Farmer's Wife - Week 35 - Our Blocks

Week 35 is complete and here are our blocks, which turned out great.  We made a lot of HSTs and did some creative piecing for this set.

Farmer's Wife - Week 35

We have more creatively pieced blocks for week 35 of our Farmer's Wife Quilt-along.  The blocks this week are:

• Block 48 - Homeward Bound
• Block 50 - Honey's Choice
• Block 51 - Hovering Birds

Farmer's Wife Week 34 - Our Blocks

Week 34 was tough for me, but we are closing in on finishing all 111 blocks!  Check out our blocks and some thoughts on how they came together.

Organizing: Rulers

A few weeks ago, I shared with you my thread storage project (that I am loving) and I mentioned that I would tackle my rulers next.  Well, I meant it!  With a little research and not much expense, here is what I came up with.

Ruler Storage

This is made up of a 21 3/4 inch picture ledge and a 15 3/4 inch rail with 2 3/4 inch hooks, all from IKEA and totaling roughly $20.  We (I mean my husband!) mounted the rail to the underside of the picture ledge, so there are fewer holes in the wall.

Now I can hang my smaller rulers from the s-hooks and my longer rulers can stack on the picture ledge, horizontally.  You'll see a little 4-inch square ruler up there.  The hole on that one is too small for the s-hooks, so I'll use a small binder clip (you know the black ones with the silver wire clips?) for that one.  The binder clip will clip to the ruler, then the silver wire will hang on the s-hook.

I feel like I have SO much more space on my work table now that all of these things are up off the table, and they are still easy to get to because I mounted this unit right above the table top.

Farmer's Wife Quilt-Along: Re-Worked Blocks

Now that I'm almost done with my Farmer's Wife Quilt blocks, I find I don't like a few so I have re-made them.  Check out each block before and after.

• Block 81 - Snowball
• Block 63 - Ozark Maple Leaf
• Block 30 - End of Day
• Block 29 - Economy

Organizing: Thread Storage

I am very fortunate that my husband is handy.  When I was inspired by a variety of posts on Pinterest, he was eager to help me improve my thread storage situation.

For years I've been using the plastic boxes with posts in them for storing spools of thread.  While the boxes are clear, I was never able to really see what I had unless I opened the box, and some of the newer spools of thread are too tall.  As for my collection of bobbins, always in a tangled mess in a box or drawer.  I found myself buying new spools of thread in colors I already had because I didn't realize I already had it.  Plus, I kept winding new bobbins with colors I already had bobbins for.  If you know me, you know that drives me crazy.  I like organization and efficiency.

I decided to use two ideas for my solution.  You can see here the awesome shelf my husband made for me.  I decided against the nails on the front of each shelf for the bobbins.  Something about having all of those nails sticking out didn't sit well with me.

Thread Storage

If you can zoom in on the spools of thread, you can see that we made the spaces tall enough so that I can include the bobbin with its matching spool of thread, placing it on top and using a short golf tee to hold it in place.  This was another idea I saw on Pinterest.  I've also seen drinking straws in place of the golf tee...you can cut them to the size you need.

I'm loving this solution.  All of my thread is organized by color, so I can quickly find what I need or know that I need to buy a new color.  The bobbins stay with the matching spool and I don't have a mess of thread to untangle.

Now, on to my rulers!

Farmer's Wife - Week 34

This week we'll be doing more HSTs and a few flying geese, and another set of almost twin blocks.  The blocks we are doing are:

• Block 41 - Friendship Star
• Block 42 - Fruit Basket
• Block 45 - Grape Basket