A FINISHED Quilt Top (And Farmer's Wife Blocks)

It takes me forever anymore to take pictures and actually do a blog post, there are just too many things going on right now. I hardly have the time to sew, not to mention post blogs about it. Oh well, I'm trying. And desperately trying to figure out a way to make sewing mt career, and actually be able to live off it. It's hard when you have a full time job as it is. Plus, its scary even contemplating going into business for myself or changing paths at this point in my life. I make good money everything considered, but I'm not happy with my job. Right now I'm just making the best of it.

Anyway, back to the actual sewing part of my blog. I have been wanting to make a quilt for my dad for a few months now. He has admired the quilts I've made for myself and for other people all year, and since my mother is no longer with us, I wanted to make one for him. I knew it would mean a lot to him even though he is too tough to admit it. But I was stuck on trying to make a quilt manly and simple and appropriate. It's harder than you might think! (Especially if you know my dad!) So I was super stoked to stumble across Lake Life by Thimbleberries fabric, and I found a nifty pattern in one of my Schnibbles books (McGuffey) I adapted it from charm and layer cakes to a yardage appropriate quilt. (One of the things I LOVE about quilting is the math involved in planning a quilt, how strange am I?) Anyway, my dad has very few hobbies, and the ones he does have are very hard to find translated to fabric, but my dad does like fishing and Lake Life was perfect without being "cutesy". And I finished the top today.

Please excuse the horrible pictures, I was missing my assistant (aka my boyfriend, and was too lazy to take it outside for decent pictures, but I promise I WILL get some)

 

It was my first attempt at a pieced border and I think it came out really nice, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be at first. Now, hopefully I can manage to get the quilting done without too much trouble. Its going to be the biggest quilt I've done on my machine though, so I'm thinking just some plain straight line quilting is in order, don't want anything too fancy anyway since it's for my dad.

 

I haven't had the time to work on my Farmer's Wife blocks much this week but I do still have some to post from the bounty I made a week or so ago. They are FAR from perfect, in fact some of them are pretty horrible as far as quilt blocks go (i.e. points don't match up, or are lost, they are crooked, have puckers, etc) Some of them may get ripped apart and done again, or they may not. I've never done a sampler quilt before, I've never used templates before either. So the imperfections are bittersweet in a way, and I know that the more I do the better they will get, and it will show an evolution from start to finish.

 

Bouquet (Which I am happy with, it isn't perfect, but its passable)

Forgot the name of this block (Sorry! It too is acceptable)

Corn and Beans (I will never forget the name of this one, as much as I would like to, it gave me fits)

Bow tie, a fairly easy one, points aren't perfect but I like it

Forgot the name of this one, but it is my current favorite. I love it, and surprisingly it wasn't as hard as I first thought either.

Broken dishes, another easy one that turned out really good.

 

 

And now to enjoy what is left of my weekend, watch some football and relax before I go back to work tomorrow. I can't believe the weekend is already almost over!