Farmer's Wife Blocks

My Aunt Sharon and I are working on the Farmers Wife quilt. My aunt is doing it through her local quilt shop Candlelite Quilts each month and I am following along making the same blocks as her. I am a little behind but I thought I'd show what we have done so far.

These are my blocks so far... # 29, 54, 19 and 77.

These are my Aunt Sharon's blocks so far.

I do have a bit of catching up to do!

I just got back from Vegas and had an amazing time. I printed off directions to quilt shops, wool shops and a rubber stamping store but did not make it to a single one. I did however get pictures of floors and ceilings for inspiration. There was a lot of that! I thought I would share pictures of a few floors that inspired me.

What a great way to spark your creativity!

Happy stitching!

Glue on my quilt?

I was procrastinating on this challenge but I finally decided to just do it...that is what this blog is about but I have had misgivings. In the end I decided to keep an open mind and make a wall hanging. I found a pattern for applique to suit the season and gathered my supplies. Freezer paper and a glue stitck. It is so hard for me to use glue on a quilt. It just seems...well...wrong. I know lots of quilters use glue but I am such a traditional quilter that it is difficult for me.

The challenge was to use the freezer paper and glue method of machine applique from The Quilt Show Episode 210 with Beth Ferrier. When I googled this method there were lots of websites and blogs that mentioned it and gave tutorials.

So I began cuttitng my freezer paper, ironing it onto my fabrics and readied myself for the glue. I could not believe that every single glue stick I had was dried out. I tried it with a shrivelled glue stick and it was Yuck! Plan B..I've been meaning to try the freezer paper and spray starch method so I dig out the starch. Yuck! I am so not liking it and it took me forever to do just one piece. I ended up hand basting all my pieces, which I think took me the same amount of time as it would have with the glue stick or iron and it was less messy and I could do it in front of the tv in a relaxed position. Now I was happy!

Finally I can get to the stitching. I used Sulky clear poly thread (regular thread in the bobbin) with a very small zig zag stitch and loosened my top tension just a bit. After stitching I removed the basting stitches and the freezer paper from the back side in the same manner I would use for hand applique. After I was used to my machine stitching I made the stitch width even smaller and found it was much easier to remove the freezer paper. The smaller the 'bite' the better.

So I finished the stitching in no time at all and it turned out to be a very cute wall hanging where the stitches, while not truely invisible, were not noticeable. The one difference that I found noticeable between this method of machine applique and hand applique was that the appliques are much flatter looking as a result of the stitching on the edges. I really enjoyed it and would do this again, with the hand basting. I will not try the glue again and I will probably not try the starch again either. But I am happy that I tried them.

The pattern is from the October 2000 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine.

Happy Stitching!

Retreat quilt and GO!

This quilt is getting big! When it is finished it will be about 90"x100". And it is not so easy to layout for piecing.

I sew in an attic with sloped ceilings so there is really not room for a large design wall or a small one for that matter. My design wall is a space on my floor and in this case was just large enough to hold 2 rows at a time. I moved furniture in the living room to take a picture of 4 rows done.

By tonight I did get all six rows done, so all that is left is to sew those rows together! I am really liking this quilt and I am fairly certain I am going to Big Stitch it with perle cotton. As soon as it is together I`ll start throwing embroidery floss all over it to pick a color. How many balls will I need? At least 10 and maybe up to 15. That is a lot of perle cotton. I'll be using a traditional fan pattern for the quilting. I think that circular motion of the fan will really complement the different sizes of the churn dash. This is a good winter project and hopefully it will be on my bed by summer! But I may need some luck for that.

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So how does a person resist all the excitement of the Accuquilt GO! ?

All over blogland there are VERY excited people. I supposed I should state, for the record, that I am not buying a GO! and I have not even tried to win one. But the temptation is strong. Everywhere I look there are giveaways, tutorials and show and tell. So is anyone else trying to resist? Or is it just me?

Happy stitching!

My new most favourite notion!

This week I pulled out from my drawer, a box of pins that I have had at least 2 years and more than likely longer than that. I have never tried them in all this time...so what have I finally tested and now can't live without?

Clover Fork Pins!

I've been working away at my Churn Dash quilt and decided to try using them where you butt your seams up together. I have to thank Annie Smith. She showed off these pins when she was on "The Quilt Show- Episode 209" and I realized that I had those pins.

They were amazing! Every single seam match is perfect - nothing slipped. I do have to admit to a couple of mishaps though...

I must confess that I am a pin bulldozer. I just sew right over them with wonderful abandon and it is not too often I bend a pin or break a needle, until these fork pins...2 pins bent and 1 needle broken in 3 seams. Not a good record. So I changed my ways and as I reach a pin, I slow my machine right down and I am ready to stop it and grab the wheel if necessary. After that I have a perfect record!

So now I wonder how many other notions do I own that are amazing and I don't know it yet?

Happy Pinning!

Retreat Weekend

It was a great weekend. Saturday and Sunday spent quilting in the company of other quilters is always good. I had my camera along but guess who forgot to take pictures...yes, that would be me! Too busy sewing I suppose. This time I decided to start a new large quilt so I cut all my fabric before the weekend so I could just enjoy the sewing. It took me 3 days to cut it all out! I guess it had been a while since I cut out a large scrap quilt all at once. I did not expect it to take that long.

Here are some of the finished blocks from the weekend-

I am using greens, browns and blues and making 16", 10", 6" and 4" churn dashes. The original patterrn is from the February 2008 issue of  American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. Lately I have found myself attracted to quilts that have combinations of blocks in different sizes.

I am roughly dividing each size into brown/blue, brown/green and blue/green combinations. This quilt will be bigger than the pattern but I am not sure yet whether to add more blocks or a border. I'll decide that later.

I finished all the 16" and 10" blocks and got a good start on the 6" blocks this weekend. I am really happy with them and I am loving these colors! All the fabrics came right from my stash except a little bit of dark blue I got from a friend. I love scrap quilts and this one will be wonderful. I'll be working on it over the next week or two so hopefully it won't be long before I can show the top finished. I was going to have it long-armed but I am loving it so much that I may hand quilt it or use the big stitch on it.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Happy Stitching!