Farmer's Wife

Thursday this week was "Farmer's Wife" club at High Country Quilts.

Karen pointed out that this is the third year of our Farmer's Wife project!

I now have completed 63 blocks (plus two I have marked as completed in my book, but can't find!).

There are 111 blocks in the finished quilt -- so I'm more than halfway there!

Today is the Navy-Air Force game at the US Air Force Academy.  It's going to be a cold one, and wouldn't you know, this is the first time I've bought a ticket to the game?  Lucky for me, I have silk longjohns and my friend Joy is hosting the tailgate.  I may spend most of the game in Joy's SUV, knitting!

Go Navy!






From the desk of your

I Spy A Friday Finish

Being a Grandma is the best thing about getting older.  I'm "Marmee" to my two darling granddaughters.  I am having so much fun sewing "girly" stuff, as I raised only boys!

GD2 turned one year old this week.  To celebrate, I made (finished)  an "I Spy" quilt that I had started when my youngest niece was 2.  She is in Middle School now!

 

I think when I started collecting fabrics for "I Spy," I must have purchased a bundle of 4" square fabrics.  No other way to explain how many "fish" blocks there are in this quilt!  The border is made of Kona Cotton strips from their new colors.  They are arranged in the order of an old Girl Scout Song, "I Can Sing a Rainbow."

Red and yellow and pink and green, purple and orange and blue . . . I can sing a rainbow.

And bound in a black and white stripe -- thanks Ginny of Ruth's Stitchery for finding just the right stripe for me!

If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see some of my favorite blocks:  in the upper right-hand corner is a US Navy aircraft carrier (Uncle Jacob's ship).  Two blocks to the left of that is a fish on a yellow motorcycle (Uncle Justin rides a yellow motorcycle).  In the bottom row is a bear using a computer (Grandpa is a computer expert).

I wish I had thought to add some photos of all of GD2's grandparents and great-grandparents.  They all live a distance apart, and that would help her learn who everyone is, since she sees them so seldom.  Also, how could I not add a "sewing machine" block to represent Marmee?

One more photo so you can see Mr. Blue Suede Shoe's nice ankles:

Linking up to "Richard and Tanya's "Link a Finish Friday" and

at better off thread.

I have lots of novelty fabrics left over from my "I Spy," would you like them?  Leave one (please!) comment on this post before next Friday and I'll let the Random Number Generator select a winner.  Be sure to include contact information if you're a no-reply commenter!



From the desk of your

WIP Wednesday -- UFOctober is Underway!

Are you a list-maker?  Have you ever written something you've already finished on your list, just so you can cross it off?

I wrote my "UFOctober" list on my whiteboard, just so I can have the pleasure of crossing off each item as I complete it:

I've started the first two on the list.  Both quilts are from "Cherish Nature" by Deb Strain for Moda, chosen because it's "not girly."  The pattern is a fat quarter fun quilt, "Sparkling Cider" from All Washed Up.  The pattern only has instructions for a lap size, so I added more stars to make it queen size.  The stars don't touch in the finished quilt top, this is just all I have done so far:

My reward for working hard on my "UFOctober" projects is this month's "Another Year of Schnibbles" quilt, "Bounce."  Yep, that is Tula Pink's "The Birds and the Bees" fabric!

 

 A fast link-up to WIP Wednesday, and I'm back at it!

Tomorrow is "Farmer's Wife" day.  I'm going to count how many blocks I have complete -- care to guess?


From the desk of your

BOMonday

Like many quilters, I have several Block of the Month (BOM) projects in the works, and I try to keep up with them by dedicating the first Monday of the month to BOMs.

Today I got caught up on three of my BOM Works in Progress (WIPs). 

The first, and my favorite, is Fat Quarter Shop's "Designer Mystery BOM."  This year's blocks are made from Bonnie and Camille's "Vintage Modern,"  a line that features lovely aqua, pink, green and grey prints.

Four block patterns have been published so far.  My photo shows all four blocks, so you can see that I corrected block #3:

 

One of my local quilt shops is also hosting a Mystery BOM, and I'm using Civil War Reproductions for my queen size quilt:

And of course, I had to make my "Block-a-Day" block:

I didn't get to my "Amish With a Twist" BOM

because I spent hours figuring out how to work the Audible Download Manger on my new PC!  I enjoy listening to audio books while I'm sewing, but I hadn't loaded the download manager to my new computer, and it took most of the day to make it work.  I still don't know what I did to finally make it launch, but it works and I now have Ken Follet's new book, "Winter of the World" loaded and ready to entertain me tomorrow when I start working on UFOctober.


Come back Wednesday to see my progress on WIP Wednesday!



From the desk of your