News From the Studio, Episode 1463

Posted on April 6, 2016 by prairiemoonquilts in Prairie Moon Ranch, Studio News, What's New

And I’m throwing in a little News From the Ranch for good measure. I’ve been working hard on lots of fun stuff lately. Some of it I can’t show you just yet, but some of it I can, so I will!

Last week I showed you a bunch of pieces I cut using a new little wedge ruler I won at my last guild retreat. I wanted to try it out so badly, I decided to use it for my mug rug that we’ll be having a swap for at our next guild meeting. My plate is finished, and it is so adorable!

tinydresden

It measures only 6″ across. I love it so much, I wanna make an entire large quilt out of these cute little things, but when would I find the time? I’ll keep you posted if I decide to take that project on! Haha!

I also finally got my hands on some Mostly Manor, my bestie Victoria’s fabric line out with Marcus Fabrics. I have pieces of every print in the collection, but I’ve chosen to make two separate quilts, because why not? So I’m using the Stripes to make a quilt while I’m waiting on some background fabric that I want to use with the other prints.

MMStripes

More on both of those later. You might want to pop over to Victoria’s blog for a visit if you haven’t lately. She just returned from the trip of a lifetime to Antarctica! Her pictures are astounding — I can hardly believe the color! In my mind, I pictured everything being white and gray — I mean it’s all snow all the time — but the blues are just fabulous! Go take a look.

Meanwhile, here on the ranch, we’ve been having lots of days where the skies look like this:

skies

Beautiful, but a bit ominous, and I find sunshine much more motivating. And the winds — we’ve had horrific winds for days! I feel like I’ve been beat up every time I go out and come back inside.

But I’m spending an inordinate amount of time just standing at the goat pen (or the window) watching my new babies. I can’t help it — they’re so stinkin’ cute and so very funny! Blossom had twins a couple weeks ago:

twins

And Ginger had her baby last Sunday:

GingerBella

I’ve named the twins Sugar and Flower (haha!), and Ginger’s baby is named Bella. They’re all so entertaining.

When I’ve been sewing, I’ve been trying to catch up on my Sew Sisters Bee Blocks. I made this one for Cindy:

cindysbeeblock

It’s from the book “Patchwork, Please!” by Ayumi Takahashi. It’s called “Books for Baby”. I had the perfect Saggy Baggy Elephant fabric to use for my book cover. It’s paper foundation pieced, and super easy (so don’t ask why it took me so long to do it!). Ayumi’s book is really cute.

I also made a block for Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts, and sent it off:

AJBlock2

And the same day she received my block, I received mine from her — talk about funny timing! We got a good chuckle out of it. Mine had this fabulous handmade card tucked in with it. (I can’t say that I sent anything that good along with my block to her.) I’m in love with the card.

HappyfromAJ

I also got this fabulous gift from my friend, Terri. She’s a fellow guild member, and we’re in Scrap Attack Club at Sew Sweet Quilt Shop together, too. I was admiring her journal cover at one of our get-togethers one day, and she told me how she made it, and I said I wanted to try one someday “in my spare time”. Obviously, she knows me well enough to know that I would never find the time to make one for myself, so she made one for me! I love it so much. She used some really special blocks to make it:

bookfromTerri

All I can say, as I hang my head, is that my friends do a lot more for me than I do for them — I have some really great friends!

I took a day last week to attend the Hannibal Piecemakers Quilt Show in Hannibal with my friend, Rose Marie. We needed to get together anyway, so we decided to turn the meeting into a field day, and we had a lot of fun. The show was wonderful!

quiltshow

This week, I’m back at some serious work on the longarm, so not much extra piecing is getting done. I’m working on a vintage quilt top, and doing 56 blocks of this little tiny half-inch crosshatching. I may go blind or insane before I’m done. Wish me luck!

crosshatching

That’s it for now! I hope you’re all having a wonderful week — I hear it’s been snowing in some parts of the country, so I guess I shouldn’t be complaining about wind, huh?

7 responses to “News From the Studio, Episode 1463”

  1. Wendy says:

    I love the little Dresden plate! And those baby goats are too cute! The sun is finally shining here today. I’m hoping those gray days are done.

  2. My, you did have a busy week. The Mostly Manor fabric line is lovely. i can imagine it fitting in a lot of quilts.

  3. Kathy Fraser says:

    Nice. I am in love with your 3 babies. They are so adorable. I like the journal cover. Maybe I can? I like your Dresden plate. I have a very good template for that. It makes from 6 inch to 20 inch plates. But I am so loaded with appointments. Don’t have the energy to do much more. SIGH!.

  4. Kari says:

    Wow! What a busy time…..love the goats and kids….so fun! You have inspired me to give my Dresden ruler a try!

  5. Lori says:

    You will never cease to amaze me!!! I don’t know how you fit so much in. I’m tired just reading it all.

    Baby goats!!! Squeeeee!!

  6. Rose Marie says:

    Those winds are straight from Oklahoma. It is one of the things that I don’t miss from growing up there. I do miss my friends and relatives. But if I hadn’t left, how would I know you Shelly? And how would I have learned to quilt? I am such a lucky girl.

  7. janequiltsslowly says:

    You are so busy and getting a lot done even if you don’t think so. I really should get s bundle of those Most Manor stripes!

    Bella, Flower & Sugar are adorable!

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