February's UFO is now a quilt top!

When #1 was chosen for February's UFO I knew I had a major job ahead of me, but it was a project I really wanted to finish.
I started with 80 blocks that were already made and looked like this:

During the month I made 19 more blocks, came up with a setting idea, sashed the blocks and sewed them together, and thought I was just about done. Then I realized a scrappy pieced border was going to look better on this quilt so I got busy sewing, transforming 130 scrappy squares into a border. Not so easy as I was making it up as I went along.
The end result............ the biggest, most complex and most favorite quilt I've made so far. 93x108"

Not Your Ordinary Farmer's Wife

It's so big I couldn't even stand back far enough to get a great photo. It looks a little crooked but it's not!
After I quilt it I will use the same blue from the border strip for the binding.

Best birthday present ever!

I recently had a birthday and my mother in law told me she was giving me a gift of time. She would watch my 2 little ones for 2 days while the bigger kids were at school. Today was the first Grandma day! As soon as the last child was on the school bus we headed to Grandma's. That gave me about 6 1/2 hrs of uninterrupted time. What to do with all that time? It wasn't hard to figure out, about 30 mins of quick run around the house, start the dishwasher, move laundry from washer to dryer, stoke the fire and then head to my sewing room......................6 hours to sew!
It's time to get that Farmer's wife quilt DONE!

I started the day with 10 blocks left to go. I didn't have time to sew yesterday but I did get a couple of blocks cut out. That helped things get moving along and by lunch I had 6 blocks made.

Quick lunch while looking through my Farmer's Wife book to choose which 4 blocks I want to make for my last blocks. My CD broke early into this project and since the book doesn't include measurements I have to draw some of these blocks out to figure out template sizes. Since my layout only needs 99 blocks I was not sad to be able to skip out on making 12 of these blocks.
So more drafting, cutting and sewing, it was getting down to the wire, but literally 5 mins before I had to pick up kids I got my last block completed! Today I sashed each block as I made it so I snapped a quick photo, put them on the wall and headed out the door.

And here's all 99 blocks. It's hard to stand far enough back to take the photo! I'm leaving them up for a day or two to check the arrangement and then I'll sew them together.

All in all a very successful sewing day and definitely the best birthday present ever. And I still have another day to use .........I'm already planning my next project!

I'm making progress!

 When you set aside a project is seems hard to be motivated to get back to it, there are so many other fun projects to work on.
 Now that I'm back to working on my Farmer's Wife quilt the momentum is building and I find I'm wanting to work on this project more and more!
Here's 3 blocks I just made

I must have been wishing for some sunshine yesterday because they all have yellow in them!

I bought some fabric for the background but when I brought it home it was too light :(
So another trip to the store and I have a background fabric that I like!  And amazingly, it was the only thing I bought. I never buy only one thing at the quilt store.

Here's how it looks

I guesstimated that 5 yards would be enough, we'll see if I was correct.

If you want to do this with 6" blocks here's what I did:
For all the on point blocks I cut 2   5 1/4" squares, cut them in half diagonally. After sewing them on I squared the block up to 9"
For all the straight set blocks I cut 2 pieces 1 3/4"x6 1/2" and 2 pieces 1 3/4'x9"
This will give me blocks that will be 8 1/2" finished size.


I didn't get much sewing done today. I was writing up my notes/thoughts for my Scrap Squad quilt and submitting them with photos to Diane.
Have you seen the first Scrap Squad quilt? Donna's was just revealed and you can see it here http://www.quiltmaker.com/blogs/quiltypleasures/2012/02/qm-scrap-squad-donnas-chain-reaction/
I love Donna's quilt!
Can't wait till I can show everyone mine.
Meanwhile I think I'll be busy with Farmer's Wife!