The Farmer’s Wife Quilt

I purchase The Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt book by Laurie Aaron Hird. The book contain response letters asking the question would you want your daughter to marry a farmer. The book also contains a CD on it are templates to make the 111; 6 inch blocks that are inspired by the letters.

I am going to make this quilt. My goal is to make 1 to 2 blocks a week. (right now there is so much going on it maybe hard to do.) Share my progress here with every week and see how it is going. Today I did some prep-work. I purchased the fabric. I’m not sure I have enough but the quilt is kind of scrappy. I plan on add more from my stash as needed or purchase some more as I find what I like. After all a quilter “can never have too much fabric”. I washed and press the fabric. 100_3036

My next step was to read about the first letter and print the templates needed to make the first 2 block. Yes quilters I am making this quilt by hand using templates. I’ll share how I make the templates in my next post.

Here are some reviews about the book itself. The graphic and diagrams are excellent. The instruction on printing the templates are very clear. If followed you should get good results sewing the block together. The Farmer’s Wife sampler quilt is not a how to make a quilt book. Basic understanding of sewing quilt blocks is needed.

Junk Journal

On the internet I came across these junk journals and thought that I wanted to try making one. I did some research on tea dye paper and book binding. I Experimented with some paper. I even went to our local library and bought a few books from the tent sale to play with. Here is how it turned out. Thank for looking

Junk Journal

The Back of the Junk Journal
cute little ribbon bow to tie it closes
a page from inside
a short page with ribbon
A fold out page with pocket

Homemade Granola

Ingredients:

3 Cups Rolled Oats
1 Cup Walnuts/ or nuts of your choice
3/4 Cup Shredded coconut
1/4 Cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Combine ingredients in a large bowl. Spread onto cookie sheet. Bake at 350° until golden brown. Be sure to stir every 15 min for even brownness. Let cool. Store in air tight container.

Add other ingredients of you choice. Some suggestion are candy, and dried fruit. This recipe is great to top yogurt and ice cream. By adding the dried fruit and candy it make a great trail mix.

Manhattan Clam Chowder

This is always a busy time of year for us. We are looking forward to spring. Getting ready for the long winter months. We also get invited to a few very casual get-togethers. There is one standing request every year for me to make Manhatten Clam Chowder Soup. It is so easy to make. Once it is made I leave it in my Ninja Crock Pot on Buffet setting to keep it hot. The soup is usually gone before the end of the night.

Recipe:

3 Can canned chopped clams
1 can of crushed tomato ( I use the ones I caned from my garden but store bought is ok too)
2 stalks celery chopped
2 lrg. carrots chopped
1 medium onion chopped
2 small potatoes cubed
2 to 3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 TBS lemon juice
1 tsp dried thyme
2 TBS butter
water

In your favorite soup pot. ( I have several ) melt the butter then add in celery, carrots and onion, Simmer until translucent and tender . Add the clams but reserve the juice for another step. Add garlic , thyme, lemon and lemon juice. the add crushed tomato and potatoes. the add water to the clam juice to make 2 cups total. and add it to the soup pot. Bring to a boil until all the vegetables are cook to tender. Serve hot. We like to add a dash of chipolte hot sauce

Making Quilt Templates

Today we are making a few templates for the Farmer’s Wife Quilt. It really is easy. Just a few supplies are needed. Template material such as cardboard, template plastic, or heavy cardstock. This should be something sturdy to hold up against several uses. Glue, I used Fabric Tac Glue by Beacon. It doesn’t distort the paper like most glues do. A pair of sharp craft scissors not your fabric scissors and of course your printed templates

Supplies are Template plastic, Fabri-Tac, Scissor and printed template

The templates for this pattern come with the book on CD . Just follow the instruction to print them, that came with the book. Be sure that when you print them, that it prints to actual size. Some printers will automatically adjust the image. You don’t want your printer to do that. The results will be a block that is not the correct size . This book also gives permission to print the templates at your local copy shop.

The next step is to rough cut the paper printed template out and glue it to the template material. I used template plastic, but as I stated above you can also use what ever sturdy material you have on hand. Even cereal boxes works well. Let the glue set a few minutes or the paper will slide.

rough cut paper template
Glue on the back
place onto plastic template material

There are two lines on the template a dotted line which represents a cutting line, and a solid line which represents a stitch line. I have chosen to cut the template on the stitch line. I will be drawing around the template and cutting it 1/4 larger then the solid line ( I show this in the next post)

Cut out on the sew line
Trim up

I store the finished template into an envelope that I have decorated with some scrapbook paper. I also created a check list so I could keep track of which templates were done.

For Your Consideration

Here at Home Country Farm we have been cleanning out our closets. It is amazing to see the things that we have squirled away. Well it is now coming out into the light. We really do have too much stuff . So for your consideration we have begun listing a few of the items on ebay. If you don’t see something your interested in just keep checking. We have lots to go through.

Home Country Farm On Ebay