More Farmers Wife

Here are the five Farmers Wife blocks I made this weekend. One of these blocks took significantly longer than the others to sew. I decided to paper piece for accuracy.

Guess which one it was?

This is the offender.

Notice anything?

That center needs to be reworked.

It took like 3 hours.

I may just live with it.

Lesson Learned:

Trust your piecing skills! You/I can do it!

A Stitching Hodge Podge

In my last post, I left you with a quilting finish. That same evening I picked up my stitching and got to work. Here is my WIP at the point where I did a counting check. Sorry for the bad pics.

And here is my stitching at the end of the evening. Yep, I went to the frog pond. I was off by one stitch in the length of the border. I would have fudged it but I'm stitching each month of Anniversaries of the Heart on one piece of linen and they need to line up. I got caught up late last night so I'm back on track. It hurt at the time though.

Lesson Learned: Count Often. And Then Count Again.

While on vacation, I was able to finish the April block. No personalizations as yet but I do have a good idea what I'll be doing on this one.

A couple of weekends ago, my EGA chapter welcomed Ellen Chester of With My Needle for her Long May She Wave workshop (scroll down). It was my first formal workshop and I loved every second. Visit Ellen's blog for her retrospective . Ellen is just delightful and I would encourage you to take one of her workshops. The quality of the materials and instruction (both Ellen's during the workshop and the written instructions) are superb!

I have only 3 pictures because my camera battery died right off the back. The three photos are of show and tell items.

Carol's Stitched Project Bag - Front

I didn't get specifics on the project.

Stitched Project Bag - Back

Carol's Petit Carnet d'Ouvrages (Designer With My Needle)

Her group of stitching friends each stitched one page making this even more special.

It's tiny and oh so precious!

My project at the end of the workshop is pictured below. Not much progress as yet but I'm LOVING this! I'm thinking of finishing it with the slight alteration that Ellen suggested.

It's been a busy work week and I'm looking forward to prepping for Thanksgiving and getting a little stitching, knitting, and quilting done over the weekend. Enjoy the rest of your week and may all your stitches be happy ones!

Time Away and a Happy Dance!

Greg and I spent the last week in a cabin nestled in the Smoky Mountains. We stayed in the same place we did last year. Here is the view from the back deck, taken in the morning. I promptly put my camera away for the rest of the week so nothing else to show.

We got home Friday night later than we'd planned. I purposely stayed home on Saturday and finished up my 2010 $5 BOM from one of my LQSs. This picture isn't the greatest, the quilt needs to be ironed, threads trimmed and it was really windy today. BUT I didn't want to wait until next weekend to take a picture. I'm SO excited to have this done!

I've learned a lot since beginning this quilt. I kind of like that it shows my growth as a quilter.

I've been thinking a lot about what kind of quilter I want to be. I like modern quilts and I like traditional quilts. I've decided I don't have to pick one or the other - I can be both! There aren't any rules. Isn't that great?

This is also a stitching and knitting blog and I assure you that I'm still doing both. I promise I'll be showing those in the next couple of weeks.

Tomorrow is Monday so back to work I go. I'm in such a peaceful place that I'm finding it hard to think about the fast pace at work and the hustle and bustle of the upcoming holidays. I can't stop time so I'll be jumping back into all of it with both feet.

But that's not until tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy these last few moments of vacation. And look at my completed quilt top! :)

Wishing you all happy stitches!