With the kick-off for the Farmer’s Wife 1930’s Sew-Along a little over a week away, I am trying valiantly to get organized and finish up a few UFO’s. So that has been my weekend. (Well, with a bit of time off to cruise the Michigan Irish Music Festival).
The first order of business was to pull all my supplies together. I ordered most of my templates from Mass Drop. That’s something you should check out, if you’re unfamiliar. It’s a website that combines aspects of online shopping with social media to try to negotiate the best price. An on-line co-op, of sorts. While I’m delighted with the price, it does mean that my templates won’t be here for the first few blocks. Hopefully they’ll either be relatively uncomplicated enough to cut out with a rotary cutter and ruler or I’ll have time enough for a little English Paper Piecing. I’ve got a couple other fat quarters hanging around the house that need to go into this box, but otherwise, it’s pretty complete.
I have my book, my fabrics, a few rulers, grey thread, a 3 ring binder to put finished blocks in, and a 12×12 plastic scrapbooking storage box that I thought would be just the thing for blocks-in-progress. Other supplies, like pins, rotary cutter, matt, etc. are in their usual places, since they’re not specific to this project.
I’m planning on using my day off with the kids in school on Tuesday to put together the top for a baby quilt I’m working on. I spread all the blocks out on the lawn today. Don’t panic, I know the embroidered blocks aren’t the same size as the patchwork blocks. I’m going to trim them, then sew them up with some strips of the cream and corner squares of colored fabric.
There is one more redwork block, that simply has baby’s name on it. I have that to finish yet, and then I’ll be able to assemble it. The redwork took me a bit longer than I had anticipated. But it does look nice.
I have a dress and pinafore cut out for the last doll. And I’m still thinking about a Dolly-Along. The instructions in the book are a bit vague, so I think it might be helpful for people who want to make her. Along those lines, I picked up more eyelet and ribbon for the new doll’s camisole and bloomers. I find that eyelet or Swiss edging is very hard to find in my neck of the woods, especially the flat kinds. I got darned lucky that JoAnn’s carried the baby galloon beading. It may be that I’ll have to order some from my favorite heirloom sewing shops when I get to the nightgown.
The new doll will also need her own clothes, and I do really like the blouse and skirt with braces that is shown with a wool hooded cape in the book. So I’ve squirreled away fabrics for that.
And, last but not least, I tried to keep up on my Doodle Quilting homework. If you’re not a follower of Lori Kennedy at The Inbox Jaunt, you might want to give it a look. She does the most amazing free motion quilting motifs. As an aide, she’s got a series of tutorials that are ongoing, on using doodling to improve your FMQ. I’m a firm believer in muscle memory, so I’m trying to work along with them. I’ll put a button for her page in the sidebar, too. Plus, I’ll share my doodles from time to time. This week’s exercise was triangle borders. I clearly need more work at this. But I think that sailboats would fit nicely, don’t you?
I still have a few more things to organize. And small children who need to go to bed.
Have a good night!