farmer’s wife blocks-september

Here are the September blocks for The Farmer’s Wife Sampler.

primitive muslins from Moda, by Primitive Gatherings!

I have some great news!….look at my vintage muslins I have designed for Moda!  This is so cool…they asked me to do some aged muslins at the Chicago Quilt Festival…so I was to deliver them to Cheryl at Spring Quilt Market…so of coarse I waited until the day before we left to make them… I experimented with some kona cotton ..they turned our just wonderful…the 5 swatches  here are what Moda has come up with from  my samples…The piece they are laying on was one of the rejects…too much mottling…the others were more of an overall mottling of the “tea dyed” look…so I thought I would share this with you and any of the shop owners out there that read my blog…Moda will be offering these at Fall Market…I think they will be a dream to work with…I have been using the Marcus Brother aged muslins, but they can be a little stiff…these new primitive muslins from Moda will have the same wonderful feel that Moda is known for….I will let you know when they will  be ready!  LB

“I hate being ill…..”the gathering” update..

I have not been feeling well since Sunday….we had a nice day out on the boat with the kids and girl friends, until I tried something I never have done before…Looking back my Husband should have stopped me…but anyway…for some hair brained reason I thought maybe I could “wake board”.  Like snowboarding on water…the first attempt at getting up on the board I drank half the lake, and water was forced in my mouth, up my nose and some gross things were happening…after the second attempt, I pulled something in my right butt cheek…so at least then my common sense over came my pride and I decided I must be too old for this…so since this episode, I have a nasty cough, dripping sinuses and I have been icing my butt cheek a couple of times a day…the cheek is healing and doesn’t hurt as much… I only get a little sign once in awhile that I did something…but I cannot sleep…i carry a huge flour sack towel around for my “kleenex” because I have used everything in sight…Carole has come over and brought me some benedryl so maybe now I will sleep…I know I need to machine quilt some of these little quilts but it is so hard to do so with how I feel…so I have been piecing and will show you on what a little later this week…a lot of work has been done this week around here…too much going on and not enough alone time…

Jake and Lauren on their floaty
the a** breaking boat...

Here are some photos of the Gathering…it is hard to show much but I will narrate the photos….We have finished the master bathroom, and all the bathrooms…on the first and second floors…still need to to basement ones.  It is all painted except to be touched up.  The carpeting is in upstairs.  Ceiling fans need to be hung and some trim put back on where we removed all the closets in each bedroom.  The wood floor is put in as well as all the lighting on the first floor.  The kitchen appliances along with another prep sink and new tile backsplash are done.  The washer and dryer are in but the dryer hose needs to be rerouted.  The addition is started and passed its first rough in and electrical inspection.  The roof is on, the gutters and now the siding…Rick my cousin who is doing the remodeling for me is on vacation this week…so nothing is happing but the siding…which is being done by another crew… The house will have dark gray shutters and burgundy door.

the start of the addition...
part of the new kitchen...notice the new tile?
this is looking into the master shower...the next photo is the old view...still waiting for the shower door...
old master bath with corner tub and light blue paint with green counter tops...their was red paint to the left where the toilet is...
windows in the edition....we used the old windows from the back of the house and moved them to the back of the garage..door is going in...
view from halfway point in backyard....
the start of our garden...getting it ready for next year...waiting for the cow manure now

the roof has been done, now here is the siding...

siding going on....WHITE!... I am going for the old farmhouse look...
my naked house....new siding and roof going on..after that nasty hail storm...

decision made…

I have had my blocks all put together for the BOW laying on my table for a week trying to decide the border application…i know i thought i had it figured out, but when I auditioned the fabrics…it did nothing for it.  The quilt has so much going on that I have made the decision it needs just a simple finishing application.  I am figuring that Florence came to the same conclusions because she used a simple border with some brodre purse applique…(i know I probably spelled that wrong…but I am too lazy to look it up and spell check doesn’t know what i am talking about) on her little quilt.  Her large quilt she just set it on point and bound the jagged nine patches, using to setting triangles.  Good news is..there is no more applique and the price will be minimal.  If you want to do the setting I originally planned, you can figure it out by looking at the rough draft I have sent.  I loved what I planned but it goes to show that it doesn’t always work out the way you design it to.  That is why I don’t like to give you a hint as to how it is going to look because I seem to always alter it.  Anyway…here is what it is looking like as of now…I picked a red binding to go on.  I have oversized my border to leave me a little more room for quilting it and then I will trim it back a little..hope you like it….PS.  I promise I will start to show the progress on “the gathering” retreat house…today I will take some more updated photos..

week #12 freebie…are you caught up?

Thread used for this week’s freebie are as follows: #12 Valdani-1645 & O540. 3SF-O154, O86 and O540.  This is the last block.  Next week or so, we will be showing the finished quilt.  If you want a finishing kit you will have to notify the shop, or order it online.  Thanks! It has been a fun summer!  Hopefully the weather will be “summerish” for a few more weeks…LB