Week 1 Introduction

Yay! It's finally time to start the quilt!
The book is set up so that there are excerpts from letters along with pictures of the blocks they inspired and then in the back there are all the blocks with piecing instructions. The thing is, they're in a different order. I've been trying to decide whether to do them in order of the letters, or in numerical order in the instructions.
It would be fun to do them in order of the letters and write about how those letters inspired me over the weeks, but after a weekend of consideration I think I have decided to do them in numerical order instead. It will be easier to keep track of which blocks I've done, and easier to follow along.
If any of you are planning on quilting along with us this year, feel free to do the blocks in whatever order you feel like. I'd love to see pictures of your finished blocks in the linky parties that will be coming up!
Oh, also, I should mention that I have added my sister, Chelsea, as a contributor to the blog, so you may hear from her as well once in a while, too! (That's a special treat, she is a much better writer than I am.)
On to business...
The blocks for this week are:
1. Attic Windows
2. Autumn Tints
3. Basket
The templates needed are:
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#6R
#7
#8
#9
#10
#14
Happy New Year and Happy Quilting!

Gathering Supplies

I can't even explain how difficult it has been to not just dive in and start hammering out quilt blocks a week early! Good thing it snowed more than a foot over 3 days and I have a driveway the size of Alaska to shovel to keep me busy instead. I am tempted to invest in a snow blower, but I know the second I do, it will stop snowing for the season.
Anywhoooo...
I braved the snowy roads in my little Camry yesterday evening with toddler and dog in tow to browse the local fabric stores for fabric for the Farmer's Wife Quilt (hereafter abbreviated as FWQ). I first stopped by a local quilting store that I have never been to and bolted for the door as soon as I saw the prices. $10/yd and up, YIKES! I then headed to my trusty Hobby Lobby and picked out a few lovely $4 to $6/yard swatches instead.
Now here's the story behind me wanting to piece a quilt this year: When we got married almost 5 years ago, I bought some wonderful 600 thread-count Egyptian cotton off-white sheets for our bed at Ross. They have been our favorite sheets ever since.  A couple of months ago I noticed a huge hole/worn out place/threadbare area that I'm pretty sure is a result of our washing machine trying to eat the sheets. Now there are two large areas like that and so I had to retire the sheets. The top sheet is ship shape though, so I plan on using that as the back to the FWQ.
About a month ago we moved into a new house and there were absolutely no window coverings, so I found these beauties on a yard sale group on Facebook for our bedroom. It matched our maroon bed skirt and sheets, and our dusty purple duvet cover perfectly. It is even off-white and will even match our retired sheets. So I'm using these curtains as my inspiration for colors for the FWQ.

 As you can see there are areas with lime green, green, maroon, purple, gray, cream, off-white, etc.

Here are the fabrics I have assembled. At the top you'll see the sheets, then a row of white and off-whites with cute prints on them (see close-up picture for those next), a row with sage green with polka dots, off-white with green swirlies, lime green with white Moroccan-style white designs, gray with silver damask, gray with white polka dots, maroon with pink paisley, and another maroon with floral swirlies. Then a row of purple fat-eighths ranging from light to dark.

Here is a close-up of the whites and off-whites. It's still hard to see the white-on-white prints, but on the off-whites you can see the white prints.
Here's hoping that I can hold-off on starting for 3 more days!

Happy New Year!

Ok, I know it's not technically 2013 yet, but I'm going to kick-start this blog ahead of the curve! I got two wonderful books from Christmas this year:

Source: Amazon

+Dave Franz's grandparents got me this wonderful book that I saw on a few blogs last year. I know I'm a little behind the times on this one, but I'm excited regardless. There are 111 sampler squares to do for this quilt. I figure if I do the squares in 10 months, that leaves 2 months for piecing, quilting, and binding. I'm planning on doing the queen sized layout, since we have a queen sized bed.
The idea is that I will post the 3 blocks I plan to do during the week on Monday, and then I'll post the completed blocks on Friday.
My sister +Chelsea Fisher also asked for this book for Christmas, and although Santa was slow getting to her this year, one way or another, she will get the book and she plans on participating in the 3 blocks per week, too. Feel free to join us! Every Wednesday I will post a Linky Party for you to share your blocks.

The second book I got was from +Dave Franz Santa, who apparently shops at Joann's Fabric:

Source: Amazon

It is a wonderful book full of beautiful colors! Some of the pages I want to rip out and frame just so I can look at them all day. As I glanced through the book on Christmas day, I was surprised at how refreshing it is to read tutorials that have been edited by a professional editor and proofreader! It has some basic patterns and I plan to do as many as I can this year in addition to the Farmer's Wife quilt. I'll share those projects when they are each finished.
I'll host a second Linky Party every Saturday for you to share your other sewing projects completed throughout the year.

Now doesn't that all sound like a fun year of sewing!? I certainly am excited!