is the case with me) a 5K, a community pancake breakfast & parade, going to the Gunlock Rodeo, watching the fireworks in town and setting off our own stash of fun fireworks later on. A new tradition when coming to St. George includes heading to Swig! This little place has become wildly popular and the picture above are a couple of reasons why. It's basically just a treat shop! They sell snow cones, fabulous and already Pinterest worthy sugar cookies and cheap drinks; the favorite being "Dirty" Diet Coke. They add a lime and a splash of coconut juice, SOoooo good! And becuase it's been 110+ degrees hereall week, we've had to go there a lot. ;)

 We had a wonderful bbq with the family and then left into town to watch fireworks. We picked a spot right across from the beautiful St. George LDS temple. This is the temple where I married my hubby for all eternity so it has a special place in my heart. Isn't it beautiful?

Later we came home and set off our own little firework party and the kid's favorite is always just simple sparklers. They could play with them for hours. This is my little Charlotte.

My daughter Sophie on the right and her friend Emily, who was also in town visiting from California, joined in the fun with us.

We had a full and very fun day filled with family, friends, fireworks, and good food. Who could ask for anything more?

Well, actually, time to ask you to post your Farmer's Wife block posts! I hope you had some time this week to work on them. Here are the rules for posting:

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! 

An InLinkz Link-up

I get to spend another week here on vacation, and despite the hot weather, I just love being here. I did bring my sewing machine, so hopefully I will share some blocks next week!

Tennis T-shirt Quilt

 I am so excited that I finally get to share this quilt! Excited because that means it's finished! Yippee! It only took a couple of years. Seriously. Two years ago my younger brother brought me a box of his tennis t-shirts and asked if I could make them into a quilt. Sure! But being a bit overwhelmed by the amount of t-shirts and the fact that I'd never made one before it quickly went to the back burner.

It was eating at me that I wasn't getting it done and I've been slowly working on it for the past year. I finally decided I need to finish it so I could cross it off the list! Actually it was fun to reminisce as I worked on it. Andy was a big juniors tennis player and I spent many a weekend taking him to his tournaments and to his weekly practices. He and I have always been pretty close and it was so fun to watch him play. He continued with tennis and is now a tennis pro and does amazing tennis analysis work. He was also able to use his acting chops recently to do a Wilson commercial with Roger Federer!

I used a 15" square ruler and squared off each shirt and then used iron-on interfacing on the back of each one. I framed each shirt with black sashing and used green sashing squares in each corner.

 I wanted the back of the quilt to be cozy and comfy so I chose a green and black polar fleece, I think a John Deere plaid? But it coordinated well. I also put Warm & Natural batting inside so this is a heavy, warm quilt! Which is why when I went to quilt this quilt I nicknamed it "The Beast"!

 Quilting was probably the hardest part of this quilt. I really wish I had sent it out to a long arm quilter. This is a queen size quilt and SO heavy! It was hard just to get it to fit in my machine. But I did it! After much debate I finally decided to make tennis balls in each square. I didn't want too much quilting and thought it worked perfectly. In every other square I moved the curved lines from horizontal to vertical.

I also quilted straight lines down each side of the black sashing which made a nice little design in the green blocks as well. When I was done I washed and dried it to get it nice and clean and smelling good to give to Andy. He loved it! I'm so glad I was able to finally finish it for him. And to be able to cross it off the list! Have you ever made a t-shirt quilt before? I've had a few requests, but I don't think I'll be making another one for quite a while! :)

Farmer's Wife Friday Link Up (and my girls:)

I have had the busy excuse a lot in the past couple of weeks. Summer officially began for us last Friday, but this week has been crazy! In all the best ways of course.

 Charlotte had two weeks of swim lessons and LOVED it! She went from never having swum without wearing her swim jacket to swimming the length of the pool and being the champion diver of the class! It was so fun to see her progress and she is so excited to go swim!

 We also had three dance recitals in two days! Yes, the joys of being a dance mom. ;) Charlotte was in her first recital dancing to "Singin' in the Rain". Maggie had a beautiful ballet performance and her first jazz performance. I didn't get the best pictures of the actual performances, but loved this jump shot I got of Maggie catching air, wooo hoo!

 They both did such a great job. Maggie just LOVES being onstage and lights up with a huge smile when she's there. Charlotte was a little more solemn and very technical, but that will certainly pay off in the future.

So instead of new Farmer's Wife blocks, I thought I would a couple of mosaics with most of the blocks I've already made! This gives a good idea to how the quilt itself will look.Wow, right? It also helps me see which colors I need to bring out more. I'm thinking more blue!
Want to make one too? Just go to www.bighugelabs.com and click on Mosaic Maker. It's super easy! 
Have you been able to make any blocks this summer? Show us! Here's how to link up:

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! 

An InLinkz Link-up

I am so looking forward to going out of town next week and not having ANY schedule, that's what summer means to me! Have fun!

June Do. Good Stitches Blocks

This  first week of summer has been a busy one! Swimming lessons, three dance recitals, beach trips, youth conference send off, and I finished a t-shirt quilt (finally, I will share quilt with you next week:)! But I still had to get this month's Faith group Do.Good Stitches blocks done. I did them just in time! It was Debbie's month and she chose do use this tutorial to make a quilt just like this fabulous quilt!

Isn't it gorgeous? It was made by the Cheer circle and finished by Claire at Sewing Over Pins. Our assignment was to use like minded colors, orange, hot pink and yellow or red.

 I noticed Debbie had been getting quite a few orange blocks so I decided to make a hot pink one! For the center star I used a fun Paula Prass print that I've had for a while that had all the colors in it. And a pink swirly print that coordinated well.

 I didn't notice any yellow blocks so I thought that would add a nice light punch and I coordinated that with an orange star. Every time I try a new block I end up loving it and wanting to make a whole quilt of my own with it! But there is only so much time and WAY too many fun blocks.

Next week we are heading to St. George, UT for our annual 4th of July trip. Can't wait to be with my family, go to the rodeo, watch the small town fireworks and visit all the incredible quilt shops! The only thing I'm not looking forward to is the heat! They are in the 115+ range right now, yikes! I think I might melt.
Hope you're staying cool this summer!

Farmer's Wife Friday - Finally!

Finally, the Friday I've been waiting for - it's the last day of school!! My two girls are finally done and it's time for summer to begin! It's so hard to wait when you live in Southern California and the weather is perfect and the beach is calling. Finally we can join in on the fun. Yee haw!

 Jumping right into my Farmer's Wife blocks. So I have a confession to make. Most weeks Thursday night rolls around and I realize, I've got to make my blocks for FWF! Not that I don't want to be working on them. I do! And that's precisely why I started this link-up, to keep me going! But I end up staying up way later than I should to work on my blocks to post for Friday. And then I'm so exhausted the next day! I was determined for that not to be the case this week.

I think the saying goes give a busy person something to do and she gets it done? That's how it went this week. Very busy with swim lessons, end of school parties, dance rehearsals, etc. But baby, I got some blocks done! And because I wasn't sewing them in the wee hours, they came together so much nicer and I think look so much better than they have been looking. I finished the second block from last week, #88. And finished both of this weeks blocks.

I decided to use red and green together, not a combo I use very often. Because I'm so near the end I've been trying to pick out colors and combos that I need more of and I thought red and green would work this week. Still can't help but think of Christmas, but together with all the other blocks I don't think it will be okay. My favorite block this week is this Storm Signal block. You never know for sure how blocks will look when they're done, and I just like the way this one turned out. I now have 90 blocks done, WOW! Can't believe it. I'd love to know where you are in the process, link up and let me know! Here's what you need to 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! 

 

Hope you have a fabulous weekend, it's summer, yay! 

Farmer's Wife Friday, TGIF!

Welcome to Farmer's Wife Friday!  It's been a full week and it's so nice to get to the weekend! This week included the last day of school festivities for my high school-er and my pre-school-er, a new job at my church that I'm transitioning through, a graduation party at my house for my bestie's son, starting 5K training with my son and I'm still getting my two charter school girls off to school everyday. Like I said, glad the weekend has arrived!

 Because of the craziness of my week, I only finished one block. I thought it would be fun to do a patchwork on this one. I have liked when I have done that in the past. I also wanted to use two colors together that I hadn't before, blue and green! The green fabrics were great for this, but I realized that almost all of the blue fabrics have red in them! So it ended up being a three color block and a bit jumbled. But it is predominately cool so I'm okay with it.

 

Another reason I only got one block done is because of this little culprit. The dreaded triangle #13.  This block had a total of 48 of these triangles! 48! It took me a bit longer than I thought it would just to cut this block out, so be warned! When I see this block listed, I know it's going to be a long night. :)

Were you working on a more laborious block this week? I'd love to hear about it! Share your Farmer's Wife posts here. The rules are:

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! 

Here's to a fabulous weekend!