Lazy summer days

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 Hello again, 

 It has been a little longer than I had promised in my last blog post...sorry about that! Sometimes life has different plans in mind, you know?

Now that our youngest is done school for the summer, we are settling into a nice summer routine...no more getting up at 6 am! Now we get up when we feel like it ( although I have to admit I am not one to waste my day away lingering in bed ;), and try not to make many commitments...I love that pace of life!

I have a few quilts in the works right now. I finished my strawberry table runner and will work on getting that pattern into my Etsy shop soon ( You can find me at HyggeFarmhouse). It is a super simple and scrappy pattern that has some sweet strawberry appliques. Here is a peek at it:

It is featured on top of the yellow cabinet that I mentioned in my last blog post. When the college students leave town after graduating, they usually sell a lot ( if not all) of their belongings, so I was able to pick this up from one of them. She couldn't recall the history of it, just that it had been in her family a long time. I ADORE pieces of furniture that aren't perfect and look a bit worn so this one has found a prominent spot in our home! 

I finished this quilt top using my Accuquilt dies and it is currently in Texas being longarm quilted. I have always quilted my own quilts, but my friend said she could provide batting and backing as well as the quilting so I decided to jump at the chance! Here it is before it flew off to Texas: 

It is a simple design, but I have to tell you that I adore it! Or maybe it's the colors I adore? You can never go wrong with red, white and blue. And when they are faded like this and look like they have been used for years....SWOON! :). I'll make sure to share another photo after it is back and bound and ready for use on our porch!

I was a little behind on my embroidery journal but finally got caught up on that! Here is what I have so far...we are about halfway through the year so I think I will have enough room to fit all the weeks. I think it will be a lot of fun to frame this and have it as a reminder of 2022.

And finally, I was invited to sew along with Fat Quarter Shop on one of their Shortcut Quilts. I decided to use some out-of-the-box fabric colors and designs for me and chose these layer cakes:

Go check out the pattern..it is free and fast and will be so fun in a variety of fabrics!

Until next time~happy creating!

Monique

Sunny day

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Today I am writing to you from my sunny quilting room, thanks to my new little Chromebook ( it is soooo cute and little!). Normally I love using my desktop, but having a portable little laptop is awfully nice, especially when I want to watch a video or attend a meeting, while still being productive in my sewing room!

It has been a while since my last blog post. I have always said that I wouldn't clog your email inbox with posts that have nothing new to share, so the fact that you are getting one now must tell you something :D.

I think I shared in my most recent blog post that we were starting a little kitchen reno? Many of you know that we bought an old house about 3 years ago and we have been updating it ever since we bought it. Before we even moved in we spray painted all the kitchen cabinets white~ this house was built in the 70's and everything was BROWN....very depressing and dark~and figured we could live with them for a while. 

Now we have and have decided that the cabinets could use a better re-do. So we have been painting them again, this time going with a lovely dark green ( the same as our dining room) on the bottom, and a glossy creamy-white on the top. We ordered some new hardware too and the cabinets are looking pretty darn good. We are still waiting to put a final coat of paint on the bottom ( supply chain problems, maybe you heard about this issue?? Ha!), and then hubby can install all the new pulls. Seeing as our countertop is falling apart, we are getting some quotes for a new one, and I have fingers and toes crossed that it will be affordable! Hopefully I will be able to share a photo of the whole re-do soon, but here are some progress pics:

 Other than painting cabinets, I have been busy working on some quilty projects! I finished this little table mat last weekend. 

I made this entirely out of scraps, using my Accuquilt fabric cutter( click). It sure makes quick work out of cutting all your blocks, and then I was able to use my new snowflake die to cut a bunch of snowflakes ( already pre-fused!).

I think I also shared that I was going to journal my way through 2022 with embroidery. So far I have kept up and embroidered once per week. These are my entries so far: 

The year 2022, for obvious reasons; a lemon ( explained in a minute); and an exploding cake, this one we sent to  our oldest son for his birthday~our first time ever not being able to celebrate together in person with him. By the way, do a Google search on exploding cakes, they are highly entertaining!

 Curious about the lemon? I have been having issues with my sewing machine for a while now. It would do odd things, like start sewing backwards when I switched stitches, or decide to stop sewing, knot the thread and then keep going....it was driving me mad, especially because my dealer is an hour away and I was fed up having to drive that far every couple of months. I actually considered getting a different brand machine, but I have a drop in table, made especially for my machine, plus accessories, so changing brand seemed wasteful. I think my dealer sensed my frustration and offered to trade my old machine for a brand new machine at a very good deal so that is what I decided to do. The great thing is that it is exactly the same size as my old one, so everything fits and works on this one....and there is not too much of  a new learning curve either ;). Fingers crossed that this one is not a lemon!

In other quilty news, I am well on my way to getting one of my January projects finished! This was a quilt I started a few years ago, and I really thought I would finish it before Christmas, but that didn't happen. But it is now quilted, and the binding is ready to go on. This should be finished by the end of the month, and then I only have 3 other Christmas quilts to complete...hahahahaha! 

I have to tell you that finishing projects would go a lot faster if I didn't get distracted by NEW projects! I got this pattern for Christmas and just had to start it....

Isn't it cute? Luckily I have tons of blue fabric to choose from!

Well, I think I have now updated you on all the most important happenings here at Farmhouse Quilts....

It is supposed to be verrrrry cold here the next few days.. in fact, the temps are dropping rapidly as the day progresses. Luckily I have my potato and carrot soup already simmering away, and Constant Comment tea is steeping as I'm typing! I think it is time for some hunkering down with some cozy quilts...how about you?

Until next time~happy creating!

Monique

Happy New Year!

 Hello friends, 

I hope you all had a nice, relaxing, and rejuvenating Christmas break! Ours was wonderful, with all our kids home for Christmas. We enjoyed each other's company, played games, watched movies, and ate way too many yummy food and treats. So now it's time to get back into a post-holiday mindset...goodbye chocolate, I will miss you!

I had so many good intentions of finishing up some of my Christmas quilts before Christmas, but I didn't do one stitch on any of those projects! That's okay, because I am planning on working on these quilts now, and then I will have them finished for sure by next Christmas ;). 

One new project that I have decided to add to my list is my embroidered journal. I recently read about someone who kept a journal of embroidered words and images for an entire year ( 365 of them!) to have as a keepsake of that year at the end. I loved that idea but,  being a realist, knew that I would NEVER keep up with that many embroideries. So I am making it simpler on myself by just doing one embroidery per week. That is 52 images or words, and that is a much more doable number for me. Want to join me? All you will need is some background fabric, a hoop,  a little notebook, a pencil, and your favorite embroidery floss, so there is really not a lot of prep. 

 Here is what I'm using/doing:

• Fabric: I prepped two pieces of muslin ( cut a little larger than 18 by 24 inches). You can make yours whatever size you want, but make sure it is close to a standard poster -size frame, because you will want to frame this, right?! I stitched my muslin pieces together around the outside edges, like this: 

Why 2 pieces? Because I don't want my thread to show through to the front if I "travel". Normally I use batting behind my embroidery, but I'm planning on framing this and I wasn't sure if the batting would be an issue.

• A hoop~ if you use one to do embroidery: It can be a small one, because you will only be embroidering one item at a time, so your hoop can move wherever you need it.
• A little notebook: This is to jot down ideas or happenings from your week. You can pick one at the end of the week that you choose to use. 
  
  
  
• A pencil: For recording your ideas and to draw your design on your fabric.
• Embroidery thread: Use your favorite. I'll be using my absolute favorite thread for embroidery and big stitch quilting: Sulky Cotton Petites ( click). The reason why I like it? One strand is equivalent to 2 strands of regular ( DMC) floss, but you don't have to separate anything...just cut and sew.

That is really all you will need to sew along on this project with me. I am going to be sharing my "entry" into my journal every Sunday on Instagram, so you can check it out there. I might even remember to share some of them here and in my Facebook group. If you are going to sew along, use the hashtag #journaling2022withembroidery when you post your photos so that I can find you, and also feel free to tag @farmhousequilts. The more, the merrier!

Alright, that is all for this week. Next week I'll be sharing a little home improvement project I started this week...oh the joys of living in an older home ;).

Until next time~happy creating!

Monique