Saturday, February 4, 2012

Saturday Stash

Ooooh yummy.  Look what I found at freshsqueezedfabrics this week!  This is "Quilter's Linen" from Robert Kaufman.


This fabric has a wonderful texture.  It kind of reminds me of my favorite fabric from back in the 70s -- "Kettle Cloth."  The only problem?  "Quilter's Cotton" comes in -- wait for it -- 44 colors!

I've gotta go shopping!

Friday, February 3, 2012

The Farm (Wife) Report

I have a good-sized stack of Farmer's Wife blocks complete. But when I count them, there are only 48.  Which sounds like a lot -- until you realize the quilt has 111 blocks!  I spent all day yesterday catching up with my FWQAL group at High Country Quilts.  Here are the blocks I finished yesterday:


My favorite block is "Grape Basket."  I used my clever "Block Loc" tool to get perfect half-square triangles that nest together beautifully.  (Click to see post about the Block Loc.)


Oh, look, I did it twice:

Don't those points look nice. Did I do it twice just because I love this block?  Umm, no . . .


I made it twice because I had annotated the size of the square in my book at 1 1/2".  That would be finished size, not cut size.  Now my friend and fellow Farmer's Wife aficionado. Shar (retired math teacher) would have known at a glance that making four half-square triangles at 1 1/2" would not result in a 6" square finished block.  But I blithely went on sewing and it wasn't until I put this little gem on the design wall next to the other blocks that I realized -- oh.  It's only 5" square.

Won't it make a nice mug rug for our FWQAL teacher, Karen?

Thursday, February 2, 2012

A Month of Letters

When is the last time you wrote a real, paper letter?  And mailed it through "snail mail?"  I used to write to my Aunts and Uncles once a month on the 15th.  January 15 was my Aunt Dot's birthday and I wrote to her each month on the 15th.  I went into work 10 minutes early on the 15th to use my (at that time!) fancy IBM Selectric typewriter.  When I got my first computer, I started personalizing the letter and printing out a copy for others.  Since all but two of that generation is now gone, I've pretty much stopped writing.

Enter Mary Robinetter Kowal and her "Month of Letters" challenge.  The challenge is to mail at least one item through the mail every day (except Sundays and the President's Day holiday).  Your "letter" can be  a postcard, a letter, a picture, or a cutting from a newspaper, or -- quilters, a fabric swatch!

Then write back to everyone who writes to you! This can count as one of your mailed items.


Did you ever have a pen pal?  Want to be mine?  Email me a mdyerall @ gmail dot com and I promise to write (a real, paper letter) to you!