Fun With The Other Wives

Today is my stop on the Farmers Wife In Your Life Blog Hop! The challenge was to make something other than a quilt with at least 1 farmers wife block. I immediately knew what I was going to make...a zipper bag. I can never have enough of them and love giving them as gifts filled with goodies. And the best part is that I brought a friend along on this hop :)

I am a member of the new Fort Worth Modern Quilt Guild and have met some great gals there. So I invited my new guild friend January, who blogs at Sew Sew Go,  to make a bag with me. It was a lot of fun teaching her how to make a bag, I don't know who was more excited to see her finished bag. And it was a pleasure since she is a very fast learner. Please make sure to visit her blog, you won't be sorry.

Since I have already done a tutorial on making a zipper bag in January, here's a link to the tutorial.

The only thing I changed is that I put a 1.5" border on the sides of the FW block, a 2" border on the top and a 2.5" on the bottom. This worked perfectly and the entire FW block is shown on the front without losing any of  the block to a seam allowance or the gusset.

Now for the eye candy. Here's the bag January made. She only had 7" zippers (lesson learned...always buy a zipper at least 14" long since you can always cut it down) so it was a bit of a challenge to figure out the quilt math. Once we had the border sizes correct it was a piece of cake. I just love how she fussy cut the top border, isn't is great?

And here's my bag

and a close up of the decorative stitching I did. I just love all the fancy stitches my Bernina can do and try to use them as often as possible.

This bag is going to quilting classes, retreats and sewing dates. It is going to be for my rotary cutters and scissors since my other bag is getting full.

I'd like to thank Sunni from Love Affair With My Brother for inviting me to be part of this fun blog hop. Make sure to check out all the other great projects from the other hoppers and to hop on board yourself on March 24th when the linky party begins. She has some great prizes!

Fun With The Other Wives

Today is my stop on the Farmers Wife In Your Life Blog Hop! The challenge was to make something other than a quilt with at least 1 farmers wife block. I immediately knew what I was going to make...a zipper bag. I can never have enough of them and love giving them as gifts filled with goodies. And the best part is that I brought a friend along on this hop :)

I am a member of the new Fort Worth Modern Quilt Guild and have met some great gals there. So I invited my new guild friend January, who blogs at Sew Sew Go,  to make a bag with me. It was a lot of fun teaching her how to make a bag, I don't know who was more excited to see her finished bag. And it was a pleasure since she is a very fast learner. Please make sure to visit her blog, you won't be sorry.

Since I have already done a tutorial on making a zipper bag in January, here's a link to the tutorial.

The only thing I changed is that I put a 1.5" border on the sides of the FW block, a 2" border on the top and a 2.5" on the bottom. This worked perfectly and the entire FW block is shown on the front without losing any of  the block to a seam allowance or the gusset.

Now for the eye candy. Here's the bag January made. She only had 7" zippers (lesson learned...always buy a zipper at least 14" long since you can always cut it down) so it was a bit of a challenge to figure out the quilt math. Once we had the border sizes correct it was a piece of cake. I just love how she fussy cut the top border, isn't is great?

And here's my bag

and a close up of the decorative stitching I did. I just love all the fancy stitches my Bernina can do and try to use them as often as possible.

This bag is going to quilting classes, retreats and sewing dates. It is going to be for my rotary cutters and scissors since my other bag is getting full.

I'd like to thank Sunni from Love Affair With My Brother for inviting me to be part of this fun blog hop. Make sure to check out all the other great projects from the other hoppers and to hop on board yourself on March 24th when the linky party begins. She has some great prizes!

A Month to Celebrate!

This month I will be celebrating 2 things. First is my baby becoming legal! When did that happen? It seems like he was just a baby in my arms. The second thing is that on March 28th Craizee Corners will be 1 years old! I can hardly believe it. When I started I had no idea what I was doing and if I would ever connect with anyone. So to all the Craizee Corner friends thanks for sticking with me. I hope you have enjoyed the blog and will continue to enjoy it.

To celebrate the anniversary of Craizee Corners I have a busy month planned. There will be prizes...big ones and lots of eye candy from me and some friends too. And of course there will be tutorials and a new pattern by months end. I will also be guest blogging and blog hopping from time to time :). To start out the month I am taking part in the Farmers Wife in Your Life Blog Hop. Yes I know I divorced my 'farmer' a long time ago, but I got him to help me one last time for this event. For the divorce papers see here :) 

Farmer's Wife in Your Life is a series inspired by The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt by Laurie Aaron Hird. The series will focus on using 6" quilt blocks in everyday sewing projects. 

Here's the schedule:

March 4-Sunni is guest-posting on Jolly Jabber 

March 5-Love Affair with my Brother 

March 6-Craizee Corners 

March 7-Lilypad Quilting 

March 8-Love Affair with my Brother 

March 9-Clover & Violet 

March 12-Mommy for Reals
March 13-A Colorful Life 

March 14-It's Sew Kiki 

March 15-Lilypad Quilting 

March 16-Why Not Sew? Quilts 

March 19-Love Affair with my Brother 

March 20-Echinops & Aster

March 21-Life's Rich Pattern

March 22-Ellison Lane Quilts

March 23-Love Affair with my Brother

For more info visit Love Affair With My Brother, there's prizes and a linky party too!

Come back tomorrow to see what I did with my Farmers Wife block. I might even have a friend along for the ride :)

A Month to Celebrate!

This month I will be celebrating 2 things. First is my baby becoming legal! When did that happen? It seems like he was just a baby in my arms. The second thing is that on March 28th Craizee Corners will be 1 years old! I can hardly believe it. When I started I had no idea what I was doing and if I would ever connect with anyone. So to all the Craizee Corner friends thanks for sticking with me. I hope you have enjoyed the blog and will continue to enjoy it.

To celebrate the anniversary of Craizee Corners I have a busy month planned. There will be prizes...big ones and lots of eye candy from me and some friends too. And of course there will be tutorials and a new pattern by months end. I will also be guest blogging and blog hopping from time to time :). To start out the month I am taking part in the Farmers Wife in Your Life Blog Hop. Yes I know I divorced my 'farmer' a long time ago, but I got him to help me one last time for this event. For the divorce papers see here :) 

Farmer's Wife in Your Life is a series inspired by The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt by Laurie Aaron Hird. The series will focus on using 6" quilt blocks in everyday sewing projects. 

Here's the schedule:

March 4-Sunni is guest-posting on Jolly Jabber 

March 5-Love Affair with my Brother 

March 6-Craizee Corners 

March 7-Lilypad Quilting 

March 8-Love Affair with my Brother 

March 9-Clover & Violet 

March 12-Mommy for Reals
March 13-A Colorful Life 

March 14-It's Sew Kiki 

March 15-Lilypad Quilting 

March 16-Why Not Sew? Quilts 

March 19-Love Affair with my Brother 

March 20-Echinops & Aster

March 21-Life's Rich Pattern

March 22-Ellison Lane Quilts

March 23-Love Affair with my Brother

For more info visit Love Affair With My Brother, there's prizes and a linky party too!

Come back tomorrow to see what I did with my Farmers Wife block. I might even have a friend along for the ride :)

I'm getting a divorce from the Farmer

Like many of you I jumped on the Farmers Wife book with enthusiasm. I even collected a bunch of fat quarters in aqua and red for the project. So I set off to make a few blocks and after a while I started to dread making them. I just don't enjoy using templates and trying to figure out the correct size to cut the blocks with a ruler was taking way too much time so...

While I love reading the letters in the book, I will be leaving my Farmer behind. I am sure he will understand and will find a better wife, someone who really appreciates him and can make him happy. And I will cheer on all the wives who are still with their Farmer.

Sha :)

I'm getting a divorce from the Farmer

Like many of you I jumped on the Farmers Wife book with enthusiasm. I even collected a bunch of fat quarters in aqua and red for the project. So I set off to make a few blocks and after a while I started to dread making them. I just don't enjoy using templates and trying to figure out the correct size to cut the blocks with a ruler was taking way too much time so...

While I love reading the letters in the book, I will be leaving my Farmer behind. I am sure he will understand and will find a better wife, someone who really appreciates him and can make him happy. And I will cheer on all the wives who are still with their Farmer.

Sha :)

Fire!

Fire! That's what happened to my iron during the week. This was not a fancy iron and I had it for a long time with no problems. It had an automatic shut off and worked great. I had been using it and was done so I unplugged it. Then I remembered I had 1 more seem to press so I plugged the iron back in and walked away to get a drink while it was warming up. I picked up the iron and pressed it to my nice newly made Farmers Wife QAL block. When I removed the iron from the fabric I saw black soot on the block (cry). That's when I realized that something was wrong. It was at that moment that black smoke started coming out thru the top of the iron. I immediately unplugged the iron and took the block to the sink to try to get the soot off. I don't know what I was more upset about the; iron breaking or the block being stained. Luckily the block was OK, but my iron and ironing board cover need to be replaced, which I will be doing later today. Here's the block, not pressed since it was wet, but it looks OK just the same. There is just a little soot on this pic, but I was able to get it out after I took the pic.
The moral of the story is to keep an eye on your iron, even those with automatic shut off, you never know when danger might strike.

Fire!

Fire! That's what happened to my iron during the week. This was not a fancy iron and I had it for a long time with no problems. It had an automatic shut off and worked great. I had been using it and was done so I unplugged it. Then I remembered I had 1 more seem to press so I plugged the iron back in and walked away to get a drink while it was warming up. I picked up the iron and pressed it to my nice newly made Farmers Wife QAL block. When I removed the iron from the fabric I saw black soot on the block (cry). That's when I realized that something was wrong. It was at that moment that black smoke started coming out thru the top of the iron. I immediately unplugged the iron and took the block to the sink to try to get the soot off. I don't know what I was more upset about the; iron breaking or the block being stained. Luckily the block was OK, but my iron and ironing board cover need to be replaced, which I will be doing later today. Here's the block, not pressed since it was wet, but it looks OK just the same. There is just a little soot on this pic, but I was able to get it out after I took the pic.
The moral of the story is to keep an eye on your iron, even those with automatic shut off, you never know when danger might strike.

Farmers Wife Block 11 - Broken Dishes

Today I worked on block #11 Broken Dishes. Did I say that I hate using templates? Well I do and will do anything to figure out a better way to make these blocks. This is one that was pretty straight forward. I saw Amanda's blog post on this and put my own spin on it so now you have 2 different ways to make this block without templates.

This is a pretty straightforward block, 4 four patch blocks. The HSTs need to be 2" when trimmed. This time I used my handy dandy Accuquilt Go, but any way that you want to make these HSTs will work. Here's the other methods I use the pinwheel way and the HST ruler way. Note - If you are using the Pinwheel method cut the fabric squares 4.5" and if using the HST rule method you will make your strips 2.5".

• To make this I cut 16 2.5" HSTs of each color with my Accuquilt Go. Hint - cut your fabric 3" x 3.5", this will fit the die and have very little waste.
• Then make 16 HST squares, press towards the darker color and trim to 2".
• I put this block together by making 4 four patches. Sew 2 HST blocks together making sure to press the seems toward the dark triangle. You will make 8 sets of these 2 patches.
• I then sewed those 2 two patches into four patches. The seems should match in the center and the diagonals.
• The trick to making these easy is in the pressing. If you follow these directions all the diagonals will meet up every time.
• On 2 of the four patches press the seem towards the top and the other 2 towards the bottom.
• Lay the blocks out with the 2 blocks that are pressed towards the bottom on the left side and the 2 towards the top on the right.
• Sew the top 2 blocks together pressing the seem towards the right and the bottom 2 blocks with the seem towards the left.
• Then simply sew the top row to the bottom row.

Here's a picture of the back of my block. And the finished block.

 I hope this helps make this block easier. If you have any questions please post them below and i will get back to you.

Sha :)

Farmers Wife Block 11 - Broken Dishes

Today I worked on block #11 Broken Dishes. Did I say that I hate using templates? Well I do and will do anything to figure out a better way to make these blocks. This is one that was pretty straight forward. I saw Amanda's blog post on this and put my own spin on it so now you have 2 different ways to make this block without templates.

This is a pretty straightforward block, 4 four patch blocks. The HSTs need to be 2" when trimmed. This time I used my handy dandy Accuquilt Go, but any way that you want to make these HSTs will work. Here's the other methods I use the pinwheel way and the HST ruler way. Note - If you are using the Pinwheel method cut the fabric squares 4.5" and if using the HST rule method you will make your strips 2.5".

• To make this I cut 16 2.5" HSTs of each color with my Accuquilt Go. Hint - cut your fabric 3" x 3.5", this will fit the die and have very little waste.
• Then make 16 HST squares, press towards the darker color and trim to 2".
• I put this block together by making 4 four patches. Sew 2 HST blocks together making sure to press the seems toward the dark triangle. You will make 8 sets of these 2 patches.
• I then sewed those 2 two patches into four patches. The seems should match in the center and the diagonals.
• The trick to making these easy is in the pressing. If you follow these directions all the diagonals will meet up every time.
• On 2 of the four patches press the seem towards the top and the other 2 towards the bottom.
• Lay the blocks out with the 2 blocks that are pressed towards the bottom on the left side and the 2 towards the top on the right.
• Sew the top 2 blocks together pressing the seem towards the right and the bottom 2 blocks with the seem towards the left.
• Then simply sew the top row to the bottom row.

Here's a picture of the back of my block. And the finished block.

 I hope this helps make this block easier. If you have any questions please post them below and i will get back to you.

Sha :)

Are you a Farmers Wife?

This Farmers Wife Quilt Quilt-a-long is very popular right now among quilters in twitterville and blogland. I decided to join the QAL over a month ago, then missed 4 weeks so I am playing catch up a bit. Here's the 6 blocks I have done so far:

I know I skipped Birds in the Air, yes I admit it, I am a big ole chicken afraid of some birds (and since chickens are bird then I am really afraid), but I promise I will persevere soon. Meanwhile if anyone has any hints for this block please tell me before the hair pulling begins :)

Project Linus update:
I have 4 volunteer Blanketeers so far. I just need 11 more so please give this great cause 1 hour of your time and a few scraps to help a child who needs some quilt love. All the info is here.

Happy Quilting today!
Sha :)

Are you a Farmers Wife?

This Farmers Wife Quilt Quilt-a-long is very popular right now among quilters in twitterville and blogland. I decided to join the QAL over a month ago, then missed 4 weeks so I am playing catch up a bit. Here's the 6 blocks I have done so far:

I know I skipped Birds in the Air, yes I admit it, I am a big ole chicken afraid of some birds (and since chickens are bird then I am really afraid), but I promise I will persevere soon. Meanwhile if anyone has any hints for this block please tell me before the hair pulling begins :)

Project Linus update:
I have 4 volunteer Blanketeers so far. I just need 11 more so please give this great cause 1 hour of your time and a few scraps to help a child who needs some quilt love. All the info is here.

Happy Quilting today!
Sha :)