dappled sunshine on my Vintage Farm Girl blocks

We've had our killing frost here in central Ohio,
and Autumn weather has arrived.
Sunny, crisp, and a warm breeze trying to warm things up!
It was such a beautiful day today,
so I went out and walked around the back yard
(rather the back garden if you're from the other side of the pond - 
or so my Dutch friends tell me).

Whilst enjoying the weather and my walk, 
I realized it would be a great idea
to photograph my lastly made blocks
from the Vintage Farm Girl sew along!
(Yes, the sew-along is finished, but I'm still working on mine!)

I had a whole STACK of VFG blocks I'd made
and sandwiched in my pattern book,
so I checked to see what I'd already photographed, and
I guess when you have a stack of blocks almost 20 high
that it's waaaay past time to share!! :)

Notice the leaf that came to visit in the last picture?  
The wind picked up and that beauty fluttered in!

 I left the leaf there when I placed my next blocks:

 I laid out the following blocks, and another leaf came to visit, too:

 I LOVE all of the blocks, and have been doing them very scrappy.
I did do just a little fussy-placement of fabric when I did that last block, above ^.
Here's a closer view:

Wowza!!! NINETEEN blocks I hadn't shared! 
I didn't know it was that many!
I already have the next few blocks cut out, 
which leaves maybe only another six, so the end is in sight!!  

Oh, but I don't have my border fabric chosen for this.
I really should think about that, shouldn't I?

Thanks for visiting, 
and I hope your day has been filled with dappled sunshine, also!

things I haven't shared... and small quilt swap

Sounds deep, doesn't it.
Well, some of it is.  Deep that is.
Personal grief is something I've not shared here much.
(If you are a pray-er, please add me and my family to your list, thank you.)
But I believe there is a higher power
and a reason for things happening - reasons I just don't know, yet.
And out of it, comes strength, and deepening love.

So, out of the deep and into positiveness -
Also lately, I haven't shared much in the way of quilting fun.
I participated in a small, primitive quilt swap
and this is what I sent to my swap partner, 
Roberta of New York.
So My Ohio Geese flew to New York:

Not the greatest of pictures, with no staging or softness, but at least I got a picture before I mailed it!  I almost had it packed for shipping when I realized that I didn't have a picture.

I love flying geese, and I love the log cabin block,
so I put those two together and made her a 'Geese through the Cabin' little quilt!
I used some of my favorite browns and oranges, and some muslin for the geese,
and quilted it with my Sashiko machine in a dark ecru quilting thread.

I have shared the next photo before,
but I think, it's nice to put the two swap quilts together in a post -
the little quilt I received back in exchange -
the New York Geese that flew to Ohio:

I think it's great that we both did flying geese in our swap quilts
even though it wasn't a theme!! 

Thanks for visiting, and thanks in advance for prayers sent my way.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

another meandering

My friend, Janet,
I swear is trying to make me look bad!
Not really -
but I just quilted another quilt for her
and it's for her Christmas gifting!!

Yep, she has a whole stack of quilt tops ready for me
to quilt for her and her gifting this year!!
This is the most recent one I got to meander over:

Isn't it a great one??!
I think the fabric was Monsters Inc.
and was SO nice to quilt, with perfect piecing and pressing!
Makes my job fun even more fun!!

Happy Autumn to you!!
and hope you've had some stitching time (or relaxing), also!

wedding quilt gift finished

So only after 4 years - I have a wedding quilt ready to gift!!
YAY, me!

It's a big one!, and I love it.  It will be hard to gift, that's for sure.
I gave the wedding couple the choice of colors, and design.  
They chose the Ohio Star (like the one I'd made for the groom's sister's wedding quilt), but I didn't hear their color decision for a couple of years.
Then I took my time making it -
so now, for their fourth anniversary,
it's a finish!

I used fabrics from my stash, mainly from the lines of 
Kathy Schmidt - Piecemakers,
Laundry Basket Quilts - Snow Bird, and
Minick & Simpson - Lexington

The pattern I used is from an older book -
40 Fabulous Quick Cut Quilts by Evelyn Sloppy.
It's a great book, and well worth the original price.
Now it's available (through Amazon and others) for ridiculously low prices.
I've used many patterns over and over from this book, and
each has been a wonderful finish.
Definitely worth adding to your library!

getting ready for Autumn

Long time no visit!
Lots of stuff going on around here -
some good, some sad,
but all in all, life is good.

I received a little quilt in a swap that I participated in:

It sure is a cutie and I love it!
I love the flying geese, especially.
Thank you so much, Roberta!!

Today, I mailed the little quilt that I made for the swap
(for Roberta),
so she should have it in time to welcome the arrival of Autumn.
I won't share the quilt top, yet,
but here's a peek of the back:

Also, I've been doing some cleaning in the 
sewing room, aka studio.
No pictures of that, but
does anyone else have enough fabrics and supplies 
to last more than their own lifetime?

That's all for now - I've been doing some commission quilting,
so pictures of that to come.

bow ties

I enrolled myself into another block swap!
Woohoo!
Do I have my last year's four-patch exchange blocks 
put into a quilt top yet, you ask?
Well, no.  
But that's part of the fun for me...
not just the making of the blocks, 
but mailing them off, 
knowing that they are traveling to places I've never visited, and 
to fellow quilters that I've never met.
Then, in turn, awaiting the arrival of the exchange blocks that someone else made for me,
looking at all of the different fabrics from 
quilting friends around the whole country, and even world!!!

This time, it's a bow tie block exchange that Barb offered 
about a month ago,
with Civil War reproduction fabrics and muslin.
There are forty-one people in the exchange, 
and I needed to make two blocks 
(of different fabrics) for each person,
equaling 82 total, four-inch finished bow ties.
  
And they are not due until the end of October.
So, YAY, me!
Finished and ready to mail!
and it's still early September!!

Labor Day!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!
Here in the U.S. of A., today, Monday, is Labor Day.
The Labor Day holiday is traditionally the end of our Summer.
I've been laboring, but the fun kind of labor -
keeping the grand kiddos whilst their parents move into their new home.
Also, I've been having fun, doing some of the cooking and hauling meals over to them while they concentrate on the actual labor. :)

Just yesterday, I was able to deliver my gift quilt
to Poppy and meet her as she came to visit at just a week old!
She's such a sweetie, and I'm sure she loves her quilt as much as I loved making it for her!

Last week, I also stitched up some more of my Farm Girl Vintage blocks...
I'm loving making these six inch blocks!

 

 And, I don't think I showed the ones I had done the week before,

so here they are:

 

Back to Labor Day plans,
the grand kiddos are coming over again today (while SonnyBoy continues his unpacking), so we have great plans - swimming and enjoying the 90+ degree weather; also we'll have a hot dog roast as we have some downed branches to make a little bonfire.
Later tonight, THE Ohio State Buckeyes have their season-opener football game, so there will be some home-gating/football watching going on around here.  

Hope your weekend is grand, also!

what do you do to get out of a slug-fest?

Do you ever get into a sewing/quilting funk? 
If so, what do you do to get out?

Since I don't really know what started my 'sluggishness'
about a month ago,
I didn't know what to do or how to get back 
to my normal, stitching, self.

But what I finally did?
I learned something new!!!
I made myself do something that
I've been going to do for over a year -
but kept putting off...
I loaded some fabric onto the long-arm machine
and did some free-motion Baptist Fans!!

Doesn't look too bad from this far away. Ha ha.
Not the greatest quilting I've ever done;
but not at bad as I thought it would be 
for a first time effort.

I started by marking blue, inch-apart-dots on only the first two fans, 
which you can kind of see in the above picture.
I only marked those first two fans, 
thinking I'd get the feel of the spacing and rhythm 
while moving the long-arm machine and going dot-to-dot.
My hope was that after those first two fans, 
I'd be able to replicate that spacing and rhythm across the loaded fabric sandwich.  And it worked...
there are areas in which I'll need to improve...
as I don't like the rounded-ness of the end of the arcs, 
show here:

But, there is the whole 
"if you can't see it while going by on a galloping horse" theory, right?
It sure feels good to out of the slug-fest!

Happy Thursday!

still being sluggish

I don't know what's going on with me!
The weather, the phase of the moon, the season?
Whatever it is,
it needs to GO!
No more being a blog slug!
The only stitching I HAVE been doing?
Binding and more binding.

I do have a baby quilt gift completely finished though,
and the baby was just born yesterday!!
Welcome Poppy!

 I even used more from the stash for the backing.

So, back to my sluggishness...
Maybe only doing bindings is my problem?
How many pictures of binding
can I share on here without it looking like a re-run? :)

So, I made myself go load some fabric on the long-arm machine.
And then did something that I've been telling myself to do for over a year!

I tried something new.  (Thanks Great-Grandma B!*)
And that is my way to get out of my 'being a slug' routine!
(* if you've not read about my 'out loud' promise to my Great-Grandma B,
you can CLICK HERE to find out more.)
I'll share pictures tomorrow of my newest project-of-learning.
It's a plan.  I'm no longer a slug!
Happy Wednesday to you!

I've been a blog slug

The busyness of Summer-time hit me the last few weeks,
and I've been having fun, fun, fun.

After a really nice family vacation and 
then three really, really nice family reunions
(two of them held here at my home)
I'm about family reunioned out. :)
For the past three weeks,
I didn't even take the time to visit my favorite blogs.
(I miss you guys & gals!)
 
I was past ready to start this week with some meandering!
I did some free-motion climbing roses
on some great floral fabrics:

on a lap quilt that Vicki made,
for her daughter's 50th birthday:

Isn't it a beauty?
Just the break that I needed!

Now, I off to 'put up' some more squash,
as this week I've been zucchini-ed. 
:)

(Zucchini-ed: VERB - the act of dropping an abundance of squash, or other vegetables, off on unsuspecting neighbor's porches.

a full body workout

In anticipation of my paternal family reunion,
I washed all of the house windows, inside and out.
Does anyone besides me think that 
window washing should qualify as a full-body workout?
Really - 38 windows inside and out, 
and 6 of them are sliding glass doors.
(I was so achy the next day that I thought I might just need to take a day off!)

But here's the rub (teehee - rub :)
I had purchased a new product about a month or so ago -
a product that the sales gal said she just loves to use on her windows, including her car windshield.

So, after my 38 windows were all squeaky-clean,
I went to the cleaning cupboard and grabbed 
(what I thought was) the new Waxy-cleaning-stuff.
Read the directions, and squirted wax on the inside of 
my first sliding patio door and rubbed away.  
Looked pretty good!
Did the other three sliding patio doors (inside).
Then did them on the outside, too.
Called it a day.
I went and showered and had a sit-down/relaxing stitching time 
in my lazy-girl chair before bedtime.
The next morning, as the sun rose on my house
(and windows),
I realized that my squeaky-clean windows were a
waxy, smeary mess!!
And me so tired and achy that I just had to laugh!

Fast forward to the end of this week,
and I'm still cleaning in anticipation of the reunion...
and what do I find in the food pantry???
(I don't know why the food pantry, but that's where it was.)
The Glass Wax product that I had purchased!
Me, oh my.
So, today, I rewashed all of the waxed windows and sliders.

And then I waxed ONE of the sliders so see what happened
if I used the right product.

SO much better! and the see what happens with the right product?

Bad window washing job

a very good wax - NOT for windows!

I crack myself up.
So, now my windows look so much better.
AND, I've had two full body workouts this week!

 

needle turning time

Yep, I've done it again.
Signed up for another sew-along.
Happy time!
Or, maybe crazy time. :)

Karen (at Log Cabin Quilter blog)
asked if anyone wanted to join in, (and there were takers), 
so she organized a Sew Along.
The book being used is by Jeana Kimball
called Old Voices New Impressions.
I think most of the gals joining in 
are going to do the quilt on the back cover -
called Cranberry Album.
And the so-called rules for this sew-along are to
just share four blocks you've made, the end of each month.

Of course, I really wanted to start another project!!
I already had the out-of-print book...
Well, I had lent it out a long time ago, 
so I really didn't have it, have it.
But after some searching and asking around,
it's come back home, so I DO have it now.
AND!, I already have my sashing/border fabric:

The picture, above, shows my border fabric, 
some snowy-white muslin,
and the Cranberry Album quilt pictured on the back of the book.
I was going to use the above white muslin for my background fabric of the applique blocks,
but I did just restock (while on vacation) my light-colored repro-print background fabrics:

(Pardon the green campfire/marshmallow/s'more fabric in the above picture,
that's for the grandkiddos eye-spy quilt stash)

So, for the July-end-of-the-month sharing in the 
Old Voices, New Impressions Sew Along,
I don't have four blocks stitched,
but I do have my fabrics chosen! :)

Happy Day!

goodbye July, goodbye beach

July has flown by already!
I had 10 days (with most of the immediate family) at the beach,
and that also flew by.
I took along a whole tote bag of quilts that needed the
binding hand-stitched, but with the sunny beach calling my name,
just a little stitching happened. :)

My tote of quilts awaiting the hand-stitching binding

This is nearly the same 14-hour driving trip 
I've made three times in the last year and a half,
and this is the FIRST time 
I've been in a quilt shop on the way back or forth!
Some might say I have great restraint, :)
but in reality, it's just been a timing thing.
Anyway, this time I passed a Tennessee quilt shop during open hours, and found these:

Civil War reproduction lights for an upcoming project,
and a piece of cute campfire/marshmallow/s'mores 
to add to the eye-spy stash.

Now to motivate myself to get back to the
house cleaning and reunion prep!
Oh, and a little more stitching, too.

Happy Friday!

I had mail!

I so look forward to getting
'squish'y mail!

Don't you love the cover girl? :)
And now I can dream about more great quilts to make!
Because I don't have enough ideas of my own already!! haha

Oh, and look at those new fat-quarters that were packed into my envelope.
Drool!
Not a single one of them has a selvage with maker or designer though, 
so I don't know what they are. Yet.

meandering love

Meandering after the lightning and thunderstorms have passed:

 

The quilt that I had loaded on BigDD (the long-arm machine) last week

was a BIG one!  Big and beautiful! 

Bev did a wonderful job on this one for a Granddaughter's wedding gift.

It was king-sized, all batiks and perfectly pieced!

The colors reminded me of the ocean.

 So much fun to quilt for others!  I do have a hard time not wanting to make my own quilt exactly the same after I see how beautiful these quilts are that I get to meander over for others!

I hope you are enjoying your stitching time also,
and happy Monday!

more making hay while the sun shines

Last week when I shared my lack of
accomplishments I made in the sewing department
during all the bad weather we've been having,
I forgot to share that I did get another quilt loaded onto
BigDD - the long-arm machine:

The long-arm is one of the machines that I don't plug in while the electrical storms are visiting.
But, when the storms left town,
I was ready to start meandering.

making hay!

It's Summertime,
weather-wise, finally. :)
Hot, muggy, steamy, and even sunny!
Just the way it should be for mid-July.

With the last few weeks of nasty weather -
thunder, lightning and heavy rainstorms, 
you'd think I'd be so much further along with my
indoor activities, aka:  sewing, than what I am. 
But since I don't plug in my computerized electronics 
(sewing machines included) during such bad weather,
I don't have much to show in the way of progress...

Between storms though, I did sew this Farm Girl Vintage block:

Yep, I sewed ONE little six inch block.  

Oh, I also did cut out more fabric for my Farm Girl Vintage blocks...
but I only have a picture of one of the groups:

Above, that's six blocks, in six little piles,
on one of my portable design boards.
And below, is my method of organizing

the bazillion little pieces of each six inch finished block, 

on one of my design-boards,
readying them for sewing.
(: OK, really, this block only has 37 pieces. :)

My design-board organization 
is similar to that which the pattern designer 
(Lori of Bee in My Bonnet) uses,
except my little design boards are not as cute as hers.

I made my design boards by wrapping a scrap of batting
around the included plastic divider sheets from my ArtBin box,
then secured that batting on the back with painter's tape.
I'm pretty sure that Lori/Bee In My Bonnet didn't use painter's tape. :)

I'm off to make hay blocks while the sun shines!
Happy Monday,
and hope your day is sun-shiny, too! 

rain, rain, go away...

Here in central Ohio, we are enjoying 
(I use the word 'enjoying' very loosely)
more heavy rain, lightening and thunderstorms.  
Again.
Yesterday we had another 2 and a half inches of rain!
I don't know about you, 
but when those electrical storms are ongoing
(like they have been here recently),
I don't plug in any of my computerized machines,
like my sewing machines or the long-arm machine.
I figure it would only take one hit to electrically fry
the components of one of my favorite machines!
Are you the same way?


During the stormy days here, 
I have pre-cut and prepped many blocks -
ready to stitch anytime the storms are not visiting.
I've only stitched together ONE of my Farm Girl Vintage blocks this week!!

I have done some hand-stitching...  

I'm still whip-stitching together 
more of the potholder blocks of
my Flags of the American Revolution quilt.

Also, I've worked on binding another of the baby quilts to gift...

(I know some will notice and ask about the area that's not quilted in this picture... the bottom, left.  I left it un-quilted, so that I could later quilt/stitch in the baby's name and birth date!)

During this rainy-so-far-Summer, 
I've taken some time to visit some blogs -
to live vicariously through others' pictures of 
sunny days, trips and vacations.
 
My favorites are ones that shared their travel photos.
Not just any photos, but specifically 
to the New England Quilt Museum
and the Sister's Quilt show to name a couple.
But the one that has stuck in my head the most is
Wendy's, The Constant Quilter blog (link here),
from her trip to the Vermont Quilt Festival.
So many great pics of wonderful, vintage quilts.

All of those travel photos makes me want to do some traveling!
SO inspiring!; 
But all of those quilt-y photos also cause me a little trouble,
as it makes me really, really, really
want to start another project!!
I do remember my promise to myself 
to finish up some Quilts already In Progress...
I will finish another QIP first. 
I will finish another QIP first.
I will finish another QIP first.
:)

Hope you are having sunny, stitching days!

flower fun and another meandering

I recently saw this great display at a local nursery, 
and had to share the smile:

Makes me want to go round up all the old wagons I have stashed in the barn, and find a place to hang them! :)

Also, I got to meander over another baby quilt,
this time for Bev:
 
I think she chose great colors and prints along with a whole bunch of white-on-white fabrics.

I really liked the fabrics and colors and will have to remember this color scheme for a later date!

Thanks for visiting!
Hope your day is great!

more Farm Girl Vintage blocks

I'm continuing stitching and trying to finish up some
long awaited UnFinished Quilts/Projects...
which I shared about previously, here.
But, I also worked on my NEW project last week,
as I sewed together six more blocks for my
Farm Girl Vintage quilt!

I'm really enjoying making these blocks.
The book (by Lori Holt) 
has patterns for both 12 and 6 inch finished blocks,
and I'm making the six-inch square blocks,
so there are some really tiny cuts of fabric.

On the canning jars block (above, top-right),
the bottom of the jar corner-pieces are only cut at 3/4ths of an inch!
In my excitement of making these blocks,
I did have a little problem with the block called Corn and Tomatoes:

Yep, see the pieces to the left?  
I stitched the red polka-dot onto the background fabric
at the wrong angle.
Oops! had to make some new units.
Maybe, hopefully, these wrongly-made pieces 
will go into another block at a later date.

In regards to the UFQ/Progress:
I'm binding the next to last of the baby quilts that I need for this Summer gifting, and I've finished quilting the wedding-quilt gift, so it's ready to trim and bind.

Feels good to have progress -
progress on new and old projects!

Hope you are having a wonderful, happy day!