Saturday, December 3, 2011

Saturday Stash: Hark Hark the Lark

It may be coooollldd outside, but it's never to cold for a little stashing.  Allow me to share my collection of "Lark" by Amy Butler.  Sherry at Ruth's Stitchery put together this yummy bundle for me, and I added a couple from cyber Monday shopping. I have several new patterns from Legacy Patterns and I think "Cheaper by the Dozen" will be perfect.  And easy enough to be the last quilt of 2011!


Country Lanes at last

Whew, finally -- Country Lanes, quilt #51 for 2011 is pieced!  As I posted earlier, this was a Moda University project in 2006.  I had three rows pieced when this little gem went into the UFO-forever bin.  When its number came up for the November 2011 UFO, I forced myself to work on this one only until it was finished.  The finished size is 69" X 87", and the only alteration I made to the pattern was to miter the corners on the borders.  With all those quarter-square triangles in the quilt, I though it deserved a mitered border.  No recipient identified, maybe Camille will like this one?


Quilt #52 is going to be an easy one!

Friday, December 2, 2011

Finish It Up Friday

This yellow quilt has been quilted and waiting for the perfect recipient since early 2011.  A friend from church broke her foot recently, and lucky for me, her favorite color is yellow!  This was the January monochrome quilt and also my leaders/enders quilt for that month.  Leaders and Enders is a way to use up your scraps without dedicating time specifically to a scrap quilt.  Bonnie Hunter explains how to use Leaders and Enders in her book -- details here.


Here is a closeup of my new labels -- they read "Peace Love and Happiness" on one side and "My Aunt Martha Made It" on the other.  They are from a great etsy shop, gutenTAGs.


Now that I've finished something, I'm off to Stash to check out their fabric closeout!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Farmer's Wife Day

I'm not a farmer's wife -- but I'm a farmer's daughter.  I've been plugging along on Laurie Aaron Hird's The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt for almost two years. Karen at High Country Quilts designs a paper-pieced block for the most difficult block each month. Each block finishes to 6", so I'm pleased if I complete one whole block at class.  So far I have 34 of the 111 blocks completed.  On Farmer's Wife day I try to only sew on this quilt. Today I was lucky that the next block is an easy one, #16 Calico Puzzle:

Here are a few of my blocks.  The quilt will have a dark navy blue sashing, but I have a long way to go before I worry about that!

I'm loving watching many of the "modern quilters" making this quilt from bright, modern prints.  I wish I had seen them before I started out with the reproduction fabrics.  But I'm not making these blocks again!  Amanda of Hey porkchop is one of the sponsors of the Farmer's Wife Quilt-A-Long.  She has a button on her blog where you can see many of the blocks in different fabrics.  Go take a look!

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Sundays are for Scraps

In an ongoing effort to reduce the enormous bin of scraps, I try to spend an hour every Sunday afternoon cutting scraps into usable sizes and shapes.  I use the "Scrap Therapy" theory -- cutting 5" squares, 2 1/2" strips and squares, and 3 1/2" squares.  If there's enough, I cut a 1 1/2" strip for a future Log Cabin quilt.  After spending an hour cutting, I reward myself by making a scrap quilt!  This week's quilt is called "Scrappy Thirties," calling on an overwhelming collection of 30s reproduction fabrics.  The design is from one of my favorite books, "Scrap Basket Sensations" by Kim Brackett.  It's called "Summer Daze" in the book, but since I added enough blocks for an extra row to make it twin-bed size, I get to rename it, right?  The challenge was deciding on borders -- should they be green:


or red:


or blue?



Blue won, with a red inner border. 
I love these fabrics -- and really, I'm making a dent in the collection.  This year I've made enough quilts to empty one whole bin of 30s fabrics!