Stars, bicycles and cats

I've still got a long way to go to catch up on all my overdue block of the month projects so there was no time to waste this weekend.

Firstly, the left over Sunday Morning Block from the Lori Holt Farm Girl Vintage project plus the two blocks for this week, Sunny Sunflower and Tumbleweed.

I'm ridiculously amused with how wavy the borders on the Sunday Morning block are. Note to self - never use horizontal prints for narrow borders!

Onwards and upwards though with the Like Riding a Bike block (from August) and the Quilty Cat block (from September) for the Fat Quarter Shop Snapshots quilt along. 

Both came together fairly quickly but can I just say - there's an awful lot of pieces in that bicycle! It took me almost an entire afternoon to make just that one block.

I did just manage to squeeze in one block of the Moda Building Blocks project (which is next on my list)

Plus I also managed to whip up some chocolate cupcakes with raspberry buttercream because cupcake season is now back in full swing.

Nom.

Farm Girl Vintage on fast forward

With Big Momma and Moda Love out of the way, it's time to start catching up with all those block of the month/week projects that I've fallen behind with.

I was more than a month behind with the Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage sewalong so some speed sewing was required!

First up, Peas and Carrots Block and then Pie Cherries Block. I love the spinning element of Peas and Carrots and then juicy roundness of Pie Cherries. I wish I had a darker brown for the stem but ah well! 

The cherries also look a bit asymmetrical with the 1/4" seam allowance round the outside edge but this will soon disappear once it's sewn into the top.

Next, Pinwheels Block and Postage Stamp Block. These are oh so simple in their construction which is awesome. 

Then Scrappy Maple Leaf Block and Scrappy Strawberry Block. The strawberry block called for 10 different greens and 22 different pinks. I don think I have that many fabrics in my entire stash let alone the bundle allocated to this project so I had to recycle a few fabrics.

Then Simple Star Block and Spring Star Block. I love star blocks - they have such an impact with just a few pieces. 

And finally Summer Star Block - this is a little late for the weather which feels positively autumnal here. 

I didn't get a chance to finish Sunday Morning Block so that will have to go on the list for this weekend. But at least I'm a lot further on now. Just a few more projects to catch up so (sewing) pedal to the metal...

Pumpkins and pastures

I've snuck ahead in the Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage sew along by piecing next week's blocks early. Although, by the time this blog goes live they'll be last week's blocks. So perhaps I'm behind. Doh.

I can't believe we're up to "P" already in this sew along.

First up is Out to Pasture, a deceptively simple looking block which actually has a partial seam in it. See that innocent looking turquoise strip to the right? Yep, that sucker is a partial seam. I'm always terrified that my two halves of a seam won't match up but they do. Phew!

Next is Patchwork Pumpkin, which called for 30 different orange fabrics. Now, I have a bit of an orange phobia (which I have promised Molli Sparkles that I will resolve one day) so don't have 30 different orange scraps lying around. Instead I used 5 different orange FQs 6 times. Hope that's ok?

I think they came out rather well despite the hidden little challenges?!

Just a quick reminder that I'm on my migraine detox now and so all blog postings have been prepared in advance. I won't be able to check my blog for at least two weeks so I'll respond to any comments after 17th August.

Trans chicken and technicolor milk

First up this week are two blocks from the Lori Holt Farm Girl Vintage sew along project. And they're slightly unusual...

First up - Mama Hen. Now I've not lived there for a while but I'm a country girl at heart and I know a hen when I see one. And that doesn't look like any female chicken I've seen.

When I showed it to my (very gay) housemate he nodded wisely and said "ah yes, missing the wattle but with the comb? It's a mid transition trans chicken." I'm not sure which direction its heading in but it's certainly confused at the moment. But I'm sure we all celebrate it becoming the chicken it was always meant to be. 

Next up is the Milking Day block. Again, the straw-chewing bit of me is frowning at that technicolor milk churn and wondering how hygienic it can be compared to the stainless steel version but I've got to admit that it's cuter! And yes, the Scottie dogs are back floating around in liquids. It's almost a tradition now.

Just a quick reminder that I'm on my migraine detox now and so all blog postings have been prepared in advance. I won't be able to check my blog for at least two weeks so I'll respond to any comments after 17th Auagust.

Cabins, kettles and windows

I had a Lori Holt Farm Girl Vintage blitz this weekend and did both last week's and this week's blocks. I might not get ahead with this project but I'm determined to at least keep up.

First up were the Grandma's Quilt Block and Haystacks blocks. I think I might have flower overload in the second block.

The haystacks I remember were never that neat. or colorful. 

Next up were Kettle's On (a phrase I can relate to from my childhood!) and Kitchen Window.

I think Kitchen Window is one of my favourite blocks of this project so far. This project is a great example of a skill builder, something I like about well executed BOM projects. Not something I can say about the Craftsy BOM project for this year which I've sort of lost interest in due to its repetitive nature. Perhaps I'll catch up at some point but there's only so many half square triangles I can stomach sewing! 

Squares, squares everywhere

I took a brief sojourn from the double pinwheel block to do this week's blocks from Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage BOW.

Happily there were no triangles involved in either blocks, just squares and rectangles. And lots of them too! 

First up was the Furroughs block which is basically just eight flying geese sewn together into columns. Each goose is meant to finish 2" x 3.5" raw (which it did) but for some reason, the first time I measured them I must have got my ruler the wrong way around and mis-measured them as 2" x 3". I don't know how! I kept trying to work out how I'd lost a perfect 1/4" on each one! Silly me. 

The second block was a mock Gingham using background, a medium tone and a dark tone to create the gingham look. The picture on the pattern called for the gingham to be orange in colour but I didn't have a medium tone orange. Instead I went for red which turned out well I think.

I'm determine that, even if I don't keep up with the other BOM projects (I'm already behind in the FQS Shapshots, GenX Quilters Mocassin and Craftsy) I'm going to keep up with Lori's. 

Catching up

I was a bad bad girl this weekend. Rather then tackling more of those dreaded double pinwheel blocks I caved and instead pieced some of my BOM projects. To coin a popular phrase: sorry/not sorry.

First up were missing blocks from the Farm Girl Vintage BOW (is that an actual acronym?) by Lori Holt.

We had Crops and Egg Basket.

Then Farm Fresh Flowers and Farmhouse.

And finally Seed and Feed and Fresh Pear.

As you can tell my pears are missing some seeds. I promise that when I have a spare 5 mins I'll embroider them in with some Aurifloss.

Phew, that was a lot of blocks! I feel a sense of satisfaction that I've finally caught up.

Ok, I confess I pieced some double pinwheel blocks too. What? I'm a sucker for punishment...

Seeing taillights up ahead

Over the course of last winter and this spring I signed up for more BOM projects then I care to remember. My goals with BOM clubs are (a) learn new skills and step out of my comfort zone and (b) keep up!

Well we're now half way through the year and it's all starting to slide a little. A combination of sickness and unexpected but urgent projects means that I haven't done any of the June blocks from my BOM projects. I'm even behind by one week in the Lori Holt Farm Girl Vintage weekly sew along. Eek.

I can see everyone else's taillights disappearing over the horizon and I'm running and waving madly trying to catch up. Maybe next week I'll get everything done. Maybe. 

C is for cookie or churn dash or cool threads

Apart from a lot of quilting, I also managed to do the next two blocks in the Lori Holt Farm Girl Vintage quiltalong.

We're still at C in the alphabet so these were "Churn Dash" and "Cool Threads".

I know Church Dash had a few other names including Shoo Fly and  Sherman's March (either of which I guess would have put it in the "S" section!) but we're solidly churning in Farm Girl Vintage. 

Cool threads is basically four spool blocks. Spool blocks seem to be very "in" this season. I've seen them everywhere. 

Lori's version of Cool Threads used a mix of gingham fabrics but my fat quarter bundle from Fat Quarter Shop didn't have any gingham included so I had to improvise. No, that green fabric isn't gingham. It's a sort of check (or plaid I guess).

Something went a bit...squirrelly with one of my spools so the block looks a little slanted. Hopefully a bit of sashing will fix everything. I don't have time to resew!

Down on the farm - bears in syrup

This week I almost got behind in the Farm Girl Vintage sew along. Almost. Four days is more than half a week. Eek!

First up was Canning Season, six little canning jars. Just incase you're confused, that's the one on the right.

In a 6.5" square these cans end up being pretty small - in my case I think they look more like nail polish bottles then canning jars but I'm certain that's just my twisted mind! 

I tried to pick fabric with medium scale prints which would show up in the jars. Four of them are fine but I'm not sure what that little animal (bear? dog?) is doing in the blue jar. He seems to have been preserved. And don't even get me started on the Highland Terriers...

The block on the left is Chicken Foot. I have to confess I had trouble getting this block to lay flat - too many intersecting seams. But putting some weight behind the iron helped. Squish that block! That's my excuse for the amount of chocolate I eat; I need the bulk for pressing blocks. Feel free to steal it.

Baking and a-churning

Another Friday has passed which means there are two more blocks to do for Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage quiltalong.

With so many BOM projects on the go at once I'm terrified that if I fall behind I'll never catch up! So I had to do these blocks as soon as they were due.

First up was the Baking Day block. Lori's example block used beige for the spoon but I have been given a limited amount of beige in my Fat Quarter Shop bundle. So instead I decided to have a dark orange spoon instead. All good!

The block is fairly straightforward although, with the small spoon face having so many snowballed corners it doesn't want to lay flat! Some aggressive pressing required!

Next up was the Butter Churn block. I love this one particularly with the centre mini pinwheel being so perfectly framed. It's just so...square!

I also love Lori's method of making the flying geese units which I've always wanted to try. The maths is a bit beyond me though - why do we mark a large square only to cut it into four smaller squares? Why not just cut the four small squares to start with? Perhaps it's easier and quicker to mark one large square than four smaller ones.

Notwithstanding the weird arithmetic, the flying geese come out perfectly and with no waste.

I have one small bugbear about the pressing instructions for this block though - the patterns calls for the outside flying geese to be pressed outward which squishes the points of the geese back on themselves. This makes for a very bulky seam, you risk losing the geese points and the block won't lay flat. I think it would have been better to press away from the geese, preserving the points and making the block lay flatter. But that's just my opinion, obvs.

Either way, two more blocks done! Roll on Friday!

Farm Girl Vintage start

After last week's epic week of sewing I did a stock take and noticed that I'd entirely missed one project - Farm Girl Vintage Friday's! Oops!

I'm already two weeks behind so it was time to crack on.

Although Lori uses Swiss Dots by Riley Blake, I'm using Kona snow as the background fabric because in all honesty I could reconstruct a bolt of this fabric with the stray scraps and yardage I have lying about the place! Waste not, want not! 

First up was Apron Strings, a scrappy variation on snowballed half square triangles. I was a bit surprised that this was the first block; normally you have scrappy blocks at the end of a project to use up your left overs. It seemed odd to cut into FQs just for 1 1/2" squares. But I took my shilling from the  drum so I must obey.

Next was Autumn Star, a very pretty star block which I'll definitely want to make in a larger scale in her future. It also laid surprisingly flat for having so many seams in such a little block!

Finally, the super cute Baby Chick block with its little backstitched eye and legs. I had to be careful not to stitch the eye into the seam allowance as was indicated in the pattern.

 Roll on Friday!

Farm Girl Vintage BOM

Yay, my copy of Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage book has arrived.

It goes along with the fat quarter bundle that I got from Fat Quarter Shop a short while ago.

Lori and FQS are planning on going a quilt along with the pattern from 1st May so I'll be adding that on to my ever-growing list of block of the month projects.

As a freebie with the pattern, there's a pattern for a mini quilt of Canning Season. Sooo cute!

With all these block of the month projects going on, perhaps I'll do a Dear Jane too! One day...

Sunday Stash #3

Last week I made the best of  Fat Quarter Shop's 20% discount by stocking up on fabrics that were clogging up my wish list.

Firstly, a bundle of  Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage collection which is exclusively available at FQS and will be used in making her Farm Girl Vintage quilt later on this year.

Normally I'm not a fan of reproduction 30s fabrics - I'm simply not a floral fan but I'm trusting in Lori and FQS on this one! The quilt looks awesome so I'm sure the fabrics will work perfectly with it.

Secondly, I gorged on layer cakes. I've grabbed hold of  Sandy Gervais's Block Party and Jennifer Sampou's Black and White. 

Bright colorful fabrics for spring!

I also nabbed Sweet Water Company's Feed Co and Kate Spain's Paradiso.

I told you I gorged!

Finally I snuck a jelly roll of Heathers Bailey's Clementine in my basket.

I'm thinking coin quilt with beautiful sea foam sashing in between.

Linking up with Molli Sparkles's Sunday Stash link up.

Happy Sunday sewing!

Natural clumsiness vs a hot glue gun Aka making a mini design board

I've been crushing on Lori Holt's mini design board for a while now and this week I finally collected the raw materials and had a go.

The idea of the board is that it's covered in batting so provides a nice amount of fraction and keeps your cut pieces in place whilst you carry them to your sewing machine and piece. Having put together the Fat Quarter Shop Snapshots block last month which had over 30 tiny pieces, I wanted something nice and secure to stop my little 3/4" squares from flying away again!

I've never used a glue gun before (let alone owned one) so gluing the batting and binding in place was a bit challenging, particularly for one as clumsy as me. Yes, I glue my fingers. Quite a few times. Ouch.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I might try and get some bigger pieces of foam board and make a larger one for bigger blocks. Once my fingers have recovered that is...