Busy-ness at Its Best

Yesterday was kind of long, and it was my own fault. I didn't get enough sleep Monday night, so I was a zombie at work all day. On top of that, once I was done working, I went to the gym (and boy! am I sore today!). I spent an hour and a half there, doing a full circuit on the weights and biking six miles.

I should have been thoroughly pooped at that point, and I was! Still, took the munchkin for dinner at McDonald's, because he'd reached the crabby-because-he-was-starving phase (you'd swear the kid never eats sometimes). He played and ate. I ate, and limited myself to the chicken sandwich and a few fries (pretty easy, because I've realized that I don't like McDonald's fries).

After that, it was a trip to the grocery store for soup for the hubby. Hubby has an abscessed tooth, and had to drive himself to work. That meant that he could take his antibiotics, but couldn't take the prescription pain reliever. Needless to say, he was a bit of a crab-apple at that point, so I volunteered to go get him some chicken soup.

Shopping trip done, we headed home. Kiddo fell asleep in the backseat (yay!), but woke up as I hefted him out and carried him upstairs (boo!). Still, he'd been pretty awesome and was incredibly love-y, so we watched some train videos before Mama put her (not so) big foot down and said he had to go to bed. Kiddo protested, but only because he wanted to sleep on the couch with Mama.

I'm a sucker, so we cuddled into Cheating on the Farmer's Wife, and we both passed out. About an hour later, hubby moved kiddo to his bed. Yes! We've gotten kiddo to sleep alone 90% of the time. It is AWESOME.

So anyway, I blinked crabbily (my turn!) at him for a bit, still wrapped up in Cheating on the Farmer's Wife, before I decided that I ought to do something with all that fabric that I had cut Monday evening. So, at around 11:30 PM, I flopped off the couch and made for the dining room, a portion of which has been carved out for my sewing space, now that we've managed to move most of kiddo's accoutrements into a bedroom for him. I'll take some photos once I'm done rearranging and decorating to my satisfaction.

#061 Northern Lights

Northern Lights is a do-over, in order to have this block conform with the overall color scheme of the rest of the blocks. I'm still not in love with it, and it's not the fabrics' fault. I just don't find it to be a very pleasing block, geometry-wise. It feels clunky and lopsided.

#062 Old Windmill

Try as I might, I don't see a windmill in this block. I see two whole pinwheels, and one fractured along the middle, but no windmill. Either way, super happy with my fabric choices. There needed to be a lot of contrast between the colors for this block to shine.

#068 Postage Stamp

This block is completely different from the layout presented in the book. In my head, a postage stamp quilt will always be as many different 1" finished squares as possible. So that's what I did. Eighteen of the patches are neutrals that have appeared in other blocks. The other eighteen were primarily out of the scrap basket.

I could see myself doing an entire quilt top like this.

Obviously, I didn't go to sleep for a while, but I'm okay with that. I have a feeling that tonight will be a rinse/repeat of yesterday, workout included. Hopefully, I can avoid the impromptu shopping trip though!

Still Chugging Along

Only a brief update today - I've been attempting to work on a hand applique project, but have had less success than I would like. I tried a new fusible product to cut the shapes out, and I'm less than pleased with the bulk it creates, and it only exacerbates the issue of the shapes not lying flat when the piece is laid out.

So, it's back to the drawing board, sort of. I'm going to try glue basting next, and switch to plastic templates to ease up on the bulk. I absolutely refuse to give up on this project. My stubborn mule side has kicked in.

In other news, I've completed two more Farmer's Wife blocks:

#070 Prairie Queen

I'm really liking the Happy Mochi Yum Yum line.. I might be tempted go look for more... On second thought, I need to work through my scraps before adding yardage.

#107 Windblown Square

Yes, I'm obsessed with that particular black and white fabric. And, yes, some of my new fabrics are totally making their way into these blocks.

I spent a good chunk of last evening cutting and prepping fabric for more blocks. Once I'm done with this batch, I'll only have those blocks that require paper-piecing or are on an awkward grid for a 6"-square block to do.

Back to the Farmer's Wife

Last night, I treated myself, since it was just me at home. Sushi, solitude and sewing! Well, not so much sewing, but cutting. Stitch N' Bitch was today, so I spent the evening cutting fabric so that I could just spend today piecing.

And piece I did!

#064 Peace and Plenty

I really need to vary up my grays in these blocks, but I love this particular gray and white print!

#089 Steps to the Altar

More new fabric. Lots of strip piecing.

#098 Water Wheel

This is one of the few white background blocks that I've done so far for the sampler. I need to make a few more to ensure that they don't look like holes in the top.

#103 Whirlwind

An ultra modern print combined with some fussy cutting and I'm happy!

#069 Practical Orchard

I really like the citrus-y fabric I used here, but I'm almost wishing I'd fussy cut those squares... I might yet go back and do that.

#091 Strawberry Basket

Very similar in construction to Steps to the Altar, so I cranked this one out. I'm really digging the mustard and the raspberry color together.

So, now I'm forty-five blocks in. A few more white background blocks, because I need more blocks that are brighter. There a good range of medium value blocks to dark blocks, so that's good. I'll probably end up re-making the Basket Weave block again, because I don't like the cream in it. Same with Attic Window. I want this quilt to be crisp.

Happy Farmer's Harvest!

As I type this, my little boy is sleeping in my lap, exhausted from trick or treating for his first time, not having a nap, and having been in school today. He was Thomas the Tank Engine, and not entirely sure about the whole process of knocking on stranger's doors. He caught on pretty quick when he realized that candy was the reward though!

Tonight, I have more Farmer's Widow blocks to share. I cannot wait until I get some more sewing time. I really want to work on other projects, but right now, one block at each stolen moments session seems to be all I get to accomplish.

#010 Bowtie

More fussy-cutting fun! The butter yellow is a Jinny Beyer print. The white/blue print I found in Joann's nursery section. I thought it was too pretty and clean to put in an infant quilt.

#015 Buzzard's Roost

I ended up admitting defeat and paper-piecing this one. My original plan had been to make six flying geese units, but I kept losing triangle points, and that's just not acceptable.

#020  Churn Dash

I'm forcing myself to incorporate pink into these blocks. However, I must say I like the contrast of the more modern dot print against the very traditional tone on tone black print.

#026 Cut Glass Dish

So many freaking HSTs, and finishing at 1"!! I was very glad to sew the last seam on this one. I was going to use a more geometric print for the orange, but kiddo got to my pre-cut pieces with his own scissors. I'm just lucky he didn't attack the strips that were precut for the HSTs.

#031 Evening Star

I hadn't realized, when I was piecing these, that my Evening Star and Buzzard's Roost were going to come out so similar. I might re-do one or the other... On the other hand, there's a lot of blocks, and I can just place them far, far apart in the top.

#034 Flock

Aqua, raspberry, and paisley! Love :)

#084 Spool

Much happier with this iteration of Spool. I've had the gray background fabric forever, along with some coordinating prints. I've been collecting grays with pink and red in them for a Lone Star quilt.

That's it for this Farmer's update. I'm headed for bed.

Farmer's Wife Frenzy

Two Sundays ago, I spent part of the day at work pre-cutting a bunch of Farmer's Wife blocks. Football season has started, and Janesville is full of fans, both of the Packers and the Bears. On top of that, the Brewers are doing exceptionally well. This meant that the mall emptied itself of shoppers as game times drew near on Sunday.

And. holy shingles! This pre-cutting thing works miracles. In three days, I made several blocks:

#011 Broken Dishes

You all might have noticed that I like to repeat 'themes' in my fabric selections. This time it was circles. And that navy fabric - it's really a pretty royal purple.

#006 Big Dipper

Quarter square triangles are not my favorite, and I'm trying desperately to ignore the one point that got cut off in this block. I don't know if I'll continue to succeed. However, I love this combination of fabrics.

#021 Contrary Wife

I'm trying to add lighter blocks in as I go along... And I've repeated the theme and fabrics. I just couldn't resist. Plus, fussy cutting makes its reappearance. Again, I would never do it for an all over quilt top design, but one off blocks... it's kind of fun.

#084 Spool

I'm actually really disappointed by this block. It needs more 'pop' in the color department. I'll probably be remaking this one. It's just too 'blah'. It's not helped by the very muted tones or the fact that the relative size of the prints is so close

#003 Basket

The handle is hand-appliqued. This is another one I might take the time to redo, mostly to secure the ends of the basket handle better, burying them in the piecing. I didn't mind the hand applique - that only took about fifteen minutes one morning.

I also precut Buzzard's Roost, but I wasn't happy with it, so I didn't photograph it. It's perfectly pieced - I just made a mistake when cutting and reversed my two fabrics so the values weren't placed the way I want. It's simple enough to rotary cut, so when I have some free time to pre-cut again, I'll add that to the to-do list.

While I was at the monthly Stitch 'N' Bitch, I paper-pieced two more blocks:

#005 Bat Wing

For this one, I used the fat quarters of Innocent Crush I received from my DQS 10 swap buddy. I love the look of this line, and the colors - it's just that the prints are freaking HUGE! And, hello! I work small blocks. I just don't dig the big blocks. So anyway, some more fussy-cutting to get a sense of movement. At the risk of being risque, Sandi thought this one looked like an especially talented stripper had gotten her tassels going in opposite directions.

Or an owl.

I'll let you all decide.

#001 Attic Window

Silly me! I once again forgot that the paper-piecing foundations available at the Yahoogroup aren't mirror-imaged so that the blocks come out they way their shown in the book. Still, not re-piecing this one, as I'm pretty happy otherwise. That awesome mustard green makes another appearance, along with a new acquisition in the form of that bright pinky-purple. It's actually a gradient fabric, but you can't see much of change in color, except for the top right corner.

So, seven more blocks into The Farmer's Wife Sampler. That brings me to seventeen completed. (Eighteen if I could the Buzzard's Roost that I just don't like.) I have about another dozen blocks' foundation patterns already printed, so expect a slew of paper pieced blocks before I move on to pre-cutting more rotary friendly blocks.

Weekend Recap

I've been a good little worker bee this last couple of days.

I picked my fabrics for the Test Your Skills Sampler. I designed my quilt top for the Modern Quilt Guild Kona Solids Only Challenge.

I even got some actual sewing in. I made the four 3" nine patch blocks for TYSS, and half the large snowball/nine-patch block. I have to re-do the snowballs - my piecing was somehow inaccurate, and they didn't match seams correctly with the nine-patch blocks. I'm anal enough that it just wasn't acceptable, so I threw the boo-boos in the scrap basket. Since they're just nine patches, I didn't bother to photograph them. When I get a little further into the TYSS, I'll post photos.

#071 Puss in the Corner

More fussy cutting, and that awesome Walmart fabric makes another appearance. Sadly, I even got anal retentive about how I cut the dots.

#093 Swallow

I deliberately went with lower contrast fabrics with this block. I have a lot of very dark, and a couple of very light, blocks. I need some middle ground to help keep the eye moving over the (eventual) quilt top.

Both prints are Walmart fabrics, and I'm still having some fun playing with fussy-cutting. I've determined that I would NEVER do it for a large quilt, but one off/sampler blocks, I'm okay with fussy-cutting.

I've also gone and pre-cut the fabric for another fix or six Farmer's Wife blocks, so I'll be ready for another round of sewing. I went through the book, did the quilt-y math and scribbled my own rotary cutting directions onto each page. I've also gone and denoted those that I feel need paper-piecing. In addition to those, I've found that there are a number of five by five grid blocks which would require me to cut things at 1/5 of an inch. The very idea makes my head hurt, so I'm going to be figuring out if I want to substitute blocks. 

I have a ton of scraps, a good portion of which I reduced to strips about a year ago. My sampler projects aren't helping the scrap situation much. Okay, not at all. I've been generating scraps far faster than I've been using them. I determined that it was time to start working on my strip quilt.

Sometime into one of the more recent batches of Farmer's Wife blocks, I realized that I should just use the string blocks as my leader/ender project. *facepalm* Why didn't I think of this before? These blocks would have gone so much faster!

Two days, nine blocks, one design and a bunch of pre-cutting done. It's been a good weekend.

Attack of the Farmer's Wife

I'm finally back to my Farmer's Wife blocks. I've already decided that I'm going to call this quilt The Farmer's Widow. Why? Because I just wasn't happy with the randomly scrappy blocks at all. Mind you, I love scrappy. Just not uncontrolled scrappy. I'm happiest having control over my color palette.

I decided everything needed a touch of neutral fabrics/colors in order to tie the blocks together. I haven't decided on my setting or sashing yet. I'm not sure that I want to just sash them and call it done. I'll think I'd like my setting to not be so simple as plain sashing.

#002 Autumn Tints

I love the big circle print. The circles are perfectly 3" in diameter, perfect for this block. It's got a great weight and feel to it. And, would you believe that it's a Walmart fabric?!? I promise, I'm not kidding. I took a chance a few shopping trips ago and saw that Walmart had precuts on clearance. Regular price works out to be $5 a yard. I think I paid $3.50 a yard. I'm pleasantly surprised!

#004 Basket Weave

I switched the way the quadrants were laid out, to avoid  the look of a swastika. I also wanted to make sure that the lighter fabrics were on the outside, in case I decided to sash or set with a darker fabric.

#009 Box

Super easy block to put together. I think it took me maybe fifteen minutes of sewing, tops. I just can't imagine using templates when rotary cutting a block like this is so much faster.

#012 Broken Sugar Bowl

I couldn't see wasting the extra HSTs I would have had leftover from the strips I used to put #009 Box together, so I just used the same fabrics in this block. I like the contrast of the super red print against the gray.

#016 Calico Puzzle

Another super easy block. I really love the plum color against the mustardy green print. I think it gives this block a very Asian feel.

That's it for the Farmer's Wife/Widow blocks today. Keep an eye out here. I've a bunch of bright blocks that I made for this quilt sampler that just don't work for the new color palette. I'll be giving those away here. I'll also be hosting a give-away for an entire quilt top. It's time for me to just start letting go of some projects.