Can I bore you with yet more FW blocks?

Here's the whole she-bang for the year:

FW blocks

My apologies ... I was too lazy to move the lamp.

And the most current batch:



#67 Pine Tree

#68 Postage Stamp




#69 Practical Orchard

 



#71 Puss in the Corner



#72 Railroad

 That's it for now.  I noticed with my cut & pasting that my numbering system is a bit off, but I don't have my book with me so I'll have to correct this later.

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Other than sewing a few blocks this past weekend, I undertook a major cleaning of my sewing area (ahem, bedroom/sewing room).

Where the magic happens!

I cleared out literally an entire kitchen-sized garbage bag of tiny scraps!  There was no way I was ever going to sew with these snippets and it felt great to let it all go.  The green wastebasket (in front of the armoire) is what remains of my scraps... all good sized pieces, and the plastic box next too it is overfowing with larger yardages I'll probably never use.  I'm going to try to gift to friends and/or the day camp my daughter attends. 

If all else fails, I'll try to giveaway here, but this is not trendy stuff ... mainly older, out of fashion fabrics and some blenders my well-meaning husband gave me that I'll probably never use.

Tending to the Farm

I had a little burst of activity on my Farmer's Wife Sampler:



#62 Old Windmill



#63 Ozark Maple Leaf

 

#64 Peace & Plenty




#65 Peaceful Hours




#66 Periwinkle

I have now completed 66 out of 111,with 45 to go!  I have no idea how others have finished their FW quilts so quickly.  If I were to simply focus on spending 100% of my quilting time on the FW, I'd quit quilting and probably hate myself too.  So I need to be realistic...  I could finish the blocks by the end of the year if I were to pick up the pace a little bit.  That's my goal (but don't hold me to it).

I have a question to those who blog and use flickr.  How are you editing your photos now that Picnik is no longer available?  I've tried Aviary and it stinks.  What I really miss is being able to "auto-correct" the exposure and color balance.  I'm not sure if the "enhance" feature in Aviary is similar to this? 

More indigo blocks

It's finally summer and I'm hoping to find some extra sewing time now that the kids' activities have slowed down somewhat. However, I woke up on Friday with a bad case of vertigo and ended up going to the ER.  I'm still feeling the effects, but I'm feeling better and the meds do help quite a bit.

I actually got some sewing done, even while my world was spinning (amazing how easily-quickly the brain can adapt to different situations!).

I decided to keep making blocks until I have a fair sized throw quilt ... maybe 90x70.  I figure I'll need 10 blocks by 7 or so.  We'll see.  I'm really enjoying the process of creating these blocks.

The hand piecing is relaxing...

...and the straightforward piecing.  I'm probably going to repeat these same blocks and maybe add some sashiko blocks - although I'm not sure how I'd quilt around the sashiko stitches.  What do you think?

Indigo blocks

Hey there, everyone, I realize I've been a bit sporadic with posts as of late.  Sorry about that -- the school year is nearing the end (last week!!!) and so there's been a ramp up in activities for school and the family.  I haven't had much time for sewing, but I spent a few hours playing on Sunday around with some of the blue & white fabrics I've been collecting.

The block patterns are from the book "Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix & Match" by Susan Briscoe.  I used a mix of Curious Nature (Parsons Gray) and an Alexander Henry print on an indigo Quilters' Linen by Kaufman.  The colors in person are so much more vibrant than what I was able to capture with my cellphone.

I'm not sure where I'm going with these ... perhaps a mini-quilt with some more swirl applique blocks and a few more pieced blocks?  What do you think?

Maybe a few blocks like the one pictured above ....