oh, woe is me...

it's been quiet here (did anybody notice? if not, that's ok...) I'm heading into Day #15 of being sick. with mono. not fun, that's for sure. I sewed a tiny little bit on my RSC15 Rainbow sampler on November 30, and then it's been all downhill from there.

 

kind of reminds me of a saying on my Charlie Brown pillowcase from when I was a little girl: CB was laying in bed with a TV propped on his stomach and he was saying "happiness is being too sick to go to school, but not too sick to watch TV."

 

well, according to that, things have not been happy here. I haven't stepped foot into my sewing room in almost 2 weeks! I've been mostly hanging out in the sofa, with a few intervals of absolutely necessary errands/chores/obligations sprinkled in here and there...

 

and here's another big bummer: clue #3 is out for Bonnie's mystery, and I can't even wonder around bloggy land, or I'll give away the secret for myself! I saw clue #2 (I looked at it, hoping to convince myself that I really was well enough to sew.) nope. didn't happen. I never did do the picture of my fabrics- pretty standard, though, Kona grey and my only substitution is salmon pink for her red/burgundy. I'm excited to see how they'll all play together.

 

so, the moral of the story is: I think I might be on the upswing (the blogger says hopefully, with great confidence) and ready to

 

#1: cook my family a real dinner

#2: finish decorating the house

#3: catch up on BH mystery quilt

#4: finish a couple of my RSC15 quilts

#5: spend time with my two sweet little girls, who have been so helpful and kind while I've been under the weather.

 

thanks for stopping by! I hope to be back soon, with progress to report, and pictures!

is it ok if i come out and play along today?

 officially speaking, I didn't do any RSC sewing this week, but I was busy with other stuff. (Tuesday we butchered all 25 of our turkeys- they weighed from 17lb. all the way up to 30lb. +. our bird for Thanksgiving dinner was 27lb.- plenty for 6 people!)

 

my friend asked me to make her a baby quilt for her newest great-granddaughter. I've had this jelly roll for a while- and it's sort of rainbow-y, too! (pattern here)

my DWR quilt is done! I'm happy with how it turned out, and it was definitely not as hard (or twiddly!) as I thought it would be. ( I will iron it soon, I promise!)

it's about a double size, and I plan to bind it in the gold solid. for now the plan for this quilt is to go to one of the MCC auctions, unless one of my children falls in love and claims it...

more gorgeous quilts here!

in which the quilter acutally finishes a quilt or two...

I would not be surprised if any of you were beginning to wonder if I ever actually finished a quilt, but were just too polite to mention it... well: this is the week!

I gathered all my crumb blocks together, and was surprised at how many I had! ( I think there were 121 total, in all the colors of the rainbow!) i had a rough idea where i was planning on going with this quilt, and after some final inspiration and direction from Julie's quilt, i was ready to go.

 

with the sashing, this flimsy turned out a bit bigger than i had thought it would, but I'm very happy with how it turned out. (it's about 66X88, if i remember correctly) it's already at the home of my quilter friend, Karen, and i expect it back sometime after Christmas.

 

this Christmas quilt is all done- quilted, bound and fresh and crinkly out of the dryer! it's about 60" square, and used tons and tons of my 3" squares. (but not enough to actually put a dent in that suitcase of squares!) I love how this quilt is just so hodge-podge- fabrics from 5, probably 6 decades, and all sorts of fabrics: vintage, Christmas, not Christmas, stripes, polka dots, text, geometric, metallic, solids, novelty, civil war, florals... so many fabrics to look at!

I've promised A that we'll put this quilt out next Thursday- after our Thanksgiving dinner!

 

click over to angela's to see what everyone else is working on!

Putting all those blocks to good use. Finally.

just like last week when I showed you all my completed 16 patches it's quite surprising how many 9 patches I have, too! enough to do 2 (TWO!) quilts, with more than a dozen blocks left over!

here's my first quilt from my 9 patch blocks. this one I plan to keep. what will I do with it, and where will I put it? I've no idea! (and don't worry: I took off all the row label stickers, AND fixed the green block)

now I'm auditioning borders. tell me what you think.

without borders, this quilt is about 75". in the picture above, I pinned up the Kona white to the design board, and *sort of* laid out a border. I was planning on doing a 2½" (finished) border, with scrappy squares all around, and then another 2½" (finished) border.

 

although, now that I look at it, I'm wondering if I should not just continue the colors out into the border, completing the patterns, so to speak.

 

tell me what you think...

here's the second quilt from my 9 patches. I'm absurdly thrilled and pleased with this one. not sure why, but I think it's really cool! the idea for the layout came from Cyndy, and is loosely (?) based on her offset log cabin layout. I figured if you could do it with log cabins, why not 9 patches? this will be a charity quilt, and the backing is red fabric with knots.

 

and just in case you're not firmly convinced that I'm truly the Captain of the Crazy Train, here's another Christmas quilt that's almost done. all scrappy 4 patches- a huge conglomeration of reds, greens, yellows and white. (and honest- this isn't a new project- I sketched it out in my journal way back in January! honest...)

 

also: in the spirit of full disclosure, I would like to point out that it was not on purpose that I forgot to tell you that this week we *might have* bought a spinning wheel, and are earnestly beginning the project of carding and spinning Helga's wool. (our Icelandic sheep) ahem.

 

 

I still (and always will) consider myself a quilter first, and farmer second, but both my little girls A and B have been wanting to learn how to spin. so: here we go! I've learned the rudimentary basics right along with them, and this will be a long term, on going project. in the meantime they, and our mouser cat Millie, are thrilled with our new "knitting nook"

11 months, 189 16 patches and 3024 3" blocks later...

they say slow and steady wins the race, and if my stack of completed 16 patches is anything to go by, they're sure right!

 

I don't have anymore greens to piece into the 16s; I used all my greens already... (forget what month that was, it seems ages ago!) the background fabrics are all creams/tans/beige- no whites. each of the background fabrics repeat several (many?) times, but the colored blocks are all different.

 

so: out of the 189 blocks, there are 189 different fabrics. and each of those fabrics I chose because they were my favorite.

 

how is this possible? what's the matter with me?! can I really have 189 favorite and/or meaningful unique scraps of fabric?

the answer is yes, it seems. there are dresses, many other quilts, shirts, purses, aprons, bonnets, fabrics from friends, on and on it goes ~ it's all in here, and represented in this one conglomeration of a quilt. for me, even though it may seem just a tad ridiculous, it adds another depth of meaning and sentimentality to my quilt.

 

I plan to piece this pile of 16 patches into 2 quilts- I'm debating what the ultimate use of them will be. it's a toss up between a quilt for my table at farmer's market (using all the animal/veggie/country fabrics) and a table cloth to be used on our table at special family meals and holidays. or, I might do matching quilts for the (twin) guest room beds.

 

click over to angela's to see all the other RSC15 projects as we finish up another great  year.

it's hip to be square!

in-between my other sewing, I've still been working on my 16 patches, and they're slowly coming along. I still have lots of the blacks and greys to do (I used those 2 colors in place of the indigo)

there is something so endearing and addictive about these humble and simple little blocks- they are certainly one of my favorites!

with so many different fabrics and backgrounds to choose from, I could never decide which one is my favorite block of them all... and it's good that I don't' have to choose: I have almost 200 at last count! yikes!

I do plan to make 2 quilts from these 16 patches- one for my table at farmer's market (using all the veggie fabrics) and another for the dining room table for family holiday meals. these 16 patches finish at 10"; just a nice size.

 

 

here's a picture of the whole top of the Bethlehem Star that I pieced last week. it's 72" X 80", but it sure looks dwarfed in this picture! scroll down one post to see what else i've been up to while I was absent from the RSC link-ups. and be sure to click on over to angela's to see all the RSC goodness for this week!

 

PS: did you see that the colors for Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt came out this morning? I'm so excited- the color combinations are FANTASTIC this year! who's planning on quilting along? 

There's a lot to be said for the humble square!

even though I haven't joined Mr. Linky for a couple weeks, I've still been busy sewing. (very busy!) I just recently finished a Bethlehem Star quilt for a friend. my friend Leona loves to (hand) quilt, but hates to piece. she's been making a quilt for her children and grandchildren for many years now.

Iris is the last grandchild waiting for her quilt- and the wait is nearly over! Iris is 9 or so, and this is the pattern (and colors!) that she chose. it was a bit tricky keeping all those nearly identical reds separate, but everything went just fine. the quilt finished at 72X80- this picture was taken before I put on the borders.

all the colors in the quilt are Kona- some of the colors are blaze, deep red, red, lipstick, pepper and maize. once it's hand quilted, I know it will be even more stunning!

 

right now I'm taking a class at our LQS for a double wedding ring quilt. I've never made a DWR, and thought it's about time... (I've made some of the other difficult quilt patterns: apple core, Dresden plate and tumbling blocks...)

now that the growing season is over, I definitely have a bit more time for quilting and piecing, and have been squeezing it in around my other chores. I had 2 matching jelly rolls, and a nice neutral for the background, so I was all set.

 

this particular DWR technique is sewing 5 jelly roll strips together, and then cutting them into the arch piece, using the acrylic templates. I sorted  all my jelly roll trips, and got busy sewing. that was not too hard (or tedious) and I got all enthusiastic and inspired to make another DWR for my husband. I even picked out the fabrics that I thought I might like to use: I lovelovelove that cheddar yellow, and Dave's favorite color is blue. I thought the *tame* blue, and the *vivid* yellow would make a nice quilt that we could both love.

 

 

the second class was on Tuesday, and we started sewing the melons onto our arch pieces. still: not so bad, and definitely not too twiddly. I can manage this....(the quilter said confidently to herself....)

 

THEN: reality strikes in full force! it was time to sew the second arch onto the half-completed melon. ACK!!! that definitely is the definition of twiddly, and I hate working on twiddly things! SO: one circle down, and only 27 more to go! hopefully the third class will give some pointers on getting those arches onto the center pieces nicely- I just did the one, and it's not as nice as I would like...

 

BUT: I do plan on finishing this quilt- not dumping it into the UFO pile. my quilting friends would call this an exclusive quilt- and I'm definitely thinking the same!

It's time: let's get these quilts together!

after sewing and sewing all these squares together, I decided to start sewing some stuff together (even though technically, I'm a month early for that...) I wanted to see some progress, and not just piles of blocks...

these 16 patches are left over from last year- if i remember, i had just stalled on what to do with them.

last week i decided: why not potholders? my old ones were pretty grimy after using them in the summer kitchen when making applesauce, and what better way to use and enjoy my favorite fabrics than in the kitchen?

let's face it: i spend more time in the kitchen than in the sewing room most days, so i can still get my fabric fix! i cut into some of my all time favorite fabrics for the backings- and I'm so glad i did!

 

another RSC project i worked on this week was my 9 patch blocks.  after sewing and sewing all year long, i was very surprised to count that i had 189+ of the 9 patches! i knew i wanted to do something interesting, and non-traditional in the setting, so after playing around for awhile, i settled on the layout below.

 



 

 

i really like this layout- and there are so many blocks left over! i'll let the little girls lay out another quilt, and we'll give that to my friend for quilting and send it off to one of the MCC auctions.

 

thanks for stopping by- click on over to angela's to see what everyone else is working on. and if you have a minute, scroll down one more post, and tell me what you think of my red stars Christmas quilt- I'm looking for some input and advice!

Tell me true!

* we went away last weekend: to the beach in Wildwood, NJ. it was a relaxing time, and the weather was even co-operative! the girls were able to play in the water, and build sand castles. (when we went in March, the weather was 37degrees, and bitterly cold and windy. such is the life of a farmer...) I missed the linky, but I'd still love your opinion! *

I'm pretty sure nobody reads my blog except for the Saturday morning link ups with soscrappy for RSC15. (my MIL doesn't even read my blog anymore! how sad is that?!)

... but it's worth a shot anyway...

here is the *tentative* layout for my JustGottaMakeIt Red Christmas Stars. sorry for the crappy kindle picture- definitely not a strong selling point for the kindle...

 

I really wanted the stars to be off-set and random~ and no 2 stars are alike! the fabrics vary widely- from vegetables, geometrics, flowers and novelty prints. there are a few Christmas prints thrown in just for good measure. while I was laying out the quilt, I also wanted to avoid (as much as possible) lining up the sawtooth star points. except for the middle row, I managed to do that.

 

as you're looking at this picture, the right hand side of the picture is the top of the quilt, the left is the bottom. the partial star at the top will have prairie points in the binding to complete that star.

 

one of the things that really has me doubting is the lightest of the backgrounds- seen in the lower left of this picture. there are actually 4 different cream/gold prints, and 3 of them are nearly identical.

SO: tell me what you think: is the layout to weird? is the negative space odd? and I definitely need to replace those too light background rectangles, right?

give it to me straight- I can take it!

Everything is turning Brown!

after butchering all our (150+) meat chickens last week, I thought this week wouild be much less busy. ha! I could not have been more mistaken!

 

I did a *tiny* bit of canning and freezing this summer, but the huge bulk of my canning seems to have taken place this week: plum jelly- from our own plum tree (10 pints, plus some for gifts), 9 bushels of apples for sauce- (for 3 families) we got about 60 quarts, jalapeno jelly (14 pints, plus some for gifts) and green tomato relish (16 pints).

 

it was a week of chop, chop, chop. can, can, can. boil, boil, boil. phew! but now I'm almost done- just need to do the sauerkraut and stewed tomatoes.

 

I did have a chance to sew late Sunday afternoon and evening, and made some good progress:

I'm second guessing all my brown RSC15 blocks (are they too dull?) but am forging ahead anyway...

but: I love the sawtooth stars for the sampler! I'm WAAAAAAAY behind on the connecter blocks: as in have not even started them, but i'll get to them soon. ( I have the Kona white blocks cut; does that count?)

and here's Millie: my furry sewing room companion!

now go see what everybody else is doing with their browns!