The Farmer's Wife Sampler QAL, Book Review and Sunday Stash

Two weeks away. Two posts in one day. I have a reward waiting for me when I finish my swap obligations. The Farmer's Wife Sampler QAL which I believe will be the largest QAL in web history to date. There is the Flickr Group and tying in with that the Yahoo Group which will help line you out on about any issue. I thought I would be able to start on time but not to be. My book arrived and I began to read it. I couldn't stand it. It should be a staple in most quilt libraries. I believe it will be by the time this quilt along ends. That is the thing. I do not think it will end. As more and more quilters enter our internet community and begin quilting they are going to eventually face this quilt along. Reading online at the difficulty with templates, blocks and, oh my gosh, what fabric? I have read everything from our modern sisters to the civil war repro women. They have an entire group of their own!

The book is fascinating with letters from women accompanying the pictures and instructions for two blocks of the 111 blocks that make up the book. I have a feeling I will be transformed to the farm when I get going. I cannot wait. Oh yes, it has a CD in the back with the templates for the blocks. So, this book gets an A++ and I know I did not need to review it as you are probably already working on yours.

The second book gets an A++ as well if you like to make bags and Amy Butler bags at that. Style Stitches gives you a total of 26 bags by giving options of sizes which can be a problem with her patterns. There is not one bag in this book that I would not want to own. Some are very time and material intensive, but most are no worse than The Birdie Sling which I think a lot of us have made.

love the ruffle on that bag.

Time for some eye candy. Thanks to Pink Castle Fabrics, Cias Palette,  Fabricworm, Sew Love Fabric and  The Intrepid
Thread on Etsy...whew! Good couple of mail weeks. It seems everything came at once....darn..I hate that!

Loulouthi

thanks to Lara for the AU DS prints

new pearl bracelets! Lizzy House

stuff i needed

bella solids

shot cottons...omg...you cannot imagine

let me help....you can see the colors..mouth waters...

Whew! Time to get back to sewing some of this stuff up!

I am also starving to death and I am certain my sweet hubby is.

Are there threads all over your house? Like all the time?

Do you have a lint roller in multiple rooms and the car?

mmm...hmmmm....thought so.

happy sewing

leslie

Time's UP! Bees, Swaps and Projects.

Hello friends. Where does the time go? How do some of the quilters and crafters get done in a week what takes me a month (or more) to complete. I think we all have a style. My style is circling the wagon. I get an idea and I drive myself crazy planning it. I can get quite carried away. By the way have you all seen Tula Pink's quilt Spacedust? Oh my. There are no words.

look at the quilting...geesh

 The reason I mentioned that is if you read how she came up with that design and the description of the drawing and layout you will kind of get the idea of how I do things. This is the drawing before the quilt.

Quote from Tula "  So this is the crazy map that was supposed to tell me what went where. I had this quilt idea pop into my head around three A.M. one morning. During this time of night my mind works a little differently than any other time of day. I remember this seeming extremely logical at the time."  

 The difference is obvious...hers turns into something awesome...mine turns into something less awesome that I sometimes have doubts about (see previous post which was ridiculous.)

So now I still have three more blocks to make because I had to pick the complicated block in the same months that i was leaving town and watching Mother in Law. I did manage to get the Mug Rug Adventure Swap 2 complete ON TIME! That is another thing. I had this idea and drew it out on paper and then spent days agonizing over the tiniest details.

Then if something could go wrong it did from thread issues to major mistakes. This mugrug has been ripped and reripped. In the end I think it turned out pretty cute although I should have appliqued the bubbles BEFORE I put the backing on. the bubbles are all different colors and although the bobbin thread was natural that much color cannot help coming through...oh well...character right?

Then there are always these lofty projects I see online. Angela at Cut to Pieces has an awesome tutorial for fabric organization here. I thought it was genius to use comic book backs to access your fabric. Let me tell you this is no small task for me. This is as far as I got with that.

I have another partial shelf but I went through 200 of these in a jiffy. This is some of what I have left..some. If you have a large stash I would suggest buying in bulk. I would start with at least 500. You can wrap everything from 1/2 yard up to...well..I did 3 on a few. Remember, a major destash awaits at the end and as I have missed any blogiversary I will be doing something special for my friends.

I am still trying to find a good scrap system. Any ideas? Seriously, I almost paid for a class. I may still if someone doesn't help me with a better system.

My poor daughter. Summer and pregnant. She had wanted an apron and I just love "The Pretty Ditty Apron" by Jamie Christina which I purchased here. 

What you see Hanging out of the sides is wide elastic which just sleeves through the waistband. I still need to add the waist ties which I will feed into the waistband several inches. Room to grow! I really love aprons. I kind of collect patterns...a few. I need to whip one out for me!

So that is what is going on at the moment. My reward for finishing is the beginning of what I think will be the largest quilt along ever.

Next post.

I hope all of you are caught up and have fabric that you love.

Leslie

Oh my....

I do not know how to blog and live my life at the same time. I am at the age where parents are beginning to be an issue. For the past two weeks I have had my mother in law with Alzheimers to give my husbands brother and sister in law a break. Even though I am a nurse by profession it is not a job for the weak at heart or anyone with a hobby...like sewing. If my camera battery had not died I would show you what I did manage to get accomplished which is organizing some of my fabric BUT the reason for this post is this.

Is this a stupid block? Do not be nice.

I need to make

four more blocks, they are time consuming and I have a backup block. I just do not want to give a stupid block. The colors were obviously aqua, orange and yellow. The person likes HR...well, who doesn't but have I stared at this block for too many hours and blinded myself against it? I have made only two of the six I am to make. Here was the initial one

I had no reservations about this one. Came together quickly and i like it.

Did my mother in laws alzheimers skew my thought processes and creativity

or am I just having a mini breakdown?

Help a girl out before someone gets a bad block.

If I were doing it again i would do a wonky log cabin in a circular design.

similar to this but not as structured.

thanks for your input!