WIP Wednesday

Okay folks, this is my very first time participating in WIP Wednesday. I have a ton of projects going on. Some you may have seen and others you haven't.

First of all, I have my Farmer's Wife blocks 1-10 complete. Excuse my crummy camera phone photos. I was in a hurry to post this before I forgot to do it!

These blocks have really been a lot of fun so far, and a couple of them have been pretty challenging for me. Which is nice because that's why I joined the QAL in the first place.

I have also started doing the quilting on my camping quilt. I can't wait to have it finished and snuggle up with it around a campfire!

Lizze made me a darling zipper pouch and filled it with paper pieces for making hexagons. I am really into handwork lately and love having something I can take with me. I love these hexies so much, that I'm thinking of making my scrap vomit quilt out of them. That will be another long term project, for sure.

I have been wanting to make a king sized quilt for my bed for some time, but projects for myself often get pushed to the side. I plan to finally start working on my quilt sometime this summer. I have had 2 jelly rolls of Martinique by 3 sisters for over a year and it's about time I get to work. I have a pattern in mind, but am open to suggestions.

And the very last thing are these lovely half yards of Plume by Tula Pink. I got them for Lizze for her birthday (which was yesterday). And gave them to her, and she immediately gave them back. Apparently, if you sew, you should MAKE a present for your friends, not give them fabric to make their own. Ha! I have something in mind for these, but I need to get some yardage of some Kona solids.

I hope I did okay showing all of my WIP's for this Wednesday. It feels good to talk about them. I now have some accountability to finish them up!

Head over to the Freshly Pieced Blog to see all of the others linked up for WIP Wednesday. Some of my friends are hanging out over there. Go say hi!

Selina

Tech Free Summer

My kids, ages 11, 10, 8, and 5, have challenged themselves to go 10 days without the television or the computer. In my house, that's a big deal. I am trying to encourage them by doing the same. I do have the computer on for this blog post though and I can still tweet since my kids all agreed that that is for "work".

It really is amazing all of things you can do without all the distractions from technology.

Yesterday was day #1. We drove around to some quilt shops for the western WA shop hop and the kids and I got our free quilt blocks. We packed a picnic lunch and went to Flaming Geyser State Park. The Green River runs through it and the kids played in the water, throwing rocks, and watching people fish for hours.

They have been making up games and fun things to do. And believe it or not, a lot less fighting is going on! Last night was spent outside chatting with the neighbors while all the kids on the street played together. We even discussed having a block party.

Today the kids played outside all day. Right now there is a baseball game going on in my front yard.

I have been quietly sewing hexies and pin basting the camping quilt

On Friday I made my Farmer's Wife quilt block #8. I think it turned out really nice.

And on Saturday we went to a wedding where I gave a set of placemats and a small cross-stitch as a gift to the bride and groom.

I have been very busy, but it feels like a lazy summer without the buzz of television in my ears or a computer screen shining in my face. I think we could do this for much longer than 10 days. I could get used to this.

Selina

A Day Late

My kids have a great dad. He's really not home all that much. I know it isn't because he doesn't love us. Quite the contrary, actually. He works long hours, at a less than glamorous job to provide a great life for our family. He sacrifices time with us to make sure that our children have never had to spend one day in daycare. We struggle to make ends meet sometimes, but we have always come out ahead (or at least breaking even). It is rough right now, but I know that things will get better soon and we'll continue to be a couple who is there for each other through good times and bad.

I love this man with all my heart, and I am so glad that I have him by my side. Granted, sometimes I feel very alone when he isn't here. But he more than makes up for it when he is home. He spends time with us, helps around the house, and will occasionally even cook a meal or two.

Happy (late) Father's Day to my wonderful husband. I love you. Thank you being the greatest dad I have ever met.

I Am a Farmer's Wife

There was some talk about doing a quilt along based on the book The Farmer's Wife by Laurie Aaron Hird. It started with Amanda and Angela over on Twitter and it grew, exponentially, from there. As of right now there are 368 members signed up on the flickr group.

I had seen the Farmer's Wife book before and I knew immediately that this was a project I could get on board with. It was only 2 blocks per week, so not too overwhelming. AND it would challenge me to try techniques and make blocks I would never have tried on my own. I was the 5th person to sign up in the flickr group, and I ordered my book right away. Unfortunately, I was so excited about the great price I found for the book that I ordered it before I realized it was coming from the UK and it would take 2 weeks to get to me!

The book finally arrived two days ago and I was anxious to get started on my blocks.

My printer is on the fritz at the moment so I loaded up the kiddos and took my book down to Kinko's to print out the templates so I could get started. To be honest, I was rather unhappy with this part of my experience. I knew there would be quite a few templates. I mean, I am making 111 blocks, but when the guy told me it printed 130 pages, I was like "WHAAAAAAAT?!?!?!" Seriously. Every single template (even the 1.5 inch square) is printed on it's very own piece of paper *. Many of the templates are not even necessary. I mean, do I really need a template to cut a 3" x 1.5" rectangle? Not really. No measurements are given in the book however, which makes every template required unless you are good at quilter math - and I am not. I kept thinking there is no possible way that the author of this book was an actual farmer's wife, for they would never be so wasteful. I thought for sure that I was so turned of by this lack of concern for the welfare of trees that I would be angry the entire year it would take me to make this quilt. Until I made my first block...

The fabric I chose for my blocks is Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt. I decided to suck up my frustration and start cutting. I had 3 weeks of catching up to do so I had 6 blocks to make.

After I had my first block sewn together, I was over the bad feelings I had regarding this book. It was so pretty that I just couldn't be mad anymore. It took me 2 days to complete my first 6 blocks, and I couldn't be happier with how they're turning out.

 Block 1

 Block 2

 Block 3

 Block 4

 Block 5

 Block 6

I decided to make the king-sized version of the quilt, which will bump me up to 145 blocks. I plan to use it for my own bed and think I may even splurge a bit to have it professionally quilted by a longarm quilter.

* I did find out later that there are places online that you can print out the templates using FAR less paper. It doesn't do me any good now, but hopefully others will know about this and save some money, and trees.

Selina

Exhausted

I have been so busy lately. I'm starting to feel a tad bit overwhelmed. Part of my obligations are self-induced, but others are just day-to-day life.

As far as quilting goes, I have just completed my 2nd sample for the shop, and I got the fabrics and pattern for the project I'm teaching. Maybe that's why I'm stressing. I'm teaching my first ever quilting class on Tuesday and I didn't even see the pattern until yesterday. I have to have a finished sample to bring in on Tuesday. So here's my schedule from now until then:

Friday: Drove to West Seattle to pick up fabrics and pattern. Went home, cut fabrics, and finished the top.

Saturday: Work at crappy fast food hole from 9am until 3pm. Go home and make the 'quilt sandwich'. Start quilting. Wait... My coordinating thread is all gone. Shit. Make dinner for the kids and get a huge headache instead.

Sunday: Go to JoAnn's and pick up new thread. Try to finish quilting by 5pm. Load up the kids and go to a BBQ.

Monday: Finish quilting (since I know I didn't finish it on Sunday), attach binding to the front, hand stitch to the back.

Tuesday: Work from 9am to 4pm. Drive to West Seattle with sample and sewing machine in tow, meet a bunch of strangers and teach them to quilt while I smell of fried food.

The pattern is super simple. And it is just a table runner. Thank goodness for that! If it was an entire quilt, I'd be in trouble. But there was one thing about this week that I thought was really great.

There's my little birdie quilt hanging on the wall of a real fabric store. That's pretty exciting, right?