Hi Everyone, I'm hoping y'all are doin ok.. I'm sure you can tell I'm in the "South" right now. Anyone finish their quilts/tops? I'm still working on mine....the threads have been kind of quiet and I'm sure it's been because of the holiday weekend plus the unpredictable weather..... I mailed out the form for the Pony book today. Tomorrow is the deadline to get the extra $3 plus free media shipping. Take care, Anne

I have been working on adding the triangle setting pieces to each block. Ran out of the heat bond to connect the batting pieces, and close to running out of the batting. But still in there.

I have finished my top and love it. I don't know how to post pictures or I would. I. Rome my leg two weeks ago Nd my sewing room is upstairs so I won't be sewing door a while. that's Ok since my quilting frame is downstairs And I ha e. Quilt in it that I need to finish. Dolores

I'm finally getting my blocks sorted out and in an order I like. Will be cutting and sewing the sashing and triangles soon. (In between other projects? :) ) Maybe I'll get it done in time for Christmas (my gift to me and in time to stary the Pony quilt)!

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waves of Hello!!!!!!!
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to all my FWS friends ... soon I will have my life back and can get serious on the FWS. And now that I have a new machine I have no excuses!! :) It'll sew twice as fast, right? :P

Just ordered my Pony Club book this morning, so I won't miss out on one moment of what's to come!!! :)

Other priorities have interferred with finishing the king sized FWSQ right now; canning peaches & apples; freezing squash; doing grape jelly and green tomato jam.

Helping dh with the loss of his 93 year old Father; gosh, we miss him. His Iowa trophy deer & certificate looks right at home in our living room. Using his clothles to make the grands and great grands a foot quilt.

Hope to have the top of the FWSQ done by Christmas. Have re-made several blocks, seven blocks to go to make it king sized. Have the sashing to finish and sew the rows together. One step at a time, an inch at at time until I can finish it.

Still moving the squares around on my display board. Hopefully will decide soon so I can sew on the sashing and cornerstones.

QuiltingNina Sue - You are sure busy and a giving person, I might add. Can't wait to see your quilt.

Hi friends. I got my FWS-PC book yesterday and only had a few minutes to flip through it. The first block has 16 y-seams. Hmmm.....
Hope everyone is well and working to finish up FWS-missing the eye candy every Tuesday!

Gulp......I think paper piecing may be in order for this one! I keep watching my mailbox for the book, not here yet.

I have 30 blocks done. Not much I know. Love doing the project but the house has been one project after another after another and there went productivity. I miss the weekly pictures of everyone blocks. I'm not sure I'll do the pony one at this point. I feel I need to get this done first, but I'll sure be looking in on the project. I might just get the book so I can start whenever. Even though my progress has been slow (less than one block a week) I do want to express my thanks for all the work that people have done especially the writing of the rotary instructions, what a life saver!!! I like all the discussion threads because that has been a huge help as well and the pictures just for pure enjoyment and inspiration. This has been a wonderful experience and wonderful group.

Awww how nice you are! You just keep at it and you'll be done one of these days. No hurry, just enjoy the time you spend on the blocks. I'm sure your quilt will turn out as lovely as all those that have finished.

I feel far behind now myself, even though all the blocks are done. I've got to the finish the border on the first half of my quilt, and have not started putting my blocks together for the second half. Oh well, I'll get there!

Everyone here has been wonderful with encouraging words and displaying beautiful blocks each week for a year. Gosh,I do miss that. I will drop by and see everyone's blocks for the pony quilt.

Promised a good friend I would start with her on a Civil War Journal BOM in Ferurary with the Quilted Kitty of Lincoln, NE. (I hope that is OK to mentions the name of the shop). She loves the quilt patterns and the reproduction fabrics of historical times.

Hello everyone, I have ordered my Pony Club book, can't wait to get it. It might take a little longer to get to me though :cry: I have also organised my fabric so I am good to go (in the New Year) :?
I have my FWS top together with backing and wadding ready to start quilting, but unfortunately other things are taking priority.
My club has made over 70 childrens quilts for the victims of Cyclone Yasi since April and that has kept me pretty busy. We delivered the last 25 today. Now we start making more quilts for the Childrens Ward at our Hospital.
I am hoping to finish my quilt for Christmas, before I start another sew along.
I also miss posting my blocks every week and seeing everyone eye candy, it has been a pleasure to be part of such a wonderful group of ladies :thumbup:

I'm sort of "stuck" now with my blocks all completed and no good way to finish them...I will be patient and see what happens. I am really looking forward to finishing this one...some of these blocks were such a difficult challenge for me!

Your blocks were such beauties, what do you mean "no good way to finish them"?

I agree, RW-your blocks are great. I can't wait to see them all together.

Hi everyone! :D

I am still pluggin away at handstitching mine...

I have been ALOT disstracted, Peach Jam, two Daughter BDays, and BABIES!!! we have two more expected this year and I think I went all out!!! Quilts (of course), knit blankies, crochet sweaters and overalls, fleece booties, flannel blankies, flannel burpclothes, and knit burp clothes and this new thing called a LOVIE only 20 inchs or so with flannel on one side and minkie on the other :D and I think I will make a matching teddy bear :D :D :D

I hope everyone is doing well ;)

I mean that my design wall is tiny and even if I moved everything out of my living room, I wouldn't have space enough to lay out these blocks...simply an issue of room, but that's okay...one of these days my DH will retire and we will be moving and I will have a larger room! In the meantime, I am drooling over everyone's beautiful quilts! :)

I haven't even begun to lay mine out yet. I ran out of seam tape for the batting. Ordered from Jo-Anns so when it gets here, I will be back adding the setting triangles.

I know rwquilts, I think they were a challenge for all of us. We all learned something new in making this quilt. I got the sashing, cornerstones and triangles all cut out yesterday. Still moving those blocks around and around and around on my display board. I think I have them finalized and find that the ones with the butterfly centers are right next to another one. Awwwww! Move that one, then find the colors are right up to another with the same colors. It seems to go on and on! :-P

By chance do you have a patio door or picture window? And could hang a flannelette sheet from the curtain rod, then pin on your blocks?
Or someone took them to the park?
Or access to a community/church hall etc. to put together your layout?

You've come too far, to not keep on motoring along with this!! :lol:

I did mine a few rows at a time. Are you doing yours on point? I did mine on point and, starting with top left, I put as many as would fit on my design wall (which is essentially 52" square because I can't reach all the way to the top even standing on my tiptoes). When I was happy with the layout of top left corner (9 blocks), I played around with the next few rows ... laid out on my cutting table, which is 40" x 72". I could only lay out about 3 rows on the cutting table, and as the rows got longer, the blocks overlapped, but that was o.k. I made sure that the blocks in the rows I had already sewn and the ones next to be sewn looked o.k. next to one another. After the long rows were done, I reverted back to the original method and put the bottom shorter rows on the design wall.

Frankly, I decided that laying all the blocks out at once (if I had had the space to do so) probably would be at least as maddening and frustrating as the method I used. It did occur to me more than once that I would be left with a handful of blocks that didn't fit anywhere ... and, in fact, I did have some ornery ones, but managed in the end to re-make only one block and all the rest fit in o.k.

I have my blocks in a plastic baggie and it's been traveling with me wherever I go and I have yet to take them out of the bag. I too have an area problem...I'm trying to remember who it was that layed out their blocks on a king size sheet ..pinned them then folded up the sheet to put it away without disturbing the blocks. Sounds pretty good to me. I' will try to make time too do that when I get home from NC. Anner

Received my order from Jo-Anns of seam tape and batting, so now I am back in business.

I finally decided, after moving those blocks around and around, that who on earth is going to look that closely at the placement of those blocks? They will look at the quilt as a whole and not really notice if that fabric/color is right next to the same fabric/color, or whatever! I'm just not going to look at it any more, and just DO it! Put those babies together and get on with it!

On my first quilt, I've decided on the border design, so will practice that, then get it done as well. The end of this quilt is in sight everyone! Yeah!

Hello Ladies ... am I inspired or what? I took some of my quilts to one of our local Fairs this weekend and guess what, the Grand Champion Quilt (not by me) was a sampler.

I've posted it here with my Fair results ......
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-153488-1.htm

I don't think the Grand is a FWS. Do you think DJ? or perhaps Civil War?

It was all machine quilted ... I couldn't get a good enough look to determine if it was QAYG or after the fact. The sashing was all black and the border a greenish/tan sort of colour. The realistic colour shows best in one of the other pics, where it shows in a corner.

I'm hoping to get a better/closer look at it when I pick my things up on Sunday.

And yes .... it's given me huge inspiration to get going on my FWS soon ... when I get my life back again! :)

VERY nice sampler, but not DJ or FW. I have no knowledge of civil war sampler(s?) though. Are those blocks 6" ones?

It was a lovely one ... and yes, 6" blocks.

I think what appealed to me the most was the colour that was there, but not in your face colour. Just enough zip though, to not have it looking too blahhhh. The black sashing helped eveything to pop ... and interesting that the border was kept as subtle as it was, rather than the frame up like an oversized sashing.

It was a great nudge of ideas towards my FWS.

Sorry if this seems like an afterthought, but congrats on your wins at the fair!

This, however, IS an afterthought: any civil war quilts & fabrics that I've seen always bring the word "dreary" to my mind and that winning sampler has cheery blocks, like the nosegay and the fan, etc., and no dreary or drab ones, so I am curious to know if the quilt maker had a specific book she followed.

Thanks, Weezie ... I really wasn't looking for praise. I've just had some crappy things going on lately, and was a little exuberant in sharing my success. It helped brighten things amidst the rotten stuff!

And who knows, it could be her own combo of blocks ... after all, we do know that there's no rules when quilting!!!!! I just hope I can connect with her at the Fair on Sunday, and chat a bit about her quilt.

Here's an update to that Grand Champion quilt at the Fair.

I went to the Fair this afternoon to pick up my things, and met the lady with the Grand Champion quilt. Funny thing ... she only lives a couple of miles from me! Small world!!!! And I got to touch/pet the quilt!!!!!!!!

We were all wrong ... the Grand Champion quilt was Sylvia's Bridal Sampler. It was done as a quilt along thru their Guild.

The quilting was all DSM and done in four sections. The blocks were all SITD or next to the line. Only FMQ was in the border areas with a loopy-lacey-look-flower type design. Looked more like LAQ than DSM though, so I'm wondering just what/how that was done? Any ideas how that was done? or just that she was very very good at the FMQ?

From the distance, I had thought the sashing was black, and at closer view, it was a lovely forest green.

It truly was a lovely quilt .... though no nicer (and maybe not as nice) as the awesome FWS quilts that you ladies have already completred and that others will complete as a result of this group!

Hi Guys, I'm finally getting to unpack my car from my trip to NC. I am going to seriously try to do some sewing on the sashing for my FWS quilt. On another note, I received my Pony Club book today and you are all in for a surprise when you see it. It's constructed much the same as Laurie's previous book. If you're going to follow in the genre of the original quilt you'll have to start hunting for novelty western fabric....The blocks look real cute done up that way.

What are all of you up to? I'm cutting tons of 1-1/2" squares for some mindless sewing for a postage stamp....I'm not sure what I'll end up doing with them. I'm using alot of the scraps from the FWS Quilt-Along. I also signed up for a block swap. I've never done that before..I hope I don't fall behind. Let me hear from some of you!!! I miss the Tuesday & Wednesday Activities.

QuiltE Your quilts turned out great. You should be very proud of yourself!!

See you later!!!!! Anne

I think we are all feeling lost every week, no blocks to post no eye candy and no one to talk to :cry:
I hope to get my Pony Club book soon

It does seem odd not to see the mid-week quilt block pictures.

My sewing machine is unplugged and has been for many weeks. My cutting table is covered with a king sized quilt that I have been hand quilting for what seems like at least 100 years. I've found that I don't like to use a frame, so I mark & stitch the long, straight lines (grids??) while the quilt lies flat on the table; I do the little blocks & triangles, etc. (1/4" in from seams) in the cold weather while sitting on my bed; the quilt keeps me cozy warm while I stitch it. Meanwhile, with my cutting table temporarily unavailable, I'm not doing anything else physically, but my mind is busy making lots of plans re: new projects and UFO's.

I've got my "2nd" quilt finished except for the border. I played with several different fabrics and chose the one I used as the sashing. I'll get that cut tonight as soon as I finish "de-threading" the back of the quilt.

I cannot believe how many loose threads there are on the back of that quilt. LOL! I keep stopping by my sewing room and working at getting as many of them off as possible. They keep re-appearing as if by magic!

I bought some flannel to use on the back. I was so happy with the flannel I used on the back of the 1st quilt, that I went with flannel again. It will be so comfy! I still have to quilt the border of the 1st quilt. Just wanted the 2nd to be done! Looks like I'll go from quilting the border of the 1st directly into the 2nd. I'll post a photo of my 2nd when I get those borders on!

Anne, have you ever seen Eleanor Burns' show where she uses postage stamp squares to create a cross-stitch look quilt? I saw that episode not long ago on t.v.; I loved what she did, counting blocks, choosing colors & using sticky paper with pre-drawn grid lines on which to lay out the little blocks before sewing them together. Anyway, among other things, she made a gorgeous basket of flowers in the quilt center & had equally gorgeous "cross-stitch" corners & borders. I really liked it a LOT!

Hi Weezie, I don't get ANY quilting shows on TV anymore. If there are any around I can't find them. I'll try to see if I can get it online. Thanks, Anne

Thanks Anne .... much appreciated!


I'm now re-organizing things and finding classes at the Fair this weekend to enter them into. Different Fair, different classes, and different requirements. For this one, the fabric samples are differently sized, which might be a challenge to meet. Plus every quilt must have a rod pocket ... so a lot of work there!

Looking forward to getting at my FWS beyond the first fifteen. Ordered the Pony Club book, so far have not received it. Of course, will take the huskies longer to mush it across the 49th!

Have FUN ladies .... I'm soon getting back into the world of the living and getting some time for meeeeeeeeeee!
(and am I ever looking forward to it!)

We get her on RFD TV, thru' DirecTV. This cross stitch quilt is the last of 6 in a series called Country Fair and the Cross Stitch book (and maybe a CD included ... I can't remember) is available at her site for about $19.00 (a slight markdown sale price), but I've just spent quite a bit of money on some other quilting stuff. I ration my quilt-y spending, so hope to get the book at a later time.