Quick Picnic Quilt

I can't believe it is August! 

I have really enjoyed our family adventures this summer. 

I thought I would share this simple little picnic quilt I made for a friend.  

I think I need to stitch up a few more of these! 

This would be a great quilt for a beginner and it makes a great gift.  

The top only uses 2 1/2 yards of fabric.  

The finished quilt is 48 x 60. 

Perfect lap quilt and a manageable size to practice machine quilting. 

I will post a tutorial but it is going to have to wait until after Berry Season.  

Wouldn't this be fun in school colors for football games? 

Cherilyn

Link Parties:
http://www.jaqsstudio.com/2013/08/made-by-me-91-linky-party-and-features.html
http://www.conniekresin.com/2013/08/linky-tuesday.html

Farm Fresh Goodness...

This is just the start of all the farm fresh goodness...

Our orchard is 4 years old and this is the first bowl of cherries! 

They are almost too pretty to eat!  

What should we make...

Pie, cobbler, muffins?

I know what my Farmer will pick...

Pie! Pie! Pie!

A quick story about this lovely bowl of humble fruit.

 When we moved to our farm the property had been vacant for several years and saplings were growing in the yard and field.  

We mowed everything with the tractor.  

It was impressive how quickly that took care of the saplings and brush.  
All but one!

There was this little mulberry tree that would not give up. 

It bounced back after being mowed a couple of times.  

My sweet Farmer decided to leave that tough little tree. 

This year it is covered in mulberries.  
I have to make something with this hardy trees fruit.

We are going to try making mulberry jelly.  

We have eggs again!   

Oh, how we've missed fresh eggs.

Just a quick post...

I better get to work on a pie and some jelly!

Cherilyn
Link Parties:
http://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/finding-the-pretty-delicious-linky-party-20/
http://www.whatscookingwithruthie.com/2013/06/15/super-saturday-show-tell-22/
http://oneshetwoshe.com/2013/06/hello-weekend-snapshots-your-great-idea-link-party-38.html
http://www.thirtyhandmadedays.com/2013/06/pity_party_linky_party
 http://www.astrollthrulife.net/

Spring on a Berry Farm

Planting, watering and weeding... Lots and lots of weeding!  

 Here is a quick glimpse of what we have been doing the past couple of weeks.

 We planted 10 new rows of blackberry plants.

Connected the water lines.   

Each row has it's own shut off valve. 

This helps us water more effectively.  

We have found that some parts of the field need more water than other sections.

This time of year it is a race between the weeds and the berry plants.  

Here is a weedy row of raspberry plants.

(I guess it is a little crazy to take pictures of weeds!)

We hand weed...

We like our customers to be able to taste the berries and not worry about chemicals. 

It is a pretty intense job and everyone helps out.  

Some of the tools we use are Nitrile glove. 

They help with the thorns and have a better grip than traditional gardening gloves. 

Young berry canes are fragile and break easily the thinner gloves help us carefully weed up against the berry plants.

I also use an old boat seat to save my knees. :) 

Our methods are pretty simple, but effective. 

Once the plants are taller than the weeds, they shade the ground and we have fewer weeds in the rows.  

We will continue to walk the rows and pull weeds when we see them throughout the season.

Here is a pretty section of weeded raspberries.

This is our Berry Farm in the spring!

I can't wait to taste sweet sun ripened raspberries and big juicy blackberries.  

Yum Yum!

Grow little berry plants grow!  

 Cherilyn

Giveaway Day/Week...

Welcome to A Farm Wife's Journal!

I'm Cherilyn married to my Sweet Farmer and mother of 6.
This is where I blog about life on our farm, recipes, quilting, 
crafts, and sewing project. 

Hope you will take a minute to look around!



Sew Mama Sew is hosting this 
Giveaway Day that Lasts a week!

 

Last time I won a few giveaways and met lots of wonderful bloggers!

I am giving away 8 pretty Moda fat quarters!  

They are from French General by Moda and 

the brown one is Garden Party by Moda.

I love Moda fabrics and enjoy mix and matching fabric lines.

To Enter:

1. Leave a comment. What would you make if you won?

2. For a second entry become a follower or let me know that you already follow!

This giveaway is open to everyone and will end May 10, 2013!

Happy Blog Hopping!  

Good Luck!

*Congratulations Vicki you won this little giveaway!  Thank you everyone that entered and are following along!*

 Cherilyn

Traveling Quilting Kit...

My new fun sewing kit and traveling design board are super cute!  

I usually haul my stuff in boxes or lovely plastic bags to and from 

quilt group.  

Now have this adorable coordinated set to keep my quilting projects and 

supplies together.  

I recently won Deonn's giveaway from Quilt Scapes.  

I seriously won the JACKPOT!  

She sent me all of this adorable Sew Cherry Laminate fabric 

from Riley Blake made up into kits.

All ready to stitch up!  

Thank you Deonn!

  

Do you want to make a set too? 

Project #1

UFO to Go

This is such a great idea!  It is a portable design board and keeps your blocks 

safe and together when traveling!

Click HERE for Tutorial  

Closed and ready to GO!

Open with plenty of room for designing.  

This block is 14 inches!

 Isn't this cherry ribbon adorable?

  Two large buttons on each side.

 There is even a

VIDEO TUTORIAL 

for UFO to GO!

Project #2

Laminate Sewing Kit
 

I love this!

It is big enough to carry all of your supplies in one place!

It reminds me of a shaving kit bag but 

oh so sweet with the cherries and red zipper!

This was quick and easy to make!

There is also a VIDEO TUTORIAL.

Project #3 

Trash Stasher

I need one of these!  

I am so excited to have this cute bag next to my sewing machine to collect 

all those pesky threads and bits of fabric.

This little bag uses laminate fabric inside and out so you can wipe it clean.

I think I need to make another one for the car.

VIDEO TUTORIAL

Three great project and tutorials!  

*Any of these projects would be great for Mother's Day!!

Thanks again Deonn!

I have two more fat quarters of Sew Cherry. 

Hmmm....Which Snippet projects should I make next? 

 Cherilyn

Link Parties:  
 http://www.conniekresin.com/search?updated-max=2013-04-24T05:26:00-05:00
 http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com/2013/04/find-friend-friday-linky-party_26.html
 http://www.skiptomylou.org/2013/04/29/made-by-you-monday-150/
http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com/2013/04/mop-it-up-monday-65.html 
 http://www.sewcando.com/2013/04/show-us-your-crafts-its-craftastic.html
 http://makingtheworldcuter.com/
 http://www.craft-o-maniac.com/

Quilty Inspiration...

This weekend was the International Quilt Festival in Cincinnati. 

This was my first time attending a quilt festival!  

It was amazing and a bit overwhelming.  

There were hundreds of beautiful quilts on display 

and hundreds of quilt shops from all over the country.  

I loved every minute of it!!! 

Here are a few photos of some amazing quilts...

Beautiful flowers...

 Love the border on this one...

 Loved the dots with black...

Solids...

I loved this LDS Temple quilt...

The whole experience was so inspiring. 

To see more amazing quilts information about this traveling quilt show click HERE.

Cherilyn

The End of Spring Break...

Last week was spring break for our children.  

We enjoyed spending time with family and friends.  

The week went by too fast.  

I loved watching the boys play outside, 

shopping with our daughter, 

making treats for the Church dessert auction, 

and going to Grandma and Grandpa's house!   

I did find a little time to experiment with Hexies.  

I can see why they are so popular!  

I have been searching Pinterest for inspiration. 

I think I have come up with a plan, 

but it is going to take a few more Hexies.

I also recieved some fun mail last week.

 I love getting fabric in the mail! 

This sweet package came from Lori.  

Lori's cute blog is Nanny's Nook

I won her giveaway a few weeks ago.  

Five fat quarters of Nancy Drew! 

These fabrics are fantastic!  

I loved reading Nancy Drew when I was young. 

Wouldn't this make a super cute library bag?  

Or a cozy quilt for a reading corner?  

Thank you Lori! 

This package arrived from Deonn.  

Deonn's fun blog is Quiltscapes

This was a super fun and very generous giveaway! 

 I love the cherries!

She included several kits for her Snippets tutorials. 

I can't wait to get started on these fun projects!  

Thank you Deonn!

Now to get back to a normal routine.

Lunches packed 

Backpacks lined up by the door

Clothes, shoes and socks set out

And the dreaded alarm clocks set 

Check, Check, Check and Check!

Yep Spring Break is over...

Cherilyn

WIP...Scrappy Trip Around the World...

Work In Progress...

The top is done for my Scrappy Trip Around the World!

My sweet little boys were helping with this photo shoot. 

They are such sports standing on chairs holding a quilt on this cold windy spring day! 

 See their cute little shoes sticking out.

 They said it was like holding a kite. 

 Thanks boys!

 This was made completely with scraps from my stash. 

 It has a little bit of everything from floral to geometric prints.

I added a border which made it a good lap size. 

I made 16 scrappy squares added 2 1/2 inch strips all around. 

Then a scrappy strip of leftover squares and finally 4 1/2 inch white border to the top and bottom.

Finished top is 52x64. 

I think I have enough left over strips for the binding. 

This was an interesting experience.  
I didn't realize I had so much yellow and green in my stash 
and lots of tiny florals.  
I also had very few purples, blues, oranges and reds.


 I think I have some stash building to do! ;0) 

Cherilyn

Link Parties:
http://www.freshlypieced.com/2013/03/wip-wednesday-hsts-everywhere.html
 http://quiltstory.blogspot.com/2013/03/fabric-tuesdaycome-play.html

Techy Update...Added Bloglovin...

 I have added a new way to follow my blog.

Bloglovin

 

There is a cute little button on the top left sidebar you can use to follow along.  

Sad to say but there will be some changes this summer to how we can read blogs on Google. 

This is just another way to follow and not miss out on your favorite blogs. 

I have been testing it out for a little while and it is easy to use. 

 When I signed up with Bloglovin, they added all of the blogs I follow for me.

Which was great since I have a pretty long list of blogs I enjoy reading.

 It really was a simple painless process. 

Especially for someone who is Tech challenged like me. 

There is also an App so you can read your favorite blogs on the go. 

I hope this little post helps.

Thanks again for following along!

 

Cherilyn

Quilty Barn Along

  Barn #2 is done!!  

Don't you love my Mom's sweet 30's block?  

It just looks like spring.  

I'm hoping flowers will start popping up in our area. 

We are bracing for another snow storm. 

 They are predicting 5 to 10 inches! 

This is just nuts!!  

It's 50 degrees today and sunny.  

You would never know such a massive storm is headed our way.  

Maybe I will have some quilting time while we are snowed in. 

Quilty Barn Along

Here is a link to Lori Holt's Barn Along Flicker Group 

were you can find the tutorial and some really fun Barns!

Have a great weekend!

Cherilyn

Link Parties:
http://piecefullife-elizabeth.blogspot.com/2013/03/little-quilt-mondayscrappy-trip-along.html#.UVDFC1eRd1N

Thank You and a Sweet Little Package...

I really enjoyed the Blog Hop last week.  

Thank you again Michele from Quilting Gallery!

For all your hard work organizing the blog hop!

I really enjoyed meeting so many talented quilt bloggers.  

I was pretty overwhelmed with the wonderful response 

I had to my giveaway.  

I passed 200 followers last week!  

Hurray!

Thank you so much for your

comments and for following along.  

I emailed my giveaway winner and hope to hear back from her soon.

  

I won a couple of giveaways last week.

Yippee!

This sweet little package came in the mail yesterday from  

Little Pieces of My Life.  

Thank you so much Karen!  

I love these fabrics and can't wait to start playing with them.

I am so excited to now follow Little Pieces of My Life! 

You should see her rescued butterfly quilt. 

It is absolutely gorgeous!

Thank You Again!

Cherilyn

Beat the Winter Blues Blog Hop and Giveaway...

Welcome to A Farm Wife's Journal!

Hi! I'm Cherilyn and this is where I blog about life on our farm, recipes, quilting, 
crafts, and sewing project. 

Nothing beats the winter blues like a Party...

Michele from a Quilting Gallery is hosting this

  
Beat The Winter Blues Blog Hop

Click on the link to see all the other blogs participating in this party.

 

I am giving away a copy of the 

Spring 2013 Quilts and More Magazine 

and 

a Honeydew Jellies

perfect for a spring project!

This magzine is full of spring and summer inspiration

sure to beat the winter blues.

I love this Ice Cream Table Runner!  
 

Look at this yummy Jelly! 

How can you be blue with all these happy colors?

To Enter: Simply leave a comment on this post.  

I would love to hear about your spring projects. 

To thank my followers leave an additional comment letting me know how you 

follow or become a new follower.

I will ship internationally!

This giveaway ends March 15, 2013

Thank's for stopping by and

Happy Blog Hopping and Good Luck!

Cherilyn