Christmas in July

For my birthday last year, a friend gave me a charm pack of Christmas fabric I had admired. I really liked the aqua and red combination, so different from the regular red and green. I held on to the pack, waiting for just the right project. Last Christmas, the Temecula Quilt Co. reposted their 12 Days of Christmas project. Yes, there it was. So I sewed him up and just had the pieced project on display at Christmas time. There were 12 little blocks and each block contained the number of pieces for each day; day 1/1 whole block. Day 12/12 pieces.

Since I’m concentrating on easy projects right now, I decided it was time to quilt this little quilt. I did straight line quilting on my sewing machine. I was too lazy to attach my walking foot so it is a little wonky.

This Christmas wall quilt is the last of the little quilts I pieced last winter. I’m going to have a binding blitz with 4 small quilts to bind but they won’t take long.

I’ve been thinking about what piecing project to work on now. There are so many online quilts and BOM’s to tempt me besides the unfinished projects I’ve already started. Where do I start?

The Fabric Vortex quilt over at Crazy Mom Quilts is very attractive and uses a lot of leftover fabrics. There’s  Cozy Afternoon BOM from Jacquelynne Steves, another great project. I’m downloading the patterns from Turning Twenty’s Seeing Stars BOM. That one really tempted me. They are sewing the blocks in Kaffe Fassett fabrics, I’ve got Kaffe fabrics leftover from last summer’s project.

However, I don’t want to do anything that requires much thinking, I’m still recovering from Jane burnout.

When I was reorganizing my fabric stash, I pulled fabric to be cut into strips, including the Kaffe fabric. So that is what one project is. I’ve cut the fabric into   1-1/2″ strips and I’m sewing the strips together. Eventually they will all end up as 4 patch blocks. There is a general plan for the 4 patches to end up in a quilt but there is no rush.

Several years ago I bought several border print fabrics to make table runners. I made several but was distracted and never finished piecing the rest. Table runners are on the list. And then there are 400 1″ finished HST’s I need to piece for a scrappy quilt.

I will be participating in a siggie (signature) exchange in late fall. I will start piecing those blocks after the sign up ends August 8. So far the number of participants is 55.

I will keep on working at the easy projects for now. Soon I will have my GO back and then I will be full speed ahead again.

I’ve linked up to Esther’s Wednesday Wow.

Little Snowman Quilt

This is another of the little (17″ x 20″) quilts I pieced last winter. They were fun to make, so different from the big quilts I normally produce. I was concerned that having sewn the snowflake buttons on before quilting was going to cause problems, but it hasn’t.

The pattern is called Snowman Love and was a kit I bought from the Red Button Quilt Co. The border design was supposed to have been a kind of free hand drawn scrolling design. Cute design, but I am not good at freehand drawing so I just picked a stencil and traced it off, good enough. The quilting happened on and off last week. I should be able to finish quilting today.

This has been a busy week, we’ve actually had sunshine every day! The wheat has been combined and we’ve started baling straw. Yesterday morning I mowed down 10 rounds of hay. Monday is going to be an extremely busy day but these are the days I dream about in winter. Summer is my favorite season.

I don’t have pictures from my garden but the green beans are producing well. I pulled all the garlic several weeks ago and the heads are drying in the garage. Part of the onions were pulled last week and the rest are ready to be harvested this week. The new red potatoes are delicious. I’m surprised at how well they have produced, they were viciously attacked by potato bugs early on but have come back and yielded well.

I’ve linked to Kathy’s Slow Stitching Sunday.

 

Jane is Pieced!

Here she is, my version of the Jane Stickle civil war quilt.

This isn’t the greatest of photos but it was the best I could do. I am not going to complain about having bright sunshine after all the dreary, rainy days we’ve had this summer!

I attached the borders on Saturday so Jane has been pieced in an 8 month time span. She is going to rest until sometime in August when she’ll be marked for quilting. The plan is to put her in the quilting frame and start the hand quilting in September. It will take as long as it takes.

I’m burnt out on sewing right now so I’ve started sorting through my project tubs. I’m weeding out quilt projects that I no longer want to make. It is interesting how the bright colors I like now are so different from the jewel tones I liked 10 – 15 years ago. Some of the fabric, along with a box of books, will be donated to the Relief Sale in September.

It feels good to have downsized and I hope I can hold firm in my resolution to only purchase fabric when I have a designated use for it.

I’ve linked to Esther’s Wednesday Wow! She’s weeding out her stash too. I’m also linked to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Richard and Tanya Quilts, A Quilting Reader’s Garden, Simply Pieced, My Quilt Infatuation and Crazy Mom Quilts.

This is a LOT more links than I normally link to, but I want to whole world to know, Jane is pieced!

Jane’s Corner Blocks

Last week I finished the triangles for the bottom border of my Jane quilt. I forgot to take a picture of the row with the alternate triangles but I promise you, the row is sewn.

 

I just finished piecing the lower left corner border block. I had pieced the other 3 blocks earlier this week.

I pieced my first Jane block on November 21, 2014 and the last block July 14, 2015. I need to get these borders sewn onto the center section and I hope to be able to show that to you next week. This quilt is almost completely pieced!!!

I’m linking up to Esther’s Wednesday WOW!  and My Quilt Infatuation. Check out the projects other people are working on.

Slow Quilting on the Farm

Not much piecing or hand work happened here on the farm last week. The sun finally showed up and it was hay making time. We made some nice hay and we have half a field yet to be mowed and then baled.

I prepped the rest of the bottom border triangles for my Jane quilt. It rained this morning so I was able to piece 3 more triangles.

I’ve enjoyed quilting my little quilt projects, in fact the red and black quilt is finished and I just need to quilt 1 more row on the cheddar quilt. While I was quilting the red and black, I saw that I had one block turned wrong. No matter how hard I look things over, it seems I always have a block turned wrong! Oh well, she’s quilted now! I was asked the size of the quilts. The red/black is 21″ x 30″ (53 1/2 cm x 76 cm) and the cheddar is 25″ x 30″ (63 1/2 cm x 76 cm). I think anyway. I was measuring them in the quilting frame and I had rolled once. I’ll let you know for sure when I sew the binding.

I also managed to completely weed the garden last week. The green beans I’m growing on the fencing hoop are growing well and climbing. Unfortunately my tomato plants were destroyed by a groundhog. I pulled out what was left of the plants and put the cages and stakes away until next year. I don’t know if the plants would have grown out of the set back but they probably wouldn’t have yielded tomatoes until frost time. Fortunately my neighbors have a produce stand just down the road. I usually buy produce there that I don’t raise.

The first picking of green beans yielded a good peck. Plenty for eating fresh and some to put in the freezer. I always add onions to  green beans when I cook them. I also harvested the first of the broccoli. This 5 gallon pail was full of broccoli heads and there will be more to harvest this week. The garlic is ready to be pulled too.

I’d like to finish the Jane quilt top but it sure is nice to work outside again and feel the sun. It has been beautiful; low humidity and high temps in the 70’s. There was no hay making today since it rained but the Farmer is going to mow the last of the hay down tomorrow. Hopefully it will be baled before the next rain comes at the end of the week.

Little Quilting Projects

I originally planned to quilt my star quilt after I finished Red Radiance but I’ve changed my mind. I want to get Jane into the quilting frame the first part of September and I think the star quilt would take longer than July and August to quilt.

 

During last winter, I pieced several small quilts and I have put 2 of them in the quilting frame to quilt. They are both made from patterns I received when I participated in the Prairie Women Journey the winter of ’13-’14. They should quilt fairly fast.

I’ve also start prepping for the bottom border of Jane. The first two triangles in the row are pieced. I realized there should be a blue triangle instead of the white one in the 2nd triangle after I had the block pieced. My Jane quilt is going to be unique!

I don’t know how much sewing and quilting will be completed this week. It has stopped raining and the hay has been mowed. I need to work in the garden tomorrow and the flowerbeds need help too. Summer has finally arrived.

I’ve linked to Esther’s Wednesday WOW.