Mrs. Farmer

I finshed sewing the blocks and sashing together, the way I wanted them.

I only made  four new blocks but only used three. I had all those blocks. Imagine having enough blocks tucked away to make two entire quilts. I love Sampler Quilts. Each block is so different.

I started to build the blocks into double blocks as those block were all different sizes.

The Bonnet on the right is a double block, with a couple little FW blocks and some strips added to make it 30.5. The one underneath is another double. I use the different size of bonnets, scotty, heart and half blocks. Then the single block was added which is 15.5 inches. These are large blocks that show of the design real well.

The middle section is made with the Farmer's Wife block in the middle and the small FW blocks (5.5). Above and below that middle section are two single blocks.

The first row has two double blocks and one single block at the bottom. The double blocks were the most fun to put together, it was like building something.

I will add a nice border to make it bigger and quilt it and show another pic when done.

Mrs Farmer

This block is called,  "Thirteen Squared". It could mean plots of land but I am making that up. Since this is my quilt, I guess I can take my own meaning to the blocks.

The Blocks are out of Block Base and sometimes edited in EQ, it all depends on what I want.

It's a 15 inch block. This will make me finish faster so I can start on a quilt that has been on the back burner for a while now. This block had a lot of angles and set in tri's and it took some time to complete. I had to rip a couple time, seams have to match lol.

Mrs Farmer

This is another quilt I am going to start working on with some blocks I have made already. I got started with the Farmer's Wife at my quilt board with the ladies, but soon grew tired of the little blocks like I did when I was doing, Dear Jane.

I got inspired to use the DJ's with some blocks that I found hidden away and it has in turn inspired me to use the FW blocks the same way. So far, this is how many FW blocks I have made. The blocks are 6 inches and take some time when they are that small.

The block in the center is a 15 ins. block and is actually call the farmers wife block. I love her. The block looks like a nice plump woman lol. I found this block in Block Base. I searched the web and she cannot be found lol.

I will be using EQ and Block Base. In Block Base I will pick out some farming blocks and print them the size I want (15 ins).. I will use EQ to make the Paper Piecing pattern if BB doesn't have one for that particular block....or draw my own block and make a pattern.

I have been playing lately with EQ and it is such fun and very user friendly. If you love to quilt, these are two programs that are a must have. Block Base has 4500 blocks, I think. I doesn't get any better than this.

I love the Farmer's wife block so much that I think I will make four more of her and dress her for church, gardning etc and put her in the four corners of the quilt. A red one in the middle would be stunning.

That all for now, I need to rest lol.

The Colorful Quilt All Done

Thank God lol. I really wanted to leave it and do something else but I had so much invested in it already, that I just had to finish and I am glad I did.

This is outside in the yard so you can see all the colors. I spray starched and blocked it with a steam iron. I checked to make sure the borders were all even. One wasn't. It could have happened by not paying close attention to the markers.

No problem, it is a patchwork quilt, so I inserted wedges to match were it was needed. I bet you can't tell lol.

I will post one more pic after it is quilted and then it will be on to other things.

All in all I did enjoy making this quilt. The instructions were so precise, it made the journey very enjoyable. I believe anyone can do this quilt. All that is needed is a little experience with quilting.

Cherry Pie

I haven't posted in here for a while. I think I'll do knitting and food and dolls in here. Check my other quilt blog here

Well today I made a scratch pie. Here it is ready for the oven.

I had three peaches, two pounds of cherries and blueberries. I mixed all the fruit. One lemon juice into which I put 3 tbl of tapioca flour, 3 tbl of turbino brown sugar. That's is not a lot of sugar and 2 tbl of butter.

I usually make a biscuit crust. 3 cups of flour, 1/2 stick of butter and 1/2 cup of sour cream, 1 teas bp and one egg and about 1/2 cup of milk....

I just took it out of the oven.

The above recipe is some of the things I do to keep the sugar and fat down.

Indian Orange Peel Complete

Wheeeeeeeee, I have finished the quilt. It is machine quilted and the binding is on. I have been working on this quilt off and on for about two years, I think. Its so work intense that you have to take breaks and do fast quick stuff in-between.

I did a plain two inch black border (ends up to be 1 1/2 finished and did the binding in a black print. The backing is an orange print and I sewed in a yellow patch and used it for my label.

Indian Orange Peel 3

Here are the borders with all the parts sewed together. After the intial shock of the first one, I tumbled through the other three. Well it wasn't too bad after the first one.

These will now be sewed to the quilt and then the corners are put together and sewed in last. See the corners to the right and left top. I pinned the first border on last night and went into another sewing shock. I can't believe I am supposed to sew it in like that. Remember, all the paper is in the back still and you are supposed to sew it that way. I just went to bed and had a nightmare anyway.

I realize this is what is called "setting in" and I know that. I am looking for some tips in the instruction but there are none. Surely there must be a tip or two when it comes to something like this. Like watch out for this or you must do this....no such luck.

Well today is another day and it about 6pm and I have just got my nerve up to tackle the first border. I think I am going to un-pin and rip the paper off one side and see how it goes. After all, I am an experienced seamstress, master seamstress, at that...kiss kiss.

Will keep you updated tomorrow....

Kaleidoscope 2

This is the beginning of Gloria 2 quilt. This is my personal quilt from  the strips that were left over from "Gloria 1", that was posted on my other blog. Here are all the blocks ready for the tri's.

I decided to square the blocks on this quilt.

Here is the quilt all done with border. I will quilt it tomorrow and add the same binding as the border.

Oak leaves and acorns

I have been knitting on this lace rug for the past six weeks now. I became fasinated with the designs by Herber Niebling about two years ago. I had to learn to read charts in German, no less. ..but I have to say I had lots of help.

There are some great knitting ladies out there. The Rainy Sisters, helped me to understand the "Hemlock Ring" and Glenda Hunt was so gracious to help also. This was my first try at lace knitting. I was able to finish that lovely blanket in wool and I just love it.

I joined Ravelry and the Yahoo knitting group and really learned a lot.

I found that knitting lace in the fine threads can be quite difficult for a beginner, to lace knitting, so I decided to use an 8 ply cotten for this "Oak leaf and acorn" pattern.

Instead of a doily, I wanted a rug in lace. Here is a close-up of the leaves.

Close-up of leaves and acorn. This was a fun project. I marked my repeats and counted each repeat before I moved on to the next and I did find mistakes to fix.

If you are a knitter, you will remember when the Nieblings were discovered and the web and ebay was going crazy with them and ebay was making a killing on these pattern. Some of those patterns went for hundreds of dollars. You can now get some of these patterns (the one above was free from a website) from a company called "Lacis".

The ladies on the web, at the time, were knitting "Lyra", also by Niebling. I started to knit it in the fine threads and gave up. I decided I needed to start at the bottom lol....so now I think I am ready to knit Lyra. I will knit her in cotten also.