Farmer's Wife blocks and more quilting

I have been seeing several bloggers quilting along on the Farmer's Wife quilt blocks.  Here is a Flickr group where you can see a couple thousand of these blocks. I was sure I wasn't going to jump on this quiltalong. When I was at the library the other day, I saw the book was in  so I grabbed it to see what all the fuss was about.  The book is The Farmer's Sampler Quilt by Laurie Aaron Hird.  There are 55 wonderful stories written by farm wives in the 1920's as part of a contest.  There are also 111 six inch quilt blocks.  When I started reading the stories, I thought it might be fun to do the blocks.  The one above is #1 and it is called Attic Window.  The one below is #2, Autumn Tints.  I am going to redo #1 to get back my points.  There are templates on an attached CD, but I don't really like using templates, so I goofed on the measurements.  I know where I went wrong, so I will fix it tomorrow.

I also worked on my Lotta Jansdotter Echo fabric, but I don't want to show it until it is finished.  It has been quite the topic of discussion around here with Tom, Lisa (my daughter), and Bella all weighing in on what I might do to improve the overall design.  After weighing all their input, I added some design elements and I think it is much improved.  I will try and get it done tomorrow to share here and over at Modern 8 Create.

I started the day by practicing my free motion quilting.  I started yesterday with the sample on the left, and today I did the one on the right.  My hand was definitely steadier today, but I really do have a long way to go.  I am just glad I have started working on it. 

Enjoy your weekend, everyone.  Joyful quilting.

A couple of small new things

I have been a bit under the weather the past couple of days and it has really affected my quilting.  Most things I sewed together got taken apart again because they were done wrong.  My brain was not working as well as it needs to for quilting.  So, today, I was determined to get something done to post and to get me started in the right direction again.  This is my guild's BOM in process.  I love the colors and hope to win the blocks this month.  I have more of this green fabric.  It is a Robert Kaufman manufactured in Japan.  It has a very interesting texture.  I wish I had bought more when I was in California.  I will finish up two of these blocks tomorrow and start on the presentation blocks.  They are also Christmas colors.  They are for a member who loves Aunt Gracie fabrics, and I have a vintage piece of Christmas fabric I think I will use for her blocks.

One of the other things I did over the past couple of days is to deconstruct several of the thrift shop shirts and dresses in my stash.  When I saw this one, I thought it would be great as a first border around Hokule'a.  These are just on the design wall and not attached yet.  I am thinking of putting some pieces of the dark background fabric in random places around the border to let the center breath instead of walling it off.  I was inspired to use this bright fabric by wonderful advice from members of the Rebels group of quilters.  Fabulous quilters who share ideas and advice.  I think the next border will be stars of some kind.  I do love star blocks.

Finally, I have decided to start practicing my free motion quilting so I can move beyond the stippling stage.  I do like the look of stippling because I want the focus to be on the fabric and the patterns of color and design, but there are times I wish I was a better free motion quilter.  From the look of my first small practice piece, I have a long way to go. But hey, it's a start. I am going to work my way through Leah Day's FMQ tutorials, trying to get at least one small piece done each day.  (When I say small, I mean 3" squares)
Other than that, not much else to report.  Have a joy filled evening.