Fun in the Sun

Our recent vacation to Maine found my husband and I spending the night

in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

 We almost wrecked several times because it was so hard

to drive with our heads hanging out of the windows looking at all of the beautiful old homes in the area. This one, Old Mission House, built in 1739, by a missionary to the Stockbridge Indians, is no exception! 

 Below is how the house looked on a postcard from 1908. 

It has since been beautifully restored, as you can see.

The fence around the property is obviously not original, but it is quite old. 

 Isn't it just incredible? Look at that curved section!

 Having just finished sewing down the binding on my little 

"Fun in the Sun" quilt, I decided that the fence was a perfect backdrop for the contemporary colors and fabrics .

 "Fun in the Sun" will be sold at a silent auction 

being held by my quilt guild in October.

 For some reason this barn behind the Old Mission House makes me think of fall, pumpkins and apple cider doughnuts! Love them all!

Tomorrow, I'll show you the third quilt that I finished binding during my long car ride to Maine, "No Prints Allowed", photographed outside of the cottage that we rented in Maine. Hope you have time to stop by!

P.S. Just in case anyone is worried, no fence was harmed in filming of this post...I used tiny straight pins to hold it up.

Kleenex Box Quilt....Mainly!

My hubby and I spent the last two weeks vacationing in Maine. Well, one week was in Maine...the other week (almost) was spent driving to and from Maine! We put close to 4500 miles on our car...

it's a loooooong way from Missouri to the East Coast!

This week I'll be including a few pictures of things that inspired me along the way.

Today's picture is something that I saw everywhere in Maine and fell in love with. 

Lobster buoys not only bob in the ocean to mark the lobster traps but also serve as colorful decorations on many fences, houses and even rural mailboxes. 

The only thing more colorful was the Kleenex Box Quilt that I brought along to hand stitch the binding down during the long car ride. 

The bright hues of the liberated quilt really shine against

 the weathered wood of an old church.

Wooden buoys hanging on our cottage on the beach were the perfect compliment,

don't you agree?

 I can only imagine how big the wagon was that needed this huge wheel.

 My friend, Linda, volunteered to do the quilting on my quilt. What a wonderful dimension the curvy quilting lines add to the straight lines of the pieced blocks.

 The quilt back continues my use of scraps  to create this

 "Fifteen Minute Play" quilt. 

The aqua fabric has been languishing in my fabric drawer for years...

the color is perfect!

 Leftovers from the front and some orange Amy Butler dot made a fun racing stripe.

 After contemplating several different binding fabrics, I finally settled on four colorful solids. I also tried Linda's favorite binding method for perfect mitered corners. This 'new to me' method took a bit more time, but after a few more tries it should become simpler. Check out this great tutorial by Flourishing Palms .

 If I lived near the ocean, I'd have a fence that looked like this to go with my quilt!

Stop by again tomorrow to see another finish and more inspiration from

Maine (mainly).

Sunday Something

"The Lord is my light and my salvation-

whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the stronghold of my life-

of whom shall I be afraid?"

Psalm 27:1

Farmer's Wife Friday---'Round the Circle

I've been on vacation. I took a little reading and sewing with me.....

 When Cindy and I started making the blocks for the Farmer's Wife Sampler and posting about them on Fridays we didn't give ourselves any room for taking time off...sheesh! Oh, and of course, this week there would be not just two blocks, but four, AND they would have many, many pieces! See that little block on the bottom...the grey one...64 pieces!! ACK!!

 The Four Winds block took quite a bit of time and effort, but in the end it came out pretty well, I think. The author of this week's letter, from Hutchinson County, S.D., would agree, I think, that everything worthwhile takes time. She says,"experience--well, in that I have been about 'round the circle." Her life as a young wife was not easy and took several turns along the way.

 A weather vane probably perched on top of the farmer's barn signaling which way the four winds were blowing. The Weather Vane block went together without too much whining on my part.....

 I made the Corn and Beans block with the predictable colors of yellow and green. Mrs. W.R. writes about her daughter marrying a farmer--"And if she should be poor? Hoeing in the sun, dipping for chicken lice or milking in fly time are better than washing for strangers in a dark, ugly part of a city with children always underfoot, saving heat, saving light and eating cheap food. I'd rather she had corn cob heat and real food even if she had to produce it." Growing up on a farm, I spent my fair share of time hoeing in the garden and can attest that it's not a lot of fun....but what worthwhile results!

 The fourth block accompanying this week's letter is called W.C.T.U. This stands for the Women's Christian Temperance Union, founded in 1874, which led the crusade for prohibition. The author says there is "no excuse for arrested development"in her area with W.C.T.U. offering "citizenship, domestic science and child-welfare classes; oratorical essay, musical and poster contests, programs on the hundred and one other interests of this amazingly diversified organization." I had no idea of the varied interests this organization was involved with and it's importance in rural America.

Here are my four 6 inch blocks for this week with all their little triangles. Whew! That was a workout! I wonder how Cindy did with her blocks.....we better check out her blog and make sure she got them all made!

There are four blocks with next week's letter too. I better get started early! I'll be grinding my teeth in frustration if I don't! 

Leap Frog Explorer Carrying Case and Tutorial

Two of my grand children have Leap Frog Explorers. (They call them their IPads! ) Recently, when Ezra spent several days with me, we decided to  create a little carrying case to protect the "IPad" and hold his games. It's a quick and easy project.

I let him pick out two 5" charms from my recent I Spy  charm exchange to use in crafting the carrying case. Not surprising, he chose footballs and baseballs plus black for the fabrics.

In case anyone else has a kiddo in need of a carrying case for his Leap Frog Explorer, I thought I would do a little tutorial of how I made this one for Ezra (and his cousin, Haven).
You will need:   2 charm squares--5"x5" each
                            4 background strips--5"x 2"
                            4 background strips--8"x 3"
                            2 lining rectangles--8" x 10"
                            2 strips for inside pockets--4"x 8"
                            1 strip for handle--2.5" x 8"
                            2 scraps of batting--8" x 10"
                            1/4 yd. sew-in velcro
                          

Step one: Create a square in a square block for both the front and back of the bag by sewing the 2"x 5" strips to the top and bottom of of the charm square. Then sew the 3"x 8" strips to the sides to form the front/back.

Step two: Layer with batting and lining and quilt as desired. Trim the quilted front and back pieces down to 7"x 9" rectangles.

Step three: To make the handle, fold the sides of the handle strip to the center, then in half. Topstitch. 

Step four: Fold pocket fabrics in half lengthwise and stitch a 1/4 inch seam along the edge. 
Turn and press.

Step five: Fold in the pocket ends. Place the pockets on the lining, 2.5 inches from the bottom. Stitch along the sides and bottom of the pockets. You can make 3 little sections in each pocket for holding games, by stitching 2.5 inch from each end. (Use bobbin thread that will blend in with the quilting on the front of the bag.) 

Step six: Attach the handle from step three onto one side of one bag part as shown. Be sure that you are sewing it onto the front side rather than the lining side of the bag.

Step seven: With right sides together, sew around the sides and bottom with 1/4 inch seams. Finish the seam with a zigzag stitch. 

Step eight:  Now make a mitered corner on each end of your bag by folding the bottom seam to the center of the side seam and stitching across the end about 1.5 inch from the corner, as shown below.

You are almost finished.....turn your bag right side out!

Step nine: Fold down 3/8 in. along the upper edge of the bag. Sew velcro along both inside edges of the carrying case. 

Look! You did it!!

Be prepared for requests for more games to fill those little pockets!

Awesome!

Sunday Something

"Taste and see that the Lord is good;

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him."

Psalm 34:8

Farmer's Wife Friday--The Very Breath of Life

I found myself identifying with this week's farmer's wife in the FWQAL Sampler. This city girl, from New York, married a farmer "to whom the country is the very breath of life". She, like me, recalls how lonely her first years were in the country..."The long solitary days when for hours no sound broke the silence, save the hum of bees, the song of a bird, or the low of the cattle."

The 'Railroad' block reminds her of "town, bred in my very bones--to whom the sound of the locomotive,  the tread of passing feet, was music to me..."

And yet, to her "has come a love of country which surpasses all." Like my life in the country today, this farmer's wife says, "The country life is no longer the solitary place of ten years ago. The motor-horn is heard in the quietest places and the noise of machinery is on every hand." No doubt, a wrench was as handy a tool in the 1920's as it is today. This block is called 'Wrench'....

Now, I was a bit confused when I started making the Wrench block because it seemed so familiar. I dug through the blocks I had already made and look what I found....Hmm...That red one was called Churn Dash. If I was playing the Memory Game with my grand daughter, we would call that a match!" Same. Same." as Lula and Haven like to say. Since it is Block #111 (the last one in the book) maybe the author just ran out of ideas! ....probably not...

Oh, well! Sprinkle some powdered sugar on this, and it looks good enough to eat!

Cindy has some great blocks and comments on her Farmer's Wife Friday post today. Don't miss them, y'all.

See you next week!