Finally Finished My Barn!

I have finally finished my Bee In My Bonnet Barn Quilt. I have ordered some more material for the back and then it is off to the quilters. I plan on hanging it in my living room.

Still needed to sew these rows together.

Tractor quilt label.

Finally finished. In this picture I needed to add the last border. Off to the quilter's. Thank you so much Lori Holt for an amazing quilt pattern. I just love the barns!

The kiddo and I made this sweet little fawn for a friend's birthday present. It is a pattern by Fantastic Toys. 

We also made a pillowcase for another friend's birthday. Kiddo drew the picture of an elephant, I enlarged it, cute it out of some minky fabric and then stitched it on to a pillowcase we made.

Pupster enjoying our recent snow.

Kiddo out "sledding".

Now on to the next project: Lori Holt's Bloom quilt!

Hope everyone is having a warm and productive winter!

Keep those fingers warm by keeping them busy,

Holly

I "heart" Barns!

I have been working hard on my Quilty Barn Along by Bee in my Bonnet (Lori Holt). I have finally finished all the barns. It only took me 2 years....whew. I put it away for a while to build up my fabric stash. I really didn't have a lot of colors that I thought would work with this quilt. I wanted bright fun colors. I tend to purchase yards of a fabric that I love, so I had plenty of yardage but not enough variation. I have slowly been adding to my stash and making the barns as I went along. I also finished the tractor block. The tractor block is my quilt label with all of the quilty information on it. Lori used it as her quilt label and the hand embroidered information looks like smoke coming out of the "smoke stack thing" on the tractor (maybe that is called the exhaust pipe). I thought that feature was just adorable, in fact the whole quilt is adorable!! Lori has a new book coming out in April and this was just the push that I needed to finish my Barn quilt before the book is released. I already want to make the quilt on the cover of her book, but my New Year's resolution is "finish something old before you start something new" (ummmmm.....let's be real here, not sure how long that one is going to last).

Red tractor in honor of my Grandpa "Papa". I loved that tractor!

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Holly

Two Barns and A Cup Of Tea!

Hello, sweet people! Two more Quilty Barn Along blocks completed!! I just wanted to thank you so much for the wonderful comments on my previous post and on all of my other posts. I truly love and cherish each one! I use to reply to each comment that I received but a while back I realized that less you go back to your comment that you left me you will never know that I replied back :( I wish blogger would automatically send my reply to you. I will try my best to email a reply to you but my computer is so sssslllloooowwww that it takes me forever to switch back and forth from internet (web) to my email account. My computer is very old, at least 150 years old by computer years, but I digress. Here's the fun barn blocks! Lori now has a barn with a silo! Guess I am going to start on another quilt soon so that I can have a silo too :)

Farm fresh eggs and my grandmother's wooden spoon. Look! This material has "barn" cats on it.

My grandmother's mixer (which I sometimes use even though cord needs repairing), a sweet potholder my sister made me and a vintage cookbook that she also gave me. The darling apron is one that I picked up at the antique store for around $2. 

D#2 finished school this past week and I wanted to share what she and I gave the "specials". These are teachers that teach computer, library, music, p.e., etc. We gave the two men mugs with coffee and a muffin. 

I embroidered tea towels with the teacher's last name initial. Along with the coffee cake muffin, we included two types of tea, tea cup and saucer and a tiny bottle of local honey. I only had 6 tiny honeys so I metal stamped two silver plated tea spoons with the word "TEA".

I used the towels as the wrapping paper and tied them with tulle. My two most favorite towels:

 the  top row middle one and

the bottom row to the far right. This one also had teal ric rac on it. Cute! These were Martha Stewart towels. 

Here's the tag that we used. It is an old library card. Remember those days when you use to have to sign your name to the card and they would either write or stamp the date due? I used my vintage typewriter to type the greetings on the card. Fun stuff! 

Hope that everyone is having a wonderful weekend,

Holly

Cutest Blocks Around

Oh my! Are these not the cutest blocks around? I am going to love this quilt! I can't believe how easy the block are and how quickly they sew up.

This is the second block that I constructed. 

The little squares are only 1". Can you see the crows on the roof? Lol-that was some black crow Halloween material that I was hoarding saving for just the right project. And what goes better on a farm than pesky crows trying to eat the corn?!

Look at the fabric on the cupolas. That fussy cutting was pure luck some expert quilting. I really didn't notice it until I was looking at my pictures to post.  

I still can't believe that Lori is offering this pattern for free on her blog. It is so adorable. I wish that I had some horse or cow fabric to use as the barn door. That would be cute. But I keep reminding myself I am just using what I have on hand, that in it's self is a challenge. This quilt makes me want to go out and buy more fabric :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful and blessed day,

Holly 

A Barn Raisin'!

I love farms! Especially the barns and tractors. And the chickens and cows. Horses! Don't forget the tiny baby goats. Oh yea, the garden, both flower and vegetable. I also love sheep! Soft, wooly baby sheep. And the barn cats! I guess it's a good thing that my family and I live in a neighborhood, but it is out in the middle of the country! Our little lot grows a vegetable garden and I do have flowers and a barn cat. But we can not have livestock on our tiny almost 1/4 acre. I do enjoy the farmer-next-door's rooster crowing early in the morning while I walk. Sometimes I can even hear his cow mooing :) One day I hope to have a tiny hobby farm. But right now, I will have to continue pinning pictures for My Future Farm (you are welcome to head on over to my pinterest and check out My Future Farm). For now I will settle for making my home look like a farmstead. Right now I am working on Lori Holt's The Quilty Barn Along. I have jumped aboard! I did resist for a while, but it is so stinkin' cute!! And I love barns!! Anyone can join in, you just follow along on her blog, Bee In My Bonnet. Simple, easy! Just what I like. Every two weeks she comes out with a new barn block. Right now she has just posted #6 and there will be twelve in all. They are sew easy to make. I just started this past Thursday and already have picked out my fabrics from my stash (that took me forever!) and started cutting. I suggest that you work from your stash, even if it is limited. We need to cut into those fabrics so we don't look like an episode of hoarders :)  I have shared my stash photo with you before and it does look like it is a very small stash but what I didn't show you was my stash that is in the closet. Yes, I admit it, I am a hoarder  stasher. I love to built up my stock pile, because you just never know when you might be snowed in for months with no electricity (yes, I do have a treadle just in case) or have some sort of zombie apocalypse and then run out of fabric. That would make idle hands which is not good. So, stashes are our friend, but actually using the material is the key to that friendship.  So, pull out some stash, cuddle it and then cut into it. It may hurt at first, but comfort yourself with the thought that there is always going to be cuter fabric out there that you just have to have. Anyway, the blocks are a lot of fun and sew up quickly. I first cut out all of my pieces for the six blocks. I need to catch up, she will be posting block #7 in, I believe, a week. Now I can start my sewing.

Red strips for the barn and brown and black for the roofs.

These blocks are from the Farmer's Wife quilt. They are added to the side of the barn. I love the Farmer's Wife quilt! I have that quilt on my bucket list now. Go and check out Lori's. It is sew adorable, if you don't sew, this quilt will make you want to learn. I think that you are never too old to learn to sew. It is a wonderful life skill and your local quilt store would be happy to have you sign up for their beginner class.  

My Future Farm on pinterest. Lori Holt also has some wonderful pinterest boards. She has her quilts on there too. Her fabric line Bake Sale is already in stores and on Etsy. It's adorable!

I have been busy working on teacher gifts and getting ready for the end of another school year. D#1 is home from college and D#2 only has this week and part of next week, & son graduates in June and then summer starts! So my posts may become a little bit more sporadic. 

I will be posting my progress on the Barn quilt and tomorrow I will show what the wonderful Tammy sent me for our vintage box swap! 

 If you have joined Lori's quilt along let me know. I would love to see your blocks. Have a wonderful quilty night,

Holly