Rotating Cutting Mats

I'm sharing my first official new tip of the week for Tip and Tutorials Tuesdays over at Late Night Quilter. I don't really do tips or tutorials much, but as Kitty at Night Quilter said it's the "perfect kick in the pants motivator to get me sharing." Here goes.

My favorite Farmer's Wife Quilt companion is my mini rotating cutting mat. Although it may seem like a frivolous addition to your already brimming crafty cabinet, it's really worth it if you're considering tackling a Farmer's Wife Quilt.  It makes it so easy not only to trim blocks once they're completed but also to cut the little pieces for each block. You can just place your fabric scrap down on the mat with the template on top, then cut one edge, rotate, repeat. Presto! No awkward shimmying of fabric pieces and templates or knocking notions and mugs of tea off the edge of the table when you try to rotate your larger cutting mat. (I may or may not have done that more than once...) Plus, being mini and flat, you can cram it in a edge where you thought nothing else could possible fit. Full closet problem solved!

Do you have favorite tips and tricks?

Go add yours and check out the other tips and tutorials over at the LinkUp!

And don't forget to vote for your favorite!

Farmer's Wife Quilt Revisited

It's been a while since I've worked on my Farmer's Wife Quilt. In fact, I have languished with 76 blocks to go for probably six months. Now, you know when you're running a marathon and you pause to drink that little cup of water they offer you and you're just not sure if you can start running again let alone finish the race? That's what it feels like. (Or at least, I imagine it to feel exactly like that, never having run a marathon or even a 5k myself. Don't you think that water cup moment would feel just like being a quarter of the way done with your farmer's wife quilt?)

I was feeling all but worn out when I received a little chalkboard in the mail, the Traveling Farmer's Wife Quilt chalkboard. Sent around by Chelsea at Patch the Giraffe and Stephanie at Late Night Quilter, it's a little burst of encouragement to photograph with your blocks as you complete them, and it was just what I needed. I promptly sat down to pull fabrics for my next six blocks and then stitched up three at sewing night with the church ladies.

This week's blocks:

Buzzard's Roost

Hill and Valley &

Friendship Star

I'm still feeling a little worn out with the tedious process of this quilt. Where once I enjoyed the meticulous relaxing pace, I've begun to just feel frustrated and impatient. The angel on my right shoulder (also known as Mom) is encouraging me to make three more blocks, increase the sashing from one to two inches, and finish it as a throw quilt. The...angel...on my left shoulder (also known as significant other) thinks I should just set it aside for a bit and wait till I feel moved by the Spirit to enjoy the process again. I don't know anymore. What do you think?

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I'm linking up to Work in Progress Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced with the longest work-in-progress of my quilting career. Head over to see other beautiful and exciting projects that are heading towards the Promised Land of Finished-dom or still wandering in the desert like mine.

Labor of Love

Farmer's Wife Quilt today! When Camille Roskelley made hers a couple years ago, I fell in love with it, and I'm totally and completely hooked. I've been working on the quilt little by little for almost two years, and sometimes I like to just pull out all of the squares, spread them around me, and dream about the finished quilt.

Camille gave the advice of tackling six squares at a time for efficiency, so that's what I did today. I settled in and listened to the end of a sappy novel by Nora Roberts and stitched through the rainy day. Avery and Owen fell in love with each other, and I fell in love again with this quilt process. Slow methodical progress. Do you know what I mean? Is anyone else out there working on a Farmer's Wife Quilt? It really is a labor of love.

Today's Blocks:

Birds in Air

Butterfly at the Crossroads

Contrary Wife

Flock

Hovering Hawks

Swallow

7. Birds in the Air

21. Contrary Wife

34. Flock

14. Butterfly at the Crossroads

52. Hovering Hawks

93. Swallow

And I am so thankful that I get to share this little work-in-progress (WIP) with the talented sewers over at Freshly Pieced because it's WIP Wednesday!

Linoleum

Summer is officially here. I slept in until 9:30 this morning and woke up to seventy degrees and sun. After a lazy sit with my sister on the couch, I pulled my laptop towards me to respond to some comments and then moseyed on over to the studio to do some fun sewing. Sounds pretty perfect to me.

Back from sewing and only managed one Farmer's Wife quilt block today. I attempted to plan and cut easier shapes for the blocks instead of all the fussy pattern pieces but managed to miss some seam allowance here and there. I caught it early on the first one but not right till the end on the second. Ah well, practice will make perfect, and I will get better and faster at making the blocks from scratch.

This week's blocks: 

Linoleum

This work in progress will eventually get done someday... Check out other people's WIP over at Freshly Pieced.

Morning

Mornings are just the best, aren't they? Fresh sun. Fresh eyes. Fresh day. Endless possibilities ahead of you and new energy to tackle them all. Yesterday morning was like that. I sat down to decide what I wanted to do with the morning, and I came to the wonderful conclusion: Farmer's Wife Quilt. It has lain dormant for many months, but the day has arrived for me to work on it a little more. I promptly taped almost all of my completed blocks to the wall and set about picking new ones. I've been feeling quite inspired by Chelsea's farmer's wife blocks over at Patch the Giraffe, so in honor of her I cut fabric for two squares she just made and finished a block that had been half-way pieced for some time now. So exciting, and I'm looking forward to more time for it tomorrow morning!

57. Morning

You can see more of my Farmer's Wife blocks here. And since I have 85 blocks to go, I get to share it with my lovely friends at WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

Farmer's Wife Quilting Again

In spare moments between fabric designing and screen-printing, I managed to crank out two Farmer's Wife Quilt blocks. It's such a rewarding little piece of accomplishment midweek. Now there are just 83 to go! As I consider the future and graduate school, I'm starting to lament the idea of a PhD in chemistry. I just want to be a wife and quilt and have my own fabric printing business that supports itself. Maybe I need to find a farmer... In light of my current situation, I present you with reasons three, four, five, and six that E.S. from Milwaukee County, WI gave for why her daughter should marry a farmer.

"Three. Many rural families enjoy electric light, plumbing, automobiles, and all families may enjoy unobstructed sunlight, blossoming trees, stimulating breezes--perhaps also the daily newspaper.

Four. On the farm, my daughter and her family can have fresh air, fresh milk, eggs and butter without looking into the pocketbook.

Five. Daily exertion means bodily strength and varied responsibilities favor moral caliber.

Six. On the farm, you are quite independent of fads and fashions. Cotton stockings, sun-bonnets, bloomers and overalls are all right, and you feel happier."

Did you hear that? Fresh milk and eggs. Stimulating breezes. Blossoming trees. And you feel happier. Sounds like the life for me.

This Week's Blocks:

Honeycomb

&

Honey's Choice

Honeycomb

Honey's Choice

In retrospect, I may just want to be a wife because it means that my quilting business only has to break even and not provide enough profit to support me. Maybe I should work on my business plan instead. Curious where the reasons to be a farmer's wife came from? Check out the beginning of the farmer's wife quilt and the story behind it here.

Squash Blossom

Today has been beautiful. It's been a warm breezy taste of the best version of summer with just enough cloud cover right after brunch to warrant snuggling up under my afghan and the perfect amount of sun for a walk in the afternoon. It's days like these that make me breathe "thank you"s to a Creator who could craft such a lovely day.

With my junior critique done, I've been a little aimless in my sewing, so I decided to return to the familiar: my Farmer's Wife Quilt! It was so fun to flip through and pick a block and then thumb through my fabrics for a couple I can't bear to put back in the box. Have I ever said before that I love my fabrics for this quilt?? I love them. This week was fun because I found three that I really like for Squash Blossom, a block I tried very hard to find three fabrics for last fall but couldn't seem to. I love how it turned out! Maybe I'll do FWQ for a couple weeks in a row; little senses of accomplishments are so uplifting :)

Squash Blossom

Back in the Basket

I apologize that it has been so long since I have posted! The past two Sundays I was in China visiting my Dad with little time to sew and less time to blog. However, after hiking the majestic Great Wall and exploring the peaceful vistas of the Summer Palace, I am back and quilting. The first day back from break, I decided my living room needed a decorate update, so I took down my collection of black and white prints and mini-clothes-pinned up all of my Farmer's Wife Quilt blocks on the display wires. Although it is not quite as sleek and modern as black and white prints, it adds a fun sense of color and accomplishment to the room. Yesterday, I finished a block but with a twist. The flower basket block felt quite country and kitschy, so I edited it slightly. I forewent the handle. The block is now a geometric, asymmetric, modern little block that suits my sensibilities nicely.

This semester, I am also exploring the figure, specifically related to dance, and how it can be portrayed through mixed media, thread and fabric studies. Yesterday's attempt was an icebreaker that is not worth displaying on my blog, but hopefully in weeks to come, I will be able to share some of that senior show process with you.

This Week's Block:

Flower Basket

Flower Basket

On the Sixth Day of Christmas

When asked at church this morning what I had been doing this week, I answered quilting. It didn't seem adequate enough to cover the last five days, but that really is all I've been doing. Dyeing fabric for quilts, cutting fabric, piecing blocks, collecting plants to dye fabric, stealing onion skins from the grocery store bins to dye fabric, laying out fabric for other quilts, watching TV while I piece blocks, and a little bit of knitting while I watched movies with my mom and sister. It's been a perfect balance of very relaxing and quite productive, and I have six blocks to show for it!

My chevron quilt is coming along. It has fallen off the wall at least twice now and has been restarted and reworked at least that many times. I'm fairly happy with it now, and once I reassemble it from my most recent picture (this morning I found it in a heap of pieces on the floor because the flannel sheet velcroed to the wall had fallen down), I am going to try to blitz it and finish it today. Check back tomorrow to see it finished. What projects have you been working on this Christmas break?

This Week's Blocks:

Spider Legs, Broken Dishes,

Postage Stamp, Homemaker,

End of Day, & Waste Not

Spider Legs

Waste Not

Homemaker

Broken Dishes

End of Day

Postage Stamp

A note about Homemaker: It is a much more complicated block than it appears, and if you are like me and wish that the book had given better instructions than "sew the seams that are next to each other together," then you're in good company. Alright, the instructions didn't exactly say that, but that's about all they said. To complete this block, I used partial seams and Y-seams. Bee in my Bonnet explains partial seams here. Kaye Wood shows how to easily tackle Y-seams in this video.

P.S. I may not finish the chevron quilt, but I will do my best and I promise to post a picture tomorrow of how far I've gotten whether or not it's done.

Beach Boys and Breakdancing

I'm home! I spent the morning piecing blocks in the studio and singing along to the Beach Boys, and it was the perfect way to begin break :) So much space to spread out. So much light. Being able to turn up the music so much louder. It was lovely. In the afternoon, I returned to the studio to pick out and cut fabric for new blocks. I only ended up with one that I really liked, but with Step Up 3 to keep me company, I was dancing my way out of the studio anyways.

Today's Blocks:

Rainbow Flowers

&

Windblown Square

Windblown Square

Rainbow Flowers

Spare Moments

The week before finals has been a busy one, full of papers and projects and physical chemistry tests. However, with the excitement of my own quilt show on the brain, I have not been able to set my sewing aside. In all of my spare moments (and some that aren't spare), I've been researching quilting history and natural dyes. I even have a list of the books that I will pick up from my home library when I return in a week. More than just research, I actually brought my Farmer's Wife Quilt book to class with me on Tuesday after cutting neat 2x2" squares of each of my fabrics and picked out fabrics for two more blocks. I've also been choosing some of my favorite Farmer's Wife blocks and sketching them as inspiration for larger quilts. I cannot wait for Christmas Break when the fabric dyeing and all-day quilting can begin! What are you looking forward to most over Christmas Break?

Old Women

This week's squares are so lively and lovely. I pieced them while my dear friend Margarita was arranging the sections of her afghan to sew them together. It was a joint quilt-crochet date. I am blessed to have so many talented friends and several who love fibers just like me! Thank you, Susie and Margarita, for being old women with me in the best way possible. Spending Friday nights knitting. Adventuring to the library for pattern books. Going to bed early after a long week of knitting and crocheting hats. You're the best.

This Week's Blocks:

Buckwheat

&

Hovering Birds

Buckwheat

Hovering Birds

Rekindle

Lately I've been feeling discouraged about my quilt. I haven't been keeping up with the two-squares-per-week goal, and I'm feeling like the quilt will never be finished. Plus, while I was home, I walked into the studio to find three beautiful quilts laid out on the floor in various states of assembly. My mother and sister have been hard at work and will definitely be growing their piles of quilts faster than I. Although Susie and I have been reminding ourselves that we have our whole lives to keep sewing and knitting and don't need to accomplish every project next week, I was still feeling the project was a little hopeless.

However, Friday night Susie stopped by to knit while I pieced some blocks that have been laid our for almost a month now, and she asked to see all my finished squares. I told her that I may use my fabric and choose a new simpler quilt pattern that I can finish more quickly. But, I laid them all out on the floor, fourteen in all, and I love them. I am very excited for the beautiful quilt they will become. It may take a year or two, so I won't stop myself from other projects (perhaps, a baby quilt next summer), but I am committed to slowly but surely finishing my Farmer's Wife Quilt.

This Week's Blocks:

Farmer's Daughter

Friendship Block

&

Weathervane

Weathervane may be my new favorite block. Do you have a favorite block so far?

Farmer's Daughter

Friendship Block

Weathervane

Home for a Weekend

This is the first weekend I've been home in a month, so I finished four squares and started two more! Hooray! I realize that I have been terrible at blogging consistently, and perhaps it is because I don't have deadlines. Therefore, I am choosing Sunday as my "must-post" day. I must post every Sunday. Period. I'm enjoying the grey, green, blue, and white color scheme so far. I'm also loving the design boards that I wrote about in the last post. Everyone should make design boards for blocking squares

This Week's Squares:

Gentleman's Fancy

Ribbons

Century of Progress

&

Bowtie

Gentleman's Fancy

Ribbons

Century of Progress

Bowtie

Design Boards

With a busy college life, I'm constantly picking up and putting down my quilt project, which means packing my little fabric pieces inside my Farmer's Wife quilt book and back into the stash box. It makes for a lot of touching of the pieces, which warps them. Plus, it's quite sad to be constantly dismantling my unfinished blocks. So...solution! I made design boards from a tutorial on Bee in my Bonnet. And they work splendidly for transferring my blocks back and forth from iron to machine as I lazily spend my Fall Break stitching squares together and catching up on Bones.

Out With the Salmon, In With the Citron

I was laying out the squares on my dining room table one sunny afternoon and enjoying the color-coded stacks of fabric. Then I plunked down the salmon-orange stack...and didn't like the collection as much anymore. I pulled all the squares with salmon in them to the side and immediately liked the feel better. Without the salmon, the blocks have a lighter, airier feeling. So, I've decided to try to make squares without the salmon for a month or so. That's when I realized that I only have two or three citron fabrics, so I perused Hawthorne Fabrics and my sister's quilt stash (thanks, sis) for more. Here are the ones that came in a happy care package on Friday!

fiber care package = best care packages

(thanks, mom)

Been Awhile

I haven't taken pictures in awhile or been as productive as I suggested at the end of the last post, but I do have four squares. Two squares in the last two weeks have been minor failures. (Well, maybe three.) First, I was piecing Homemaker, and I don't understand how to sew the diagonal dotted lines... Second, I cut out the pieces for Ribbons, but some of the pieces seem to be missing the seam allowance in one direction... And third, I'm not sure I love the colors I chose for Square Dance; they lack contrast and interest. So, of six attempted squares, I have three that I am happy with, which is okay.

I'm not disheartened. The sun is shining. The book-on-CD is playing. I danced this afternoon with my beautiful friends. And fabric is calling my name louder than homework deadlines. Sounds like a glorious afternoon to me :)

This Week's Blocks:

Churn Dash

Evening Star

Friendship

Square Dance

Churn Dash

Evening Star

Friendship

Square Dance

Quilt Envy

Camille Roskelley over at Simplify posted today about her Farmer's Wife Quilt, and I am very envious of her gorgeous blocks! Hers was the quilt that inspired me to do this quilt in the first place. I love the lively brightness of her color choices without making the quilt overly bold or in your face. Really I wouldn't mind if my quilt looked exactly like hers. However, I am not a professional quilter, like she, and I do not have my own moda line to furnish my creative interests. Nevertheless, I am more inspired than ever to continue piecing my squares, and I may just attempt to complete four (or six!...) this weekend. I've decided to add a widget on the blog that counts down the squares I have remaining, similar to Amy Adams' countdown on her cooking blog in Julie & Julie. Camille may only have 17 squares left while I have left 103 to go, but I am more motivated than ever to work on my quilt!

Periwinkle and Downtown Abbey

This week I was a little slow on posting, my apologies. I spent Thursday morning cutting and Friday afternoon sewing. With Downtown Abbey for company (and my roommate laughing at the ridiculousness of attempting such a large and finicky quilt), I cranked out the squares. They seem to be going quicker but I may just be picking the easier squares... My rule of thumb #2 that I've devised is: if there are three or more colors, one must be pure white. I broke that rule last week but held to it this week. It complements rule #1, there must be a light color in every square.

I have decided to hang up my finished squares on the wall to add some color and a sense of accomplishment to our living room. I'm still in love with the colors I've picked, and I 've realized that they kind of ended up being the colors I decorated in coincidentally. How perfect!

This weeks blocks:

Periwinkle & Big Dipper

Big Dipper

Periwinkle

Four More

This week's blocks:

Attic Windows, End of Day, Mother's Dream, & Seasons

"It is because I have known the happiness that comes of service, that I want my daughter to know it, too. Is there any greater joy, I wonder, than that of a hard task well done?"

Mrs. S.O.

 Mille Lacs County, MN

Attic Windows

End of the Day

Seasons

Mother's Dream