Farm Girl Vintage Sew Along

I'm keeping up very nicely with the Farm Girl Vintage Sew Along. These are such cute blocks and I feel it's a great opportunity to sharpen my piecing skills. I'm making them all 6 1/2 inches. I think it will be a fun quilt! I've made 17 blocks so far. There will be 45 blocks when complete.

Here are the blocks I made in the last 2 weeks.

Farmhouse Block

Farm Fresh Flower Block

Feed and Seed Block

Fresh Pears Block

I'm using my stash only. I don't mind the backgrounds all being different. I think that will add a little interest to the quilt. It should turn out to be a whimsical quilt!!

FMQ Friday

I finally started to free motion quilt the sashing of the Ladies of Downton Abbey quilt. I had originally wanted to quilt this loopy pattern but I saw a few other patterns to consider. I tried quilting them and didn't like it very much, I tried to practice them but they still didn't look that good. So, I decided to go back to my original idea.

I'm glad I finally started it! I feel it complements the quilting I've done on the blocks. I think the amount of quilting will be consistent throughout the quilt. That's always a good thing! The picture above shows the back of the quilt.

This picture isn't the best but you can see the variegated thread surrounding 2 sides of this block. I'm glad I went with this pattern. There's a lot of sashing on this quilt but I'm happy I've started on it. Sometimes that first step is the hardest!!

Rock Candy

 

I finally found the time to make a Rock Candy Table Topper by Jaybird Quilts. I've had the pattern for quite a while. It was always one of the projects I wanted to get to "next". I also had the Sidekick Ruler which makes this pattern so much easier! (There is a template included in case you don't have the Sidekick Ruler.) The topper finished at 20 1/2" X 23". You also need 1 Charm Pack or 18 - 5 inch squares. I have a few charm packs but I thought the bright batiks would work out the best.

You make 6 sections that are made up of 6 diamonds and 4 triangles.

I sewed them into pairs.

Then I added another section to make one half of the topper.

I put 2 halves together.

All I had left to add were the borders.

It's done! It reminds me of my paper pieced hexagons for Arcadia Avenue. But no paper piecing! I have to machine quilt it. It will be nice to display during the summer. Hope you enjoyed seeing me make my Rock Candy Table Topper, It's a nice quick project that comes out great!

Happy Father's Day!

I just came from visiting my parents. I gave my dad the gifts from me and my family. We visited for awhile and started to look through some old photo albums.

This is me and my parents before my brother was born. My mother was pregnant at the time. I must have been 4 years old,

Here's a picture of my dad holding my brother. This must have been in 1962 which is the year my brother was born.

The old photographs made me nostalgic. I don't think I'd be a quilter if it wasn't for my dad. He was a tailor. As a little girl, I remember falling asleep to the sound of his sewing machine. My dad had the sewing machine in my room. I was always fascinated by it. I wasn't supposed to touch it but I did end up getting the needle stuck in my finger once. Oops!

My dad doesn't sew anymore. I feel as though I'm carrying on for him! It doesn't seem possible that so many years have gone by. I hope my own kids have nice memories of me as I do of my own parents.

Arcadia Avenue Blocks

 

 

Arcadia Avenue blocks are done! I'm so shocked to be done this quickly. I think I came up with a process that worked for me. Each block is made up of 12 paper pieced wedges. I would work on 3 wedges at a time. It only took for sessions to complete one block. I would spend a day or two sewing the wedges together to make the actual block. The blocks are grouped randomly in this photo. I still have to decide what color to make the background. Actually, the background is made of 2 different fabrics that are very close in color.

 

These are the last 2 blocks I made.

 

 

 

Find Your Way

 

 

Target Practice

 

I plan on finding my 2 background fabrics. I'll have to cut 60 degree triangles which seem to square up the hexagons. I have a few other projects to work on for now but I feel lost without my paper piecing! I've started knitting a new shawl. I'll share it with you next post!



More Farmgirl Blocks

 

 

Here are the latest blocks for the Farmgirl Vintage Quilt Along. This is the Crops Block. There are so many ways this block can be used! I've seen long "vines" of this block. I've also seen it paired with a floral block. So many possibilities!

This is the Egg Basket Block. This is one pretty block! I could see a whole quilt made of these blocks just using up my fabric stash!

These are all my blocks so far! I'm making the 6 1/2 inch blocks. There will be a total of 45 blocks. I'm having a great time making these blocks and using up my fabric stash. I'm just making 2 blocks per week. A nice summer project!

Mystery Quilt Revealed!

 

 

The Tewksbury Piecemakers had the last meeting of the year last night. We had a guest speaker, a raffle, an ice cream social and the reveal of this year's Mystery Quilt pattern. This quilt top is my version of the pattern. There are no directions for borders. I found this border online and thought it would look great with the pattern. I had enough fabric and preferred the quilt to be a little bigger. It finished at 66 X 96. A little bigger than I expected but that's fine with me!

The pattern was written by Debbie Caffrey and is called Just Around the Bend. It's made with just 3 fabrics. I added a different fabric for the sashing. I'm sure you could also add different fabrics for the border as well. I found it amazing that the last month's instructions included 11 different settings for the 24 blocks we made! This is quite the versatile block!

I have pictures of quilts made by fellow members using the same directions. The settings as well as the fabrics are all rather different. It's so fun to see how the quilts look after we all followed the same directions.

 
 

 
 

 
 
                                                                           

                                                                                              

 

 

 

                                                               

                                                                

Don't they all look lovely?? And so different! It's surprising that there are so many settings to choose.

 

This is next year's raffle quilt. The blocks were all made by various members of the guild. Each block was taught by Sally Palmer Fields. She was a local quilter who taught many of the founding members of our guild. Our guild will be 25 years old this year. The theme of this year's quilt show will be "Silver Threads"! So appropriate!

              

 

 



                                

Starburst

I finally finished Starburst which is Block 10 of Arcadia Avenue.  I've been piecing this poor block for days! I'm working on too many projects right now. I'm trying to finish the mystery quilt from my quilt guild. Our last meeting is this Tuesday and each of the participants is encouraged to bring in their quilt top. Of course, I have to finish the darn thing first! It is fun to see how different everyone's quilt top looks. I'll post pictures next week.

I'm also still trying to finish machine quilting Ladies of Downton Abbey. I'm working on hiding the threads. And I also started the Farm Girl Vintage Sew Along a few weeks ago. What was I thinking??

I only have 2 blocks left to piece for Arcadia Avenue. I'm hoping the mystery quilt will be done very soon. That only leaves 2 projects. It doesn't sound too bad!  I think I'll be okay!!

Here are all the blocks together! I love them! Hope you do too!!