Yay for Spring Break

It is true that I abandoned Mom for a short while. I have been feeling quite bogged down with the day job, so doing anything else feels a bit overwhelming. But Spring Break is here! Hooray!! I am slowly catching up to Mom's total of Farm Girl blocks. I finished Pie Cherries on Saturday and will complete my last one this week. Mom is anxious to work on her next block so I really should "allow" her to get back to it this weekend!  LOL!! It's not like she didn't have anything else to work on anyway!

FYI ... If you are working on this project too, make sure you don't put the stems of the cherries together backwards. I had to rip out 4 seams because I wasn't paying attention to the size and shape of each stem ... they are slightly different. Overall it was a pretty easy block, and of course I had to use cherry material for one of the cherries.  :)

Until next time ... Happy Sewing!

Cat and Sue

On My Own

Oh, to be on my own! Cat has abandoned me, though not permanently! I am having so much fun making the Farm Girl blocks that I am ahead by two blocks. I completed Corn and Tomatoes, Momma Hen, Crop Block, and Apron Strings. Cat finished Maple Leaf and Churn Dash. I wanted to start another block but Cat said I was not allowed until she caught up! The nerve telling me I could not sew!! "Sew" I have been working on other projects; doll clothes and curtains.

This is truly a Mother and Daughter experience. We are in the sewing room usually every weekend and we laugh, sometimes hysterically, eat chocolate, and have the best time picking out fabrics from our stash to use in the Farm Girl blocks as well as our other projects. The phrase, "We need more fabric!" comes up quite often but we come to our senses, raid the stash again and usually find fabric that will work.

Time to get back to sewing. Until we meet again!

Cat and Sue

The Fourth Set

Last weekend Mom and I completed our fourth set of blocks for our Farm Girl sampler quilt. Mom did "Milking Day" and I choose "Old Glory". We are getting the hang of the smaller size (each block is 6 inches finished) and there was considerably less cursing on my part putting the pieces together. I'm not sure if you can tell by the picture, but "Old Glory" is a little short. I don't really know what happened there, but my plan is to just make the outer white borders bigger to fix it. 

When I got done with my block I put all 8 of them together for one picture. Mom and I were "oohing" and "aahing" at how well they look. I am loving the materials we are using ... I am a huge scrappy quilt nut anyway, but the bright and 30's patterns are just so fun! 

Mom did her block for this weekend, but I did not.  I am a high school teacher by day, and it's getting toward the end of our grading term so I was grading most of the day. Speaking of grading, I better get my butt back to it.  :-)

Until next time ... Happy Sewing!

Cat and Sue

"Snow" Day ... Sew Day

On Monday this week, our area got hit with some freezing rain and ice. It wasn't as bad as our last ice episode, but the roads were slippery enough for many businesses to close for the day. Yay! Mom and I both got to stay home! Sew Day!! We decided to each do a Farm Girl block and a "special episode" of Mother and Daughter Sewing Experience.

After the first two blocks I completed, I really needed to pick something a little more simple ... bigger pieces, less matching seams, less bulk. Mom was working on a personal project as well so she wanted a block that would sew up pretty quick. Mom's is left; "Kitchen Window", and mine right; "Out to Pasture".

I definitely had less stress putting this block together. Now to find some red gingham for my next block. :)

Until next time ... Happy Sewing!

Cat and Sue

Farm Girl Week 2

Mom and I finished our two blocks for this week; Mom did "Baking Day Block" (on the right) and I did "Peas and Carrots".

Again, Mom's block went together better than mine.  She picked out the material last week, and went giddy over the green roosters.  We knew we would have to go find the brown for the spoon, though.  So yesterday we took a ride to a fabric store about 45 minutes north of here hoping they would have a cutesy brown print. Nothing cutesy, but she did find a brown dimple pattern that worked.

I also picked out a block and materials last week, but I wanted a red gingham print to complement the other materials. While shopping, I picked out two gingham type materials, but when I got them home one was too pink-y and the other too orange-y.  Anyway, as a result, I picked out a different block.  I love this block, but some of the pieces are puckering and it came out just a tad too small.  I'm hoping we can make it work instead of re-doing the block.  Fingers crossed!

On our excursions yesterday, the fabric store we went in to must have been doing a "Farm Girl" class because on the wall of their classroom were some completed 12-inch blocks. Mom and I are very happy we are doing the 6-inch blocks. The 12-inch blocks just seemed to have been missing something ... maybe they were just too big. Mom said that they didn't seem to have that nostalgic feeling that the small ones do. I agree ... the small ones are just so cute and fun!!  :-)

Until next time ... Happy Sewing!

Cat and Sue

Our First Project Together

Mom and I enjoy sewing.  Mom has always been sewing, as long as I can remember, making my sister and I clothes, or clothes for our dolls, purses, bags, pillows, etc.  It wasn't until about 13 years ago that she started quilting.  She still continues to try various other sewing endeavors, but quilting is the main craft that occurs at our house.

I started quilting shortly after mom, and have loved sharing this hobby with her.  I ask for her help often, we shop for supplies together, and have a sewing room that we share.  We spend many weekends working on our individual projects, listening to music, laughing ... but we have never worked on one project together, until now!

In December, on one of our shopping trips to a local fabric store, we spotted a quilt sample the store had created and hung to showcase some material.  I loved the country-ish style and the thirty-ish type of prints they used, and of course I said, "Wouldn't this look great as a wall hanging in our kitchen?"  So 5 minutes later we bought the book that this sample came from.

"Farm Girl Vintage" by Lori Holt of Bee in My Bonnet

Isn't this fun?   We are going to make it a bit smaller and horizontal instead of vertical to go on a big blank wall in the kitchen.

I love a scrappy quilt, and we can do a lot of these blocks with some scraps and other material already in our stash. We just picked up the background fabric last weekend and decided to get started.  I suggested we each do one block per weekend.  And then Mom said ... "Let's make a blog!"  Yay! I totally love the idea of sharing our progress.  This is going to be fun!

So here are our first two blocks!  Mom made "Kettle's On" and I made "Scrappy Strawberry". I think I had way more issues than she did.  The finished block size is 6 inches square, and in the book Lori suggests pressing the seams open.  So I tried that ... but when I went to sew my rows together, I had a very hard time matching seams. I had to rip out twice and repress the seams so they would "nest".  I finally got most of them to match and am loving the scrappy result.

There is a pumpkin block very similar to the strawberry. I told Mom she will be doing that one!  :)

Until next time ... Happy Sewing!

Cat and Sue