FWQAL Block No. 13 - Buckwheat

I did some more farming this week. It didn't take too long to whip up this block because already had all of the pieces cut out.

The fabric is from Anna Maria Horner, naturally, as I am using all of her prints and her solids for this quilt. 

 

 All 40-something pieces cut out!  Yeesshhhh that was a lot of cutting.

You'll notice that there is something so fantastic about the LouLouthi line. Look at the two different purple prints above. Well, look below. Both prints came from the same fabric piece. Anna's fabric lines really are so versatile! It just took a little fussy-cutting, and It's like I've got 2 different fabrics!

 

All of those tiny pieces became this block below. I was just beginning to think that my piecing was getting a bit better and more accurate, then, I worked on this block and that all went out the window. It was a wicked struggle for me. As seen below.... relatively sub par piecing! That's OK though, I tried reallllyyy hard. That counts for something, right?

These are all of the blocks I have completed so far. Check them out on my flickr page.

 

Thanks for stopping by.

HOLLER!

Some Farming

I am happy to report that I did some farming this week. By farming, of course, I am referring to working on the Farmer's Wife quilt as party of the Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-long that is being hosted by fellow blogger Angela @ Fussy Cut and one of her friends. I am so far behind it is almost overwhelming to think about, so I am not going to think about that anymore. I am just going to chug along at my own little slug pace over here. 

For those of you who are new to the blog, I am participating the the Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-long. You can check out my initial blog posts on the whole QAL here and here.

This weekend I worked on block no.12 - Broken Sugar Bowl!

 

As noted in my previous posts, I am working up these Farmer's Wife blocks exclusively in Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush, Loulouthi and solids. 

I swear, the most TEDIOUS part if this whole process is cutting out all of that fabric. Does anyone else find it almost unbearable??? I actually cut these out like months ago, when I had some free time, and then whipped up the block in less than an hour. If only the entire project came pre-cut, that would be a DREAM. But then again, it's not about the destination, it's about the journey bla bla bla.

I was proud of myself, because when making this block I did some string piecing for the first time. It was sooo easy and just totally made sense. Can we say that's one knocked off the bucket list? I am trying to learn as many useful and time-saving techniques as possible and this was definitely one of them!

Too see all of my completed projects, food, etc. check out my flicker account as well as the "Finished Projects" page here on my blog. 

Here is a shot of all the Farmer's Wife QAL blocks that I have finished so far! I like some of them better than others, but I think that's just how it goes. Anyone out there have a favorite???

HOLLER!

Try, Try Again

Reluctantly, I tried this block again. There was no way that I was going to cut all those pieces again, so I ripped apart the entire block and re-did it. 
 
I am not entirely happy with how it turned out. All of these triangles were wicked tough for me. Some of my points look alright, but then I look at all of the mess-ups. Oh well. Looks like I will have A LOT of practice with triangles while working on this quilt-a-long.

AND I absolutely love the color combination. I want to do an entire quilt with this deep tealy blue and olive-ish green.

I do really like how all of my blocks are coming along. The only one I really don't care for is the Block #1 Attic Window. It is the block on the far left corner there. Yellow middle. 




About once a week we have a big Caesar salad with grilled chicken and croutons for dinner. I think that it's my favorite meal. Take a look at our homemade croutons.

Just another looksie --

Check out my flickr photos for more Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-long photos.

Holler!

FWQAL Block #9 "Box"

My initial plan was to make blocks in the order they appear in the book. Like, number 1, then 2 then 3. As my post before mentioned, I am having trouble with block number 7. So last night I went to move onto number 8, and couldn't find my template #7 needed to make the block. 

Soooo I moved on to number 9, Box.
 

These are my fabric choices. They are both from Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush line.

This cutting was SO much easier than the 40 pieces I had to cut out for my last block. Thank God.

 

All done! This block was pretty easy. Sooo much easier than the last. I really like how it turned out.

Here are all of my blocks finished so far. You like?

Check out my flickr account with all my Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-long photos thus far. Enjoy.

Holler!

Block #7 Birds in the Air?

I started working on block number 7, Birds in the Air.

 

 (Fabric: LouLouthi and Anna Maria Horner solids)

Holy CRAP were there a lot of pieces to cut out. I think that there were 40 pieces in total. Phew.

Started piecing:

All done piecing, almost!  Doesn't that look fantastic? I am really digging this color combo.

And then....oh no! What happened here? Why are my #8 templates so much smaller than my pieced #13's? AHH.

Does anyone know the answer? I mean, I meticulously pieced this baby. I used my 1/4 inch foot and still measured seams to make sure that I was in line. Boo.

Also, see the picture above? Umm... yeah.... apparently my tension was WAYYYYYYYY off while piecing this entire block. I may have to scrap it entirely and start all over. I really do not want to do that because cutting all of those templates out was not exactly enjoyable.

Anyone else have this issue? Any suggestions?

Holler!

Back at it this week

Oh Boy. Remember the Farmer's Wife Quilt A-Long I joined 4 weeks late and am now 16 weeks behind in? Umm, yeah. I am going to get on that this week. 

In case you aren't familiar, it is a Quilt A-Long that a TON of bloggers are participating in, all over the world. The finished quilt will consist of 111 blocks, and we plan on doing about 2 blocks per week. I am VERY behind. 

My previous posts on this subject are:

• Like a Lemming
• Quilt Fabrics
• I got it, I got it! 
• Block No. 1
• Block No. 2
• Block No. 3
• Block No. 4
• Block No. 5
• Block No. 6

Also, see my flickr photos of my progress on the QAL thus far. 

So, guess what I did today? I unpacked this box!

I also realized that the old method of cutting out the template, tracing it onto manilla folders, then cutting out the folders was not intelligent. I bet I was loosing some accuracy by cutting twice.

 (Old method)

So, given my unhappiness with my previous method. I took some suggestions and went Staples and had all of the templates laminated. I hesitated doing this because I thought that it would be wicked expensive. But... it was only $8.80 for the 5 sheets that I ended up needing.

 

I was pretty determined to get these all cut out today. I knew I that I would need some serious entertainment.....

1 HILARIOUS DVD later..... they are all cut out!

 

This week I am definitely going to be catching up. I don't plan on being fully caught up, but I really need to get back into this groove.

Stay tuned.

Holler!

FWQAL Block #6 Big Dipper

Here is the second installment of my Farmer's Wife Quilt-a-long blocks for Week 3. I hope you enjoyed the Bat Wing block from yesterday.

Block #6 is the Big Dipper block:

Here are the fabrics I chose. I am still second-guessing myself:

 

I only needed one template for this baby, but boy did it get a lot of use. I needed to cut out 16 of the same pieces:

Here are all of the pieces laid out and ready to go:
 

 Here is the block! Overall, it went together pretty easily. Although they call this block the Big Dipper block, it is an hourglass block pattern and I LOVE IT!
 

Here are my week 3 blocks:

Here are all of my blocks so far from weeks 1 thru 3:

 You can see all of my progress thus far at my flickr account.

Have a great weekend!

xoxo