Garden Tea Party blocks

My friend Venita and I have been working on The Quilt Company's pattern of the Garden Tea Party. We get together and share fabrics and ideas on what works and how to do the individual blocks to this pattern. There are only four blocks, but they are big blocks. They finish out at 18 1/2 inches each. These are my four.

The pattern calls for a row above and a row below of teacups. I am not going to do that. I am going to put a small inner border and then a larger outer border on it probably with big flowers. Or I will do the border the pattern suggests. I have not decided for sure yet.

I really like how the blocks came together. I wasn't sure how I would like the mismatched corner triangles, but that is what the pattern showed. Now they are done, it has grown on me.

Here is a copy of the pattern:

Hmmm. I don't know. Maybe the teacups need to be there. I do like the flowers on the outer border.

It has been a fun pattern to work on. Most of the fabric came from my stash, which is always nice to use since I have so much of it.

Stay tuned. I will eventually finish this quilt and even get it quilted. I will post the pictures of the finished quilt when that happens.

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Dan and Martha's Signature Wedding Quilt

It is done.

Dan and Martha were up from southern California over last weekend. We presented their quilt to them all quilted, bound and ready for use. This quilt started as an idea after going to a quilt guild meeting where Peggy Gilbrich came and gave a lecture on History of Signature Quilts. She had many samples there and several of the guild members brought their signature quilts to show to us. I thought what a great way to memorialize an event, such as a wedding. Next time I talked with Dan and Martha, I offered to do this for them. They agreed.

That was in March. Their wedding was scheduled for May 30th. I started making signature blocks galore. I made over 400 of them knowing that was way more than needed. I wanted the attendees to be able to start over if mistakes were made. In that number I also cut 5 inch square white blocks for them to draw a picture if they wanted. Some of the pictures were quite detailed. Some chose to write verse. The kids loved that part and drew many pictures. All were incorporated into the quilt. Some were really creative. Some were especially endearing.

Here is Dan and Martha reading a specific block:

Oh and Lorena and Elisa photo bombing the picture. They were our hangers. Thanks girls. Love you got into, too. Usually we only see their feet or their fingers.

This picture shows the blocks I made for the signature. The blocks that have three fabrics - a color, a white and another color - were the signature blocks. The white 5" blocks was where they could sign, draw or be as creative as they wanted to be.

It was fun to make. It was also the most pieced quilt I ever made. I wanted it to be big enough for them to use on a bed if they wanted to. It wound up to be 94" x 98".

A special thank you to Martha's good friends who manned the signature table and provided the baskets to keep them in and the pens to write with. I really needed that assistance. I am glad you were there and so ready to assist. One was Janice Lawver.

Here is the picture I included on the signature block I put on the back of the quilt. I usually sign my name, too. I forgot on this one. I guess they know who I am without it. I liked it because instead of a traditional cake, they had cupcakes. They were YUMMY!

What a great wedding. To Dan and Martha, sorry it took me so long to finished the quilt. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to make it. It was really made with love.

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Farmer's Wife is going forward

Block on left is called Country Path. I really like how that blocks looks. I had to do a little tearing out, but once it was done, it was wow!

Block on the right is called Flock. Super easy to do.

The Farmer's Wife is a wonderful quilt to work on. It is giving me opportunity to make several different blocks. I sometimes get in a rut and only do a certain block or work only on applique, which is my favorite quilting technique. Plus these patterns are stretching my abilities in working in a smaller dimension. My blocks are almost always 9 or 12 inch blocks. These 6 inch blocks make me want to try more miniature blocks.

Six done. 105 to go.

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The Farmer's Wife continued

Yesterday I posted the first two blocks I had done from The Farmer's Wife book. One done well over a year ago and one yesterday. Last night I printed out several more paper templates. This morning I drew out on plastic the templates and then traced them on to fabric for four more blocks.

Below is a picture of two of the blocks I was able to complete today. Who knows, I may even due the other two before the day is done.

These are Hill and Valley and Silver Lake. The Hill and Valley was a fairly easy block to do. Silver Lake was a little more complicated. It had a lot of small pieces to work with. I love them both now they are finished.

What do you think?

I now have four of 111 blocks completed.

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The Farmers Wife

In September two years ago, my husband I traveled through San Juan Bautista CA. We used to live there and always stop on our way through. There is a restaurant called Dona Esther that has the best Mexican food I've ever tasted. Just down the street is a quilt store that is such fun. Of course I visit it whenever we are there, too. On this trip I bought a few things - okay, maybe more than a few. One of the things was a book called "The Farmer's Wife." It has 111block patterns on it, as well as a story about how they all come together.

The blocks all measure 6 inch square. Not too bad, I thought. I will make a block a week. In less than two years I'll have this quilt done and ready to be quilted. I came home and started the first one in the book. It is called Cut Glass Dish. It took me three days to finish this block. Three days!

So a year and a half has gone by and no other blocks are done. I keep that block pinned on the wall near my sewing machine to encourage me to get the book out and start on the next block. At this pace I will not live long enough to make 111 blocks!

Today out it came. I printed the templates, made the plastic templates, cut the fabric and actually sewed the second of my 111 blocks. Now only 109 left to do.

This one was easy. It is called Kitchen Woodbox.

Maybe I will try another one tomorrow. Or next week. We will see.

The one on the left is the Kitchen Woodbox. The one on the right is the one that gave me so much grief. It is the Cut Glass Dish. Those half square triangles are what gave me the problem. They are very small. The block barely came out at 6 inches. The one today I had room to spare.

I am excited to try another one now. Oh oh. The next one is called Country Path. It has a lot of small squares in it, too. At least they aren't half square triangles.

Keep tuned. I will post more blocks as I do them.

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