January Blues

 Hello there and a happy New Year to you all!

( my post contains affiliate links~please see my disclosure in the sidebar)

The house looks so bare with all ( most) of the decorations taken down and I don't care for it AT ALL! I asked my husband to just leave the Christmas lights on the house for now, until I get sick of them, which may be never ( or Easter~who knows?). I did squirrel away the fairy lights that I used over Christmas and am seriously considering hanging those in my quilt room to make it look cozy and festive all year round,, and very briefly thought of  leaving a few smaller evergreen trees clumped together on the landing to make a little make-do forest, but then practicality got the better of me and they were put away until next season.

Over the Christmas holidays we got to spend lots of time as a family and it was wonderful! So creating got put on hold until this week, when routines returned somewhat to normal.

I decided to pull out a not-so-old UFO to work on in January:

I think I started this quilt 2 years back? It is from the book by Susan Smith, called Somewhat In The Middle ( click).

The pattern I'm working on is called The Garden at Ederveen and  I love it because the little tulips done in blue just give a Delft Blue tile vibe that I couldn't resist. ( The rest of the book has some great quilts too, but this is the one I just HAD to start with :D ).

I had already made a whole load of the little blocks, but not quite enough for the 49 the original pattern calls for, so I decided to make do with what I had ( and had to make just one extra) and change the pattern just a little bit....sorry, Susan!

I also cheated quite a bit and used fusible applique ( EEEEK, the horror!), rather than needle-turn applique simply because needle-turn and I do NOT get along ( nope, I have tried it a few times and I just do not care for it). So anyway, all my shapes are fused, and I zig-zagged the circles on my sewing machine, but then DID handstitch all those shapes down with my all-time favorite thread ( click).

So now that I have completed my blocks, I am figuring out how to finish the rest of the quilt top...the measurements in the pattern don't match my blocks anymore, so I saw this as an opportunity to make a few ( ahem) changes. 

I thought a border of flying geese in dark blue would look very nice, so pulled out my trusty fabric cutter  ( click) and started cutting and sewing A LOT of geese! 

I think those flying geese will look very nice surrounding the "tulip garden", but I only have a little bit of the dark blue left and I'm not sure there will be enough to go around....so now I have to decide whether to add in another color blue, or maybe some red ( because #redisbest!), or maybe do something else altogether....

More updates on this to follow in a future blog post!

Have you gotten back into any fun projects? Please share what it is you're working on in the comments!

Alright, that is all for now. 

Until next time~happy creating!

Monique

Flowers and quilt blocks ( please click here to view this post in your browser)

 Hello friends, 

Although there has not been a whole lot of quilting going on at the farmhouse these past few weeks~ with our two older boys having graduated and spending a lot more time hanging out at home ;) ~I do have a few fun updates that I want to share this week. 

Remember those GIANT hexies I have been working on in the evenings? I have mostly been sewing them into flower shapes, but this past week I just needed to start sewing those flowers together. I don't know if you have sewn hexie flowers together, but it is a bit of a tricky process. I suppose I could have sewn my flowers into rows, but that's not how I roll. So instead I am working from the center out. The fabric is all flannel so I think it is going to be quite heavy and hot as well. This sewing together might just have to wait until Fall or Winter just for that reason :D. 

Just to give you an idea of how big these are, here are some laid out on our coffee table!

The other quilty project that I got back to this week were my happy little tulip blocks ( you can read the original post by clicking here). I was down to my last few blocks to hand stitch so made myself a fresh supply :). 

These blocks are so much fun to put together, because every one is a little different, plus  I get to pull out all my blue scraps. The original pattern used more Delft Blue-like colors, but the day that I wanted ( NEEDED!) to start this project I really didn't have many of those kinds of blues. So I decided to stay with the blue theme, but include every shade of blue. 

 I did question my decision a few weeks later and asked fellow Instagrammers their opinions about whether to start over with the Delft Blue color or to keep going. The majority of people told me to keep going with my current color scheme, and when Susan Smith~ author of the book and designer of this pattern~ said she hoped I would keep going, that sealed the deal for me! So stay tuned for updates on this project, because hand stitching all these little tulips is going to take a while!

Apart from these few quilt projects, I been spending a lot of time in the garden, planting, weeding, and watering. I can honestly say that that is very HYGGE for me.

hyg·ge

/ˈh(y)o͞oɡə,ˈho͝oɡə/

Learn to pronounce

noun

1. a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being (regarded as a defining characteristic of Danish culture).

So, of course I have to share some of those pictures:

( we have some nesting Chickadees in this little birdhouse)

( bunnies love to sit in the middle of this Sweet Woodruff patch!)

( a little bee habitat)

( yay, I have a Columbine blooming!)

( one of our new apple trees, being totally overshadowed by the showy bush!)

( isn't the teacup watering dish so cute? Made by a local girl)

And, as I mentioned at the start of my blog post, our two oldest boys graduated from college on Mother's Day weekend. It was a proud moment for us and we are excited to see their futures unfold! 

( our middle son and his girlfriend)

( our oldest boy and his girlfriend, who also graduated from Engineering)

(I made a pillow with PSU colors ( and all recycled materials) for our son who was heavenly involved with the climate group while in school, and a t-shirt quilt for our son who was an RA ( resident assistant) for many years while  studying.)

(Our oldest boy graduated with 2 degrees: His undergraduate and his Masters in Architectural Engineering, that  is why he has the colorful hood)

Are you still with me after that photo-heavy post? I am impressed! 

And now for some final words.....

For quite a while now I have published blog posts on Saturday mornings ~ some "expert" somewhere suggested that a consistent blog schedule was paramount to success ( They also recommended putting out blog posts 2 to 3 times a week....what would I possibly have to write about 3 times a week?). Anyway, I have decided to do things MY way from now on. So my blog posts will be appearing when I have something fun to share. If you are subscribed to receive my blogs via email, no need to do anything at all~you will automatically receive each one when published. If you are not a subscriber, but would like to not miss out on posts, send me an email with the address where you want blog posts sent ( I promise not to do anything nefarious with your info! It will only be saved by me and will never get sold or send to anyone else!) Here is the email address and please put in the title "blog sign up": farmhousequiltsinlancaster@gmail.com. Thanks, and until next time~ happy creating!

Monique

Peter Rabbit in the garden, Peter Rabbit in the house!

 (please click title to open this blog post in your browser)

Hello friends, 

I hope Spring has sprung for good now in your neck of the woods! I just love the smell and sounds of Springtime! We have had a ton of wildlife visiting our yard: Squirrels ( but that is nothing new), chipmunks, birds, ducks ( yes, you read that right, and no, we do not live near water!) ,  and 2 rabbits, which I have dubbed Peter and Mopsy. I think Peter and Mopsy are nesting nearby, if not IN our yard ( possibly under our shed) because they make appearances very frequently. So I am expecting to see little baby bunnies pretty soon! Last year we ended up with a nest of bunnies right by our back porch. So cute for us to see, but not very clever of the mama, considering that our dogs walk past that spot frequently and it did not take long for them to be found! So we had to barricade the nest so that the dogs could not, but the mama could get to the babies. Not an easy task, I'll tell you! This year I hope that the rabbits are smarter, but just in case I have already barricaded the nesting spot from last year so no unwelcome doggie visits will be happening!

While we have Peter and Mopsy on the outside, I have added Peter on the inside of our house as well, in the form of my latest quilt! This one was just a super simple one, made with 4 inch squares, and then quilted very simply with swirls by me. It will be a perfect addition to our lap quilt collection! 

So, what is next on the docket?

Well, I still have my little happy tulips to work on...I think they are feeling just a little neglected these days:  

I keep all of these at the ready in my little embroidery container that is filled with my favorite Sulky thread ( click) ! The pattern for these little tulips I talked about in this post ( click).

And finally, I am still working on my red work quilt, made out of wonky red and white quilt blocks that I picked up at my local reuse store. 

I didn't fix them in any way, just sewed them together as they were and then added embroidered designs. Now I'm big stitch quilting the quilt and it is a labor of love! I just know this quilt will become one of my all time favorites because of all its wonkiness!

I can't forget to share a photo of my little helper, who loves to sit across my lap as I try and stitch. Yesterday he walked right over top of me and my quilt as I was stitching, not once, but TWICE, and with muddy paws! But who could be mad at this sweet little boy? 

I hope that you are finding some fun projects to work on this Spring too! If you are part of my Facebook group, I have issued a fun little challenge project to be completed by May 15th. I always love seeing people's creative interpretations of the challenges I provide! If you would like to be part of that group ( it is the BEST group of people!), you can go here to sign up( click).

 Until next time~happy creating!

Monique

little dutch tulips

 hello friends, 

I am back this week to share a little project that has been occupying me in the evenings, and oh , what a wonderful way to fill those evenings, while sitting next to hubby watching television!

You may recall that for Christmas I received this wonderful book, written by Susan Smith, called Somewhat in the Middle. 

It contains some amazing projects designed by Susan. The photos in this book are pure eye candy! But one quilt in particular really caught my eye ( and this may have been the one that prompted me to want this book! ;)). Just look at this beauty:  

( image source: Somewhat in the Middle, by Susan Smith, published by QuiltMania)

I decided that I really needed to start this quilt immediately ....don't you have patterns that are bossy like that?? Anyway, even though I have a healthy ( AHEM!) fabric stash, I did not have enough Delft- Blue- looking- fabrics. A sane person might have waited and done some shopping for the right fabric before starting the project, but not me, no sir! That project had to be started right then and there. So I pulled my blue scraps and got to work. I still wanted to honor the blue theme, but just with a slightly more scrappy look than the original quilt. And here are some of the results: 

I have to admit that at first I didn't like the really scrappy blues...but now I just adore the different fabrics and I am totally smitten with these blocks! 

I did decide to keep all my backgrounds the same color, as well as all the circles, just to have some cohesiveness, but other than that anything ( blue) goes!

Susan uses needleturn applique in all her quilts and I am not a fan of that so I have been using fusible web for my blocks.  

BUT, because I really love doing handwork in the evening, I am using my favorite 12wt Sulky Petites to stitch down all my fused appliques by hand. 

The only thing that I'm opting to do by machine is the circles, because that fabric is very busy and it would be almost impossible to see the stitches ( and yes, I want the stitches to show!), and stitching all those circles by hand would be deadly boring. 

A few people have asked me if I have a circle cutter, and no, I do not ( but wish I did for this project!). But having  great scissors with serrated edges is very helpful!

My husband was curious how many blocks I was going to make. My answer: until it stops being fun. Ha!

I think the original pattern has 56 blocks and I think I have made around 12, so if  I'll make 56 remains to be seen. I do know that using up lots of blue scraps is very satisfying indeed ;).

I have included some links to some of the products I am using, in case you NEED to start your very own Dutch tulip collection . As always, using my links to buy a product doesn't cost you a penny extra, but does provide me with a small commission, which I'm grateful for.

Somewhat in the Middle book by Susan Smith ( click)

Tim Holz serrated scissors ( click).

Fusible web ( click).

Sulky 12wt cotton petites ( click).

Until next time~ happy creating!

Monique