No Machine? Let's Farm!

I was sewing machine-less for almost three weeks. I never thought I'd be so happy to see my crappy Kenmore as I was when I picked her up on Friday.

The experience mainly served to reinforce my belief that I simply must buy a second machine. That way I'll always have a back up!  Plus, I really need more throat space and something that can FMQ properly. "Need" being relative, of course.

I did make good use of my time sans-machine by turning my attention to my Farmer's Wife Quilt blocks. It had been quite some time since I'd worked on them. I really enjoy hand piecing, but I am extremely slow at it. I managed to complete three blocks (although I confess that I machine pieced half of the third block this evening). They are (top to bottom) #34-Flock, #102-Whirlpool and #14-Butterfly at the Crossroad.

I'd cut the pieces months ago, but hadn't stitched them up, in part because I'd messed up the cutting. Does anyone else get stymied by directional prints? I just wasn't paying attention when I cut the fabric the first time around and since I'm anal, I couldn't abide having the prints going off in different directions. So, two of the three blocks required that I re-cut about half the pieces. Annoying, but necessary.

These are my 18 blocks completed to date. This is definitely a multi-year project. So far, I've hand pieced, machine pieced AND paper pieced blocks. There's no real master plan for the quilt, other than sticking to the blues and greens, with a smattering of yellow and purples.

P.S. This is me at 32 weeks pregnant. I am all full-a-baby and can't wait to be done. Have I mentioned that I'm not one of those glowing, happy, pregnant women? I'm more of the "are we done yet" type, and let me tell you, I am DONE! But not really, because she isn't done cooking yet. Trust me though, I am counting the days...