A BAP Wrap - The Farmer's Wife and a Little Stitching

It's a rainy, dreary day around here, but as far as I'm concerned the sun is shining because.....drumroll please!!!!!.............. The Farmer's Wife quilt is finally finished.  Woo Hoo!!!  After two years of stitching, ripping out seams, throwing pieces around the room (yes, that happened here and there - oh, and some swearing - did I mention that?) and countless bobbins of thread, she is finished.  Please excuse any wrinkles, threads, etc.  She hasn't had her final cleaning up or pressing, but I couldn't wait to show pictures of her.  So if you click to enlarge the pictures, just pretend you don't see the stray threads or wrinkles.

And a birds eye view:

She's a big one.  I can't tell you how hard it was to manipulate her through the final row of sewing.  I would have loved to get a picture of her outside, but it's raining buckets!!  Perhaps in the future I'll take her out and shoot some more pictures of her.

As there are 111 blocks in this quilt, I can't show all of them, but I'll show a few that stand out.

The Block from Hell - yes, this one gave me lots of problems - it was the one that originally came out looking like a volcano.  After cutting out and piecing another block, it's still not absolutely flat, but it's going to have to do.  It also doesn't have points that are defined.  Why sweat the small stuff, right?

The Fun Block - again, the points aren't sharp, but after 110 of these little babies, I was happy to have it finished.  This was the last block that I finished up.  In the instructions I had from the shop who supplied the Block of the Month, they omitted this block - they had instructions for a different block included twice.  Once I figured out which one had been omitted, I sewed it together and breathed a sigh of relief - and also had a glass of wine in celebration (okay - I had two glasses, but whose counting)??  One hundred and eleven blocks finished.  This one was fun and quick.

The Pointless Block - yes, I kept it and didn't do it over again.  I tried - I honestly did - by paper piecing - but paper piecing and I don't get along on a good day, so here it is:

And a Basket block - what would a quilt like this be without a basket block?

I learned a lot working on this quilt.  It was quite an experience sewing blocks that finish up to 6" inches compared to most of the quilts that I've worked on where the blocks finished up double in size.  There were a lot of small pieces - and some blocks - like the Pointless Block had at least 50 pieces.  And you know what is so funny?  Is that after all the cutting, ironing, swearing, ripping, etc., I want to make another one - or one similar!  I truly must be ill!  LOL

Because I've been spending so much time on the Farmer's Wife Quilt, I haven't had a lot of time for stitching, but I have made some progress on Ann Rayner.  I'm working on this piece for Becky's Challenge:

I finally managed to get off the alphabets and on to some of the fun stuff.  Don't you find that alphabets seem to take forever???  Ann is such a fun stitch - maybe because I'm using a 32 count fabric for her.  It's been easy and relaxing to work on.

So there you have what I've been up to the past couple weeks.  I'm noticed that I've picked up a few more followers in the past couple weeks!  Welcome!  And I'll check on your blogs soon.  I've been having problems with my gadgets and can't seem to add or delete people, so I think that I'm going to have to work on a complete blog overhaul here in the near future when I can find some time.  And I want to thank everyone for all your wonderful comments on my last post on Sun and Moon!  I tickles me to read them and I truly appreciate all your kind words.

And one final shot - guess who decided to make my quilt his own:

My buddy Bailey.  You can tell by the expression on his face he knows that he's not suppose to be sitting on that quilt!  LOL

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Such a Lackluster Month!

I looked at the calendar today and asked myself, "Self - what the heck happened to January?"  I think I said that last month and the month before too!  OY!  So little progress on anything and I've been trying like the devil.  My mojo is back, but there definitely seems to be a lack of time due to all that life stuff.  So before the end of the month hits us and we're into February, I figured I'd make a post on my rather lackluster doings in the craft world the past few weeks.  Finger's crossed February will be a more productive month.

First off, stitching on AWFAA has been really bad.  I went great guns on this sampler and then peetered out on the fill in - but I've loving the colors:

I was warned about how intensive that fill in can be, but I like fill-in stitching when I feel like being mindless and not having to refer to a chart much.  Obviously, I didn't have a lot of time to be mindless this month.

But there was other stitching.  I joined Becky's challenge and promptly picked out a piece to stitch.  But I changed my mind.  I really didn't want to start something "brand" new.  My goal this year is to finish up WIPs and work on stash where things are kitted and ready to go.  The operative phrase this year is, "Do not spend money - you own a small craft shop in the basement"!!!  Anyway, last year I had started Ann Rayner and got all of this far on my one day of stitching:

Wow! Leaves you breathless by all I got done, doesn't it?  LOL  Anyway, this was on 40 count linen and I just knew that when I came to the over one stitching, I would not be a happy camper.  So I restarted it:

This time I'm working it on 32 count Cafe au Lait and liking it much better.  Excuse the wrinkle marks.  For some reason, the fabric relaxed back and now I have wrinkles!  UGH!  Anyway, while I'm sure that it's a travesty to do this sampler on a whiter and larger larger count linen, it's a welcome break from working on the 40 count fabric that AAWFAA is on (and a lot of my other starts from last year also).  So this will be my challenge piece - it's a new start for the new year.

I also finally tamed the savage beast with the knitting and got those YO's down pat and started on my daughter's scarf.  I had quite a bit of yarn left over from the Guernsey scarf and DD picked out a pattern, asked for a gray scarf and this is where I am - probably 1/3 finished - she wants a long scarf:

It goes rather quickly with repeats of eight rows.  I'm almost loving it so much, I might have to make one for myself!!

Then I've been doing some quilting.  In that attempt to get rid of WIPs both in stitching and quilting, I went back to the Farmer's Wife and was able to attach three more rows of blocks.  I really, really wanted to start working on the Cotton Club (a BOM that I started receiving last year), but I just knew that if I did that, the Farmer's Wife would just remain a pile of blocks (you can click on the picture for a close-up, but please excuse any stray threads).

I love this quilt more and more as I get each row attached.  When I got to the next row of blocks, I hit a road block and in trimming down the blocks to prepare them for the sashing, I found that one block - if I trimmed it down to the correct size, I would be sewing too far into the block and not have points!  UGH!  So that is a block that I will have to redo.  At that point, I stopped putting rows together until I could remake that block.  Then I realized that I didn't have to follow the book exactly and line my blocks up like the designers.  No, this is my quilt and I could do what I want! (why am I suddenly hearing Leslie Gore's song, "It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To" in my head?????)  Anyway, I'll leave that block until the end and put it there.  There is one other block that I have to redo because - well, it looked like a volcano at the end of putting it together - so when I'm in the piecing mood I'll make those two blocks over again.

And last but not least, I did a little bit of handwork.  Now, normally I hate handwork.  I used to do it all the time when I made dresses and costumes for my daughter, but ask me today to sew on a button or anything like that, and I run in the other direction.  I don't seem to have the patience for it (probably why I don't hand applique).  But I had a couple small kits for scissor fobs that I had received from my Guild and we're to receive another one next month, so since it's a good thing to clean out some stash, and the fact that my bazillon pairs of scissors mostly do not have fobs, I made up the couple kits that I had - a watermelon and strawberry:

And you know, I so enjoyed doing them, that I searched around for some more things to do.  Maybe there is hope for an applique quilt yet.

And I'll leave you with this picture:

Now what's so interesting about this picture you ask?  Well, it snowed yesterday.  Why was I excited?  It was coming down in huge flakes and the ground was covered!  We here in Michigan have been snow starved this year.  We'll get a little bit and then it warms up and melts, and I don't think that the ground has been covered yet this year.  In fact, it's been so unseasonably warm here that Ice Festivals and tournaments that are held on the lakes have been postponed for a month, hoping that February will be more seasonable.  So the snow is a beautiful thing to see.  Even my daughter smiled when she saw the snow.  Alas, I understand that it will be short lived.  I hear temps are rising again in a day or two!

So that's the report this time around.  Not much for 20 days of work.  But all those little bits of progress will eventually end up in a finish, right? I've managed to find a couple new things to add to the craft room (yes, one or two more sewing machines among other things), and some vintage things from my grandmother that I discovered in a box in addition to some things I had as a child.  It's always a delight to find those things especially when they are from family.

Hope that everyone has a great week!

Where Would I Be Without My Trusty Assistant?

I'd probably not be pulling every hair out of my head!

Lately I've been in a real quilting tear!  I can't get enough of it.  But do I get what I want done?  No!!  The reason for not getting done what I'd like to is this:

Yes, Mr. Bailey.  He silently snuck into the living room while I was laying out these blocks (where he isn't allowed - I thought he was sleeping) to get in on the photo shoot.  He's so sweet, so cute, but WHAT A TERROR!  A terror on four paws.  Huge paws!!! But how can you do anything but love him with a face like that???

But Mr. Bailey doesn't like me doing the things that I like to do.  Try to clean during the day?  Oh no, he's not up for that.  Trying to sew during the day - nope - not up for that either.  If I take him downstairs with me, he's after something - biting on the iron cord is not a good thing.  If he asks to go outside, I put him out, but he must have some kind of radar that alerts him to the minute I put one foot on the basement stairs or try to run the vacuum.  He barks like a fool to come in.  My neighbors don't say anything, but..........  So I've been resigned to sewing after dinner, making nocturnal visits to the basement and hoping that the stairs don't creak.  I know that he's going through his toddler stage, but what a bunch of work.  And what a sweetheart!!

He's growing like a weed - about 40 pounds.  Here's a couple more pictures and then I'll get on to what else is up:

Excuse the laundry - it's wash day, but DD decided to see how Bailey's sleeping accommodations are.  And then while Bailey looks small, he's growing like a weed.  My daughter's 5'4", so he's getting pretty big.  He has so much energy!!!!

And trying to look innocent (but don't let the face fool you):

Anyway, I've been on a real tear with the quilting.  I've finished off about 13 of the 18 blocks that were backed up on the Farmer's Wife quilt.  It took me three days to cut those blocks out, and one day to put them together.  Intensive cutting!

I still have a few more to go - the harder ones.  Some of these have so many small pieces!  UGH.  But I'm making progress - doing the happy dance and then..........cue in the Psycho shower scene music............ this arrives:

Next months' fabric.  OY!!!!  Is there no rest for the wicked?  But I now have 59 out of 111 blocks finished (refer to first picture with Mr. Bailey), so I'm doing a happy dance.  Hopefully in a few days I will be completely caught up!

In stitching news - not much at all - a little progress on Mary (that I'll post another time) and a little bit on Elizabeth Clayton:

The letters are taking me soooooo long.  Of course some of the letters and borders are in eyelet stitch, which I like to do, but seem to take me a long time.

In other news - not that much.  Still playing around in the craft room trying to see what works best for the things that I do.  I realized one day that I was wasting a perfectly good wall for some storage - a wall behind a door in which Mr. Santa resides until the holiday season.  As all my fabric is packed in those huge Rubbermaid bins, getting to it is a chore, so I went from this:

To this:

Cheap bookcase from Walmart to store just a small part of my fabrics.  DH made the observation that I needed about 10 of these to store all my fabric.  Unfortunately he's right, but at least it's a start!!!  Once I fill this baby up, it will be a beautiful thing!!!  DH actually L-bracketed the bookcase to the wall because he's sure that it will topple over once I pile the fabric into it!!

Well, it sounds like Mr. Bailey has wound himself around the basketball post again so I need to rescue him!  Pray for me that DH finally springs for the electronic fence!

Thanks again for all your wonderful comments.  I truly love receiving them.  And even if I haven't left a comment on your blog recently, I have been stalking lurking and I'll get back to commenting soon.