Cowboy Boot Baby Quilt

This is the most adorable quilt I have seen in a while.

Deanna  whipped up this one.  The original cowboy boot pattern was from Carla.  Deanna tweaked it a little, and this is the result.  I love it!

I quilted it with little hearts in the background, some in the ditch around the boots, and a large star in the top of the boot.

We can't forget this weeks Hexagons.  Hope you are all having a wonderful day!

Farmer's Wife Blocks 27 & 28

This weeks blocks, Darting Birds and Duck and Duckling, are staying a little closer to home.

Some of the best times, are those spent with loved ones.  Saturday morning it was a beautiful sunny day so Doug and I decided to take two of our Granddaughters over to the local school yard to play.

The first stop is always the swings.

Next stop the teeter totter!

The slide, where Abbey is giving my blocks the once over!

And Hailey showing us how coordinated she is.  What a fun way to spend a morning!

Curves Ahoy!

I warned you, I'm into piecing curves.  I have an Uneven Nine-Patch ruler, and I know how to use it!

And no, I'm not making uneven nine-patches.  Taking inspiration from Jenny I've been playing with an uneven four patch, with a little something added on.  This table topper is made from Michelle D'Amore's fabric line Habitat.  I had a hard time getting my camera to show the true colours so I had to tweak it a little with photo editing.

It took three attempts at the block to get the look I wanted, but it was so worth it.  I'm keeping this one for my own table!

And of course I can't let the week pass without showing this weeks blocks for the Hex-A-Thon. It was a lot of fun picking the fabric for these two.

Have a great weekend everyone.

EZ Dresden

This quilt has been finished for a bit, I've been waiting to post until Katja could get the Dresden ruler in.  I started with an assortment of 5 1/2" strips of reproduction 30s fabric, 2.2 metres of background, an assortment of 4" scraps of solids and an EZ Dresden ruler.

Using the ruler I cut 5 1/2" dresden shapes from several different fabrics.

I used a pencil to lightly mark the centre of the dresden shape on the wrong side.

With right sides together I sewed across the top of the dresden shapes.  I trimmed a little off the centre corner to make the point easier to turn.

The fabric was then turned right side out.  I used my small screw driver to help turn the point out to a fairly crisp shape.  Using the pencil mark for a guideline I pressed the point with the seam matching my pencil line.

I sewed twenty dresden blades together to make a full plate.  I made ten full plates.  I sewed ten together to make a half plate. I made four half plates.

I cut 16" squares of background for the full plates and 8 1/2" x 16 rectangles for the half plates.  I machine appliquéd my plates onto the backgrounds, but you could hand appliqué if you want.  After the appliqué was finished I trimmed the squares to 15" and the half squares to 7 3/4" x 15".

For the centres of the plates I found a cup that was 3 1/4" in diameter and used it as a template.  I cut a piece of cardboard to size, cut the fabric a little bigger, basted around the edges, pulled the basting around the cardboard and then ironed the fabric in the circular shape.  I also machine appliquéd the circles.

Farmer's Wife takes on Lillooet

This week my blocks # 25 & 26 hitch hiked their way to Lillooet.  To bad it was a windy blustery day, so the pictures didn't show the true beauty of the area.

Lillooet is about a two hour drive east of Kamloops.  It is surrounded by beautiful mountains, the Fraser river and wonderful grasslands.  Doug was there working and agreed to take the blocks along.  My first visit to Lillooet was for a BMX race with my oldest son about twenty years ago.  My favourite visit was to check out a very large collection of antique toy sewing machines.  You never quite know what you will find there!

Now for a little glimpse of what I'm working on.  Katja's was finally was able to order in the Uneven Nine-Patch ruler by the wonderful people at E-Z.  I've been playing with it and will show you what I've been up to as soon as it is finished.

It's Friday Already

Did you every have a week where time just gets away on you.  I woke up this morning and realized it's Friday already.  So what have I accomplished this week?

This cute little quilt belongs to Paulette.  It was one of her MANY samples for her Bits and Pieces Club she ran for years.  What I really love about this quilt is the funky feature fabric.

It has hearts on it as well as these wonderful wavy lines that I used for inspiration for quilting.

I carried the wavy lines into the sashing around the hearts and of course I had to quilt a heart in the hearts.  This was a really fun quilt to quilt!

This weeks Hex-A-Thon blocs luckily were finished a while ago so that they could make an appearance today.  I'll really try to not let next week get away from me and hopefully have a little more to show for my time.  Have a great weekend everyone!

ps  On my side bar check out Carla's Grace and Favour blog for a cut little quilt that I quilted for her.

Farmer's Wife Blocks 23 & 24

Country Farm and Country Path are hanging out with me this week.

For those of you that haven't guessed, this is the case that I sort my mail into at the Kamloops Delivery Centre.

This is prior to starting my day.

This is after I have sorted the mail to be delivered for the day.  My route has 655 calls so can be a bit of a challenge to get ready to go.  This particular day was fairly light, so I had time to play!

And here is my mail all organized ready to head out to the truck for delivery for the day. Getting to this point is the hardest part of my job.  Going on the street and delivering is the best part.  More to come........

And now for a cute little craft idea that I found here.  I had made a couple of these for friends before I decided it was a great idea for a craft at our Postie Quilting Day.  The pattern calls for a 9 inch triangle.  I made ours 11 1/2 inches so that they would be a little bigger.  I also included batting so they would have a little more body.

I put my friends to work, and these are what they created.  Too much fun!  No more excuses for threads left laying around the house.

Baby Girl Quilts

Last Friday I showed you a jelly roll of Meadow Friends by Deb Strain.  Well, I managed to make two baby girl quilts and I still have a little bit left over.

The first quilt is from the book "jelly babies."  This worked up really fast, so I had time to make the second quilt.

This quilt is from my own design, and is available at Katja's as a $2 donation sheet.

Now I'm definitely ready for the next grand baby!

Spring Is In The Air!

Sylvia's quilt reminds me of spring.  Bright and fresh.  This quilt was from a pattern I presented as a class to the local quilt guild.  Sylvia has done a wonderful job.

The quilting in the "flower" portion is the same as the sample I had made.  The overall small hearts was Sylvia's idea.  A great combination.

And of course, this weeks Hexagons.  I like the spring coloured block best!  Spring must be in the air!

Farmer's Wife Blocks 21 & 22

These week's blocks are Contrary Wife and Corn & Beans.  Corn & Beans is a little bit of a challenge with sooooooo many little pieces.

And where are my blocks hanging around today?

They are hanging around the Provincial Short Track Speed Skating Championships.  The races were held this weekend in Kamloops at the Macarthur Island Sports Centre.  A great facility with two ice rinks as well as curling rinks.

Most of the racers were children, however a few adult races were also held.  The oldest racer was 82.  Now how is that for keeping active when you retire?

A while back Linda sent me this picture to post of her blocks.  Better late than never!  The teddy bear was made by Sonja, and the rabbit was made by Katja.  Both were gifts to Linda's son, when he was much younger.  Alex is now off to university, but his treasures wait patiently for him at home.

A Friday "Ruby" Finish

Last Friday while having tea at Katja's Quilt Shoppe, I brought home a sampling of "Ruby" flannel.

This Friday I took back this quilt!

It is made from a pattern in the Quilts & More spring 2012 edition.  The pattern is fast and simple to make.  The quilt is so soft and cozy that it just might have to be mine when it comes home.

To quilt the flannel I used a simple ribbon pattern.  To quilt this design simply quilt a large over all meandering then quilt back 1/2" from the previous stitching, crossing over occasionally. There you have it, a ribbon.

Everyone at the Shoppe was busy.  Sharon was cutting out a cute child's quilt, Katja was buys helping a customer and Sonja was working on the appliqué border of her Reminiscence Quilt.

And what was I doing, well bringing home some more Moda fabric for a baby quilt.

Hopefully I'll have it done by next Friday to show you.