Slow Growing...

From the frequency of these posts, you'd think that I haven't been sewing much but you'd be wrong!  I've been making a new string quilt, slowly.  I've made another quilt for my friend from her great grandmother's quilt squares.  I've been making significant progress on my Farmer's Wife Blocks and hope to get another good photo of them soon.  I've also made 50 yards of outdoor patio curtains for a friend/client.  Now I'm about to embark on a new challenge.  My step father restores and rebuilds old cars and has asked me to sew seat covers for his latest challenge.  I am going to try.  I do have the old seat covers to use as a pattern so, surely, I can do this!  I'll take pictures of that when they are installed in the beautifully redone car!  I'm supposed to be able to tell you what year, make, and model that car is but I can't get those things to stick in my head!  (Maybe I just don't care...I can't even remember the year that my car was made!)

 Progress on String Quilt!

 Vintage quilt made for my friend out of her great grandmother's quilt squares!

 My happy place.  

Last weekend my darling husband went to IKEA and bought me these matching jars for sorting my fabric scraps by color.  I LOVE them!  Thanks, Honey!

Organizing and Cleaning Up!

This is the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt progress at 36 blocks!  I've made a few more since this photo.

 Flower Pot!

 Four Winds

 Friendship Star!

 I've also been slowly adding to this new String Quilt by cleaning out the scrap buckets!  While doing this, the thought occurred to me that I'm sick of some of these scraps. I've included some of these same scraps in two years worth of projects!   I'm ready to be done with them and get new scraps:) (Read this as, I can't wait to cut into some new fabric!)

 I also used the leftover blocks from a quilt that I made last year to make this little table runner!  I had exactly this many blocks and didn't have to add anything except 4 solid white squares!  I love free projects!  I, also, love the quilting in that center diamond!  

Not much quilting to report from this last weekend as I spent the entire weekend sewing 50 yards worth of pinch pleated patio draperies for a friend.  The fabric was a neutral, woven Sunbrella fabric which sewed up beautifully.  I can't wait to get a photo of them installed!  Have a good week!

This Week!

The sewing this week has really been suffering due to the return to my "real" job at the close of winter break. I have managed to sew something every day but sometimes it has been a very small something!

These are small indeed! I've never sewn hexagons before and I've never made a hand-quilted item before so this is the project that I chose as my New Year's resolution!  If I can muster up enough patience, I intend to hand piece and hand quilt this hexy flower project.  I'm not limiting myself by saying that it will become a quilt.  If I can't stand it anymore, it may just make it to pillow size!  I'm enjoying it so far and it's actually five flowers big now!  (I also have a hole in my finger from the needle!)

 I've also completed two more Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt blocks.  The one above is block 34-Flock! (Notice the geese!)  And the one below is block 35-Flower Basket.  Flower basket about sent me over the edge as I've never appliqued anything before and the handle is appliqued.  I did learn something while constructing it so perhaps I am a better person for having done it.  The Farmer's Wife book comes with no instructions but I figured out that you have to applique the handle onto the triangle before you join it to the other large triangle to get the bottom parts of the handle to go into the seam!  (I know that seems obvious but I'm blonde.)

Here's hoping that the weekend brings bigger sewing projects to share!

A New Year's Finish!

This quilt is the first finish of 2012!  Most of the work was done in 2011 but it was sandwiched, quilted, and bound on January 1, 2012.  It is for a dear friend of our family.  He is quite an artist and photographer and I was a little intimidated making this quilt as I feel it may be scrutinized and I can't sew a straight line to save my life!  This is my favorite photo of it.  Before I sandwich and quilt them, I love to hang them in front of the windows in my sewing room for the "stained glass" effect.  This time as I was standing on a chair to hang the quilt top, I steadied myself by leaning a hand on my sewing table.  The top of my sewing table promptly broke off of the base throwing me and both of my machines into the floor, upsetting all of my pins, scissors, bobbins, and junk, and smacking my head against the window frame!  Good thing I have a hard head.  I'm actually surprised the outcome wasn't worse.  Both machines are fine as am I.  The only casualty was the light bulb in the serger.  My great-grandmother used to say that for every stitch you put in on Sunday, you'd take out ten on Monday.  I think that's hogwash but I did have quite a few struggles yesterday while I was sewing on Sunday and her words did cross my mind:)

 Quilt top!

Finished Quilt!