Farmer's Wife QAL: Week 5

Well, I managed to eek out one more week's worth of blocks, kittens. So while I did not catch up a bit with the QAL, I didn't fall too much farther behind, either. I'd call that a mostly win.

Block 9: Box

This one was pretty nice to me, except one HST that just would not line up properly. I went to fix it and realized today that my fix actually didn't do what it was supposed to...and I trimmed it up so I sort of have to live with it this way. OH WELL. I'm calling this one done, and I'll worry about the new problem I created for myself when it's time to piece the top.

Have I mentioned how much I love fussy cutting? Or this pony fabric? I love them both, and I'm hoping to feature ponies in future blocks. If perfectly honest, I love all of the fabrics in this block.

Block 10: Bowtie

Easiest. Block. Ever. I love it for this quality and how striking the result is. I spent quite a bit of time deciding what fabrics I would use when this block came up.

I ended up picking out 3 completely different ones the day of.

It's funny how that works sometimes.

Farmer's Wife QAL: Week 4

Kittens! I did not fall off the planet and die after the first week of July. Instead, my projects continued to be a pain in my behind, and my crafting drive is still very low. It's making for very little actually getting done.

BUT.

I did finally finish "week" 4 of my Farmer's Wife QAL. So, here they are:

Man. There's a lot to say about these...mostly just that first block.

Block 7: Birds in the Air

This block kicked my ass. Several times. If I had not decided to cut into some of my precious Flea Market Fancy stash for it, I would have chucked the thing and just recut and went from there. But no, I used special fabric and ended up: sewing, ripping, resewing, reripping, and then fiddly sewing it back together a final time. There are over 10 hours' worth of labor in that first block. It's not perfect, but it is exponentially better than it looked the first 2 go 'rounds.

The FMF held up pretty well to the abuse, but the cheapie Jo-Anns purple did not. The edges started to fray on most of the pieces in spite of my careful handling and gentleness. As a result, the block looks wonky (it's not) and that weird "wrinkle" in the upper left square? It's where I actually had to sew more purple to it to give the thread something to hold onto other than frayed edge. I probably should have recut that particular triangle.

Birds in the Air took me weeks to get done and to my satisfaction. Such a bummer, but at least I can live with it as-is now.

Block 8: Bouquet

This block, on the other hand, went together in under an hour and didn't give me any trouble. The hardest part was deciding which fabrics to use. No drama. No pain. Went right together. One point is slightly off, and I'm not sweating it.

(And I'm not sure what happened with my photos today. No, there is not a wrinkle in the Pip's section of the block.)

Anywho! Week 5's blocks look pretty easy and I may try to finish them up before July comes to a close.

What about you, kittens? What have you been making?

Farmer's Wife QAL: Week 3

Yes, it's been 3 weeks since "week" 2, but I'm trying to do 2 blocks per "week" and blog them. Obviously, I'll be playing a little catch up this month and hope to close that gap between myself and the rest of the group, who should all be posting their week 6 blocks starting today. If I can manage 3 blocks per real time week, I should be pretty much caught up before the month is done.

Anywho, onto the blocks!

Block 6: Big Dipper

Truly, I should subtitle this week, "Pain in the Ass week," because each of these blocks gave me some trouble. My Big Dipper block is looking pretty good now (only one intersection is a bit off, and it's not terrible), but don't let that fool you. I had to rip and resew this block together 4 times before I was able to get most of the points to match up. When I was cutting out the templates for this one, I was a bit sloppy and some of the end pieces were just the tiniest bit smaller than others. It turns out, this made for some finagling of seams and effort to get things to line up. As I mentioned before, the main reason I took on this project was to conquer my hatred of templates and prove to myself that I can be careful and produce nice results. I do not have to be a hare when it comes to finishing up projects.

Block 3: Basket

This is the block I mentioned in one of my last posts. I had these insane, grand plans to flip the orientation of the block to match the way I plan to piece the top. It turns out my abysmal geometry skills got the better of me so I changed tactics: instead, I chose a cricket fabric and chose to have the basket spilling them out.

This block went together pretty quickly, except for the handle. That is where the PITA element of this one came in. The book gives two options for the handle; you can choose to cut a bias strip and hand applique it down, or one for machine applique was provided. When it comes to applique, I'm very opinionated. Machine sewing it down was out. Decorative stitching? Out. It had to be a hidden seam and tidy. It turns out, I can not curve and sew down a bias strip to save my life and in a bit of a huff, I ripped it off and formulated a new plan. After calling my mother and verifying what I wanted to do, it turns out she has the same issues and resolved them the same way: I transferred the shape of the machine applique piece to freezer paper, ironed it onto the wrong side of my fabric, cut it out with an allowance to turn down all around, removed the paper as I basted the piece, pinned it, and sewed it down that way. When I was finished, I removed all of the basting stitches. VOILA! The handle is the correct shape and size, and it didn't cause weird, messy puckering of the under fabric.

The only thing about this block that makes me a bit sad is that it is noticeably smaller than my other 5 blocks. I suspect that when it comes time to set it into sashing, I'll be getting creative with the seam allowance to try and keep all of my points and as much size to the block as I can.

Also, having worked with two of my Spoonflower quilter's cottons now, I can say this: this particular fabric they offer is not worth the premium price. Even after pre-washing, it has a very stiff, cheap feel to it. I've also noticed that it continues to show pin holes long after the pins are removed. I still plan to buy from Spoonflower, but I think next time, I'll try a different fabric option and see if I like it better.

July 2011 To Do

This list is almost identical to June's thanks to my illness. Hopefully, I can cross more things off this time!

June 2011 Wrap-up

Another month, another yardage tally.

Yardage Totals 2011

January: 1071 yds
February: 762yds

March: 1189yds
April: 1083yds

May: 849yds

June: 487yds

Year to date: 5,441 yds or 3.09 miles

As you can see, kittens, productivity was way down this month. On the evening of my last real blog post (16 June), I fell ill with a nasty GI virus that has been making its rounds on the base here. Until last evening, I was still sick with it. 14 days of horrible, persistent sick. This means that I effectively lost half of my work days this month and accomplished very little in the time. That considered, I think I did OK. I'm finally on the mend for real and am hoping to play some catch up with my crafts in July.

2011 Stash Down: Q2

Bet you thought I dropped off the planet, didn't you, kittens? I live, but that's for another post. Today is about the end of Q2 Stash Down.

2011 Stashdown Q1:

Yardage In: 15,254

Yardage Out: 1,737

Net Stash Change: +13,517

Ratio (yds out/in): .114

2011 Stashdown Q2:

Yardage In: 880

Yardage Out: 4,286

Net Stash Change: -3,406

Ratio (yds out/in): 4.87

2011 totals so far:

Yardage In: 16,134

Yardage Out: 6,023

Net Stash Change: +10,111

Ratio (yds out/in): .373

I had a much better quarter and am very pleased with the result. I didn't finish any large projects--just toys again. Most of my yardage out came from detachment from my stash and allowing myself to sell some that I'm honestly not going to use anytime soon. It's quite freeing to not feel so emotionally beholden to all of it. This has been an on-going process in my life: learning to let go of things and not buy more than I need or can use.

I am hoping to have at least a sweater project out for Q3 and maybe a couple other things. If I can keep up this momentum in Q3 and Q4, I'm hoping to end up, at the very least, stash neutral. To me, that's a pretty big deal.

To any of you out there also stashing down, how is it going?

Farmer's Wife QAL: Week 2

A couple more blocks have been finished for the Farmer's Wife QAL, just in time for the week 3 posts to start going up. (I'm already half done with week 3, but slicing my finger while cleaning my food processor has slowed me down a bit today.)

Block 4: Basket Weave

I skipped Block 3 for the time being, due to indecision about what fabric to use. I'm sure my intention to flip it from an on-point block to a straight on one isn't helping either. I plan to get to it shortly. Instead, I got started on Block 4.

For this block, I did the math and skipped the templates. I used a little Flea Market Fancy, and some Heather Ross for Spoonflower. I think the clothespin people are darling.

Block 5: Bat Wing

This block caused me some trouble. Apparently I couldn't figure out how to piece the side triangle blocks and kept insisting on trying to make them taller. Once I found some forum posts about this block online and noticed something that was different from my piecing, I accidentally stumbled upon my solution. I just couldn't see it, otherwise. Once I had the correct side of the triangles on the center one, it was easy peasy. I used some Amy Butler fabric and the dot is from Sherbert Pips.

So far, this is looking pretty scrappy, but I'm trying to go with it. Each block definitely looks like it belongs to a different quilt than what I'm working on. I find it really interesting that as a knitter I do not collect single skeins and have issues using them up because I can't find a project. As a quilter, however, I purchase a lot of random stuff and it can be difficult to pull them all together. I'm sure by the time I get to 50/100/whatever blocks, it will have a more cohesive look to it due to color repetitions.