Playing catch-up with the Mystery Quilt

My "sanity sewing" this morning was an opportunity to catch up with the bluepatch quilter's Mystery Quilt.  For fortnight 5, bluepatch had us make a very, very large block: "Garden Path." 

For fortnight 6, we were directed to make a very traditional block, "Clay's Choice."  To lighten things up and get a little relief from all those polka dots, I didn't include my background fabric in this one.

It's so nice to be caught up, and I think these crazy blocks are working pretty well together...they certainly brighten up our old cement laneway!

Hopefully this little bit of sewing has rendered me sufficiently sane to get to work.  So off I go...and I hope those who are sharing the intensely hot weather that has hit Toronto can stay cool!

That's what she said.

I prefer firm to floppy

                                                                                                                        for English paper piecing.


I'm impatient, so I'll take what I can get

                                                                            while waiting for my new Hexalong supplies to arrive.



It's much bigger than I thought it would be

                                                                                           but it works for AMH's "Loulouthi."


I guess I'll need a bigger box

                                                                                                 for my Hexalong supplies! 

Come on now.

I can't keep this up. 

For some reason I'm finding it hard (no, really!) not to sound like a Benny Hill skit when writing about the Hexalong.

I'd better shut it and just leave you with some photos.

Hexalong!

I have a major deadline looming -- oh yes, indeed -- but my little bits of sewing time are more important to me than ever.  I knit my way through my master's thesis, my dissertation and my first book, and it's clear that I'm stitching my way through my current writing projects. 

A little handsewing on the side seems just the thing for me right now: I can pick it up for just a short break and I can take it on our upcoming roadtrip, short as that may be.

***

My first foray into English Paper Piecing happened last summer, when on a whim I threw some pre-cut paper "tumblers" and hexagons into my cart at Connecting Threads.  I used the tumblers to make a little summer stroller quilt for Miss F.

I went purely on instinct as I did my first paper piecing -- and it seemed to work. It was so nice to be able to work on a quilt project without sitting at the machine (I made most of this during our neighbourhood street sale).

Anticipating the need for a little handwork during a trip last spring -- we were heading south to visit my in-laws -- I started to play with the little pack of 1" hexagons I had in my stash.

Soon I had a little pile of hexagon flowers.

I had exhausted my supply of paper picees and cut some of my own from printer paper, but these were not nearly as easy to work with as the precuts...so I invested in a really big bag of 1" hexagons, purchased directly from Paper Pieces.

For a while there my little case of hexie supplies stayed close by my side.

I started to piece the flowers together into a Grandmother's Flower Garden, and this is where I left it, shifting attention to some sewing projects that offered more immediate gratification.

And now I have to admit that I have been lured by the Hexalong being hosted by two amazingly creative quilters: Lynne of Lily's Quilts and Gayle Brindley. 

As much as I like the sweet little flower garden I started -- and to which I know I will return at some point later this year -- I am really excited by the possibilities of making a Candied Hexagons quilt a la Lizzie Broderie.  So I am going to be working with much larger hexagon shapes: 4" per side. 

I plan to make a good number of "star" hexagons, made up of  2" 60 degree triangles; some tumbling block hexagons, made up of larger 4" 60 degree triangles; some "divided" hexagons, using the Paper Pieces templates available here; and of course some nice big solid hexagons.  I also want to try some of the more unusual and ambitious hexagon designs....Yippee! 

My supplies are ordered, I have lots of future stitchy happiness to dream about, but now I have to get back to work.

Happy Monday, everyone!

FWQAL week 7

It has been a week-and-a-half since I last dipped into my copy of The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt book, so last night after the little one's bedtime I pieced together 4 more blocks for the quilt-along: 3 keepers and 1 that I would like to re-do.

First off, here is my favourite block of the week -- maybe my favourite so far: block 29, Economy:

I used two of my favourite fabrics, including my most beloved tumbling triangles -- a repro feedsack print (now discontinued) by Glenna Hailey.

Next up is block 21, Contrary Wife, where I cut into a new-to-me Joel Dewberry FQ from my recent trip to Sew Sisters -- which is a really lovely little shop in the north of Toronto.  I had never been there before last week because it is way, way, way off my beaten track...but luckily they are having a Free Shipping week, so you need not trek out there just to sample their wares.

Anyway, here is Contrary Wife:

Next up is block 23, Country Farm, featuring another of my recently purchased FQs, a red polka-dotty print of unknown origin:

And finally, here is evidence that the late hour and hurried sewing did take a toll: here's my attempt at block 25, Cups & Saucers, which merits a re-do.

Here's the week's group shot; let's call it 3 1/2 blocks.

made with love for Ms. H

Ms. H is our littlest one's teacher in toddler Montessori and our whole family adores her!  Ms. H is starting her well-deserved summer break today, and I made her a gift.

This quilt actually caused me some headaches...but I don't want to dwell on those at all, because I am so happy with the final result, and really hope that Ms. H loves it!

The basic design is yet another project from Kim Brackett's wonderful book Scrapbasket Sensations, although I made several changes -- some accidental (my blocks are spinning counter-clockwise; oops) and some intentional:  I trimmed to 11" rather than 11.5" to allow for some shorter scraps, I left out the cornerstones that the original Scrapbasket pattern had in the sashing between blocks, and I omitted the wide patterned border in favour of more of the solid background fabric and a narrow border of my favourite fabric in the project, the aqua Farmdale blossoms.

I love the aqua Kona solid binding too.

And the back provides a nice quiet contrast to the front.

Time constraints demanded all over meandering FMQ...no fancy schmancy quilting on this one.

But I hope Ms. H likes it...here we go to give her her present...bye bye for now!

crop rotation (or FWQAL week 6)

Okay, I'm digging deep in my search for farm-related titles for blog posts.  You may be relieved to know that I have just about exhausted my repertoire in this area (I'm no country girl!), so titles of future FWQAL (Farmer's Wife Quilt Along) posts may need to be strictly descriptive.

Onwards.

This week I put a new solid into rotation as I made my FW blocks  (what I'll call corn-fed yellow -- pulled from my stash initially to make the block called "Corn and Beans," although I still haven't got around to making that one)...and I see now that I have actually made quite a few blocks since my last week's post.

First up is "Cats and Mice":

Here is "Bowtie":

And "Broken Dishes":

These 3 were one evening's entertainment, and the first uses of that yellow.

Although the past week is now a bit of a blur, I think it was the following day that I made "Birds in the Air" (with the fabrics I had originally pulled for "Corn and Beans"... I was a bit dazed and confused by my summer cold...)

At this point I took a pic of all my blocks-to-date (there were 18), and tried to get a sense of how the colours were working together.  It was a very windy day, so it was a bit of a miracle that I managed to get all the blocks to sit still for a moment.

 I started to feel unsure about adding in all that yellow, and tried to move things back to the blue-and-green range with pops of orange (so much for rotating the crops!).

Here's "Friendship Flowers":

And "Ribbons":

And finally "Puss in the Corner":

I think these final three blocks of the week helped me to regain some balance:

In the coming week I want to try my hand at some of the more intricate blocks...maybe a little more paper piecing...?

How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm?

Okay, so my title today (after a long absence from blogging to tend to work responsibilities and a post-conference cold)  is a 1919 song title ripped from its original context.  I know that my modest familiarity with early 20th c popular song places me in the minority of my generation: we 40-somethings tend to know little about popular music pre-1960, so any knowledge of songs from the teens and 20s can seem odd for someone my age (42).  I'll assume that few of my readers will recognize "How ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm (after they've seen Paree)" as the title of a comic song about the difficulties WWI soldiers faced upon their return to the U.S.

But the focus for me today is far less weighty: it's all about the Farmer's Wife QAL, my dearies!  With over 100 blocks, it's a long-term commitment...but I am wondering how long the current mass enthusiasm for the FWQAL will last? Will the lure of bigger and better, faster and newer things be too strong to resist?  I'm certainly not immune....

But I do want to go all the way with this project -- and I'm going to try to make all the blocks, even ones that don't (on first glance, at least) quite capture my imagination.  There's something about the challenge of it, including the challenge of finding interest in the blocks that don't seem to be "me," that I really like.  So after a couple of weeks away, I'm back on the farm.

Before my break, I had made 11 blocks from the FW book templates:

And I had one basket block languishing, waiting for its handle to be appliqued.  It's still waiting....

And then I had ventured into more challenging terrain, the FW blocks that don't work quite as well with templates.  Here is "Peaceful Hours," which was made by foundation piecing:

And just last night, I returned to the wholesome goodness that is "Buckwheat" and "Butterfly at the Crossroads":

It's nice to be back!!