Farmer's Wife Friday: Marry a Good Farmer

This farmer's wife is from the East  Coast, Worcester County, Massachusetts. While not "sugar-coating" life on the farm, she is upbeat in listing the benefits of living life on a farm rather than in the city. She notes that for a cheerful home, it "needs healthy, playing children, the spirit of work and also the spirit of love and inter-responsibility," where the children can learn the spirit of work, along with lessons in economy, by raising an animal, selling it and learning how to manage the proceeds from the sale.

#29, Economy

Like others, this wife stresses that the woman is the partner of the farmer, doing real work, often doing the bookkeeping as well. While there is much labor, much of the tedium has been eliminated by electricity and machinery.

In addition, the "phonograph, the automobile, and the many community houses furnish pleasure for the country people." I have no doubt that many snowballs were thrown in those East Coast winters in Massachusetts.

#81 Snowball

Even though finances are always a problem on the farm (and continue to be so even now), valuable lessons are learned. And "prosperity and all good come to those who work industriously and have within their souls the love of their work."  I would say that is good advice in the present day, whether you live on a farm or in the city.

Carla always has interesting insights into the letters, along her cheery blocks! So I hope you will head over there and say hi. Although she might not answer back right away--she is off sewing this weekend at a guild retreat.

ETA: The winner of the bag of scraps is the first person who left a comment on the post, Becky, who said:
I hate being #1 - especially when a prize I REALLY want is involved! Maybe I will make this is huge long comment, so another comment will sneak into the #1 spot.

I LOVE the name Granny is Amish - so clever and I really like the use of solids in this block - very authentic.

Sunday Morning Quilts just shot to the top of my "To Buy" list - thanks for the great review.

As mentioned before, I would love to win your scraps! I don't have nearly enough for the projects I want to tackle. Thanks for the chance to win!

Which just goes to prove that RNG really is random!

Note to Deborah from Lima, Peru, who asked about the cute llama fabric.  I tried to contact you but couldn't find your address. So if you happen to be reading this, the fabric was designed by Laurie Wisbrun and is available in her etsy shop.

WIP Wednesday

On Sunday, I decided to raise the "wonder walls" that comprise my design wall by about six inches.  I have two of them, side by side, and they each have a set of grommets on top, so it just involved raising the nails in the wall. In so doing, of course nearly all the Farmer's Wife blocks fell to the floor. They are still there. Definitely a Work in Progress.

 This cute guy turned 4 today.

He had a pirate party the other day with his friends. So of course he needed a new pillow case. Made out of pirate treasure map fabric.

Among other projects, which made a pretty pile of scraps...

...I worked on my granny square quilt, which I am enjoying immensely, by the way.

And the quilt already has a name: Granny was Amish. The name makes me smile.

There is still time to win some scraps here.

Thanks, Lee, for hosting this every week.

Tag Team

I have been tagged by two of my favorite bloggers, Lucy from Charm About You and Carla from Lollyquiltz. They each asked some very interesting questions, but twenty-two questions might be more information than you really care to know about me. So I think I'll just pick and choose. Does that work for you?

Alrighty then, here we go:

What's the most spontaneous thing you've ever done?

Anyone who knows me would not consider me a spontaneous person, so probably answering this in a reasonable amount of time.

What is your favorite time of day?

Morning. Not that you asked, but my least favorite time of the day is 4 to 5 p.m. I'm not sure why. I think maybe it was because my mother has taught piano lessons since I was young. I would come home from school with lots I wanted to tell her, but had to be quiet because she was teaching piano.


Which color of fabric do you use the most?

I like scrappy quilts, so I like to throw lots of colors into the mix.

What's the best concert you've ever been to?

Hands down, the Irish group, the Chieftains. We saw them on a Thanksgiving weekend in Minneapolis. We took a taxi cab to the concert hall because it was blizzard conditions. The concert was over at 4 p.m., and on this particular day, 4 p.m. was absolutely magical. Colored Christmas lights were glistening on the new-fallen snow and we had just heard a most fabulous group.

Camping or a hotel?

Definitely a hotel! I need hot water, a shower and a flush toilet.

Do you have a nickname?

For years, Mark and some other family/friends called me Pooh, as in Winnie the Pooh. In the last couple of years, that has kind of died down, and now Mark, and his best friend, George, for some reason insist on calling me Cynthia rather than Cindy.

Can you play any instruments?

I can play the piano, and started college as a music major. Now I'm quite out of practice as we gave our piano (the first thing we ever purchased when newly married, and Mark spent an entire summer hauling and stacking hay for a farmer to pay for it) to our son and daughter-in-law over ten years ago. What I always wanted to play was the violin. I wanted to be in an orchestra. My advice to parents--when your children want to try different instruments, if at all possible, let them try.


Would you rather call/text/email or write a letter?

If any of you have mentioned "hey, we should talk on the phone" and wondered why your phone hasn't rung...it's because I'm normally not a "phone person." It is probably the thought of possible awkward silences that makes me nervous. I find texting to be efficient. But to actually get a handwritten note in the mail is wonderful. I'm trying to send more notes this year, as I enjoy receiving them so very much.


Morning person or night person?

Hmmm. My ideal times are waking up at 6:38 a.m. and turning off the light at 11:17 p.m. Seriously.


Do you save the selvages on fabric? If so, have you ever made anything with them?

Funny you should ask. I save them, and have made lots of pincushions with them. I have bags of selvages, carefully sorted by "themes"--(OCD?) with plans to add new items to my etsy shop, "Sewing on the Edge," especially now that I've been mentioned in Amanda Jean's and Cheryl's fabulous new book.

Which color of fabric is most prominent in your stash?

While I'm totally into working with orange right now, when I look at my stash, the most prominent color is pink. Lots of pink! But I've never made a pink quilt...

What is the smallest scrap that you save?

I'm saving smaller and smaller scraps now that I have read Sunday Morning Quilts. 

There is still time to enter the scrap giveaway here.
 
What food do you crave?

Chips and salsa.

How often do you change your sewing machine needle?

Usually after completion of each large project.

Pre-wash or right off the bolt?

Formerly a pre-washer. Now it comes right off the bolt and into the quilt.

What quilting project are you most proud of?

The donation quilts I have done for the MCC auction (the latest one is coming up in just a couple of weeks).

How many hours a day do you spend reading blogs? 

Too many. We'll just leave it at that...

What's your favorite music to sew by?

Coldplay. I listen to a lot of satellite radio (Sirius/XM) and my current most-listened-to station has a really eclectic mix, everything from Bonnie Raitt and Paul Simon to Gotye, The Decemberists, the Civil Wars, etc.


I'm thinking up some questions of my own, so don't be surprised if you get a notice saying, "Tag. You're it!"

Sunday Morning Quilts and Playing with Solids

Today is kind of a rarity in Fresno--it's raining. Perfect coffee and quilting weather.

I have been playing with solids this weekend. Cutting fabric for several different projects.

Working on my granny squares, 20 blocks total, 10 completed. I even came up with a catchy name for this quilt: Granny was Amish.

In the process, there is an ever-growing pile of scraps.

When my friend, Amanda Jean, told me she was co-authoring a book with Cheryl, it instantly became my most-anticipated book release. If you follow these fabulous blogging quilters, you know what I'm talking about.

When my book arrived, it did not disappoint. The tag line of Sunday Morning Quilts is "sort, store and use every last bit of your treasured fabrics." Amen!

First of all, you should know this about me. I'm a bit of a quilt bookaholic. After quilting for nearly twenty years, I have quite an extensive library. As my style has changed, I have donated many of those books to either our church quilting group or second-hand stores. This book represents something new for the quilting community, something that isn't already out there.

If you have been quilting for any length of time, you probably have precious scraps--you don't know what to do with them, but definitely don't want to get rid of them, especially if they are little pieces from a much-treasured fabric line that you simply had to have.

Amanda Jean and Cheryl walk you through the step-by-step process of organizing, storing, and finally using up these precious bits of fabric.

What I appreciate the most about this book is not just the quilts, which are spectacular by the way, but the amazing wealth of information and the process to get things under control. It is very well written. I like to consider myself an organized person. However, if you take a peek in my office and sewing room on any given day, it would hard to claim that I actually LIVE as an organized person. My stash seems to impinge on at least three rooms. I have donated more fabric to our church quilting group than I would ever want to calculate. I have started giving away scraps to newbies online who don't have a stash, let alone scraps, which of course seems like a foreign concept to me, except that I clearly remember my first quilt, a double four-patch, and how I spent literally weeks finding just the perfect four fabrics!

By writing this book, Amanda Jean and Cheryl will enrich the lives of many quilters, not only from their encouragement and excellent easy-to-understand writing, but from the very do-able projects.  With the price of high-quality quilting cottons creeping up on a regular basis, who wouldn't want to get the most mileage from each and every yard!

These quilted storage boxes are awesome.

When I was at the quilting retreat in February, someone gave me a huge bag of selvages, some really skinny ones, that will be perfect. Because even my selvage stash is VERY out of control. There are instructions in the book on how to knit a fabric mat using skinny strips and/or selvages.

Amanda Jean also added some instructions on her blog:

Learn how to knit the mat here

The day the book arrived was a busy one, so I didn't get a chance to start reading through it until bedtime. When I got to page 23, I nearly had to chomp down on my pillow to keep from waking Mark, because check this out!

There is my blog address. In this book! Yikes. My etsy shop, which I started in order to sell things crafted from selvages, has pretty much been dormant for a while now. Being listed in this book definitely has me thinking of new and creative items to fill up my shop.

Are your scraps out of control? My advice to you: buy this book! Do you need some scraps of your very own? My advice to you: don't be shy. Just answer this question: What is the smallest size of fabric you are willing to save for a future project? I'll fill up a bag of my own scraps and send them to someone after the RNG does its work on Thursday, March 29, at 6 p.m. PDT.

Farmer's Wife Friday: The Heart of a Farmer:

This week's letter is from a wife in Ransom County, North Dakota. To answer the question of whether she would want her daughter to marry a farmer, she first begins by asking her daughter the following questions:
1. Is he fit to be the father to your children?
2. Will they be proud to call him Father?
3. Is he kind and considerate?
4. Has he strength, courage and ambition enough to make a home, in every sense of the word?
5. Is he willing to sacrifice some of his boyhood pleasure for her sake?

She feels that not only do boys on the farm not have "the temptations of the city boy and have a cleaner, more wholesome environment," but "the heart of the farmer is in his home."

As a wife to a farmer, she wants to help her husband by not only doing household chores but also studying up on the problems farmers face and helping her husband to solve them. She also makes a point of using the community center to guard against the monotony of farm life.

I have a feeling that her husband meets all the criteria to make a good father and husband, and that they work together as a team.

The first block this week (and I'm thankful that there were only two this week, as the last two weeks have each had four blocks!) was really easy.

#4 Basket Weave.

The next one took a little more time. Mostly because I tried a shortcut (which didn't work) and I had to start over and make it with templates.

#44 Gentleman's Fancy.

I'm always interested to see what Carla has to say about the letters--always fascinating as she actually lives on a farm and I'm a city girl. Her blocks are always bright and cheerful, so make sure to see what fabrics she has chosen this week.

The winner of the Modern Madness giveaway is #3 Mama Pea! Congratulations! Ever since I lost my comment numbering gadget, it's nice when I don't have to go too far to find the winner. Yeah, I'm lazy like that...


Have a great weekend, everyone!

Modern Madness: What your bracket reveals about you

This giveaway is now closed. Thanks for everyone who played along!
 
For more years than I can even remember, March has always been associated with college basketball. March Madness. Mark has followed it for years, and then our son, Aaron. I remember when he was a senior in college and lived in an apartment with two other guys, they put up a bracket that covered that whole living room wall. Aaron followed the teams, knew the stats, and made an informed decision on who would possibly advance from one level to the next, until we finally watched the championship game.

So one year he was running a basketball pool and thought I should play along. Who, me? I don't watch college basketball for more than a passing glance on TV. I don't know any of the teams, the strength of their schedule, the strengths and weaknesses of their players. So that year I made all my picks based on the team mascot, and then deciding which mascot sounded more likely to come out victorious. I did hours of research on team mascots. I knew what a Saluki was (Southern Illinois)--an Egyptian hunting dog. I knew about the Syracuse Orangemen (Scottish warriors). I knew that the Stanford Cardinal was the color, not the bird. And even that didn't matter because their mascot is a tree. Pffft. I think I would choose any mascot over a tree.

I systematically went through the entire bracket deciding which mascot was tougher: Wildcats? Wolverines? Sometimes it got really tricky. Who would you pick between these two: A Demon Deacon or a Blue Devil? Tough choice.That year I ended up predicting the Auburn Tigers would win the whole tournament. Which made Aaron kinda nuts. He told me that really the Tigers shouldn't even be in the tournament. I don't remember why. But that year, as in every single year, there were upsets, and one week my Auburn Tigers were ruling. Don't think I didn't rub that in! 

Which brings me to my point. Are you playing along with Fat Quarterly's Modern Madness, the March Madness of fabric lines? 64 fabric lines, divided into four regions. Just like basketball.

Having trouble filling out your bracket?  There was an article in our local newspaper last week on "What your bracket reveals about you," how your bracket picks  "can reveal more about a person's character than handwriting analysis." I'm not so sure about that, but let's adapt their analogy to fabric, shall we?

The favorites bracket: You select favorites to win every game, er, bolt. Maybe a certain line was not your favorite, but you have seen it everywhere so you consider it a possible first seed and choose it anyway.

Available from Marmalade Fabrics

What it says about you: You feel that societal order must be preserved at all costs. Maybe you don't want to make a quilt out of that line,  but in nearly every blog you read, someone has chosen that fabric, so it is obviously a favorite with a lot of quilters.

The underdogs bracket: Maybe one of the "teams" hasn't gotten much press. But you love a good upset and maybe there will be enough other people feeling the same way.

What it says about you: You truly believe that one person can change the world. You make a beautiful quilt or tote out of some fabric in this line, people will see it, and the next thing you know, everyone wants some of that same fabric!

The expert bracket: You combine favorites with underdogs which you have carefully chosen  because ultimately the fabrics can form a different "team" in a quilt and play together beautifully.

Available from Marmalade Fabrics

What it says about you: You understand that the purpose of the tournament pool is to add zest to your sewing experience.

The nickname bracket: You don't even refresh your memory on what a particular fabric line looks like. You choose one over the other based strictly on its name appeal. (Hmmmm....this approach is sounding a little familiar to me...)

Available from Marmalade Fabrics

What it says about you: You are someone who does not fill out a bracket so much as "fill out a bracket." You make a choice and just go with the flow. When you inevitably win the pool, you announce that you cannot imagine what everyone got so worked up about in the first place, because all sixty-four "teams" , er, fabrics, are winners.

What is the ultimate outcome of this anyway? Well, finally a specific line will be chosen the winner. In the meantime, fill out your bracket, and if you aren't familiar with a certain fabric line, use the link and learn a little more about it. You might discover some beautiful fabric that will be a winner in your next project.

I went to the Fat Quarterly Modern Madness archives and found out that just like in college hoops, there were upsets as it got closer to the championship game. Who was last year's winner? It was Jay McCarroll's Habitat by Free Spirit.

And guess what? I have some to give away! The winner will receive a fat quarter of each of these three from the winning line of 2011.

 

 

 Just answer one (or more) of these: Are you playing along with Fat Quarterly? Have you projected a winner? What is your current favorite fabric line?

Or even better: which category fits you the best--favorites, underdog, expert or nickname? Now we're talkin'!

The RNG will choose a winner Thursday, March 22, at 6 p.m. PDT. And I'll also let you know which fabric line I predict to win the championship.

Hmmmm. I wonder if I could have used the RNG to fill out my whole bracket.

What would that say about me??

Farmer's Wife Friday: High Lights and Shadows

This week it seems all my time was spent with farmers' wives. I started the week being part of this great series, Farmer's Wife in Your Life, "reinventing" a block that hadn't turned out well. If this ever happens to you, don't discard an errant block--turn it into something else! There are lots of ideas here.

This week's farmer's wife is from Grand Forks County, North Dakota. She is a woman who has lived both on the farm and in the city, and has found "high lights and shadows in each." While so many letters before her who have praised the benefits of the farm including the fresh air, butter and eggs, she reminds us that there is much more to farm life. She makes three points:

"First, she and her husband must be real partners." They go over the work of the day, helping each other out with the tasks that must be accomplished. "It is not John's salary, but John and Mary's income."

#89 Steps to the Altar

"Second, a woman must have a reasonable number of working conveniences." She lists some of the conveniences she has, which her mother did not, and hopes that her daughters will themselves have even more than those she is enjoying.

#55, Linoleum

"Third, and not least, her children must have the best possible chance." That chance consists of not just a city yard, but "a pasture, a field, a piece of woods, a stream of water and pets."

#71, Puss in the Corner

I love the way she ends her letter, because she points out that "happiness does not rest solely on the question of city or country." And even though she sees steady improvement in the living condition on the farm, I believe she recognizes that often true happiness doesn't lie in where you live but the other choices you make.

#90 Storm Signal

When I was making the "Steps to the Altar" block, I thought, "Hmmm, didn't I just recently make the same block?"

Why, yes, #91, Strawberry Basket, from last week is nearly the same, with minor structural changes.

For some reason, all four of my blocks ended up being very low-contrast and monochromatic this week. And they strike me as rather boring. And I think there is a slight bump in my design wall, so everything looks wonky. Or I need to use a tripod so keep things straight.

I guarantee you will not be bored with Carla's blocks. Hers are always bright and cheery, so head over there.(Note: A highlight of the day yesterday was actually talking to Carla on the phone for the first time. Not sure why it has taken us so long!)

Here are all 78 blocks so far, in all their glory. I guess the monochromatic blocks look just fine among all that color.

WIP Wednesday

This is a little late in the day. I was trying to figure out what I spent my time on in the last week. My mind went blank. Not sure what that means.

I have lots of projects lined up in my mind, so hopefully they will translate into something tangible.

This week consisted of Farmer's Wife blocks.

Four more blocks:

A completed project using a Farmer's Wife block after I messed up on the measurements. This is a great series, by the way, with lots of ideas for using orphan blocks or blocks you want to try but don't want to commit to making a full quilt top. And you should check it out because later there will be a linky party with prizes!

 My motto for this  project was "Don't discard--reinvent!"

My Colorbox quilt was professionally photographed--full reveal coming soon.

I'm linking up to WIP Wednesday with Lee.

Farmer's Wife in Your Life: Pillow Talk

Hello, everyone, and welcome.I'm so happy to have been invited by Sunni to be part of this series of ideas to incorporate the Farmer's Wife blocks, or any other 6" blocks, into something beautiful and functional, for those times when you might not be in the mood to make a complete quilt top.

I have been making Farmer's Wife blocks for awhile now, and nearly every Friday, my friend, Carla, and I have a series called Farmer's Wife Friday. We have been sequentially following the letters in Laurie Aaron Hird's book, each making the blocks associated with the letters, along with sharing our thoughts on what the farmer's wife had to say in her letter.

Carla is doing all her blocks in very cheery prints, while I have been making mine out of Kaffe Fassett shot cottons, so while we are making identical blocks each week, they have a totally different look. To this point, I think we have made 74 out of the 111 blocks in the book.

Way back toward the beginning of our series, one of the first blocks we made was #58, Mother's Dream (see Carla's block here). Because I have been making blocks out of solids, I try to base my color choice on either the name of the block or something pulled out of the letter. So I based the colors on what my dream might be if I were a hard-working farmer's wife and mother--I would want to take a vacation at the ocean. I chose two shades of aqua/turquoise and a sandy-beach color.

My first thought when I looked at this block was, "There is no way I need to make templates to construct this block. It is just  a square in the middle, then easy peasy rectangles, along with some triangles." I thought I had the correct measurements for each of the pieces and started cutting. It is a fairly straightforward and easy block to construct.

However, when all was said and done, my block was too large. Which meant when I get to the point of putting the quilt top together, all the points of the rectangles will be chopped off by the 1/4" seam. On to Phase 2, actually cutting out the plastic templates and making the block again.

But I loved the colors in the original block and couldn't quite bear to throw it out. But what to do, what to do?

Then Sunni contacted me about this series. I thought about it, and had a "lightbulb" moment.

This post won't give you a tutorial as such. It is basically just a little inspiration to help you reinvent rather than discard, if a block you make doesn't turn out quite the way it should.

 (This is the second block I made--these corners won't get cut off!)

For the series project, I chose to make a pillow using the discarded block, tilt it in a wonky setting, and then place it off center. When that was done, I did some wavy big stitch quilting--just like the waves that farmer's wife was dreaming about! (You can see in the photo below how the rectangle corners of the first block did get cut off when I sewed the borders around the block.)

My pillow top ended up like this:

There are many pillow construction techniques when it comes to closures. I chose the easiest, using this tutorial.

I'm really happy with the end result. And it doesn't bother me one bit that the rectangle corners were lost in the construction process.There are so many variations on what you can do when something like this happens. So next time something doesn't turn out quite right, don't discard. Reinvent!

If you are new to the series, be sure to check out the posts from Week 1.

Blog Hop Week 1
March 4-Sunni is guest-posting on Jolly Jabber
March 5-Love Affair with my Brother
March 6-Craizee Corners
March 7-Lilypad Quilting
March 8-Love Affair with my Brother
March 9-Clover & Violet

Blog Hop Week 2
March 12-Mommy for Reals
March 13-A Colorful Life
March 14-It's Sew Kiki
March 15-Lilypad Quilting
March 16-Why Not Sew? Quilts

Blog Hop Week 3
March 19-Love Affair with my Brother
March 20-Echinops & Aster
March 21-Life's Rich Pattern
March 22-Ellison Lane Quilts
March 23-Love Affair with my Brother

At the end of the series, Sunni will host a special link party for projects you have made inspired by the FW. Guest judges will name the winners and there will be some awesome prizes!!

Linky Party

Linky Party will be open from March 24-31 with 2 winners announced the next week. You can link up any project that is inspired by The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt and uses between 1-9  6" finished quilt blocks. The blocks do not have to come from the book.

Please link up a blog post or Flickr photo for your entry.

Judges

Laurie Aaron Hird, author of The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt

Michele Foster, Quilting Gallery

Sunni Bolger, Love Affair with my Brother

Prizes


The Intrepid Thread is sponsoring a FQ bundle of the amazing Cosmos by Dan Bennett for Rowan.



Fat Quarter Shop is sponsoring a FQ Bundle of gorgeous Poetica by Pat Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics.

Thanks to Sunni for inviting me to be part of this series, and thanks to you  for stopping by today. Now start brainstorming and start sewing!