FWQ 13

Moose and I made a muslin of the Wiksten tank the other night.

I cleared off my desk in order the trace the pattern and then Moose didn't want to give it back.

After moving him to the ironing board, I decided to work on the next Farmer's Wife block.

This one is called Buckwheat.

I love how it came out!

Shopping spree

This was the second day of the Southern Wisconsin shop hop. Jaime and I went to 5 different shops! I think I might go to another next weekend, but certainly won't make it to all 13.

I planned to pick out white/cream and black prints for my Single Girl, but I only found about 4 prints I really liked. So, that decision is made. I will use the white sheets I already have.

Instead, I got some more 30s prints (note to self: JJ Stitches has a good variety at the moment), some penguins for Christmas stockings, and a couple blues to use in a fish quilt of some sort. There are 2 quite cute projects of the same theme I would like to try.

I also bought some Best Press. I think it might make tiny stars and the Grinch quilt easier.

 

Bragging Rights

I won a bundle of Jeni's new line, Nordika! (Picked it up tonight!)

In which there is not a clever title

My Single Girl is coming along faster than I might have expected.

Perhaps it's due to my helper?

Anyway, since it's getting close to the time I actually need to make a decision, I've been debating whether to buy a bunch of different black/white/cream prints or just go with white. I like the idea of a varied background, but it would be more expensive and time consuming.

Option A: Varied patterns, more expensive

Option B: Plain white, less expensive

Which would you choose?

Busy bee

That actually might be a cool name for a quilting bee - for busy people of course. When I have time, I'll get it started...

Tonight I am skipping yoga because I have a headache and Excedrin is not helping very much. I might have tried harder to force myself to go anyway if my friend Katy was planning to go as well, but she went to an earlier class and let me off the hook.

In sewing news, I've completed the ring portion for 5 single girl blocks! Here is what my strategy looks like:

I cut 3.5" strips from each DS fabric (plus 1 other that seems to fit right in). Then I folded them and laid them in a circle resembling the pieces of the ring. It turned out I bought more fabric than I needed... I'm not entirely sure how that happened, but since it did, I decided to just use all of them and switch out a few each block. (Confession: I bought a new blue dot from JoAnn's yesterday to add in too.)

I traced and cut templates out of freezer paper. This is working out just as well as I imagined! First I iron the template to a fabric strip, then I cut it out. Once I've cut all the pieces for a ring, I peel off the templates as I sew them together. Finally, I shuffle the fabrics around and repeat. 

In the interest of curbing my spending on this quilt a little bit, I've decided to go with a white background. Or at least, I'm leaning in that direction. I suppose I still won't make the final call until I have finished getting the scrappy parts ready. I'm more certain that I will use straightish line quilting for it when we come to that.

The guild meeting was last Wednesday night. It kicked off a couple new activities (block lotto and challenges). We all received kits for EPP since our summer challenge is hand work. Last night I stitched up my little hexies and tonight perhaps I'll assemble them into flowers. For some reason it has reignited my interest in doing some knitting. Namely, the beekeeper's quilt, which is made of knit hexagons. I'm intrigued by the idea even though I'm not sure the finished product is quite my style.