Yesterday I made two more Farmer’s Wife blocks – some very, very easy ones. #48 Homeward Bound.
and #41 – Friendship Star
Please note the fussy-cut sewing bird in the center. The block is made with two sewing themed fabrics because some of my best friendships came from sewing/quilting.
Bonnie
Tuesday is my day to volunteer at church, but I woke up nice and early this morning and had time to make a Farmer’s Wife block before leaving the house.
Block #56 – Maple Leaf.
That makes 14 blocks completed and if I decide to do the smallest setting which requires 50 blocks, I only have 36 more blocks to make. If I make four blocks a week, then I will be ready for assembly the second week in October. Someone out there write that date down and check back with me to see how I did. (Thanks.)
Bonnie
While attending to laundry duties today, I enjoyed making….
Block #11 – Broken Dishes (my favorite so far)
and Block #12 – Broken Sugar Bowl
And the other day I finished block #7 of Christmas At Hawk Run Hollow
Can’t you just smell those pine trees and hear that horse snuffling? I get a kick out of the proportions – the birds that are bigger than the horse, and the small barn door that the horse could not fit through! Folk art is delightful.
Bonnie
These Farmer’s Wife blocks are addicting because they are small and quickly done. Of course I am picking all the easy ones to do.
Bocks #9 and #10 – Box and Bowtie
On blogs that are also doing The Farmer’s Wife, there are some that are using a specific line of fabric, and some that are using a particular color scheme.
I’m using scraps from my scrap bins. There is no color scheme, nor rhyme or reason to my fabric choices. The fabric for every block has been chosen on my whim or fancy for that day. Here are my scrap bins.
There is plenty to choose from and each block requires only a small amount of fabric. It is fun to pick through the scraps and try to remember when I used each fabric.
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The other day I cleaned out all my book shelves, taking out all the books I have read and am ready to donate or sell, and re-arranging all the unread books in a pleasing manner. There were so many unread books that I made a vow to not purchase another book until I had read at least half of the books in my home. (There were 85 unread books which means I would have to read at least 42 books.) That vow lasted one week. I read one book, then purchased four at the used book store, another two on-line, added one free Kindle book and one purchased Kindle book. I have GOT to learn how to read faster!!!!
Bonnie
Yes, my favorite seam ripper has been found. Hurrah. I can make mistakes again.
Today I made two more Farmer’s Wife blocks – very simple ones.
Block 73 – Rainbow Flowers
And Block 109 – Windows
Now if I could just find that missing thimble…………
Bonnie
This picture is not very good in that you cannot tell the true colors. There is a band across the top of the basket where I placed some green fabric to represent the leaves of the tulips. The picture makes it look almost black.
It truly looks much better in person. This is the first block I made using the drafting and rotary cutting instructions found on Bee In My Bonnet’s blog. Of course I made a few mistakes, but even with the mistakes it was so much easier than using the templates.
To anyone paying attention to my blog, you will notice that I skipped right over Block #7. Why? There are 40 tiny pieces in that block, that’s why. I think I will wait and do that one when I am feeling more confident.
Has anyone seen my good seam ripper? I lost it somewhere in my quilt studio. I really want to find it. Several weeks ago I also lost my very favorite thimble. I keep hoping it will show up under a chair or cushion. As soon as I go out and buy these essential items, they will reappear I’m sure. In the meantime, I am using an old dull seam ripper and a thimble that keeps falling off. Sigh.
Bonnie
Quite a few blogs that I read have been showing little design boards for laying out blocks. These little boards can then be easily transported to the sewing machine for assembling the block without losing pieces along the way. (The original instructions/tutorial can be located here – Tutorial #1 and Tutorial #2 – at the Bee In My Bonnet Co. blog.)
Here are my version of the design boards.
They don’t look too bad, but let me tell you, a hot glue gun in my hands is dangerous. I ended up with more glue on my fingers and hands then on the edges of the board. After burning myself several times, I decided to try a different kind of glue. In my arsenal was a brand new can of spray-on glue which might work fine for a large area, but trying to aim it at the edges was down right silly. A bottle of liquid glue ended up being the best bet for me even though that was messy too. I needed a lot of Goo Gone to clean up my hands!
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This is a quilt top I made many moons ago at a class led by Mary Ellen Hopkins of It’s OK If You Sit On My Quilt fame.
It was on my UFO list. I could have added more blocks or borders, but I decided it was good and instead made a pieced backing so that I can get it quilted.
Using up leftover blocks and scraps of fabric makes me happy. When the quilt back is almost as interesting as the quilt front, it makes me smile. I also seem to have an endless supply of cat fabric scraps!
Bonnie
