My Country Garden Quilt

 I bought this set of fat quarters years ago when they popped up on a 50% off sale at the Fat Quarter Shop. The collection is My Country Garden (2011) by Lydia Quigley of the Rabbit Factory for Clothworks Fabrics. And then they sat. For a long time. Last year I thought it high time they deserved some attention

I paired the collection with a yellow grunge

 and used what is becoming a favorite pattern: Tail Feathers by It's Sew Emma

This is the second time I've used this pattern. I made it for our mechanic's son, Chris, when he was diagnosed with Leukemia:

Tail Feathers for Chris

In an attempt to use up the scraps, I decided to add a piano key border 

and I love the end result:

I used a green dot print from my stash and backed it with this reproduction print that had all the same colors. It's been in my stash for 8 or 9 years. There used to be a wonderful quilt shop in Brady, Texas. They always had the best prices and when they went out of business, I really stocked up. That backing was $2.32 / yd. 

Jackie quilted this pretty flower design across it with a soft yellow thread:

And I couldn't resist the warm, autumn light

This is a better representation of the colors:

It's 78x87and soon to be gifted to a sweet couple who are my parent's neighbors and dear friends. They have built the most beautiful backyard and love to garden so I'm hoping this quilt will be a good fit:

Under the Needle: April & May

 A while ago I received a comment from a reader inquiring about this quilt top:

This is my Farmer's Market quilt top that I posted about when I listed the quilts I hoped to complete this year. Sue wrote:

Anonymous said:

I absolutely love your blog. Your life on the ranch is so interesting and I look forward to each new post. Could you answer a question for me? On your Farmer's Market quilt (see your post on 1-19-21) could you tell me the size of your blocks? I love the pattern and want to use it with bold flowered pieces. Thank you for your help. I hope your drought ends soon. I hated to see the cattle going. I grew up on a farm (Iowa) and the animals were so important to the whole operation. Sue

I don't have any contact information for you Sue, so I hope you will see my answer here. The blocks are 5". unfinished, before stitching the blocks together. I didn't use a pattern. I just picked a size. And that poor top is still hanging in the same spot. I haven't made much progress on much of anything on that list although I have matched a few backings and taken them to Jackie. 

I am binding our Zimbabwe Quilt, but progress is slow:

DH helped the neighbors on Thursday and he left the house at 4 a.m. so I took advantage of the empty morning hours and spent some time in my sewing room.

I am making another Tail Feathers quilt using a fat quarter bundle of Dad's Plaids as a jumping off point

                              

I love this pattern:

I made it a few years ago and gifted it to our mechanic's son:

I made it a second time, but it's at Jackie's and I can't put my finger on the photo. This time around, I redrafted the block, decreasing it to a 9" block. I always seem to have a need for quilts for men and I think the plaids will be fun and I've begun to pull more from my stash:

And yes, I know that there are too many quilts to make to make the same quilt twice - or more than twice! - but I also feel good knowing I'm getting my money's worth from a pattern. Makes me feel a little better about the money I've spent on all those patterns I'll never get to.  And that's my not so logic, logic for today. 😏

I cut everything out when I was in Texas last month:

                    

I'm still a 'draw a line across the square' kind of girl.

                                

And I cannot tell you how nice it was to just sit and sew for a little bit! It's been a month since I've sewn and these little HSTs made me happy:

                                 

Blocks are coming together and I'm eager to stitch them into rows.

Before I left for Texas, I wanted to sew something simple and I have these 2 flannel layer cakes:

And it wasn't long before I had a top:

And now I want to make another one. I haven't made a western quilt in a while and this might be a good way to make a dent in that bin. And that's how new quilts are born. I know I'm not alone!

Tail Feathers Quilt for Chris

Last Spring I realized that I needed to have a couple masculine quilts in my arsenal so I ordered this pattern, thinking it might fit the bill:

                                              

I pulled fabrics from my stash and later found a backing:

                                            

Then, recently, our girl shared news that our mechanic's son was diagnosed with leukemia and was beginning treatments. I called my friend, C, as they too are friends with his dad, Mark. We both wanted to do something. I already had this quilt pieced and C has a long arm so we combined our ingredients and now have a finished quilt for Chris. Sometimes DH asks me, "Who are you making this one for?" My answer, "I don't know just yet, but God does so I'm just stitching prayers into it."

C quilted this perfect, fun, wavy pattern over it

    

and bound it with a blue Grunge that she already had made into binding for another quilt. The backing came from Whittle's a while back:

I made the lap size.  At 60 x 72, I thought that'd be a good size for snuggling up with for naps and during treatments. Everyone knows those hospital blankets aren't worth a plumb nickle.

We met at Mark's on Thursday morning to hand it off as he was leaving to see Chris that morning:

We sent him off with the quilt and hugs and prayers. Chris and our girl are also friends. Chris is working through school to become a chiropractor and he's less than 2 hours from our girl so she's making plans to check in on him as well. I wish there wasn't a need to make quilts for reasons such as this, but I am sure glad to be able to gift them when such a need arises.

Sewing Again

On Sunday I had big plans to spend some time in the sewing room, but I was just too wilted after my week-long cooking marathon. I felt a lot like Skeet:

I cleaned like mad on Saturday afternoon even though I desperately wanted to take a nap, but I knew I'd never relax on Sunday unless everything was set to rights. There are enough leftovers in the fridge and deep freeze for all week and Sunday was nap day with a little laundry thrown in so I didn't feel like a complete slug. I curled up with some fun reading material  that arrived during the week:

DH is helping the neighbors 3 days this week so he'll have more trudging out to the barn to saddle up his horse in the middle of the night mornings. I get up with him and make his coffee although he tells me not to each morning, but I can't go back to sleep.

However, that does leave me time to sew! I have to go to work at the sale barn on Mondays, but there's a lot of sewing time between the hours of 3 a.m. when he leaves and 8 a.m.

When our girl was home a few weeks ago visiting a good friend and his dad, who was in the hospital, she asked if I had a quilt to give to his dad. Those hospitals are cold and their blankets leave a lot to be desired. Of course I had a quilt and Michael loves it! However, I only had one that was really suitable for a fella. That made me think I needed to make a few so I started browsing through my fabrics and patterns. This pattern from Sew Emma caught my eye a while back and I finally ordered it:

And I started pulling fabrics. I didn't realize how hard it was to procure a group of fabrics for a guy. I can easily pull together a western or patriotic or hunting/fishing collection, but a random grouping proved more difficult from my stash. I settled on blues and reds and browns. Many of my fabrics are tone on tone, but this seemed to need some fabrics with a little movement and I struggled to find 15, but I dug deep and pulled what I thought would work, I did pick up 1 red and another with all three colors in town to round things out:

And blocks came together quickly:

Looking at the above photo, I like the look of the red plaid and I think this would be wonderful in all plaids. Isn't it fun how we never run out of quilts we want to make? 😁 Hopefully I'll get this pieced into a top during the week as our girl told me about a dear 80-yr old gentleman that sells honey 7 days a week and I ordered a honey/bee collection of fat quarters:

I just need to decide on a pattern:

because I think the Honey Man needs a quilt. 😄