Blooming Bunch block of the month

 Happy New Year! I hope you've all got some plans for this next year. Organizing, reading, sewing, trying new recipes. Yes, I want to try some new things in all of these areas.

I haven't posted in a while because I haven't been working on any sewing projects. I've just been busy enjoying all the holiday activities.

My Farm Girl quilt group loves and only works on anything Lori Holt.  We usually meet the second and fourth Monday of the month at Quilter's Oasis, a very nice quilt shop in Mesa, Arizona.

We are doing three blocks a month from Lori's books.  Each month, we make a 12" and two 6" blocks of flowers that our "mother hen" chooses.  When the year is over, we put the blocks together however we want and have a huge trunk show!  It's always so much fun and includes lots of laughter and good food.

Here are the blocks I've made so far, I'm using Ruby Star Society fabric and my background is a silvery Christmas print by Gingeber.

As you can see, we have already been doing this for 5 months.

For Christmas my son and his family gave me a nice tripod with a light ring which will brighten my photos when I use my iPhone to take quilt photos.  No shadows anymore! 👍🏻 I used the tripod and ring for this photo and the colors are pretty true.

Our next farm girl meeting in January, will be a retreat.  It will be a whole day and evening of sewing, eating and laughing, lol!

I'll show you my progress with this "Blooming Bunch" block of the month as time goes on.

Thanks for following me!

Christmas Secret sewing progress

 I didn't get much English smocking done last week!  I was hoping to get the stitching completed but life and Christmas planning intervened. I'm a little slower than I used to be and need really good light to see. 

I thought the smocking would show up more too.  

I've been collecting Lella Boutique fabric from the Christmas Eve line.

I am planning to make the pattern Reindeer Xing in the new year. I want to make the version with a little bit of red and green, not just grays. 

I've seen this quilt in person, and the blocks are pretty big.

The pattern calls for 3 yards of gray dot fabric but I haven't been able to find it anywhere.  I searched on Etsy and googled the name of the fabric but no luck. One person on Etsy is selling the fabric for $25/yard, but I don't need it that badly. The fabric is used for the background on the reindeer blocks.

I bought 3 yards of some fabric online that is Lella Boutique (from another line) but when I matched it with my other fabrics, I see that it isn't the same tone of gray. I'm not sure if I should use it, or look for another gray that will match better.

Do any of you follow All People Quilt? They do something fun before the new year.  They make available a wish list for quilts you want to make in the new year. There are 12 lines.  Every month they post a number and you are supposed to make or complete that quilt.  I fill it out but don't follow their numbers, I just pick which project I want to begin or finish.  I already have a wish list for the new year and a lot of them are Halloween quilts 😂

 I also want to learn how to do Adobe Illustrator on the computer.  I've wanted to learn for years, I need to set off schedule for myself.

Thanks for following and reading my blog!  I'll see you next week.