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.

The Farmer's Wife Quilt

This Farmer's Wife quilt kit is also from American Quilting. The quilt has a fun history which I suggest you read about here. The Farmer's Wife is the quilt that made me want to make a quilt. I kept seeing quilts and blocks on Pinterest labeled Farmer's Wife. I researched it and loved the concept and decided that would be the mother of all quilts for me at this level of experience. It has 111 unique blocks, each 6 inches when finished and makes a queen size quilt in the end.

It was that research that led me to discover that American Quilting was doing a block of the month Farmer's Wife in modern colors. I was in love! Unfortunately, the BOM had started in January 2013 and runs until November. It was now July and the monthly kits have 12 blocks each. But again I begged, and again the nice ladies at AQ scrounged around and  found me the six back kits and let me join. I have finished 12 blocks  in the week since then. Today is the pick-up date for kit  #7. I'm only about 60 blocks behind. No pressure.

Quilting Progress: ABC - Quilt With Me

I'm making good progress on some of my long term quilt projects. I'll share them over the next few days.

This one is a Block of the Month kit I got at American Quilting. The quilt is called ABC - Quilt With Me. It was last year's BoM so the quilt along ended in June 2013. Having only started this mad obsession a few weeks earlier, I had to beg to buy the kit. Follow the link to check out the finished product on the American Quilting blog.

I knew I had to make this quilt the first time I laid eyes on it. It is the perfect gift for my mother. She has been a quilter all her life and also taught 1st grade for 35 years.The quilt is lap size but small enough that she can hang it as a wall quilt. I love it! I've had a couple of peeps say they don't like the alphabet letters on it. But I explain that quilt block patterns have names. Each block's name begins with the letter of the alpha next to it. For example the A is beside the block titled  Album Block, B is next to the block called Bachelors puzzle, C block is called Chimneys and Cornerstones, D is Duck and Ducklings etc. (And if you didn't go look at the original you have no idea what I'm saying.)  :-P

Rumors

The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. - Mark Twain

I haven't left the building, checked out or died. I had hoped to go back and play catch up blogger but the longer it goes the less likely that is to happen. So Ima just start fresh.

I've taken up a new hobby...can you guess what it is?

Let's see now...where were we?

OH right! We were blogging.

The girl child has been gone six weeks. She will be leaving the Missionary Training Center tomorrow. I hardly feel like she has been gone. I still find her stuff around the house. I pulled a pair of her shoes out from under the couch this morning. The Hub sees her every week day since he works at the MTC, so I get almost daily reports. I've also tried to write her twice a week. Trust me... my life has NEVER been interesting enough to write two letters a week to the same person.

That's not to say things haven't been happening. For example, Mr and Mrs DS2 have moved in to their very own house. DS1 has changed jobs and moved in to the house vacated by the DS2s. But really, how much can you write about other folks lives?

I did, however, finish the recipe book I promised her for Christmas. And I made a missionary apron for her. I tried to convince her to take the one DS2 took on his mission but she didn't like that it said Elder Boothe. Hers has Hna. Boothe on it; aside from that it's pretty much the same. I had hoped to paint it in a grape motif (since she is serving in "the Lord's Vineyard")  but when I finally got to it I didn't have the right color paint. So I went with handwriting instead. Best laid plans, and all that.

The "scriptures" written on it are food/cooking related:
To love his neighbor as himself is better than all...Burnt Offerings.  Mark 12:33
Lovest thou me? Feed my sheep. John 21:16
Feast upon the words of Christ. 2 Nephi 32:3
Fasting = rejoicing and prayer.  DC 59:13
Food... for taste and for smell, and to strengthen the body and to enliven the soul. DC 59:19
Wheat for Man D&C 89:17 Chocolate for Woman M&M 24:7
He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. Proverbs 15:15
If thine enemy hunger, Feed him. Romans 12:20

HOLY COW!

Where did that six weeks go?!? I finished the wedding book and didn't even bother to get the photos because I felt so time crunched. As for memorize Monday? Well THAT fell beside the wayside even more than reading the Book of Mormon in 60 days. The sixty days has flown past leaving a whooshing sound hissing in my ears and, no, I didn't finish but I will before the month is out. Yes, I will.

So now the girl child is off to serve the Lord.  Right about now she is in her new room at the Missionary Training Center getting ready to spend that first night in a room full of girls. Because she is an only girl that bit will be an adventure all by itself.  She'll spend 6 weeks learning Spanish in the MTC and then she's off to Fresno California to preach the gospel in the "Lord's vineyard". It will be the greatest time of her life. I'm a little jealous.

Why isn't there a photo? I let Girl Child take my camera.