Esty Bounty

My kids know me very well, and for my birthday my son gave me an Amazon gift card, and my daughter gave me an Etsy gift card – I could not have been more pleased! I was practical with the Amazon card – loading up on sewing machine needles and replacement rotary cutter blades; but I said a final good-bye to my moratorium on purchasing fabric in 2015 and walked on the wild side with the Etsy card.

At first I pondered many different ways to spend it – Tilda fabrics, Liberty of London tana lawns, Moda Sweetwater and Lori Holt lines. But in the end I caved in to a desire for the jewel tones of Utopia and Pure Elements fabrics by Art Gallery. I was inspired by the Hello Spring quilt featured on the cover of Love Patchwork & Quilting – I could not stop thinking about that quilt. It is available as a kit at Fat Quarter Shop, but I decided to buy the digital issue of the magazine for the pattern and purchase my own fabrics with my gift card.

I found every fabric I needed in the Llama Fabric Etsy shop, where “Chio” readily put together a custom order for me.

I love this fabric – its quirky, like me
Can’t wait to get started on this quilt – I am selfishly making it for ME!
Included in my order were some beautiful complimentary remnants
I also ordered a bit of Art Gallery’s Fawn Day Fantasy from the Emmy Grace collection

These Kona solids also called my name, and I got a great deal on a Pick 5 Yards Bundle at Figg Fabric Etsy shop.

I ended up spending a wee bit over my amount, but I got a lot of fabric for my gift card. A very satisfying gift, and I will have plenty of sharp rotary blades to cut the fabric and nice sharp needles to piece my quilt.

UPDATE: Mrs. Ducky, who I posted about here, stayed around a couple days, then flew off over the house to parts unknown. She has not returned. We wish her well!

A Just Ducky Morning

My morning, which should have been a catch-up morning for Farm Girl Vintage blocks and finishing a quilt binding, was spent instead watching this female mallard duck enjoy our pool. We have a very active bird feeder that might have attracted her, but apparently the pool is a big draw.

I captured her in this little video:

I’ve researched “ducks in a swimming pool” and found that it can become a problem, with ducks pooing in your yard and pool. But she is just so darned cute! I have an unobstructed view of the pool from my sewing room, and her antics are very distracting. She swims around, forages the tanning shelf on the shallow end where the odd bug or worm ends up, plus she quacks every few minutes like she is calling for her friends to come and join her. My guess is that she is looking for a place to lay eggs and nest. We don’t have a lot of foliage in our back yard; it is all behind the fence, so that could be interesting.

Buddy (behind the wall) barked at her and chased her from one end of the pool to the other, but he’s too wimpy to get in the water – lol!

We had ducks a few years ago when we lived on 3 acres, and they were so much fun. They lived around our pond, and we fed them, treated them like pets. They came running and quacking to my husband every time he went outside – he was quite fond of them. Unfortunately, we suspect they were eaten by foxes or racoons, because they simply disappeared one by one. Soooooo, my husband wants to encourage Mrs. Duck to stay.

I will keep you posted on our just ducky life!

Farm Girl Friday SAL – Week 8

The blocks for week 8 of Farm Girl Vintage Sew-Along are Farm Fresh Flower and Farmhouse. I started them last week but got interrupted by errands, family visits, yard work, and housework. OK, and yes I received an Etsy gift card as well as two Amazon gift cards for my birthday, so a lot of time was wasted gleefully spent trying to make my choices. This morning I finally found some time to finish these two cute blocks.

Farm Fresh Flower Block
Farmhouse Block

Honestly I can see myself making full quilts from either block – I really enjoyed the process and love the final results. Be sure to go here to Instagram to see many color variations of blocks made by the #farmgirlfridays group and here to see the blog of the author of Farm Girl Vintage, Lori Holt.

Offset Scrappy Log Cabin Quilt Block

Last week this tutorial for an offset scrappy log cabin block caught my eye. It was on the blog of Quilting is more fun than Housework by Cynthia Brunz. I liked the log cabin aspect and the fact that a curved illusion will result from the different widths of strips. I decided to make a block before I changed my mind.

I chose some favorite blue-green and low volume scraps, and it all went together very quickly. Although the instructions state that it will make a 9-1/2 inch block, as usual my measurements are off at 9-1/4. This week Cynthia added blocks in rainbow colors and I’ve decided to join her Oh Scrap linky party and add more blocks to this one.

In Other News…

I recently celebrated my birthday, and our family had a get-together over the weekend. My son is 45 and and my daughter 39, and still think they are the funniest kids in the world. My daughter gave me a card she made on Zazzle (on the left), and the sentiment “Being your favorite child seems like gift enough” prompted a stern look from her brother. My son and I always exchange silly-humor cards, and his card is on the right. What can I say?

My niece sent flowers as a thank-you for the quilt I finished for her!

It was a great weekend – hope you had a good one too!

Farm Girl Friday SAL – All Caught Up

After running behind for a few weeks, once I buckled down I was able to finish up the blocks needed to catch up to the rest of the Farm Girl Sew-Along community. Pictured above are the 6 inch blocks next to a 12 inch block. I’m really loving the 6 inch size!

Here are my newly completed blocks, starting with Chicken Foot and ending with the two blocks due this week – Crops and Egg Basket:

Chicken Foot
Churn Dash


Cool Threads (the spools look a bit lop-sided until they are seamed up)
Corn and Tomatoes
Country Crossroads
Here is the close-up detail of the fussy cut on Country Crossroads block
Crops
Egg Basket – I think this was my favorite!
Here are all the blocks so far

It is so much fun to see how the pieces all fit together and make familiar shapes. I can’t wait to use the blocks in a quilt or table runner or pillow. As I mentioned in my last post, it takes me a ridiculously long time to pick out the fabric. I am trying hard to be original, use my scraps, and not copy the colors used in the book Farm Girl Vintage, but sometimes, as in the case of Corn and Tomatoes, it’s best to go with the book!

Go here to Instagram to see the beautiful variety of blocks made by the #farmgirlfridays group and here to see the blog of the author of Farm Girl Vintage, Lori Holt.

Hope all of you have a great weekend.

Farm Girl Friday SAL – Canning Season Block

I pulled a random brown gingham to lay the block on for the photo – I like the combo!

I still have seven blocks to finish before I catch up to the current week’s block on Farm Girl Vintage Sew-along, but that’s OK with me – it’s fun! The only “problem” I have is that it takes me forever to choose fabrics

I had planned to make the remainder of the blocks in 6-inch size, but the 3/4 inch squares specified in the cutting instructions made me laugh out loud, so I’m back to the 12-inch block!

My version is modified from the original pattern. I wanted to add space between the canning jars, so I adjusted the measurements. I had to do so much adjusting that I probably won’t do that again.

My husband guessed “milk cans” when I asked if he could tell what they were, but I am still pleased with the way the block finished.

I finished piecing the quilt for my niece and am impatiently waiting for the backing to arrive – next week!

I would love to order more of this “kitschy” fabric used in some of the blocks, but I’ve lost the name from the selvedge.

Hope all of you have a great weekend!

UPDATE: I found my order, and the fabric is from the Yuwa collection: English Cottage Kitchen listed at Delta Patchwork.

The Road to Oklahoma Quilt Block

One of the commenters on my last post mentioned the quilt block “The Road to Oklahoma”. I had to admit I’ve never made one, in spite of the fact that my blog is named for it, and that it has reflects my roots (see my About section). That comment gave me a great idea (thanks Christine!) for the back of the quilt I’m currently piecing.

The Road to Oklahoma block may be constructed a couple of different ways. One method is to cut trapezoids and squares, as described on Quilter’s Cache:

Trapezoid method

I chose to make half square triangles instead of trapezoids.

Half Square Triangle method

The front of the quilt will be simple block rows. On the back will be the Road to Oklahoma block with coordinating backing. I love the way four blocks create a center star to make a kind of “Road to Oklahoma meets Lone Star”. This will be meaningful to my niece (my nephew’s wife), because she is from Texas and my nephew is from Oklahoma. (My apologies to correct quilters everywhere who know that this star is not the typical strip-pieced Lone Star.)

I ordered more of this pretty gray gingham for backing (so much for my moratorium on purchasing fabric this year ). In the meantime I’ll finish piecing the front of the quilt!

Farm Girl Friday SAL Week 5

I’m still a bit behind in my blocks, but as Lori Holt says, “You are the boss of your own quilt!” This is the Butter Churn block. This was my first time making “flying geese”, and I was fascinated by the process. I measured wrong on two blocks and had to redo a step, but I finally got it right.

I decided to try my hand at the 6 inch size, because the 12 inch blocks are so very big. The photo above shows the difference in size. Unless I change my mind, the remainder of the blocks will be 6 inch – I really enjoyed making the smaller size!

Choosing fabrics for another simple block quilt using 5 inch squares occupied the better part of two days this week. I plan to give this one to the sweet wife of my nephew!

And on another note, according to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, the state of Texas has received 35 trillion gallons of water during the past month – enough to cover the whole state up to nearly eight inches deep. (Gah!) Our rain gauge has captured 13.40 inches since the first of May. The photo above was taken the day we received almost 4 inches. The water never got close to our house, but we did get another 3 inches the next day. Many Texas towns, including Houston, have experienced catastrophic and historic flooding. I’m sure we will be wishing for rain in the middle of summer, but for now I think we’ve had enough!

Memorial Day 2015

I am reminded today that my parents used to refer to this day as “Decoration Day”. We would travel from Bixby to Chelsea (Oklahoma) and place flowers on Granny’s grave. I kind of dreaded these trips because Mom and Daddy were sad and spoke in hushed tones, but at least we would stop for cheeseburgers somewhere along the way so the trip had some merit for me.

Today I honor not only those whose lives were lost in the defense of my freedom, but also my family – Mom and Daddy and Jerry and Danny, my brothers.

Farm Girl Friday SAL Week 4

After receiving the highly anticipated Farm Girl Vintage book and reading it from cover to cover, I started pulling fabrics and eagerly began piecing my blocks.

Apron Strings

I opted for the 12 inch blocks, but now that I’ve started I realize how huge they are!

Autumn Star

The directions are clear and easy to follow, but I somehow managed to make the Autumn Star block a bit larger than the others.

Baby Chick

At first I tried to copy the colors in the book, but now I am simply putting together blocks that suit my fancy.

Baking Day
I’m still not caught up, but I’m having fun! Hopefully this link will work for you to see more photos of other participants’ blocks.