Question for my Smart Quilting Friends

Before the question, here is an update on Lucey. DH and I decided that we should have ordered the casters when we ordered the machine. What were we thinking? Duh! Actually, I was probably trying to keep the bottom line as small as possible so DH wouldn't have a stroke. Anyway, we have ordered the casters and will wait for them to arrive before finishing the assembly.

We completed the table frame in pretty short order. The next step is the legs, so we are stopped there. I wrapped an old comforter around the table frame so that it wouldn't scratch my floor if I needed to scooch it over for any reason. Just look who decided that he liked that arrangement?

That cat never sleeps in a cat bed. It had been years since he had climbed into his own bed, so I packed it away. He has every piece of furniture in the house to sleep on, and he takes advantage of that. As soon as I turned around, there he was, claiming that spot as his own.

OK, today's sewing. I sewed the Farmer's Wife blocks into diagonal rows with sashing between the blocks.

I still have to add the sashing strips between the rows, but I am at a stopping point because I have a question. My blocks finish at 6". I am using 2" sashing that finishes at 1.5". When determining the size to cut my setting triangles and corner triangles, do I consider my finished block size to now be 7.5"?

I have charts that tell me what size to cut for the size of a finished block and I have tried to see if I could find any instructions that included sashing so I could figure out if this gets included in the calculation, but no luck. If you are a follower, you know that I hate math. I whine about it frequently. I think I am usually pretty good at figuring out the geometry of how things fit together, but this has me stumped. I just know that my smart quilting friends have this all figured out and can save me from miscutting my fabric and saying bad words.

Can you help? My smart friends have answered my question. Thanks so much to Sharon and Kitty.

 I am linking up with Anything Goes. See the cute button in my sidebar.

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I Love Lucey!

There is extreme excitement in my sewing room today. See what was delivered to my house yesterday:

Can you guess what it is?

Today DH and I will be assembling my new APQS Lucey long arm quilting machine! I am beyond words with excitement. DH is telling people that this is his boat. I think it is my recreational vehicle. We have never been inclined to buy expensive adult toys. This is it. "Our" big extravagance. This is a major purchase, especially when you consider that it is for my hobby, not for a business where I could recoup some of the cost.

It came in seven boxes. Here are some of the pieces that are waiting for us this morning.

DH and I are pretty good work partners on projects like this. We only occasionally get surly with each other in the midst of multi-step projects where we have to follow directions, etc. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

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111 Farmer's Wife blocks finished!

I finished the last 11 blocks this weekend. Whew.

Next step, sashing. I have ordered my Kona solid from Fat Quarter Shop because it was on sale. I am thinking that I may not do cornerstones, but then again, I might. I think I already have so many colors in this quilt that the cornerstones will kind of get lost in the explosion of colors anyway.

I am linking up with the Anything Goes Link Up found here and Fabric Tuesday found here.

Classes start tomorrow so there will be very little sewing time for a while.

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100 FW Blocks done!

I have now completed 100 FW blocks. Only 11 more to go for a queen-size quilt.

Here are a couple of my new favorities:

This one is Indian Plume. I am pretty proud of myself for getting all of the points on these 1" finished HSTs to match up. Whew.

This one is Railroad. Those little 4-patch squares finish at 3/4".

Now, the last 11. I have avoided some of the blocks in the book because I either don't like them or don't want to figure out the math and angles. I just might resort to using templates on the last few. I don't like templates. I much prefer to use the rotary cutter to cut strips and pieces. Oh well. I will get this thing done and off my WIP list.

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Farmer's Wife Progress

I have been plugging away on my FW blocks. I now have a total of 73. Woo Hoo! I have deviated quite a bit from the book. I have used a lot of blocks that have been shared at Barrister's Block, found here. I am always on the lookout for any 6" blocks offered by Lori Holt at Bee In My Bonnet. Such as this cute little basket.

This one is called Egg Basket and I found it here.  

 I have added to some of the blocks I have gotten out of the FW book. For example, I made the traditional bowtie. (Is it a pink tie or a flowered tie?)

But I think these four little ties are so cute, I just couldn't resist making them.

I made the made the spool block found in the FW book:

But, I think these four little spools are so cute, I couldn't resist making them and adding them to the mix. I even did the math myself to make this block. I am patting myself on the back because I HATE math.

I have also found a few basket blocks that are not included in the book. I added the following two blocks. I know one of them is named Cake Stand, but I never remember which one.

I have 38 blocks to go to get to 111 for a queen size quilt. I have more to make from the Barrister's Block site. When I am done with those, I will continue to rip off Lori Holt and my Left Handed Quilter friend. (See the button on the right side of my blog.)

I am linking up with Stitch by Stitch: Anything Goes Linky found here. I am also linking up with Quilt Story found here.

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Rabbit, Rabbit!

The first day of another month. My summer is disappearing fast.