Ta Da!

Farmer's Wife Center Complete!

Yes, it's been awhile since my last post.  Bet you can guess what I've mainly been working on...  Yep, my Farmer's Wife quilt center is now complete!  I absolutely adore it!  Pictures just don't do it justice.  It sparkles!

 

 

 

A girlfriend met me at the quilt shop this morning to hold my hand while I selected the border fabric.  Now that that step is done, guess what I'll be doing today and tomorrow?  Yep.  Good guess.  LOL.

Also, I'm leaving on Thursday to go up north for three weeks to visit family.  I'm really looking forward to it.  I miss them terribly.  It's been almost a year since I've seen my sister.  This time of year is very difficult for me emotionally, as it will be three years since my Chris passed away and also October 6 was our anniversary.  It would have been 34 years.  Sigh. 

 Anyway, I need to get cracking on this quilt.  I have to get it put together so I can drop it off to another girlfriend (and amazing quilter who uses her domestic machine!), who will put the finishing quilting touches on it.  It is going in our guild's Quilt Show this March.  My first quilt to put into a show ever.  Bit nervous here.  :o)

Quilty hugs,
Suzy

Quilters Against Kids Hunger and Homelessness

So proud to be a part of this group of wonderful women...

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My Farmer's Wife Blocks Are D-O-N-E Done!

Happy Dancing here!  This is one of the projects that has kept me from blogging more frequently.  My Farmer's Wife blocks are now DONE!  I'm so happy; yet kinda sad at the same time.  Silly, I know; but I have really enjoyed working on them.

Get ready for a block show:

Blocks 51-60

 

Blocks 61-70

 

Blocks 71-80

 

Blocks 81-90

 

Blocks 91-100

 

Blocks 101-111

If you missed the first show, you can click here for the first 50.

I went to the quilt shop the other day and purchased the fabric for my sashing, cornerstones and setting triangles.  I am going with a nice brown for the sashing, but wanted to brighten the quilt a bit by using a pretty gold for the cornerstones and a gold tone-on-tone for the setting triangles. 

I don't know yet what I will use for the borders.  I want to construct the center first and then take it to the shop to see what speaks to me.  I used all civil war repros in the quilt, so I know it will be a repro fabric for the border.

I see a lot of cutting in my future...as well as figuring out what blocks will go where in the quilt.  I think my first step will be organizing the blocks by colorway and then just playing on my "design floor" (otherwise known as the great room floor).  LOL.

Wish me luck,
Suzy

Memories...

First of all, I can't believe it's been almost two months since I last posted.  Where the heck has the time gone?!?  I know I've been busy doing stuff, so I will post soon about all the happenings around here.

For this post, though, I wanted to share a quilt with you all.  It really brought back a lot of memories...  I have recently been helping my elder daughter (33) redesign her condo in a sort of beachy/shabby chic vibe.  (One of the many things I've been doing these past two months.  LOL).  It is coming along nicely.  We play ideas off of each other really well.  :o) 

Anyway, I was there today running through final touches, and she mentioned that the quilt I made her when she was 19 would look really nice with the décor.  Terrible mother that I am, I couldn't for the life of me remember the quilt.  She even told me I had written a really nice poem on the label.  Man, was I ever scratching my head.  I know I've made many, many quilts since I started quilting in 1997, but you would think I would remember the ones I've made for my own children!  Jeez.  What a bad mommy. 

Anyway, I asked her to get it for me, and as soon as she brought it out all the memories came flooding back.  Some were still a bit foggy, but we're talking 14 years ago, right?  Of course, I wanted to take pics.  So I'm sharing them here for posterity.  The pic of the quilt isn't very true to color.  The yellows are much brighter and happier, not so cheddar looking; and that's a pretty minty/sage green as the contrast.  I'm so glad she still loves it all these years later.  :o)

May I never forget...
Suzy

Puzzlemania

Wanted to pop in and show you a little quilt I'm doing for an auction held by NQA.  It measures 18" square and I just need to stitch on the binding.  The puzzle technique was taught in a class given by our charity guild -- Coastal Quilters.  We all did one and we were told to bring a coloring book drawing (I used a drawing from EQ -- I'm not sure if it came with EQ or was an add-on program--I'm thinking the latter).  Once in class, we traced the drawing onto freezer paper, then just drew random lines around the drawing, cut out all the freezer paper pieces on the drawn lines, and fused our chosen fabric, etc.  I'm sure I'm not explaining it correctly, but it was easy and fun. I did mine in a quilt-as-you-go method, using satin stitching to hide the fused section joins.
 

Everyone's is different, depending on the drawing they used and their individual fabric choices.  Didn't it turn out cute, though?

Feeling fishy,
Suzy

Finally Over The Blues

This project has been in my UFO bin pile since probably the late '90's -- not long after I first started quilting.  When I picked it back up the other day, there were four "9-patch" blocks assembled and 12 of the alternate blocks were done.  I think I was planning on doing more, as I also had a stack of various blue fat quarters also in the bin...and a large amount of yardage of the blue plaid.

Well, after I made 9 more of the "9-patch" blocks and layed them out alternating, the blue just overwhelmed me.  I like blue fine, but it just didn't talk to me.  I knew I needed another color to give it some interest...and so I started playing.  I pulled several different fabrics from my stash closet (yep, trying to use some of my stash here, as well as tackle my UFOs).  At one point I even toyed with the idea of red/white/blue, but didn't have enough of the red/white background that I thought looked nice with it.  This layout with the gold also happens to be the one that I chose first, and it works for me.  I kinda like the "country" feel the gold gives it.

It feels wonderful to have one less UFO taunting me from the closet.

Here's to more UFO progress,
Suzy

Scrappy Trippin'

My Scrappy Trips top is now done!  It's huge -- 96x96!!!  There are 1,460 squares in it.  Yes, that's crazy...but it was so fun!  :o)

On to the next project,
Suzy

Dancing Baskets

I have another UFO finished into top form.  This one will be called "Dancing Baskets," unless I can come up with something wittier between now and when it's time to put the label on it.  LOL.  I'll be sending it out to be quilted as it's queen-sized.  I really like how it came out.  Wasn't sure about the blue borders, but they have grown on me.

I'm currently working on the quilt I will be teaching at Kids Quilt Camp this June.  No pics yet.

Hope you all are having productive days as well.  :o)

Chuging along,
Suzy

Farmer's Wife Blocks 1-50

Hi all!  As promised, I'm finally getting around to posting the progress on my Farmer's Wife blocks.  I'm almost at 60 done, but since I'll be posting in groups of 10, I've got the first 50 for your viewing pleasure.  You can click on the pics to enlarge them.

Blocks 1-10



Blocks 11-20

Yes, that black, red and ecru one is supposed to be pieced like that.  :o)



Blocks 21-30



 Blocks 31-40

Two still need the paper removed.

Blocks 41-50

Three still need the paper removed.

Hope you enjoyed my little block show!  :o)

Quilty hugs,

Suzy