Baby it's Cold Outside!

I went on a youth group retreat with my two oldest girls this weekend and it was such a great time! We went to Leavenworth (no, not the Federal prison. It's a small Bavarian village in Central Washington.) where it was covered in a beautiful, thick blanket of snow. Everyone was thrilled because we haven't gotten ANY snow this year! We played outside, had snowball fights, sledding, and a very cold and wet game of capture the flag. Camp Camrec was the name of our facility, and it was a wonderful experience. Right before we were ready to board our bus and head home on Sunday, we heard that our town got over a foot of snow! At that point there was a grumble spreading through the crowd of kids. I think they were wanting to be done with the snow :)

This was my son's reaction to our epic snowfall. I think that he was pretty excited to finally have some of that powdery white stuff to jump around in.

My ladies in the hen house, however, are not nearly as overjoyed. I found an egg in their coop that was completely frozen solid. We decided to peel it and see what a frozen egg looked like.

That first photo is kind of blurry, but it was really weird. It almost looked like a hard boiled egg, but it was solid and slimy. Pretty gross!

My dog is also not enjoying herself. She didn't understand what the snow was. There was so much of it that it was even with the porch. So she stepped off the porch into the snow, and poof! She sunk right down into it and it scared her. Honestly, it was pretty hysterical. We got her in right away and warmed her up.

This is after the jump. You can see that big dip in the snow on the right.

I have some sewing to do to keep me busy while it's too cold and wet to do much outside. One thing I'd like to complete before spring comes is my Chicopee quilt. I have the top finished and all sandwiched together with the batting and backing fabric.

I made this using the Jelly Roll Race Method. It is so fast and fun! I added borders to my top since this particular jelly roll came with much less than the normal 42 strips of fabric.

I'm hoping the snow melts before too long, but we'll enjoy it while it's here and use it as an excuse to get some things done inside.

A Little Sewing

I have managed to get in a bit of sewing lately. Mostly because one of my projects has a deadline.

One of my family members (well, my husbands family, but she's still like family to me) is participating in Relay For Life for the second year in a row. Last year she walked on another persons team, and this year she decided to form her own team. They have done really well with their fundraising, and have been working really hard to try to earn as much for the cause as they can. We all know someone who has been affected by cancer so it's a very important event for many people. When she asked me if I would be willing to make a quilt for them to raffle off, I didn't hesitate. I also wasn't aware that I would be moving though so that has been a bit of a hiccup in my plans to get it finished in time. Luckily, she gave me 3 months notice! I have a few more weeks to work on it and it is slowly but surely coming along.

This is where I was when I last took a photo. I now have sashing between the blocks on the four bottom rows and those rows are all sewn together. That means my top if halfway completed! The pattern I used for this quilt is called Pow - Wow by CluckCluckSew. All the fabrics are various lines (but all in the same color family) from Denyse Schmidt. I love how all her lines seem to play so well together. I wanted the quilt to appeal to a broad range of people. Not just women and not just people who love traditional quilt designs. I feel like younger people - and maybe even men - would be willing to buy a raffle ticket to win this quilt. People who are less likely to already own a handmade quilt, you know?

Now, if you are anything like me, you tend to get bored during a project that takes awhile. For me that is dangerous because I always decide to start something new in the middle of what I am already working on!

The other day I made this Sidekick Tote (yes, another Noodlehead pattern. I'm addicted.) I used a black and white stripe for the body of the bag, Constellations by Lizzy House for the pockets, and a bit of Amy Butler dots for some homemade bias tape. Y'all, that part was hard. I've never made bias tape before. And if I never do it again that would be just fine by me.

Another thing I have been itching to try - like, for a few YEARS now - is paper piecing. When the Summer Sampler Sew - Along by Ellison Lane Quilts started, I wanted to jump in SO bad! Those little popsicles! Anyway... I needed a bit of instruction since I had no clue how to even begin paper piecing (other than printing the pattern). I tried the quick paper piecing tutorial that Jennifer(aka Ellison Lane Quilts) put together and I made this:

 I know it's just one tiny 6 inch block, but I did it! I was over the moon excited about this. Not because this little block is particularly striking and overly complicated, but because learning this new technique has opened up so many other possibilities for me in the things I can make. Now I never have to pass up a super cute pattern because it lists paper piecing as one of the techniques used in it's construction. Yay!

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