Some Stripping, Stitching & a Possible Head Exam

Hi everyone!!  I have to thank all of you for your wonderful comments on the Farmer's Wife quilt.  I still look at it and can't believe that it's finished.  I'm almost sad that journey is over.  One little thing I didn't mention when I posted last time was that when I sat down at the machine to clean it up, oil her and start on a new project - the foot pedal took off like a demon with its tail on fire!  I don't know what I did -   I must have been pushing it too hard, but that foot pedal is shot.  Thank goodness I had another one from the other 301A that I have, and a totally new one arrived this week.  Can't be caught without a foot pedal!  But again, thank you for all your wonderful comments and encouragement while I was working on it.  But again I'm kind of sad it's finished - so sad that I decided to get myself into another mess - and this may be the reason I need to have my head examined:

The Phebe Quilt!!!  I have lusted (okay, maybe not lusted) but have have really, really wanted to do this quilt when I first spied it a couple years ago.  I know - truly crazy right?  I don't really know how to hand applique either (I have an inkling, but I haven't done it in quite a number of years - like when the dinosaurs roamed the earth according to my kids - so let's say I know nothing about it, shall we?).  But the quilt reminds me so much of a sampler in the middle that I just had to go for it.  How could I not?  So I ordered the pattern when I saw it and there is sat for the past couple years.  But the Gods must have been shining on me because I found a BOM program and it starts next month!  I can't wait, but I think I'm going to need a lot of encouragement on this one (and probably that head examination - this is one large project)!!  And don't look for any quick finishes on this one either - I have a funny feeling the applique part won't be until the fall when I have time to sit down with it.

Even though the weather has been beautiful and my trusty companion Bailey and I have gone on more walks and field runs than I can count, I did manage to get a little stitching in:

I'm making slow but sure progress on Ann Rayner.  Still loving the colors and can't wait to have her finished.  Although I think that is going to take a while.  I'm barely past the half-way mark on her and there is a lot of grass at the bottom, but with the absolutely stupendous weather that we've been having here the past couple weeks, I've been hard pressed to sit down and stitch!  I did find that I made a mistake counting in the right hand border so that's something I'm going to have to address soon (ugh-FROGS), but she is a joy to work on.

Now the stripping - no, nothing offensive here - this is a PG-rated blog, but I have been stripping - with fabric:

I had to keep myself occupied while waiting for Phebe so on a couple days when it wasn't that great out, I started stripping.  I only have to make about a bazillion of these things.  They will be cut up and made into Nine Patch blocks something like this:

This is a scrappy quilt and you're suppose to cut the strips into new strips and then put them together in a random order to make scrappy nine patches.  I'm still sewing strips, but maybe this week I'll get those finished up.

We've been enjoying the most unseasonable weather that we've ever seen in Michigan for March - like can you say 86 degrees on Thursday and temperature records broken all over the place?  It's been wonderful, and things have blooming right and left:

The bright side of all this weather is seeing everything bloom and green up and it was still winter!  The down side is that we're in for frost this week.  Not good and could play havoc with our fruit producers in the state.  Our state is big on apples, cherries and peaches, among other things.  Fingers crossed that they're very mild frosts.

And on another note, please send thoughts and prayers for my MIL.  She's almost 85 and took a tumble down her stairs this week.  Actually this is the second time she's done this.  The first time she was just scraped up a little, but on Friday she took another tumble and fractured her pelvis (hairline, thank goodness), fractured her shoulder and her wrist in five places.  She's in good spirits and will have surgery on her wrist on Tuesday.  That woman is a little spitfire and can run circles around me.  She's going to hate having to take it easy for a while.

Well, that's it for me this week.  I hope that everyone has a great week and gets a lot of stitching in and some great weather too, and thank you again for all your comments on the FW quilt.

And now I think I need to get back outside.  I just mentioned to Bailey that it might be time for another walk:

Is he smilin' or what???