A snippet of green...

this week I managed to sort through my green (3") squares, and make up a few blocks of a pleasing green combo for my granny square blocks. and then as an added bonus, I was able to sew 5 of them together. yay, me!

 

we have family visiting this week- my son and his wife, all the way from Washington state! and today we get more company- my other son, the Navy Corpsman stationed in Bronx, NY and my brother and family.

 

lots of family, absolutely no sewing. but I wouldn't have it any other way!

 

and in honor of Memorial Day, and my two sons who serve in the Navy and Army, (and will even be home for this holiday - together!)  I've hung out my quilty flag! I made this a few years ago; I really like it, but it's the only one I plan on making!

 

see what everyone else is doing over at RSC16.

 

Just enough green to keep me sane!

I promise not to start off yet another blog post by saying "it's been a very, very busy week here on the farm". *ahem*

I finally took the time (and had the energy) to begin to sort all the green squares (3") from my suitcase of squares, and even managed to get one of my RSC16 projects worked on. (and many of my greens are a dark, or dull color. I 'll have to keep that in mind the next time I'm "stash enhancing". )

I made 11 of my low-volume plus blocks. can't wait to see how this quilt comes together. plus- I had to laugh at myself- I was looking through my little quilty notebook, and I see that I had planned on making 8 plus blocks each month. somehow the number has been creeping up and up each month! I'm such an over-achiever- can't help it I guess! and this could also explain how many of my quilts turn out so large.

and here's a picture of Helga, and her little lamb, Katie. the girls and I have been having such fun with the sheeps this week- Katie is so sweet! (and Helga got a haircut, too!)

thanks for coming for a visit- click on over to Angela's blog, and see what everyone else is working on.

My first green of May!

well, in the fabric department, anyway! we've been super, super busy on the farm. (you can find us on facebook at "by the bridge")  we have most of our crops planted, the first round anyway, and even the tomatoes in the high tunnel are blossoming! lots of green going on, and not much time or energy to sew! I did sneak in a bit of sewing this week for Scraps2Wraps, our church sewing circle. BUT- I've not even made it up to the sewing room to begin digging through all my green fabric and 3" squares!

maybe tomorrow... I'm looking forward to a nice, quiet afternoon at home!

I showed you the little stack of tumblers that I cut with a friend's accuquilt cutter. we cleaned out the cupboard of smallish bits of fabric, and I was able to cut a stack about 32" tall of tumblers from fabric that had been waiting and waiting to be used....

after cutting and cutting, came the counting and counting. I need 95 tumblers of 2 colors to make a quilt that's about 60" X 80", which is the size that MCC prefers for their quilts. I have all my tumblers paired up into complementary colors, and enough to make about 16+ quilts! I brought my little featherweight out, and set it on the schoolroom table. that way, in the evenings when I'm too tired to go upstairs and sew (and I can't very well go to bed at 6PM, now can I?!) I can sew downstairs. and there might just be a little bit of Netflix and Call the Midwife involved, too....

and here's another thing that happened this week: our Icelandic sheep, Helga, had her baby!

a sweet, tiny and healthy baby ewe was born on Tuesday morning. (that was a really crazy day!)

we're still deciding on a name for her (my first choice of Sally was outvoted..) and I think we're going to call her Katie.

 

I'm looking forward to clicking on over to Angela's blog, and seeing all the other green bits and bobs that have been sewn this week. on the weeks that I don't get much RSC sewing time in, it's especially nice to see what everyone else is working on.

 

O! I almost forgot! this is my 500th post! I started this blog 8 years ago to chronicle the remodeling of our recently purchased farmhouse in the country. our life has changed drastically in the last 8 years, and this blog has, too! for quite awhile I did keep the blog fairly current with our family adventures, and the progress on the house. there were even a few years where i blogged regularly about our gardening adventures, and the transition into farming and starting a CSA. however, the blogger format made it very difficult to upload pictures, so that's when we switched to facebook, and our own farm page.

 

now, my blog is mainly chronicling my sewing adventures. (even my mother-in-law doesn't read my blog anymore!) i really enjoy the time I'm able to spend sewing, and with so many other blogs out there, it's hard to "compete", especially if i don't have time to post everyday. i have many blogs that i enjoy following (and we all know it's the ones that post daily, or nearly so, that are the most interesting to follow...) so thanks for stopping by, and thanks for reading my sporadic and all quilty related posts!



More good news!

I'm really happy how my RSC16 column-along is coming. the Kona solids make me pretty happy, too! BUT WAIT: there's MORE good news!  

 

 

I borrowed an accuquilt die cutter from a friend, and a (different) friend and I cleaned out the cupboard at Scraps2Wraps of all the miscellaneous (and super-annoying) little bits of small and oddly shaped fabrics. I brought them home, and in just a little over 1 hour, was able to cut this 9½" tall stack of tumblers! I was very happy about that BUT WAIT: there's MORE good news!
 

just a little bit...

what a week! last Saturday morning started chilly and snowy- we got 3" of snow!!! and this Saturday promises to be even busier- it's supposed to reach 70+ degrees today! so that means lots of garden work for us- laying the fabric floor in the high tunnel- in preparation for planting the tomatoes. we'll also be laying the plastic mulch in the middle garden- in preparation for planting broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower in the middle garden.

just a few sewing evenings in the sewing room this week- but I got all my crumb blocks done for the month. I still need to work on my pinwheel blocks for Angela's sampler. maybe that will happen this week?

 

 

I started these S4P blocks way back in September of 2014! in looking back over my RSC posts to find where I started these, I see that I've whined about how fiddly they were and SUCH a pain in the butt the whole way! (sorry about that!)

 

last Saturday, during our snowstorm, I took the time to lay out the blocks so I could get the top sewn together. (remember when I asked what color to use for the alternate blocks? you guys chose blue, so that's what I went with. GREAT CHOICE: thanks!)

 

I kind of took the lazy way out- I laid all my blocks out horizontally on the school room table in a 14X14 layout. then (and here's the tricky part!) I picked them all up diagonally and stacked them up. using the printout from my EQ5, I sewed them all together with the blue setting block.

 



and TA~DA: it's done! the early morning sun is casting some funky shadows, but I lovelovelove how it turned out. it's about 80" square, and I have enough of the blue for the binding. the moral of the story is: don't whine about fussy little blocks, because they always turn out great in the end!

 

and turning to other great news: my daughter and her husband told us last week that they're expecting their first baby in October! whoo hoo! so excited about that, of course! and the even better news is: they're not planning on finding out the gender of the new baby, so I guess i'll have to make a pink AND a blue quilt just so this grandma is prepared!

 

ha!

Orange you glad it's spring?!

the calendar says "spring" but the snow and cold weather this week says "April Fools!" crazy weather here in NE PA, but at least it's sunny! I look outside at the sunny, beautiful weather (when it's not snowing) but when I go outside, I'm shocked at how cold it is!

I hung up all 4 rows of my low volume plus quilt (I'm making 9 pluses in each color, and I'll probably add a couple colors that are not in RSC16 to bring the quilt to a nice size) it's a little more busy, and a little less low volume than I was hoping for, but I think it will get better as I go along...

5 more granny squares joined their buddies in the RSC16 drawer; only 4 had their picture taken. for being so short on oranges, I'm surprised at the variety that I have! ( true confession: I did buy 2 FQs- on sale- at my LQS last week, and 2 more at the MCC relief sale...)

had some good news this week; I'll be free to share it next week....

meanwhile, click on over to angela's and see all the other orange projects...

Just in time...

a few evenings this week were pleasantly passed in the sewing room. I finished up my purples, just in time to check Angela's blog to see that the COM for April is orange.

 

orange is very meager in my stash, but I recently added about 4 FQ's in anticipation of this month's color. I'm excited to play with some new fabric!

the block for this months Column-Along was the butterfly. he just wasn't singing to me, and I knew that I would never embroider antennas on him to make it look more like a butterfly, so I reverted to the trusty old 16 patches.

lots of purples with some dots of yellows. I love it! (oh, I almost forgot! can you see the BH mystery quilt, Allietare, on the chair? it's all pieced and sewn together; just needs the borders.)

and for those who want to know, here are the Kona purple and yellows that I used in these blocks: regal, amethyst, midnight, bright periwinkle, crocus, mulberry and thistle. buttercup, maize and canary were the yellows.

pickin' through the purples...

it's amazing how many different purples there are- light, dark, medium. bluey-purple, red-y purple... we probably don't realize it too much until we line them all up side by side.

 

I pieced 21 crumb blocks this week (only 16 of them are shown). I'm almost done with my purples for the month- just need to sew my column-along into the rows, and then I'm ready for the next color.

Round and round with all the squares we go!

technically, this TATW quilt is not RSC16, but I thought I'd share it anyway... a dear friend lost her husband to leukemia last month, and she brought me a laundry basket full of his shirts, and asked me to make a quilt for her. my long-arm quilter and I paired up, and got it pieced, quilted and delivered in record time. and the best part? it's bringing some comfort to my grieving friend!

 

 

I was also able to take the time to piece 9 more granny square blocks in purple (only 8 are shown here) Last night I started the purple crumb blocks, and since my monthly additions to my Simply Woven quilt is done, (i'll show the progress on that next month) that only leaves me with the RSC column along for this month.

 

today the girls and I are off to the local YMCA for a health fair. CSA signups are slow this year, (is it the weather, or the economy?)  so we're hoping to pick up a few new members!

happy purpling, with a dash of yellow thrown in!

Purple is such a CHEERY color!

bits of sewing time snuck in here and there in the last couple weeks... it's nice to play with the purples; brown was a muddy color for the muddy month of February!

 I got my 9 blocks done for my plus quilt- this is promising to be a really cool quilt when it's done!



4 more granny squares, with 9 (!) more waiting in the queue...

chocolate and sunshine- what could be better!

thanks for your input on what setting squares to use for my S4P- I took a tally, and blue won! good choice, gals, and that's what I'm going to go with! I have ¾ of the blocks trimmed up, hopefully I can finish the rest this week...

 

click on over to Angela's, and see the rest of the purpley cheeriness!