Some of my favorite things from 2011, it mostly started with dolly things and ended with patchworks. I only managed to finish three big quilts which none of them was started in 2011, but I’ve more than made up for it with the Farmer’s Wife blocks towards the end of the year.

Happy 2012, friends!

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway. I’m happy to know that most of you have so many handmades for Christmas. Go handmade!! As for me, I’m only making a Waldorf doll for my daughter and if I still have the time, a dinosaur stuffie for my boy. Yes, a barely minimum amount of handmades, which is highly achievable right now.

Well, no matter how many gifgts you manage to make yourself, Merry Christmas!

Welcome to my blog! I’m giving away a copy of Modern Blocks book (which I contributed to). The publisher was kind enough to send me two copies, so the extra is for you!

For those of you whose never been here before, I am Amanda, quilty mom of two living in Ohio. Other than quilting, I also love to knit, make clothes and bags, and Blythe dolls! Right now, I am completely obsessed with making Farmer’s Wife blocks.

This giveaway is open to US residents only. To win, please leave comment of what kind of handmades are you making for Christmas presents this year. The giveaway will be open until Friday, December 16 at 5 PM PST. Thanks for stopping by and good luck!

Oh, and don’t forget to check out more fabulous giveaway over here.

Can you believe I’ve made 36 of these small blocks? I can’t! It would be safe to say at this point that I am addicted to paper piecing. It gives you confidence, control, and precision that regular piecing can’t.

Stay tuned for a giveaway soon!

I’m up to 21 blocks as of today!!

I can’t seem to stop making these small blocks. Paper piecing does help immensely, although I always miscalculate how big to cut the pieces so my edges are about 1/8″ smaller than what it should be.

I’m up to 15 on the Farmer’s Wife blocks! Some are more wonky and not completely 6.5″ square, but looking at them all together who can tell, right?

I am still undecided whether I should set them on point or not.

I organized my scraps by color over the weekend and I fund that I have a lot of blue scraps. It’s double the amount of any other color! Wow, where did I accumulate those from? I immediately thought of making this one and I love love love it! A bit wonky, sure, but it’s fine with me. I only repeated squares with two fabrics because it’s too precious to throw away, can you spot them?

fabrics: a lot of blue scraps! I think we can play name that fabric with this block

sooooo… I’m a farmer’s wife! I’ve bought the book months ago but didn’t feel like doing it until yesterday! the first block was a failure due to my printer was set at 96%. after that’s fixed, it worked perfectly! I’m not sure if I want the block to be set on point or not, so I’m fussy cutting however I want. I’ll deal with the setting later on. here’s to hoping I’ll make it to 50 (the required number for a lap size, I’m not shooting for the stars here).

fabrics: red letter day, hope valley, and rabbits and racecars

Here’s a quilt that’s been finished for about a year but I’ve never shown anyone. I started it three years ago using some Flea Market fancy (not knowing that it’s going to be so hot!) and Kona Snow. I followed Crazy Mom Quilt’s star quilt along pattern. The blocks was sewn in our old apartment, quilted by a local lady in Christmas 2009, and finally bind and finished by January

The reason I never showed it, when I washed it for the first time I didn’t use Color Catcher! Needless to say, all the red bleed into the surrounding whites and I’ve got several pink spot in the quilt. Grrr…

It’s still a functioning quilt and I love all the pointy stars, but I’m still mad at myself every time I looked at it.

A new quilt for my little boy!