Aiming for Accuracy - Week Number Last!

Hooray for done!

After four months of weekly tutorials, the top - or "flimsy" as some (including me, because I think it is the perfect descriptor, and because it's my blog I can do what I want) call it- for the Aiming for Accuracy quilt is DONE! Of course, that's the easy part. I still need to make a back for it and decide how I'm going to quilt it. You can find the tutorials for this quilt at Quilters Gallery. I enjoyed it a lot and I feel like I learned a lot. Michelle Foster, designer and teacher, is pretty dang great at the whole quilting/tutorializing (that's a real word cuz I just used it)/and blogging about quilting and tutorializing (now it's been used twice...must be a real word) thing.




(Promise me you won't let my English teaching friends read that last sentence. It'll be our secret.)

FWQ - October 2013

Yay! Another month's blocks are done. Just that much closer on my Farmer's Wife Quilt. These were assigned for October. Wanna look at the originals?  Here they are at American Quilting.

Alpha Blocks

Finally! I have all the blocks done which represent the letters of the alphabet. Next step is sewing them into 12 large blocks...in alphabetical order, of course.

How many block names do you know? What if I give you a hint?
Album, Bachelor's Puzzle, Chimneys and Cornerstones, Duck and Ducklings, Evening Star, Friendship, Grandma's Choice, Hayes Corner, Illinois, Johnie Around the Corner, Kansas Star, Log patch, Morning Star, Night and Noon, Octagons, Pineapple, Quartered Star, Rambler, Shoofly, Turnstile, Union Square, Virginia Reel, Whirling Whirlwind, X Block, Yankee Puzzle, Zigzag

Click here to see the photo of the very cool, completed original at American Quilters.

Progess you can sink your teeth into - A4A week 13

The Aiming for Accuracy quilt designed by Michelle Foster from Mishka's Playground is built in three sections. Now, at week 13, section A is DONE! It is pretty exciting stuff. Here is my section A.

The quilt design is much like a puzzle in the way it comes together. Section A is less than a quarter of the quilt. Section B is a bit larger and Section C is more than half. Then the three sections are surrounded by a border. It should come together quite quickly in the next few weeks. Stay tuned...

Click here to see other Section A submissions from the quilt-along.

The Farmer's Wife - September 2013

Once upon a time there were three tomatoes. There was great big Daddy Tomato, beautiful plump Mommy Tomato and little tiny Baby Tomato. One day after dinner Daddy Tomato suggested they all go for a walk in the woods. So they did. Great big Daddy Tomato took great big strides. It was hard for little tiny Baby Tomato to keep up.  Beautiful, plump Mommy tomato stayed behind with little tiny Baby Tomato who stopped to examine every new thing in the path. Daddy Tomato encouraged plump beautiful Mommy Tomato and little tiny Baby Tomato to walk faster but there were just too many things for Baby Tomato to look at. Finally, great big Daddy Tomato lost patience with the slow-pokes. He walked back to where Mommy and Baby tomato were looking at ants. Suddenly great big Daddy Tomato squashed beautiful plump Mommy Tomato and little tiny Baby Tomato and shouted "Ketchup!"

OK so the story is silly and probably promotes domestic violence but I wanted a segue into today's quilting photo.

These are the Farmer's Wife quilt blocks that were assigned for...SEPTEMBER!! (See the originals here.) Now I can look back and say: Remember that time I completed all the quilt blocks that were assigned in the same month they were due? That is not to say I have "ketch-uped". I'm just happy to announce that I'm less behind this month than I was last month. And, since you asked, yes I am getting a lot better at those points and angles.

Aiming for Accuracy Progress - Week 10

This is starting to look like it might someday become an actual quilt. I admit I've had my doubts about my fabric choice. Especially when I see the fabulous, coordinated blocks others are making. I'm still a little nervous that mine may turn out having too many colors, not enough balance.. The original that Mishka is making looks like stained glass or watercolors. It is so cool. As soon as I chose orange rather than black for my contrast fabric I lost the opportunity for stained glass. Turns out I actually like orange so that's ok.

I'm really pleased at how much better my seams and points are since I started. I'm learning a lot, often by making mistakes. I just have to remember:

"If you are not making mistakes you are not making progress."

 

 I hope we get to see all the finished projects at the end. Most of them are going to be Fabu-lisious!

Farmers Wife - August 2013

These are the blocks assigned for the Farmer's Wife August Block of the Month Quilt. OK so these are MOST of the blocks. I'm short by three. I set aside the one's with odd angles until I'm more comfortable with them. I'm getting better at angles. I can nail a right triangle on the first try most of the time. I'm just going to let the blocks with odd angles sit for a while. I know eventually it will "click" in my brain and I'll wonder what the problem was in the first place. At least I hope that is what happens...and soon. I just picked up the kit for September. It made me want to cry a little. 

Here is the link to the originals over at American Quilting.

The Farmers Wife - May 2013

This is my second set of Farmer's Wife blocks complete. Block numbers 36 - 46 assigned for completion in May. I'm not sure I'm getting better at paper piecing. The more blocks I finish the more I think, "Ima hafta redo this one...and this one".  If you want to see what they are supposed to look like follow this link to American Quilters.

Can you see where I sewed a wrong piece into one of the blocks? I didn't see it until I hung the block on the wall. My hope is the quilt fairy will fix it so it is not noticeable when it is set into a quilt with 100 of it's sisters. With 64 one-inch pieces in the block I wasn't about to pull it apart...again.

(Update 29 Aug 2013) Someone at the quilt store today said: "If you can't see a mistake from the back of a galloping horse, it don't matter." I laughed along with the rest of the group and felt better about my error.

Aiming for Accuracy Weeks 5 and 6

Here are my recent additions to the Aiming for Accuracy Quilt along. 127 photos were posted in the quilt along gallery last week. There were participants from 8 countries, 32 states and 4 Canadian provinces. It makes me feel part of something international.

Farmers Wife - February 2013

Congratulations to me! I have completed the 11 Farmer's Wife quilt blocks which were assigned for February. I haven't been doing them in order as presented in the book even though that is how they are kitted for the block of the month club. If one strikes my fancy I'll do it (and conversely if it looks too hard I'll skip it.) But I confess I did the last two of these just so I could say I'd finished at least one full month's assignment.

The silver lining about starting six months behind the rest of the group is that I have six months worth of fabric swatches to mix and match with rather than just one month at a time. Most of the time I've liked the colors they have chosen but sometimes I've switched it up just for fun. You can see the originals here. Tell me what you think. 

Aiming for Accuracy Sections 1-4

About the time I was finishing the Beginner's Quilt along (which Mishka had actually posted last year). She started a second Qal called Aiming for Accuracy. These are the blocks for that Qal which is in progress currently. She posts a section of the quilt along with instructions and fabulous tutorials each week on Thursday-ish. These are the first/largest sections. The Aiming for Accuracy Quilt along will be going until October 2013. Come join in.

Beginner's Quilt along

When I discovered the Farmer's Wife quilt it haunted me as a project I really wanted to do. I also knew I didn't have the skill for such a large and demanding piece. So I surfed around the net and found a Beginner's Quilt Along at Quilting Gallery (which not only has a fun blog but also a terrific learning center). It was exactly what I needed to learn the jargon and get to know my new machine. I highly recommend this Quilt along for anyone new to the game. Mishka's tutorials and instruction are fabulous.I made this quilt top under her guidance. It's nothing fancy, but pretty alright for a first timer.

And, YES, there is a basketball hoop in my craft room AND my design wall is crammed into a corner AND it's too small for an entire quilt. Ya do whacha gotta do.