The Farmer's Wife

Just before I left on vacation I started my adventure into The Farmer's Wife quilt. I have had the book for quite some time and knew someday I wanted to make this quilt. Lucky for me, it has become the latest rage and now I have lots of friends joining in on the adventure. The book has some great letters from the 20's of women who commented on whether they would want their daughter to marry a farmer. It is quite fascinating to read. The book does not give you exact instructions for the blocks but there are several groups out there helping with directions.

Here is a picture of the finished quilt. There are 111 blocks in the book and some quilters have chosen to do a smaller version. I am not making any decisions at this point as to the size of my finished quilt.

We saw lots of farms on our trip through Michigan and Canada. I couldn't help but think about the lives of the women who live on the farms.

I have chosen to use the Marti Michell templates to do my piecing of the blocks. Yet, another thing I have been wanting to do, perfecting my piecing. I am happy with what I do because I am not a perfectionist but I never want to give anything away because I don't like people to see my corners not matched up. This was a perfect plan...The Farmer's Wife and Marti Michell templates. I am happy with the first blocks that I did but feel even more confident that the next ones will be better.

One great thing about this quilt...it is all coming from my stash!! The Marti Michell templates do cost money but are worth their price because you get perfect piecing every time. I have another blog post to write proving the worth of these templates. They are saving me from pulling out my hair right now on a swap I have committed to participate in. I love gadgets that make my life easier!

Market Review at The Quilt Asylum

Market Review at The Quilt Asylum happens two times a year just 6 weeks after the quilt market. It is like Christmas...waiting to see the new trends and up and coming designers. These gals work so hard to get quilts and other items finished for us to see. It is such a fun time and there are always wonderful treats. Hope you enjoy the few pictures I have to share.

Modern Quilt Relish

Solids!!...or flats, if you prefer.

This & That - Winter Bliss

Modern Quilt Relish

Swoon - Camille Roskelley

Atkinson Designs - Texas Two Step

More solids!!!

Tablerunner Swap

I recently participated in a tablerunner swap through The Quilt Asylum. It is fun to have a challenge and a deadline that makes you actually get something done. I used Park Central fabric by Kate Spain mainly because I had some scraps of it left from my Sudoku quilt. I love the colors of this line, although, it does not match anything in my house. That's okay since I am swapping it anyway.

LaDonna combined a couple of patterns to make hers. The theme for the swap was "Summer" and this definitely represents summer.

These colors are so popular right now and Ellyn put them into play with her tablerunner. Super cute!

This one was so fun because it is two-sided. Way to be smart and get double the use out of the runner.

Kathleen had fun using a Gwen Marston approach to her project. I think it would go nicely with Fiesta Ware.

Sherry is always ambitious and does multiple items to swap. One pattern was by Pieced Tree and the other is the one using border fabric.

Our next swap is in August and it is a Doll Quilt and has to have a circle of some sort involved. There are lots of ways to interpret that rule.

Fresh Fabric Treats

Jenny Garland and Angela Yosten were at The Quilt Asylum today autographing the new Moda Bake Shop book.

This book features 16 new projects by some of the best Moda Bake Shop chefs which utilize jelly rolls, layer cakes and charm pack pre-cuts.

What an extra special treat to get my book autographed. This was such a fun day at The Quilt Asylum with Bring and Brag, Block Swap Reveal, and the autographing of a newly released book.

Pink and Brown Swap

Bonnie at The Quilt Asylum has started a block swap. Her first one was to choose a 6" block and make it using pinks and browns. The number you made depended on how many people were in the swap. They ended up making over 100 but in the end it was worth it. I did not participate in the swap but I went to the revealing because I wanted to hear about the next swap. Oh my!!!... these quilts were beautiful!!! It was so fun to hear how each of them came up with their final designs. I will just post pictures for you to enjoy. I did sign up for the next one and it is a 9" churn dash using black as the background and solids for the design giving it an Amish feel.

Looking forward to the revealing of the next swap.

Bring and Brag - The Quilt Asylum

Every first Friday of the month The Quilt Asylum in McKinney, Texas holds Bring and Brag. A few times I have gone even though I have nothing to contribute. The last few weeks have been quite a blur for me but the inspiration I get from these ladies is exactly what I need to get back in the sewing room.

Bettepat always gives a challenge and last month was to make this little bird and a coaster. Lorna was the only one who made the bird so she got 5 extra tickets for the door prize bucket. It was very cute but sounds like it was way too small to make it easy to work with.

Suzanne made this adorable Dr. Seuss quilt using the Pieced Tree pattern Catchanap. The fabric was perfect for this pattern!

She also made this pillow out of a decorated tea towel. What a great idea!

TQA is hosting a table runner swap next week and LaDonna brought hers in to share. It is the Little Quilt Company Calendar Table Runners pattern with a little of her own touch. She changed the birds out for ants. What a fun table runner.

Ellyn made a dress and some hair clips to share. You can see more on her blog about those. She is even being published in a magazine this month. How fun. Check out her blog.

Bonnie brought in a bag she had done along with wearing a skirt she had made. Too cute!

She also shared a quilt she started at a recent workshop taught by Gwen Marston. It was definitely an eye opening experience for Bonnie helping her to work out of her comfort zone. I love the design of this quilt.

Bettepat made an incredible quilt out of an old quilt top. The top could not be used whole because of the condition so she cut it up and made it look so modern.

There were a couple of other quilts shown but I am going to include those in the next post which is about the Brown and Pink exchange.