Letter #3: City Life Holds No Glamour

Welcome to Farmer's Wife Friday! This marks my third week of working through the 111 blocks and letters in the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt with Cindy of Live a Colorful Life.

Be sure to stop by and see Cindy's renditions of this week's blocks. First up is an easy block, called Flock.......

 Making the blocks a little larger and then trimming them down to the correct size made Flock come together quickly and without any problems. It's fun to compare my bright block to the Civil War reproductions used  in the book.

 Hill and Valley is the other block accompanying the third letter, City Life Holds No Glamour, by Mrs. A.B.D. from Park County, Wyoming.

 The author, who had grown up in the city, says, "There is no space here to tell of my love for the panorama of ever-changing beauty that unrolls from my cabin on the hilltop."

 I'm finding that I like how the white backgrounds offer such a nice contrast to showcase the small pieces in these 6 inch blocks. Again, the Easy Angle ruler came in handy for cutting the pieces instead of using the templates included in the book.

My six blocks are looking quite happy together, I think. Maybe I'll use some yellow in one of the next blocks. Y'all come back now, ya hear!

Quilts for Rwanda in 2011

These five quilts will soon be flying to Rwanda and into little hands at New Hope Homes, a home for orphaned and abandoned children in Rwanda. 

 In 2010, the Quilters4Hope made and sent 30 lap size quilts so that each child had a quilt to call his own. Now, another house is being built and ten more children will soon have a bed to sleep in with a pretty covering that will be a sign of love and comfort from quilters far away.

 These first three beautiful quilts were made and donated by my friend, Robin Askins.

 Robin's sense of color and workmanship are so lovely. Look at that quilting!

 The back side of this quilt is as cute as the front, making it truly reversible.

 I love this modern log cabin quilt in dramatic blues.

 The center of each log cabin is wonky....isn't that fun!

 I'm donating these next two quilts which have been just sitting unused in my quilt cupboard for quite a few years. This first one is a Stack and Whack kaleidoscope pattern which I remember was a lot of fun to create.

 And this last quilt was created as a Mystery Quilt that I organized for my quilt guild. It is hand quilted. I haven't done that for a while now!

I'll be saying a prayer for God's blessing on the little recipients on the other side of the world. 

Our USA Birthday Party!

This was the extent of my creativity on Independence Day...

It seemed well received.....

We often celebrate this boy's birthday on July 4th since he has a birthday just a few days after the USA's. I remember how I thought for sure he would be my firecracker baby the year he was born! To prove that he's still just a boy at heart, Drew sat at the kid's table along with my son-in-law and grand daughters! 

During the day the little girls did a lot of this......

And this.....

While the boys did a lot of this.....

And this......Sigh! What is it with boys and fire anyway?

Once the sun went down...the real show began! Hope you Americans all had a wonderful USA Birthday celebration too! 

Happy 4th of July!

Celebrate your independence, America!

Sunday Something for America

http://youtu.be/TnQDW-NMaRs

No Safer Road to Travel

It's Farmer's Wife Friday already! Please meet "Country Path" and "Sliver Lane" hanging out on one of my stepping stones leading to the deck. Aren't they pretty? In case you are keeping track, you are looking at a grand total of 75 pieces in these two six inch blocks!  Whew! These little guys are not for the faint of heart. I'm just sayin'!

 Still hoping to not actually use a template to create my blocks, I remembered a handy dandy ruler that I own that helped out in the piecing of tiny triangles: The Easy Angle Ruler.

 See those little guys around the outside edge of the block?

 By pairing two fabric strips, right sides together, I was able to cut out the triangles and sew them without much handling.

 I had to remember to sew them in two different matching sets for my pattern.

 I used  the folded corners method on the center square rather than cut and piece little triangles to a weird shaped center. Easy enough.

 I measured and cut all of the squares with my rotary cutter and ruler. Fortunately, this time my block came out almost perfect...there are a couple of little wobbles on the outside, but I'll never tell. I like the stronger contrast in my fabric choices this time around as well.

 My second block had some funky shaped pieces around the outside but by measuring carefully, I was able to cut them out of a long strip.

 It all came together fairly easily and I love the pink and aqua fabrics with the grey in the corners. My favorite part is that tiny center pinwheel...so cute! I made it larger to begin with and then trimmed it down to the right size. 

 In answer to the question, "If you had a daughter of marriageable age, would you, in light of your own experience, want her to marry a farmer?", Mrs. E.M.L of Furnas County, Nebraska answered "Yes." Here's part of her reasoning: "I know no safer road to travel through real living....It is the sense of safety, the assurance of food, shelter and drink, and the knowledge that work yields something definite, that gives happiness."

Around the age of eleven,  own story involves a road I remember well. It's the mile long hike to the bus stop from our house every morning and back in the afternoon. Even in the winter. And I lived to tell about it! I was the farmer's daughter.
Be sure to visit my friend, Cindy, at Live a Colorful Life today to see what these blocks look like in solid fabrics. Thanks for stopping by.

Is it a block or a quilt?

I made this today. For Andrea.

  June is her month for the One Block Over Bee and she requested that we make an improvisational interpretation of a painting by Ton Schulten.  We each were given different pictures of his art to work from. This is the awesome one she sent to me......

 Andrea also sent a selection of solid fabrics organized into packets of lights and darks.  Her idea was for us to make definite distinctions between the sunlight and shadow areas in our block.

 I started by creating the darker outside sections, piecing willy nilly using the fabrics she'd sent, plus some of my stash, as I felt my pallet was lacking enough lights. Here's how I began organizing the center sunset section....I didn't end up using all of the fabrics, however.

Making this quilt..I mean block....was a stretch for me. I've never done anything like it before, but found that I loved doing it! I do think that I may have tried a little too hard in my "first timeness" and my interpretation may be too literal and have more small pieces than Andrea was looking for.

 I spent too much time making the  block, but it is my own fault. I'm too much of a perfectionist sometimes. It would have gone faster, if I hadn't added so much detail. I'm happy enough with the results, though, that it will be hard to tell it goodbye and send it off to New York!

This was so much fun, I think I will try it again sometime! Next time, I'll hang it on the wall!