Baby girl Pips and a Mother's Day gift!

This is a baby girl quilt for a friend/neighbor who is expecting in September. They have decided to be surprised with the baby's gender, so Tara suggested I make two quilts, one for a boy and one for a girl. (I haven't started the boy's yet - better get moving on that!)
I bought two yards of the Sherbet Pips fabric from a quilt show in New York, and the rest on the internet (I forget which site).

Do you see that label on the bottom right? Matt and Tara gave me a lifetime supply of these beautiful fabric labels. Some time ago I sent Tara a bunch of links and asked her to design some for me, as I felt too inept to accomplish the task and she has a knack for things like that. This is what she came up with:

Isn't it great? I love the colors she chose and the cup and saucer. Perfect for what I want to convey: sit and tarry with me for a bit while you peruse my blog. I still need to hand-sew the label on completely, thus the pins. Tara ordered the labels from Spoonflower, in case you're interested.

On another note, my Farmer's Wife blocks are NOT coming along so well! It seems every block I have some sort of problem! I'm almost ready to throw in the farmer's wife's kitchen towel :-) Are any of you making these blocks? I know I see a lot of the bloggers I follow doing them, some with no complaints, some with similar complaints as mine.
Today the love of my life and I are celebrating our 31st anniversary, which was June 28. We're going to spend the day on Jamestown (a small island about 35 minutes away). We're bringing our bikes, our bathing suits, and clothes to change into so at the end of the day we can have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants: Trattoria Simpatico. They have al fresco dining and the food is spectacular! I hope you all enjoy your day as much as I'm sure we will enjoy ours!
Take care, and may you bless and be blessed!
~ Jodi ~

Elusive...

"Birds in the Air".

I tried to cut too many of these triangles at the same time and wound up with a mess and had to ditch those and try again. Then I sewed them together incorrectly! But FINALLY, I had some success.

And this one is called "Bouquet". (For the Farmer's Wife Sampler, in case you don't know what I've been up to.) I find the hardest thing, though, is picking the fabrics. Maybe I need a bigger stash! Ha! Then I would probably be TOTALLY overwhelmed, instead of just partially!
Let me say welcome to my newest follower today: Kathryn! I was hovering at 79 followers for quite some time, and I've always had a slight aversion to uneven numbers, so now I'm happy to be at 80! Silly, I know, but I hope the next time the number goes up it goes up by two, and every time after that! JK!
Have a wonderful weekend, and may you bless and be blessed!
~ Jodi ~

A tisket, a tasket, an orange polka-dot basket...

... with no handle!

I'm not quite sure how to do it. There's a long straight template to be cut on the bias, and another one that is in the shape of a handle. Why two? I guess I'll figure it out. But Retro-Fabulous mentioned she would be posting a tute on how to do it, and I'm going to check Google Reader as soon as I've finished this post to see if she did yet.
And here's three other Farmer's Wife Sampler blocks I made last night:

Does it look like I'm getting the hang of value in my fabric choices? I hope so! This Farmer's Wife Sampler so far is teaching me a lot and I'm thoroughly enjoying it!
I'm also quilting a baby quilt, but I keep jumping back and forth between the two projects. Oh, and I'm still cutting fabric for the blue and white quilt I'm making using a pattern from O'Fransson. I'll show pics of those sooner or later, don't you worry! :-)
Well, have a wonderful day! May you bless and be blessed!
~ Jodi ~

Two complete 6-inch Farmer's Wife blocks

"Attic windows" on left, "Autumn Tints" on right. Tara and Carolyn both gave me the thumb's up on my fabric choices for Autumn Tints, but wait, in the book the Autumn Tints is done in Autumn colors - oh, well! I didn't even think of that! Ha! The "Attic Windows" block might just need a do-over - not enough contrast going on.
And in case you were wondering, this is a quilt-along by Amanda and Angela, and you can see all the blocks everyone is making on Flickr, of course.
That's it for now - enjoy your weekend!
~ Jodi ~

The Farmer's Wife Sampler

quilt along. I couldn't find this book:

at Joann Fabrics (50% off coupon), but I DID find it at Barnes and Noble. So I made up my first block last night - disastrous! I am right back to struggling with fabric choices, AND I goofed cutting out one of the templates - did it backwards, apparently. Here's the block pattern,

and here's my fabric selections and goof - yicky.

Here's the next block:

And my selection of fabrics for that one:

Any suggestions on these or the previous ones on how to make it more appealing???

And I have sent out everyone's giveaway winnings (except for Frauke - today is the day, though, Frauke!) I hope they are arriving at your doorsteps/mailboxes.
Thanks for all your comments on my previous post about the potting bench - great suggestion, Pip, about the cream underneath and a blue on top. I'm going to buy the paint this weekend, I hope. And, Pokey, I have seen the bowls made into pin cushions! Darling idea! Thanks for the reminder!
Okay, now I'm running late and there's probably loads of typos in this post, but alas, gotta get to work!!
Take care everyone! Go and bless and be blessed!
~ Jodi ~

New quilt project...

whilst I finish up some other UFOs.

This is the quilt, "Superstar" from Elizabeth Hartman's book:

She used all red, white and blue; I'm just using white and blue, so I hope it turns out as nicely as hers did! And this little cat reminds me of
my daughter's cat, Anissa, who is no longer with us (sniff!)
I'm making half-square triangles, which I refuse to throw away, so I went down into my basement where all my mother-in-law's "stuff" is that my husband just can't part with, and found these cute bowls to throw them into for safekeeping while I'm sewing away.

And look at these cute little things - they're only about 3 inches across, and so pretty with purple flowers. I don't know why I let them stay in the basement for all this time.

Gotta run! Have a great day! ~ Jodi ~

a potting bench!

It still doesn't look like a potting bench, but that's what it will be. It's almost done. My hubby and I went to the Brimfield Antique Fairgrounds in Brimfield, MA, last month and we saw some of these there. They're very vintagey. My daughter then sent me some links so we could see how they're made. We went to the salvage yard (yicky) and bought this one and a heavy metal table for $70. The door is solid wood. Now I have to paint it, not sure what color yet, and put some hooks on it for my gardening tools so I can plant things, and transplant other things :-) My hubby is also going to put a shelf on the bottom for storage of pots, potting soil, tools, and the like.

So, my friends, any suggestions on what color it should be? I was thinking of leaving the door itself black and maybe a vintage blue for the legs and tabletop. It's not going to stay on the deck, we're going to put it behind the garage, sort of out of the way and where I can make a mess with dirt and water and plants and not care.
I still need some addresses to send my winners their goodies. I'd like to take care of this by the end of this week, so please hurry; otherwise, I will have to pick new winners!
Have a great day!
~ Jodi ~

Winners!

First, a pic of this fab door:

Can anyone guess what my darling husband is making for me with it? We got it at a salvage yard, my least favorite place to be, but he said if I wanted one, I had to join him rummaging through all the dirt and dust and spiders, and webs, and YUCK! But it's going to be so worth it!

And now what you've probably jumped ahead to read, I must say that announcing the winners is very bittersweet for me - I wanted you ALL to win, but alas, my pocketbook just won't allow it, and I am shipping to Germany and Romania and I'm not sure where else, but I LOVE IT. I let Random pick, but then it wouldn't let me copy and paste to show you, so you're going to have to trust me. There were 17 entries, and there are six winners. Without further ado:
#1 - Carolyn from fakeitwhileyoumakeit wins the Germania and Sugar Snap FQs;
#4 - Pokey from pokeydotquilting wins the flower panel;
#5 - Happy Cottage Quilter wins the birds and solid yellow FQ;
#12 - Amalia from QDOpatch wins the Alexander Henry and fruit fabric (she couldn't choose and no one else chose the fruit - I love it, it's very pretty and I hope she likes it);
#14 - Frauke from Quilthexle wins the greenish/gray fabric, and another goodie yet to be determined;
and, #17 Boilerman wins the Michael Miller boy fabric and maybe a solid FQ.
So there you have it! If everyone would please send me their addresses, I will do my best to get to the post office by the end of this week! Thanks so much, my dear bloggy friends!
Have a wonderful week, and may you bless and be blessed!
~ Jodi ~
P.S. Blogger has reverted back to the old way of posting - does anyone know why? - and I'm getting lots of links at the bottom of my posts which I did not link to, not intentionally anyway. Help, anyone???

Random generating delayed, and what's clinging...

to my wall?

But wait! I promised my giveaway would end yesterday, and it did, but I need QDOPATCH to email me. QDO, you didn't tell me what you would like if you win my giveaway! I did send you an email last night. I will wait till tomorrow morning to hear from you. So sit tight everyone, I will (attempt) to use the random generator tomorrow to select my five winners.
Now, where was I? Oh, yes, my wall. This is a Japanese x and t block I made using a tute from Amy (badskirt) who attributes it to Nancy Cabot, 1938 Source: Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns (if you want to check it out). But ONCE AGAIN, I have to say I SCREWED IT UP! The four fabrics that make up the X should be cut on point so the print runs along the length of the x. But Friday night when I was doing it, my pea brain just couldn't grasp what she was talking about, so I cut it incorrectly, or not as eye pleasing as it would have been. And I also am finding I don't have very many directional prints so I won't get too far with these blocks UNLESS I GO FABRIC SHOPPING! (Hee-hee)
Let me leave you with one more pretty pic of clinging things, 12 crazy scrappy squares, and four pieces of "made" fabric on the right:

I hope you are all having a great weekend! The weather is marvelous where I live here in Rhode Island - temp is 48 right now, a bit chill, but supposed to warm up nicely into the 60's or 70s. Purrrrfect!
Sew, till tomorrow, tute-aloo! (sheeesh!)
~ Jodi ~

These Pips are a pip!

I messed up!!! What else is new. The blocks should be going the OTHER way, I have them going sideways. But you know what? They're staying like that! I think I'm going to put a wide border on the top and bottom, too, and it will be an odd-shaped quilt, that's all. It's a baby girl quilt. A friend/neighbor is "expecting" in September and I'm actually going to be ahead of the game for a change.

I was going to ask for opinions on the dark gray, but then I thought I really don't want to buy more fabric, and I do like it, so I'm keeping that, too. They are not going to find out the sex of the baby, until he/she is born, of course :-). I didn't want to make a gender neutral quilt, so my daughter suggested making one of each. I'll be sure to show you the boy quilt once I get going on it.

On another note, I was awarded the Versatile Quilter award by Michele of http://islandlifequilts.blogspot.com, which I will be sharing with you soon - thanks so much, Michele!
Oh, and don't forget to enter my giveaway! Comments close sometime tomorrow (Saturday) Good luck! http://cometarrywithme.blogspot.com/2011/05/one-year-anniversary.html
Have a great weekend, everyone! May you bless and be blessed! ~ Jodi ~

Bound to bind

This is one of the things I've been working on in the month of May, and WILL finish it by the end of the weekend. It will go to reside at my daughter's house, as it is not really my style and she likes it. I loved the Jelly Roll when I bought it off the internet, but then changed my mind once I started working with it (and I also found out that Jelly Rolls make a mess - very linty all over the place)