so much green and new life, too!

no fabric in this first picture, but it's green! these are our tomatoes that are growing down at the local greenhouse: they're custom started for us so they are the variety we need, and the size we want when it's time to plant. for us, in Northern PA, our target date to plant these in our high tunnel is May 1. even with the high tunnel, and our particular micro-climate of living by the creek, that's still plenty early for zone 5!

I did manage to get a *tiny* bit of green sewing time these last 2 weeks, and finished 17 (!) of my kona indigo and the COM 9 patches. super thrilled with these, as usual...

the featured colors, in no particular order: sour apple, green grass, mint, ice frappe and celadon

 

candy green, chartreuse, leaf, moss, spruce and holly

pickle, grasshopper, sweet pea, avocado, pond, basil and peridot.

this little bundle of joy and sweetness is the main reason I haven't had much time to sew (him, and getting ready for Easter with new dresses and surprises for the Easter baskets...)

little LR made his appearance a mere 2 days after his baby quilt was finished! the labor and delivery was MUCH EASIER for my daughter M this time, and she's made a speedy recovery.
 

Baby LR is healthy and happy in every way, and loved by his whole family. he nurses like a champ, and he sleeps pretty well, too. he's less than 2 weeks old, and already we can't imagine our lives with out him!

 

toddler C is adjusting well to having a new baby brother, and mom is adjusting well to having a busy little boy (I sometimes compare C to a rabid capuchin monkey. if you think of a cross between a squirrel and a monkey, that would be a pretty accurate representation of C!) and a seemingly always hungry newborn.

 

life is good! and more good news: spring is coming, Christ is risen, and the new color of the month is yellow! click on over and see what everyone else has been working on- it's sure to inspire AND cheer you up!

did you miss me?

haha! just kidding... you don't need to answer that. it's been a crazy 2 weeks around here, with just in the last few days a little bit of {much needed} time in the sewing room.

 

2 Sundays ago, my youngest daughter, BJ, was sick and sore with an achey neck. (I was also getting sick, too, and till the end of the week had Flu A and an ear infection...) long story short, BJ had a serious staph infection, and after a visit to the walk-in clinic, our local ER and a CT scan, she was transferred to the nearest Children's Hospital so she could be cared for by a pediatric ENT. (there are NO pediatric doctors of any sort in our rural county). 3 days of IV antibiotics later, and we were all on the mend and back home.

 

we're thankful for {good} health insurance, a great Children's Hospital with wonderful doctors and nurses, supportive and loving family and a wonderful church family, too. we got sick on Sunday, February 25 and then the next thing I knew it was Tuesday, March 6! we're glad to be home, and back together again!

green is a great color for March. I've lots of greens, and although the called color is on the lighter and brighter side, it's easier for me to work on all my greens at once. I think it's too much for my brain to sort them out and then set some aside for another month...

I'm working on my eclectic and bohemian 9 patches; 16 are added to the pile for this month.

I finally found the perfect fabric to finish the last block of my RSC17 Low Volume Plus quilt. (think 1980's clown hair...) and pieced the last block for that quilt. I've just finished pin basting it too, and hope to have it in the DONE pile soon. i'll keep you posted with pictures.

don't forget to see what everyone else is working on with their bright and springy greens!

Kona solids for the win!

I"m loving how these simple 16 patches are turning out! Kona indigo is in each block, with my stash in the COM for the alternate squares. 

this month I have: sour apple, avocado, pickle, moss, holly, grasshopper, spruce, green grass, chartreuse, sweet pea, leaf and mint.
 

 

i'm sure this will be a  quilt i'm keeping, although i say that about lots of my quilts! 

Snippets of aqua

a jot of aqua... a morsel of aqua... a chunk, a dollop a shred of aqua... a speck, a dose, a pinch of aqua... Roget's was helpful with my boring title, but I guess i'll stick with snippets...

the gardens are doing well, and we have enough help, and every oncet in a while I have a bit of energy AND time and sneak off to sew some of my aqua RSC16 June. (I'm still a faithful visitor and sporadic commenter to all you more productive RSCers, though...)

I have more aqua than I thought- I got 14 crumb blocks, 12 of which are pictured here.

a few granny squares have made it into the pile, and I'm still working on finishing up a couple green grannies, as well as my green crumb blocks.

the nights have been blessedly cool, and I've been watching Mr. Selfridge on amazon prime. a nice way to wind down after a long and hot day!

A snippet of green...

this week I managed to sort through my green (3") squares, and make up a few blocks of a pleasing green combo for my granny square blocks. and then as an added bonus, I was able to sew 5 of them together. yay, me!

 

we have family visiting this week- my son and his wife, all the way from Washington state! and today we get more company- my other son, the Navy Corpsman stationed in Bronx, NY and my brother and family.

 

lots of family, absolutely no sewing. but I wouldn't have it any other way!

 

and in honor of Memorial Day, and my two sons who serve in the Navy and Army, (and will even be home for this holiday - together!)  I've hung out my quilty flag! I made this a few years ago; I really like it, but it's the only one I plan on making!

 

see what everyone else is doing over at RSC16.

 

Just enough green to keep me sane!

I promise not to start off yet another blog post by saying "it's been a very, very busy week here on the farm". *ahem*

I finally took the time (and had the energy) to begin to sort all the green squares (3") from my suitcase of squares, and even managed to get one of my RSC16 projects worked on. (and many of my greens are a dark, or dull color. I 'll have to keep that in mind the next time I'm "stash enhancing". )

I made 11 of my low-volume plus blocks. can't wait to see how this quilt comes together. plus- I had to laugh at myself- I was looking through my little quilty notebook, and I see that I had planned on making 8 plus blocks each month. somehow the number has been creeping up and up each month! I'm such an over-achiever- can't help it I guess! and this could also explain how many of my quilts turn out so large.

and here's a picture of Helga, and her little lamb, Katie. the girls and I have been having such fun with the sheeps this week- Katie is so sweet! (and Helga got a haircut, too!)

thanks for coming for a visit- click on over to Angela's blog, and see what everyone else is working on.

My first green of May!

well, in the fabric department, anyway! we've been super, super busy on the farm. (you can find us on facebook at "by the bridge")  we have most of our crops planted, the first round anyway, and even the tomatoes in the high tunnel are blossoming! lots of green going on, and not much time or energy to sew! I did sneak in a bit of sewing this week for Scraps2Wraps, our church sewing circle. BUT- I've not even made it up to the sewing room to begin digging through all my green fabric and 3" squares!

maybe tomorrow... I'm looking forward to a nice, quiet afternoon at home!

I showed you the little stack of tumblers that I cut with a friend's accuquilt cutter. we cleaned out the cupboard of smallish bits of fabric, and I was able to cut a stack about 32" tall of tumblers from fabric that had been waiting and waiting to be used....

after cutting and cutting, came the counting and counting. I need 95 tumblers of 2 colors to make a quilt that's about 60" X 80", which is the size that MCC prefers for their quilts. I have all my tumblers paired up into complementary colors, and enough to make about 16+ quilts! I brought my little featherweight out, and set it on the schoolroom table. that way, in the evenings when I'm too tired to go upstairs and sew (and I can't very well go to bed at 6PM, now can I?!) I can sew downstairs. and there might just be a little bit of Netflix and Call the Midwife involved, too....

and here's another thing that happened this week: our Icelandic sheep, Helga, had her baby!

a sweet, tiny and healthy baby ewe was born on Tuesday morning. (that was a really crazy day!)

we're still deciding on a name for her (my first choice of Sally was outvoted..) and I think we're going to call her Katie.

 

I'm looking forward to clicking on over to Angela's blog, and seeing all the other green bits and bobs that have been sewn this week. on the weeks that I don't get much RSC sewing time in, it's especially nice to see what everyone else is working on.

 

O! I almost forgot! this is my 500th post! I started this blog 8 years ago to chronicle the remodeling of our recently purchased farmhouse in the country. our life has changed drastically in the last 8 years, and this blog has, too! for quite awhile I did keep the blog fairly current with our family adventures, and the progress on the house. there were even a few years where i blogged regularly about our gardening adventures, and the transition into farming and starting a CSA. however, the blogger format made it very difficult to upload pictures, so that's when we switched to facebook, and our own farm page.

 

now, my blog is mainly chronicling my sewing adventures. (even my mother-in-law doesn't read my blog anymore!) i really enjoy the time I'm able to spend sewing, and with so many other blogs out there, it's hard to "compete", especially if i don't have time to post everyday. i have many blogs that i enjoy following (and we all know it's the ones that post daily, or nearly so, that are the most interesting to follow...) so thanks for stopping by, and thanks for reading my sporadic and all quilty related posts!



It's time: let's get these quilts together!

after sewing and sewing all these squares together, I decided to start sewing some stuff together (even though technically, I'm a month early for that...) I wanted to see some progress, and not just piles of blocks...

these 16 patches are left over from last year- if i remember, i had just stalled on what to do with them.

last week i decided: why not potholders? my old ones were pretty grimy after using them in the summer kitchen when making applesauce, and what better way to use and enjoy my favorite fabrics than in the kitchen?

let's face it: i spend more time in the kitchen than in the sewing room most days, so i can still get my fabric fix! i cut into some of my all time favorite fabrics for the backings- and I'm so glad i did!

 

another RSC project i worked on this week was my 9 patch blocks.  after sewing and sewing all year long, i was very surprised to count that i had 189+ of the 9 patches! i knew i wanted to do something interesting, and non-traditional in the setting, so after playing around for awhile, i settled on the layout below.

 



 

 

i really like this layout- and there are so many blocks left over! i'll let the little girls lay out another quilt, and we'll give that to my friend for quilting and send it off to one of the MCC auctions.

 

thanks for stopping by- click on over to angela's to see what everyone else is working on. and if you have a minute, scroll down one more post, and tell me what you think of my red stars Christmas quilt- I'm looking for some input and advice!

summer is slipping away...

but more sewing time is just around the corner!

what a colorful riot of blocks!

we're halfway done with RSC15 (can you believe it?!) and I have quite the pile of blocks. with no further ado:

 

9 patches (monochromatic) with Kona white and black. 

strippy scraps- not sure what i'll do with these, but I'm sure an idea will strike!

16 patches- possibly my mostest favorite so far! I have 112+ of these guys (and I even got the green, purple and aqua ones ironed!) I'm thinking that I'd like to make 2 quilts out of these- either for the guest room beds, OR one for a tablecloth for family holiday dinners, and the other as a tablecloth for my table at Farmer's Market...

4 patches: I'm not loving this stack, but there are oodles of possibilities.

the dreaded D4P. some are from last year, and a goodly amound from this year. my friend did a D4P with a very simple setting, and it's a great looking quilt. i'll probably end up doing the same.

crumb blocks (6" finished): this is what started all this rainbow goodness for me- I was piecing these blocks sporadically, but when I stumbled onto RSC14, it was all over, and I haven't looked back yet!  

here is the stacks of blocks for my zigzag quilts. I plan on making two: one horizontal, and one vertical. I'm excited aobout these 2 quilts, and can't wiat to see how they turn out! (there is a picture in this post of a small sneak preview of the layout...)

 

and last (but not least) a recent re-stashing of neutrals for my RSC15 projects. it takes lots and lots of neutrals to keep these projects rolling- more than I would have ever thought, actually. recently, one of our LQS had a 40% off sale as part of their grand re-opening.

clearly, it would have been irresponsible NOT to go and save all that money!

ha!

I couldn't ask for more!

it's a rainy Saturday morning, the garden chores are done (or at least done enough until Monday morning!) and I'm upstairs in the sewing room, making the rest of my D4P. (3" squares)

if you need me, don't call me- unless it involves bleeding from a major artery, or a broken bone.

ha!

a very busy week, but still time for a *tiny* bit of sewing...

 a couple relaxing evenings of sewing up in the sewing room, and I pieced, pressed AND trimmed 25 crumb blocks. who knew there were so many shades of green?

I'm going to hold off a bit on making my green sawtooth stars until I see how the RSC15 sampler quilt is laid out. i have so many different greens that I'm not sure which ones will look the best...

4 16 patches of aqua, and another green. I can't believe how many 16 patches (and all the other blocks) I have! funny how just a bit at a time really adds up over months of diligence....

it's also quite evident that I need an ironing fairy!

 

you can click and like here to see what I'm up to the rest of the week when I'm not in the sewing room. (and also see why I'm often too tired to even go upstairs for a bit of sewing!)

 

click over on Saturday morning to see all the other RSC15 projects.

it's all about the green- inside AND out!

 

 it seems silly to even mention that it was a busy week in the gardens... we planted tomatoes (300 Roma), 70+ hot peppers, sweet corn, sweet potatoes, 150 late cabbages, hydroponic lettuce and other stuff I can't remember...(it all blurs together after awhile!)

there were a couple evenings that I was able to find some time and energy to sew upstairs, and I finished my 9 patches- AND even ironed them!

I also finished numerous strip sets for my zig zag quilt, and even got them pressed. I was too tired to get them cut into the 4½" sections, so will work on that this weekend. click on over to Angela's to see the last week of greens. so much inspiration in one place!

bits of green all over!

another busy week here; it feels redundant to mention it! of course it's busy- it's spring on the farm!

I made 40 4 patches-and even managed to press them, too! woohoo!

on another note: I've noticed this before, but never said anything: the kindle takes TERRIBLE pictures! the iPhone pix are much better, but pictures on the kindle are easier for me to upload onto my blog...

also: don't forget the hashtag #rainbowscrapchallenge2015 on instagram!

with nothing "pressing" going on...

haha! did you get the pun in the title? nothing "pressing". ha! even though these blocks are pieced, they are not pressed or starched. i'll save that for another day... it was a busy week, with lots going on- potatoes and onions to plant, mulch to lay... the list goes on and on.

 

however- Dave worked 2-11 every day this week, so instead of working out in the fields or gardens until dark, I worked until dinner time. that left me with a  few evening hours to sew.

I already had the squares cut out, so it was very soothing and peaceful to just sit at the machine and repetitiously sew and sew.

some of these fabrics I've had for many years- dresses for my daughters (my oldest daughter is 25 now!), dresses, aprons and doll clothes from my youngest daughters, shorts, shirts and jackets for my 3 boys (24, 24 and 22).

 

perhaps the biggest reason I love making scrappy quilts, and working with my saved scraps is because of the fond memories it brings from when my older children were little. those were busy days... but the happy memories that the fabrics brings back just adds another layer of meaning and sentimentality to my scrappy quilts.