Oh gosh -- I'm going to blab on about Farmer's Wife one more time today, even though I did NOTHING on it yesterday. 

Remember that duplicate block? The one that didn't have the values in the correct place? As I was searching for the final reveal in my blog, I stumbled across this post.  

Here's the link to the blog post about the coloring on that block that was wrong. But did I make a note of that? Nope. So let that be a lesson to myself -- if you make a duplicate block -- identify it as such. But I was on a roll in 2018. I had not finished all the blocks myself when I taught the class in 2012, and I got the remainder of them done in 2018. I had plans to sew it together and finish it in 2019, but we all know that didn't happen. 

It turns out there were nine people in that class. I never did put up the pictures from the final show and tell, but here's a link to one show and tell. 

I'm pretty sure that Diane finished her quilt top and probably got it quilted. Rose is working on hers as part of our UFO Club. She got 50 blocks done, and that's it for her. Now, what happened to the other 7 in that class? 

And thanks to Gillian, who sent me this link from someone who has a lesson plan for the Farmer's Wife quilt.   If you think you would like to make this quilt, read that link as it has some excellent information. Of course, if you've taken a class from me, you know most of what's on that blog page. However, this person provides rotary cutting instructions (for a price) rather than the templates we used. 

Alternatively, you could redraw each block in EQ8 (great lesson) and get your own rotary cutting instructions. And do what Rose did -- only make a certain number of blocks and choose the easier ones!

Lots of options if you want to make Farmer's Wife quilt. 

And hopefully, that's it for the Farmer's Wife quilt until mine is put to bed! Since it is Monday sewing today, I might just get it finished? We'll see. 

There is some good news at my house. Look what came off the long arm yesterday. 

My quilt -- DONE

The Halloween quilt is DONE. Well, the top is quilted, and I still need to get that binding on, as well as a label and a sleeve. That's pretty exciting. It took a long time, as does all custom quilting, which is why I won't do it for someone else. It's also intense. 

I quilted a line through the spiderweb in the sashing to give it some extra support. 

The sashing was quilted!

The next time I made one of these quilts that has the quilting as part of the machine embroidery, I won't do that quilting part. I will eliminate the thicker stabilizer in the quilt and just use a tear-a-way for the machine embroidery applique. Then when I go to quilt it, I'll do the background quilting with batting as I would for any other quilt. Hmm -- now I want to try that! 

That will help solve any problems with how to quilt it and keep all those thick layers out of the quilt. I'm not really a fan of these machine embroidery applique quilts that are quilted as you go - it's just not a good idea. While I can get away with it on this wall hanging, bed quilts done like this are too stiff!

I wanted to use the BORDER feature on my long arm software, so I read the manual and figured out how to program that. I did have a problem, but after going back to the manual and doing the directions IN ORDER, that helped a lot. And it was super easy to design the border and flip the motifs as needed. 

Designing the border motif on the computer

I'll definitely use that feature again. It meant that I had to turn the quilt on the long arm, which I'm not really a fan of. Apparently, you can do it all while in the original orientation, but I've heard horror stories of the math involved for that. Now, this is a computer -- why the heck wouldn't the program take care of all those details for us??? I see some room for improvement there!!!

If you live close to me, please tell me you took advantage of the glorious weather yesterday and got outside, even for a bit of a walk. It was a fantastic day, and the water was running everywhere. 

I got out my trusty shovel and managed to make a good part of the ice blocks in front of the driveway disappear. I shamelessly shoveled that snow and ice into the street. Hey -- it's not sitting in my driveway, so don't yell at me. I'm just redistributing what's in the road to another place in the street. There's still a little bit on the sides of the driveway, but so much melted yesterday. 

A prominent pedestrian and bike crossing

I did a different route yesterday and can't wait to get out and try the new bike path that they worked on last summer. Gosh --- those crossing for pedestrians and bikes are pretty well marked, but let me guess?? If you're distracted on your phone, you won't see a thing! 

A friend told me of a young guy who got his driver's license last year. He's already had THREE accidents. Seriously??? What is going on there? How can he be so bad? 

Ah, that Murphy! She loves her teddy bears. And she has more than enough to have one at each sleeping spot. 

Teddy bear ready to snuggle up with

And one for this bed as well

OK -- so I put these toys with her in this picture, but they were in her bed!

Murphy and some of her toys

I'm reading a much happier book these days. The book is called Dogtripping by David Rosenfelt and is about this crazy husband and wife, who decides to rescue dogs, goldens in particular. They needed to move their dogs (about 27) from California to Maine. The book is the story of their move. It's hilarious, and so many stories of good dogs!! I've laughed and cried in this book. 

I don't think I've read the book before (I usually remember that), but I've looked at the book or seen it online before. 

And that Lexi. I have a basket of clothes beside the kitchen table that needs to be sorted through. She had a good time removing the clothes from the basket and putting them on the floor the other night. Now, why is that? Maybe, she likes to do laundry!

Lexi empties the basket of clothes onto the floor

I had to laugh yesterday. When I walked the dogs, it was warm in the morning, so no hat and my jacket was open. I even switched to a vest when I walked Lexi. Then when I went out right after lunch, it was warm but windy, so I kept the vest on. When I went out at 5 to give the girls a quick walk to the end of the park and back, I wore the vest and no mitts. I almost froze to death. The temperature was still warm, but that wind was cold. 

Needless to say, in that 15-minute walk, Murphy proceeded to get muddy. Really muddy. That's what happens when you jump into the mud puddles to catch a leaf. Sigh.................

On that note, I'm off to spin class. And no need to carefully drive through the ice gates at the end of the driveway. I can hardly contain myself!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!