Farmer's Friday - Ahhhhhhh Triangles!

After working all afternoon/evening..well...

I don't have any FWQAL blocks I can check off this week.

I really almost thought about not even showing y'all pictures.
They're that bad.

Triangles still kick my butt.

Blocks #17 + #18

At this point I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'll try to work on it again this weekend. But I'm frustrated.
I might skip these two.
I might redo them.
I'm really not sure.

See that nice gap in the middle? Where the green should come together? Ugh!

Yellow should meet yellow here. Seriously. 

There's my horrible truth for y'all. 'Cause this is a place for honesty.

Me and the pretty bottle with the geese on it are gonna have a chat now. 

WiP Wednesday - An artful mess

Wednesday didn't surprise me this time! Ha!

Most of my project time this week was spent on a not-really-a-quilt-but-quilt-related project.

I'm showing it off anyway because I'm really rather in love with it.

I've always been in love with color. When I was little I bugged my mom for weeks until I could have a color wheel. A real one. "That artists use."

I grew up in a tiny little farm town. Color wheels weren't really at the local Kroger.

But I got one. And I loved it to pieces. Literally. Somewhere in college it fell apart. So I got a new one. And lost it in the haul from MN to GA.
And I got another one. That my dog ate.
Then another one that was lost in transition.

Noticing a trend?

I'd been wanting to put a significant piece of art on my office walls. They're white. It drives me crazy. I want to fill up empty space.

I've been trying to stash-bust too. Moving really illuminated the number of art supplies I've gathered.
Including a large blank canvas. And four boxes of 24-count crayons.  I love me some coloring. But I have a 96-count box for that. (I actually just googled that for a stock picture and found out the 96-box is discontinued. Can you see my sadface from where you are?)

I highly doubt I'm going to lose this color wheel:

I see myself doing more canvas + crayon projects in the future. 

This is my hand after two showers:

Trust me. It looks better. I had layers of melted crayon on me. Especially my poor thumb.  

WiP Roundup:
I finished my Bee Blocks this week.  


Ongoing projects screaming for attention:
ZZQAL
FWQAL
Birdie Stitches


On Hold:
Less Than Three
Bottled Rainbows


Certainly less quilting than I would like.

I did get some *lovely* Halloween fabric in the mail today from Allison at Dreaming in Patchwork.

Wanna see it?
I know you do.

So so gorgeous. And it's a Halloween fabric I don't have!

There might have also been another box of Halloween fabric in the mail from Mom. A much smaller one this time. No pictures because I tore into it with much too much excitement to remember things like a camera.

One day I'll have a room devoted to my Halloween fabric stash.

New: 1
Completed: 1
WiP: 3

Bee Blocks!

I've been busy busy today.

Actually busy busy busy. But one of the blocks is for me.
It still counts tho'.

I'm in my very first quilting bee, Sew Bee Joyful, hosted by Jenna at SewHappyGeek.

This month has been hectic but there was no way I was going to send this month's block late. So I set out some time today to sew.

The block was a Wonky Log Cabin. I was super excited because I've never made one before!

And no triangles!

*and there was much rejoicing*

Before I cut into the precious fabrics that my beemates send I plan on making the block out of my own scrap stash.
So this one is for me:

These two will be dropped in the mail tomorrow:

My digital camera has decided it hates it's USB cord. I don't know if I bent something or what.
Late night cellphone pics it is! Only because I'm really excited about these blocks.
I can't wait to figure out camera cords.
Or dinner.

I haven't made dinner yet...

I should probably go fix that.

I lost a week somewhere...somehow..

Well hello there.

I lost almost a whole week. I'm not 100% sure how it happened. I have some ideas. There was a ton of secret Halloween crafting. Which all got packed up and mailed away.

There was social time which is rare for me.

I could have sworn today was Friday. I really could of.

I have not been sleeping much. And the coffee pot has been going constantly. Poor coffee pot. It probably wants a nap.

I think it's going around tho'. It seems this week has been swamped for a lot of my blogger friends.

While I was crafting I won a fabric gift certificate at Toni's lovely blog

I'm genuinely surprised! And so excited at all the possibilities.

I thought about grabbing some Happy Mochi Yum Yum.

Or some Innocent Crush (which I've always kicked myself about not picking up).

And then I remembered this:

It comes out next month.

Think I can manage to hold off on fabric shopping until then?

I certainly hope so.

WiP Wednesday - Yet another Fly-by

While there was certainly work done in the office this week, it yet again appears I haven't been that productive.

Someone should tell that to my office floor. Supplies should really just learn to put themselves away.

Roundup:


The Halloween Secret was finished and revealed this week.

Jack O'Hexie is super happy on my front door.

ZZQAL: Chugging away at piecing. I'm finding the current step a bit tedious so I've just been doing it in chunks. It's been slow progress.

FWQAL: Chugging along

Birdie Stitches: I'm completely reconsidering my fabric choices for this. I know I should just move forward with what I have cut. The mix between Just Wing It and Wee Folks seems like maybe not-such-a-good-idea.

On Hold:

Less Than Three - Moving this one into Hold category. I've actually hexied myself out a little bit between the Ugly Chickens and Jack. All my fabric choices have their own basket so I can jump back in when I feel ready to face hexies again. 

Otherwise I'm filled with projects that I can't say much about yet because they're either swap items or presents. And people are sneaky. And spy. 

Completed: 1

WiPs: 3

Guest Post at Distant Pickles

It's here! It's here!

Today is Monday which means that Halloween project that I've been vaguely talking about is up!

Head on over to Distant Pickles for the full post!

Farmer's Friday - Back in

Oh Farmer's Friday, How I've missed you.

It's amazing how a little bit of structure is just the motivation I need sometimes.

I'd been putting some more touches on the Halloween Secret this afternoon (And resewing some steps while *remembering* to take pictures this time). I was about to leave my office when I realized it was Friday. 

Farmer's Friday

My Halloween fabrics are all out on a shelf now. I didn't realize how much time I had been spending digging through a box trying to find coordinating fabrics for each block. This time I had my fabric pulled and cut in 5 minutes. 

Of course I've kept with the tradition of needing to resew a block....three times...

Stupid triangles.

Block #15 - Buzzard's Nest

Obviously there's still a point that I screwed up. I just really don't want to sew this one again. I'll let it sit. 

Block #16 - Calico Puzzle 

I love the colors in this block. The orange and the white are from a brand new stack of FQs. The purple was a random square I found in my stash. I don't have any left but I really think it was well used. 

Crooked they may be but it's so very nice to work on this QAL again. I've noticed that steady work on FWQAL means my piecing skills get better. I've slipped a little but I'm sure it'll come back. 

WiP Wednesday

Yanno by all appearances I've been a slacker this week.

Slacker.
Slacker.
Slacker.

Except...I haven't.
The date for my guest post is approaching and I've been working on my tutorial. Trying to make it perfect.

Obsessing much? Me?

Perhaps.

Least dramatic teaser picture EVER!

I felt like my poor ZZQAL was being neglected so I started work on it again.

Nothing monumental, but progress is progress.

The in-the-machine pic is proof of my non-slacker-ness

I've also been shopping reds for a commission project which has shoved my personal projects out of what little time I've had this week. (It's been birthday a-go-go around here with both my father and my best friend having one in the same week)

None of these are what she's looking for. I'm running short on ideas for "cranberry-ish" reds. Trips to three fabric stores in my area and I'm still red-less.

Projects that only saw action as a cat bed this week:
FWQAL
Less than Three
Birdie Stitches


Looking at my week now...I think I need an inspirational kick in the butt ;)
I might find it at the bottom of this cup of coffee. Or the next.

Dragging this post over to Lee's. Cause it's tradition.

WiP Wednesday - Moving Edition

Whew.....
I'm back.
I have cleared the apartment.
Kinda/sorta filled the house.
And conquered the internet.

*dances*

Alas, all this means that not much sewing has been done.

But I felt like I'd been away from all you lovelies for far too long.

Finished this week:
I set aside all my personal projects this week to do some blocks for Quilting for Kids:

That purple is much more of an eggplant color rather than the black it looks like in the picture.
(The camera cord is buried in a box...somewhere...cell phone pic bleh!)
(Also, stupid unpacking)

Projects I can't wait to get back into:
Halloween Secret
Less than Three
Birdie Stitches
ZZQAL
FWQAL


On another note, I started organizing my fabric. It's one of the most wonderful things I've seen:

Clearly I need more solids.
And Halloween fabric.
One shelf is not acceptable.

It feels so good to be linking up with Lee's again

Cauldron Crafts - with my first guest post!

Hello poppets! I'm currently going on an all-nighter so I might be a bit kooky today.

But it was very important for me to jump on and let you know about a fabulous month full of Halloween crafting and *giveaways* that is going on over at Distant Pickles and Fabric Donkey.

Now you know I'm in love with all things Halloween crafty. Turning my year long Farmer's Wife into a Halloween project was possibly the best idea I've ever had.

The button below will take you to the main page at Fabric Donkey with a list of events.

See the 19th? 

It's me!!

The "Halloween Secret" I've been talking about on my WiP Wednesdays is now a little less of a secret! 

I was absolutely honored to be asked to submit a tutorial for this. I've been crafting my tired little hands off to make something awesome. It was an idea that I had years ago but didn't have the skillset for. Thanks to all you wonderful blog folks I've learned some new tricks that gave me the confidence I needed to tackle this project. 

I've seen some sneak peeks of a couple of the things on the list and I already want to make them! 

Even if you're not absolutely obsessed with Halloween like me I think a great line up of projects has been set up: Fabric Calendars, Treat Bags, Table Runners.

Plus the giveaways. I will of course offer myself up as a loving home to any Halloween fabric. 

Ahem...

I will never have enough.

Anywho. If you get a chance, please check it out. I'll probably be giving y'all a lil' reminder when my tutorial goes up on the 19th. 

I'm going to run more boxes over to the new house. I've gotta get that craft room set up. I'm sure my WiP list is going to see a sudden influx of Halloween projects.