Snow On The Farm Quilt Pattern ~ FREE

ENDED on 12/31/23 

Hi Quilty Friends!  You read that right.  I'm giving you, my loyal followers and anyone else who loves this quilt the opportunity to download it for FREE.  Why?  Honestly, I've been feeling a little like the Scrooge lately.  And what happened yesterday put me in the mood to do something about it.  

So what happened?  My social media blew up!  Every platform was all a buzz about my Snow On The Farm quilt pattern.  I had private messages and comments on all of them, Instagram, Facebook, Etsy, this blog and my email.  What in the world was going on?

It was all afternoon. They expressed the love and need to buy this quilt pattern.   We've all been there, right?  We see that one quilt and have to have it right now!  

What was the sudden interest in this quilt?  So I followed the breadcrumbs.  It wasn't hard when one of the quilters told me where she saw the quilt. HA!

I'm not going to tell you where the breadcrumbs ended because it was a business page and the business can not control what is being said in the comments while they are off conducting business.  But I will tell you it was a longarm quilter  business page who posts customers quilt on social media.  It was gorgeous.  The picture above is not her quilt, it's my quilt made and staged for advertising the pattern.  

Anyway, when I found the social media post about my pattern, I started reading the comments to give my little ego a stroking.  What I found was more than I expected.  There was talk of recreating and making a pattern or a video because they couldn't buy the pattern.  Oh no!  I quickly took screenshots of the post and the conversation about the recreating.  What should I do?  All the big girls in the quilting industry get really nasty about this kind of talk so I followed their lead and let myself get all worked up inside.

Yes, I reacted, in private at first, then silly me sent a private message about copyright infringement to the one who I thought most offended my little ego.  I even made a post on my FB page about copyright law but didn't mention any names.  An over reaction to say the least. 

 After calming down I thought about everything and I remembered why I'm here on this blog.  It's always been the same.  I love quilting and sharing the love of quilting.   In the early days of my quilting blog, all my designs were free.  It was so much fun to share them and then see them being made by other quilters.

And you know what, I loved that this group of quilters loved my  quilt so much that they were going to make it come hell or high water.   I had to apologize for my reaction and removed my post about copyright laws.

Sure, I could have made a few bucks yesterday. It would have been nice to put that money towards a embroidery machine for making quilt labels.  But what the heck, tis the season!   So I let the longarmer know that I would be posting it for free and she could let her followers know.  I'm sure she too will be visiting this post today and is welcome  to put her business information in the comments below.

EDITED to add....  The business owner did the right thing and deleted the conversation. She's a super nice lady and I hold no ill will towards her or her followers.   I did not tell this story to make her or her followers look bad.  I wrote it because it's the truth and we found a way to make everyone happy.

Okay, enough of all the drama.... Are you ready for  A little Podunk Merry Christmas?  

Snow On The Farm

will be free to download until Dec 31, 2023. Midnight EST.

ENDED

 Oh but there's a catch...to pay me for the pattern all I ask is...

1.  Share with your friends on social media, tell them where you got the pattern.  Provide a link to this blog post so your quilting peeps can download it too.  PLEASE DO NOT SELL OR SHARE THE PDF FILE.
2. Leave a comment below, just say Hi or Thank You, any comment will do.
3. When your quilt is finished and bound, send me an email with a picture, it would tickle me pink! My email is in the pattern.

When you click on the link below I get an update on how many of you have downloaded the pattern.  It'll be fun to see how many quilters download and leave comments.

Thanks to all of you for the quilty love.  Merry Christmas!

Click here to download the Snow On The Farm quilt pattern.

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

Easy Setting Triangles For On Point Quilts

Hi Quilty Friends!  It's been awhile since I've shared how I make large triangles for on-point quilts.  The smaller the block, the easier it is to make those triangles.

The blocks in this quilt finish at 16 inches.  It's not an impossible task to cut a large square to make triangles as suggested by EQ8.  The hardest part would be finding a ruler long enough to make those long diagonal cuts. In the past I would use a yard stick or several quilt rulers butted end to end.

The corner triangles are a little easier to cut. 

They are smaller so they can be cut from a smaller square with one diagonal cut.

Many quilters don't like and won't cut odd sizes such as 12 13/16".  They will round up and hope for the best.  I understand this, I did it for years.  It taught me a lot about how deal with not so square quilts and how to deal fullness when quilting.  And then one day about 10 years ago, I spied this ruler at our local quilt shop, Back Door Quilts.

It came with a little instruction booklet that can be hung with the ruler.  If the dog chews up your instruction booklet, no worries, there's some basic instructions printed on the ruler.

The Large Diagonal Set Triangle Ruler cuts the triangles from strips of fabric.  Blocks as small as five inches and as large as 16 inches without cutting an odd 16th this or that.

Here's how to use this ruler.  Use the finished block size not the unfished size.  My blocks before sewing them into the quilt are 16.5".  Finished and in the quilt they are 16".  So 16" is the number I need to use on the ruler and that is the very bottom of the ruler.  I'm cutting from width of fabric right off the bolt.  Well mine has been washed an refolded.  Line up the folded edge of the fabric with a line on the cutting mat. And then make straightening cut to the end.  Now I line up the ruler on the 16" line, then add the 6.5 x 24 ruler to the top of the triangle as shown below.

In order to make sure my ruler is properly positioned I line up the horizontal lines on the ruler with the horizontal lines on the cutting mat.

Carefully remove the triangle without shifting the 6.5 x 24 ruler and make the cut.

Trim the selvedge off the end and unfold the fabric.

 The first triangle cut will be  the corners of the quilt, the smaller triangles.  Line up the flat top of the ruler with the top of the fabric and the bottom of the fabric with the line on the ruler for your block size.

Trim off the little ears at the top and bottom.

At this point you could flip your fabric or flip your ruler, whichever makes it more comfortable for you to make the next cut.  I chose to flip my ruler, line it up with my finished block size on the ruler and the previous cut edge.  

Then make the cut and trim off the ears.  Repeat as many times as you can on one strip of fabric.  

You may or may not be able to get another corner block at the end of your strip of fabric.  Don't cut your small triangle like this.  It will make those outer edges very stretchy. 

Flip the fabric and cut it like we did at the beginning of the strip.

The only downside to using this ruler to make set in triangles is, sometimes, depending on the quilt, there is a lot of scrap fabric.  I don't mind a little extra scrap, maybe I can use it to make some pillows or the binding.

The triangles are all in place and ready to become a quilt! YAH!

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

Dads Flowers Brighten Up The Holidays

This Amaryllis has been a Thanksgiving bloomer for over 20 years, probably more like 30 years.  It was gifted to my mom by one of her friends.  Here in Indiana this plant cannot survive the winters outside.  To keep it alive it must be brought indoors before the first frost and taken outside after the last frost of the year.  

Mom passed in 2017 of a rare cancer.  She battle it for about seven years.  Near the end when she knew her battle was coming to an end, she started giving dad instructions on how to maintain things without her.  Taking care of this flower was one of those things he needed to learn.   He's done well.  It's nice to see these gorgeous blooms every Thanksgiving.  They brighten the my spirits in so many ways.

The holidays for me can be a reminder of who is no longer with us.  Mom's last cancer diagnosis was between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Two years later she had a major surgery that nearly killed her on Christmas Eve.  The entire family spent that Christmas week in intensive care with her.  Two years later she passed right after Christmas.  Long before moms battle with cancer my brother(Greg) died in a car accident.  Greg's birthday is today, Nov. 28.  Sometimes his birthday falls on Thanksgiving.  

He was a character to say the least.  The pictures below are two of my favorites.  The one on the right is him wearing mom's wig.  She had bought the wig long before she had cancer for those bad hair days.

The most recent holiday heartache is the passing of my baby boy, Trever, October 2, 2022.   For those of you who have lost a child you understand and I'll leave it at that. 

When we all get together for the holidays we don't dwell on the ones who are not with us.  We just enjoy the time together.  Last year was very hard, this year was a little better but not by much.  

So when I said those flowers brighten up the holidays, they really do. 

I snapped this picture of dad last week when taking pictures of the flowers.  He was trying to think of an old song name.  He's 77 yrs. young and gets frustrated when he can't remember like when he was 25.  Honestly his memory is better than mine and he could probably out run me any day of the week.  He works out three times a week, sings in a band and takes care of his home and six acres all by himself.  The only thing he isn't good at is cooking.  His mom and my mom always did it for him.  But he's learning.  To supplement his lack of skills I take him a homecooked meal as often as I can. 

Now back to his aging and memory loss.  At 77 yrs old dad takes only one prescription medicine.  He used to be on a handful of them several times a day.  After mom passed he felt more freedom to do as he wished with his health.   Mom "harped" on him to visit doctors and take meds.  Dad prefers to find the root  cause of the illness.  He has many books on how to supplement vitamins and herbs instead of taking prescription meds.  And that is what he has done.

 Several years ago he had a stent put in near his heart.  A few years later he had a quadruple bypass surgery.  This is when the meds started adding up.  Beta-blockers, blood thinners, blood pressure meds, statins and blood sugar meds.  Today he only takes the blood sugar med if he eats something that is high in carbs.  That's right, he eats low carb.  Which means almost no bread, no starchy veggies and no sugar.  His main food group is fatty meat with a little added non starchy veggies.  

His bloodwork comes back nearly perfect every time.  This time his A1C(blood sugar) was a little high, in the prediabetic range.  So he decided that taking the Metformin might be a good idea until he can get his sugar back under control.

The rest of his health issues he had in the past are kept under control by supplements.  The doctor thinks dad is taking all the prescriptions because his test come back great.  He's buys the prescriptions but never takes them.  He's "cured" his medical conditions with diet and supplements.

  Would you believe his 100% blocked carotid artery is now 85% blocked.  They wouldn't do the surgery to clean it out when it 100% blocked for fear of dislodging a chunk and it going to his brain.  His doctor was so impressed with it clearing itself slowly, he told dad there was no reason for him to come back to see him.

I veered far from memory loss conversation but I had to set the stage for the next picture.  Well, in the previous picture there is a magazine on the table.  It's there because dad wanted me to read an article on a new supplement for memory loss.  I took this picture of the name of the supplement also known as PQQ so I could do a little Google research.   What I found was just like every other supplement.  Some folks out there say it's a good thing and others say your paying for expensive pee.  So I'll let you know if dad starts reversing his slight memory loss.   Why do I share this with you?  I believe in my dads health success story and hope it can help others to think outside the box and take their health into their own hands.

My dad was miserable before switching to supplements and a low carb diet.  He could barely walk.  His body hurt all over and he was fat.   The sad thing is, he was doing everything the doctors told him to do and it wasn't getting better but worse.  He wanted to live, so he started doing his research.....and it paid off.  He says we don't have health care in America, we have sick care.  If they cure it they can't make money off of us over our entire lifetime.  That' something to think about.

I've rambled on for far to long.  If you're still here thanks for hanging in there until the end.  I promise not to do this again anytime soon. 

 Now, it's time to get stitching.

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

Design Wall Monday ~ Tree Of Life Blocks Finished

 Hello Quilty Friends!  I can't tell you how excited I am to have these quilt blocks finished.  I love this quilt and can't wait to get it completed and on the bed.  After it's finished I will need to make a couple pillows to complete my vision for the new Christmas bedroom decor.

There's something about two color quilts that make my little ole quilty heart go pitter-pat.  When the two colors are red and white that's even better!  These blocks were a little tedious to piece.  Lots of pinning to make sure all the points stayed pointy.  I worked on one block at a time.  One block took up every inch of of my sewing table.

I had to work in sections and rows.  The colored squares below show how I divided the block into sections/units.  Each row was marked with a numbered pin. The pins are hard to see in the picture so I added numbers to the side of each row for you.  Once a row was completed  I would add the larger squares.  Example....I pieced row 1 and 2 then sewed 1 and 2 together, then added the large square to the left of 1 and 2.  Then I added row 3 to the bottom of the 1 and 2 unit.  Paying close attention to my pressing.  All odd number rows were pressed to the left, even number rows to the right.

The three sections completed and ready to become a block.

If I were to make this block again I would probably press all seams open due to bulky seams.  I'm not a fan of open seams but they can make quilting easier.  So I ended up pressing the last few seams open.

Would you like to make a Tree of Life block?  I put some cutting measurements on the units below.  To make the HST's I used the Magic 8 method.  But you can make them however you want as long as they end up 2.5" before sewn into the quilt.  At the bottom the block you will need to know how to do flippy corners.  The numbers on the units are the size squares needed for that unit.

Today's plan is to start sashing the blocks and wash the quilt backing. 

This post is being linked to the following.

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/2023/11/design-wall-monday-november-27-2023.html

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

Tree Of Life Quilt Blocks

 A few weeks ago I saw a quilt on Pinterest that I thought would be the perfect Christmas quilt for my bed.  Let's be honest, it's the red.  Y'all know how much I love red!  And in this quilt red is the background fabric.  

I recognized the quilt block as a variation of the Tree of Life.  Many hours were wasted searching the internet for the quilt name and designer so I could purchase the pattern. 

I'm convinced a pattern doesn't exist or the designer needs help with marketing her patterns.  So what else could I do but draw it up in EQ8 and do the quilty math.  In EQ's block library I found the block but it had some odd shaped patches in the tree trunk area.  This would need to be paper pieced or template pieced.  UGG...not going to happen.

So, I made a few quick changes to the block to fit my quilt piecing style. 

It takes about an hour to piece one 16 inch block.  And that's about as long as I can sit at the sewing machine without needing to get up and move around due to back pain.  Can I get this one finished before Christmas?  Maybe.  I'm going to give it my best shot.  Wish me luck!

  Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

Happy Thanksgiving

Sending you and your family the warmest wishes this Thanksgiving.