Wanderer's Wife, previously called Gypsy Wife, is a great stashbusting pattern by Jen Kingwell. Quilt Measures 150cm x 173cm (59” x 86”) Wanderer's Wife is Jen’s top seller. A puzzle of beautiful blocks – a signature style of Jen’s! This clever quilt will keep even the most advanced sewers entertained.

“Gypsy Wife” by Jen Kingwell is one of my all-time favourite quilt patterns. I had so much fun making this quilt and it’s reflected in my fussy cutting and colours. Raylee Bielenberg, of Sunflower Quilting, has custom quilted my quilt top and it’s stunning. MY VERSION OF “GYPSY WIFE” BLOCK TUTORIALS Click an image below...

If you’re sewing-along to make Jen Kingwell’s Gypsy Wife quilt, this week’s assignment is our first block with partial seams. Don’t let that scare you! Hope from Hartford is a clever little block. I have some tips to help.

On 3 August Nicole Calver (of Snips Snippets) and I will be kicking off the Jen Kingwell’s Gypsy Wife Quilt Sew-along. Jen...

Item: JKD-5026 Type: Quilt Patterns Designer: Jen Kingwell By Jen Kingwell pattern booklet only. Quilt Measures 150cm x 173cm (59" x 86") Wanderer's Wife is Jen's top seller. A puzzle of beautiful blocks - a signature style of Jen's! This clever quilt will keep even the most advanced sewers entertained. This pattern is written for machine piecing. Block of the Month friendly.

Admins have been working behind the scenes trying to make this Section 6 more palatable to everyone. It is such a large section with 21 blocks! We don't want anyone to be overwhelmed with the amount of work in this section. You, of course, can take the information from the TOC and work through at your own pace, but we have decided to break it down into three more manageable sections. So take your time and enoy! Tutorials for each section will be released over the next three months as follows: Section 6 Left...9 blocks.... June 1. Nurses Cross ... 8in Pinwheel with 1 border ... 6in Bordered Square-in-a-Square Hourglass ... 5in Court House Step ... 4in and make five (5) Square-in-a-Square ... 3in Section 6 Center....5 block.... July 6 Pinwheel no border ... 4in Court House Steps ... 4in Square-in-a-Square ... 4in Hourglass with border .... Square-in-a-Square ... 3in Section 6 Right.....7 blocks.... August 3 Indian Hatchet ... 6in Pinwheel with 1 border ... 6in Courthouse Steps with 3 borders ... 5in Bordered Square-in-a-Square ... 5in Square-in-a-Square ... 3in and Two (2) Square-in-a-Square ... 4in

Purchase this quilt pattern called Wanderer's (Gypsy) Wife by Jen Kingwell Designs. A fabulous scrappy quilt! Booklet includes all instructions. Finished Quilt Size: 150cm x 173cm (59" x 68") Third Edition (Newest) - includes all pattern corrections and pattern name change. ************************* For more behind the scenes information and to learn more about Fabric Garden Australia you can find me here: Facebook: @fabricgardenaustralia Instagram: @fabricgarden

Here's my Gypsy Wife quilt!!! I sewed the blocks in 2018 as a QAL (quilt along) with two groups I belong to. Then I spent all of January and the first half of February assembling and finishing it, in order to enter it in our quilt show on February 15th. As it says in the pattern, putting these blocks together "is a journey"! In other words, it's a lot of work, just when you thought you were done with a lot of work, AKA sewing zillions of random blocks! Below are my blocks on the design wall. I recommend labeling each one with the finished size in inches. Then when it's laid out on the design wall, you can switch blocks that are the exact same size and spread out the color arrangement. This is before rearrangement: The pattern makes a quilt that finishes at 59" X 68", which is not a very useful size for me--I don't have any wall space to hang such a big quilt, and it's too fancy for a sofa throw quilt. So after surrounding the body of the quilt with a narrow indigo border, I carried the background strips into the outside and added a 10" border. Halfway there: Here are my background strips, trying to keep them in order! The finished size came out 81" X 90", just right for a full size bed. Quilt top: I used wool batting and did custom quilting on each block: All my fabrics are Japanese, either vintage, recycled or modern reproductions of traditional prints: Here's my finished quilt hanging at the quilt show: Below are Sunny's quilt (left) and Arlette's quilt (right): And here's Jeanette's version: I was honored to get a second place ribbon on mine: Gypsy Wife is quite a journey! If you haven't taken the journey yet, I recommend it. Grace and peace!!! ~Nancy Linking up to: Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, TGIFF, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Friday Foto Fun, Busy Hands Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, Sew Can She, Favorite March Finish.

It is time to begin working on Section 7. There are 7 blocks in this section Square in a square w 2 borders... 7in Square in a Square w Courthouse Steps... 4in Square in a Square w Pinwheel Ctr... 5in (two) Square in a Square... 4in (two) Square in a Square... 3in

Hello fellow Gypsies (and everyone following along)! It’s time to finish our sampler quilt journey. I’ve really enjoyed cohosting the 2019 Gypsy Wife Quilt-Along with @ScrappyViolet . It’s a quilt I’ve wanted to make for a long time.

This is Dana's Gypsy Wife quilt, pattern by Jen Kingwell Jen Kingwell patterns are always so much fun to quilt, and Dana's fabric choices are so interesting to explore as I quilt. Dana added some length to the quilt to make it bed sized. Here are 3 photos of the same part of the quilt...before quilting during quilting and fresh off the frame When quilting this sort of a quilt, I try to leave some frames (and in this quilt some of the long strips) unquilted, to give the eyes a bit of a resting place, and it's another way of adding texture as well. Dana and I decided to group several of the stripes together in the quilting--and to keep the quilting costs reasonable this was all freehand--no rulers. I'm so lucky my Innova can handle ditching vertically and horizontally so easily. I picked several quilting designs and just kept repeating them, always a good method for sampler quilts, where each block is unique. So many photos....but each part of the quilt is unique.... I have fun spotting fabrics I've used in quilts before... The quilting shows nicely on the back too---love using a wool batting.

Purchase this quilt pattern called Wanderer's (Gypsy) Wife by Jen Kingwell Designs. The booklet includes all instructions to make the quilt. Finished Quilt Size: 150cm x 173cm (59" x 68") 3rd Edition Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Welcome, welcome new friends and old. I would like to take a quick minute to show you all my entry into this season of Sewvivor. Fair warnin...

I have my first big quilt finish of the year to share with you today - it's my Gypsy Wife quilt. I started this as part of the quilt-along hosted by @GnomeAngel back in the summer and decided to go totally scrappy for the blocks and low volume for the background.This was the recipe I had used for my Long Time Gone quilt and I love it. After a few blocks, I decided I didn't like it this time. We had to take Mia into A&E one Sunday (nothing serious) and while we sat in the waiting room, she played on her tablet, and I coloured in a print-out of the quilt - can't go wrong with a rainbow. And I started again. Of course, I was well behind, and I stayed that way unfortunately. Even in the week after Christmas, I still believed I could make it - a finished quilt top by the 2nd January. I spent a few hours cutting all the background strips (what a job... not just the cutting, but keeping them organised)! But I had to give in. There was just too much to do and definitely not enough time. So the 2nd January passed. I still had some blocks to make and the construction of the quilt itself looked like quite the task. It was my birthday at the end of January, and for the first time in my life, I treated myself by taking a couple of days off work. Two whole days to sew - uninterrupted! Which was exactly what I needed to get this quilt done. I managed to get all the blocks pieced and a couple of the sections together ahead of my two golden days. But let me tell you, this quilt, and the construction part in particular, is not for beginners. It really stretched me - working out what seam to sew next, knowing I had some partial seams, and just making sure my layout was spot on. It was so much more fun than boring sashing! By the end of day 1 I had a finished quilt top, and that evening, at our local quilt group, I got it basted. The next day I set up the machine to free motion quilt and 3 hours later it was done. I quilted it with an all-over free motion stipple with cream thread on the front and pale green on the back. The backing is a duvet cover from Dunelm and I love the large scale of it. I pulled all the dark greys from my stash and cut myself a scrappy binding and by 3pm the quilt was finished! How very efficient! My birthday quilt! With the exception of the wadding, every piece of fabric in this quilt came from my stash. I made a vow this year to try fussy cutting, and I'm pretty pleased with the odd piece I included - I especially love the telephone. I also love that my quilt has "pissed" on it! Wonder how long it will take my mum to notice that! It's just such a happy, rainbowy quilt! I'm sad I couldn't get it done in time for the end of the quilt along, but I had a ball putting it together in peace and on my birthday! This is a finish from my Finish Along list, which you can find here.

Time to assemble Section 9. Here are all the blocks laid out. Referring to the diagram on page ____ cut your strips and lay them out beside the blocks. I then assemble strip sets Sew the strips sets to the SquareNsquare blocks as shown I don't think I've ever discussed this before, but here is the back to show you how I've been pressing the strips in one direction... except around blocks. A little snip of the seam allow me to flip it in the opposite direction. Sew the strip set to the side of the SquareNsquare blocks. There is a partial seam to allow addition of strips below and the bordered pinwheel block. Add the strip set below the SquareNsquare block Sew the Bordered Pinwheel to the stripset You can now close the partial seam to the bottom of the bordered pinwheel block Add the Hope for Hartford block below the Bordered Pinwheel Close the partial seam beside the Hope from Hartford Block. Sew on the Old Maid Puzzle Block and add the final long strip to complete this section.

It’s often challenging to sew together differently sized blocks. Add to that the Gypsy Wife’s pieced, striped background and very minimal instruction booklet and you can expect the process might get rocky. Here are some tips to help you on your way.

Gypsy Wife Quilt. Challenging and fun!

i have no new blocks to share just yet, so i am sharing a copy of megan's beautiful work as she assembles section 1 of the gypsy wife quilt. by the way, she has written a brilliant tutorial on assembling the block sections with partial seams. it's got me thinking they aren't so bad after all! now, just because i finished it and also because there are busy friends out there who are working ahead of the quilt along schedule, i'm sharing the spreadsheet i made for the blocks, broken down by section and month of the quilt along. there is no pressure to work ahead! everyone should feel like they can work at their own pace, whatever that is. click images to enlarge again, why do they come out different sizes?! you can download a pdf copy of the block chart here. or, if you are viewing it on your cell phone, you can click on the chart to enlarge the image, and then take a screen shot, which you can then zoom in on. it might be handier for some people to have a copy on their phone. if you are confused about the "block id" column, that was for personal use. when i was working my way thru the book the first time around, i found it helpful to give each block an id tag, which i marked in the instructions and in the assembly charts for cross-referencing purposes. you can just ignore it. i've seen several section 1's already assembled on instagram at the hashtag #GypsyWifeQuiltSection1 (and even some section 2's!) it's pretty exciting to see so many of them coming together. now that my sewing room renovations are complete, as of yesterday, i can assembly my own section 1 this weekend. we can do this, friends! as always, you can follow along with everyone over on instagram at #GypsyWifeQuiltAlong2016.

On 3 August Nicole Calver (of Snips Snippets) and I will be kicking off the Jen Kingwell’s Gypsy Wife Quilt Sew-along. Jen...

Why do we make quilts? Is it the journey or the destination? This journey was rich, color-focused, slow and meandering. I used my full cadre of Anna Maria Horner fabrics , sparing none, enjoying all.

I finally finished my Gypsy wife quilt. Which was on the frame for about 3 weeks I think. It only took me three evenings and an afternoon to actually quilt, but I had some machine issues, plus finished a bunch of quilt tops. I have 9 tops on my to-quilt list, which considering I was all caught up be

I haven't blogged in quite some time... I think life just got very busy between family and work. The loss of several people... family and f...

The Jen Kingwell Gypsy Wife Sew-along kicks off next week (August 3) and I thought it would be a good...

Hello fellow Gypsies (and everyone following along)! In March our quilt-along really gains momentum. We have quite a few blocks to make this month, so you’re going to be excited to see your quilt start coming together.

We have two new blocks in Section 8.... From the Heart and the Star Block. I will be posting tutorials for these new blocks next. To save time I will not be making another Square in a Square tutorial... we have done this block "a million" times already. Here is a link on how to make it if you need a refresher. https://madakamom.blogspot.com/2019/02/2019-gypsy-wife-qal-section-1-square-in.html We have also made the Square in Square Courthouse Steps block before. In section 5 we made the 7in option.... Here in Section 8 we will be making the 10.5in option at the top right hand column of page 24.... be sure to follow the correct cutting directions. Assembly will be the same. https://madakamom.blogspot.com/2019/05/2019-gypsy-wife-quilt-along-section-5_46.html

It’s the first of two assembly weeks for the Jen Kingwell’s Gypsy Wife Quilt Sew-along. This week you’ll be assembling...

We have finally made it to the last section of this wonderful quilt. There are no new blocks in this section. We have made them all in previous sections. I will just post links below the diagram to the tutorials and then write up an assembly post. Square in a Square blocks... just be sure to follow the correct size cutting directions. (one) 3.5", (three) 3" and (two) 4" https://madakamom.blogspot.com/2019/08/2019-gypsy-wife-quilt-along-section-7_43.html Pinwheel (one) 3" https://madakamom.blogspot.com/2019/07/2019-gypsy-wife-quilt-along-section.html Square in a Square Pinwheel center (one) 5.5" https://madakamom.blogspot.com/2019/08/2019-gypsy-wife-quilt-along-section-7_43.html Square in a square with courthouse steps (one) 7" (one) 5.5" https://madakamom.blogspot.com/2019/05/2019-gypsy-wife-quilt-along-section-5_46.html Puss in a Corner https://madakamom.blogspot.com/2019/02/2019-gypsy-wife-qal-section-1-puss-in.html

I was part of a wonderful community of quilters that tackled Jen Kingwell’s Gypsy Wife pattern. Here you can find my 10 sections of Gypsy Wife video tutorials. The Gypsy Wife pattern can be p…

Here's my Gypsy Wife quilt!!! I sewed the blocks in 2018 as a QAL (quilt along) with two groups I belong to. Then I spent all of January and the first half of February assembling and finishing it, in order to enter it in our quilt show on February 15th. As it says in the pattern, putting these blocks together "is a journey"! In other words, it's a lot of work, just when you thought you were done with a lot of work, AKA sewing zillions of random blocks! Below are my blocks on the design wall. I recommend labeling each one with the finished size in inches. Then when it's laid out on the design wall, you can switch blocks that are the exact same size and spread out the color arrangement. This is before rearrangement: The pattern makes a quilt that finishes at 59" X 68", which is not a very useful size for me--I don't have any wall space to hang such a big quilt, and it's too fancy for a sofa throw quilt. So after surrounding the body of the quilt with a narrow indigo border, I carried the background strips into the outside and added a 10" border. Halfway there: Here are my background strips, trying to keep them in order! The finished size came out 81" X 90", just right for a full size bed. Quilt top: I used wool batting and did custom quilting on each block: All my fabrics are Japanese, either vintage, recycled or modern reproductions of traditional prints: Here's my finished quilt hanging at the quilt show: Below are Sunny's quilt (left) and Arlette's quilt (right): And here's Jeanette's version: I was honored to get a second place ribbon on mine: Gypsy Wife is quite a journey! If you haven't taken the journey yet, I recommend it. Grace and peace!!! ~Nancy Linking up to: Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Needle & Thread Thursday, TGIFF, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Friday Foto Fun, Busy Hands Quilts, From Bolt to Beauty, Sew Can She, Favorite March Finish.

the strips of the gypsy wife quilt form a major portion of its distinctive character. on the back of the pattern, the requirements list c...

we've pulled lots of fabrics, we've got our pattern book and pencil ready, and some of us are kinda nervous. i hope everyone is excited! this is an epic quilt make. i'm doing a lot of explaining up front, so bear with me and the wordiness of this post. first, let's see who's with us. quilt along sign up since this is the kick-off of the quilt along, i'm going to introduce some of my methodologies to you and give more information about how the quilt along will function. don't worry, international copyright police - i'm not going to be publishing the pattern in entirety on this blog! but i will be showing bits and pieces to make a point and to explain a few missing links for those of us who need more help. the pattern booklet is composed of several pages of block assembly instructions (pg 3-24), section assembly diagrams (pg 26-31), and the layout of sections for construction of the top (pg 32). because the section assembly diagrams are mostly graphics and only a few measurements, the maker must identify the blocks by sight and do some math to figure out which blocks are in each section. but don't despair, that's been done for you! section 1 - click to enlarge blocks in each section i've identified each block and it's instruction page. this information for each section will be published at the first of the month, each month. also, i've noted the number of blocks per section and loosely ranked them by complexity. for example, section one has 5 blocks: two large, two medium, one small. the size isn't measured by inches but rather by how complex it is/the number of steps involved and how much time it might take. you'll see it's all relative and rather subjective, but i've done the best i can! this is to give you an idea how much work might be involved for the month. although the book breaks up the quilt into sections, they are not equally divided. some months are bigger than others. section six, for instance, could actually be a two month project relative to the other months. it involves a lot of square in a square blocks. you might want to make some of these ahead of time. i'll give you a heads up when bigger months are coming so you can plan accordingly. strips in addition, i've numbered all the strips, from left to right (which is opposite to order of assembly, i now realize - but too late!), identified where it is in each section it runs through, and how long it is in total. this was important to me to figure out because i wanted to make sure i had enough fabric to carry a long strip into it's other sections. also, the assembly diagrams aren't always lined up precisely and it can be confusing where a strip picks up again. this information will also be shared each month. for planning purposes, i'll note now that the strips vary in length from 65.5" to 12". there are at least 11 strips that are longer than 42", which is the standard wof length. these strips will need two wof cuts to complete. each strip is divided into as many as 5 sub sections. all this will be shared monthly by section. detail, section 7 - click to enlarge section seven is the bottom right hand piece. if you look here you can see how i numbered the sections all the way across the bottom (and gave letter designations to the 1" strips, represented by the dark strips in the diagram). next, i worked my way up through the sections and found how long each strip was at each of it's sections, and figured the total. the strips on the outer edges of the quilt have the longest total pieces. if you want to play along so you know exactly which strips i'm referring to, you can mark your pattern like i did by just placing the number in the very bottom of the strips in the lower sections (ten, six, seven). start in section 10 with the farthest left strip and move right. grey strips get letters instead of numbers. each month i'll show where else the strips fall. schedule the schedule megan and i have agreed on is this: february - section one: 5 blocks (1 sm, 2 md, 3 lg); 19 strips (2 - 1") march - section two: 6 blocks (2 sm, 1 md, 3 lg); 6 strips (2 - 1") april - sections three and four: 6 blocks (1 sm, 1 md, 4 lg); 10 strips may - section five: 6 blocks (3 sm, 3 lg); 9 strips (2 - 1") june - section six: 21 blocks (13 sm, 5 md, 3 lg); 25 strips (2 - 1") this is a big one! you might want to get a jumpstart or leave some for july july - section seven: 7 blocks (4 sm, 2 md, 1 lg); 14 strips (2 - 1") august - section eight: 4 blocks (1 sm, 3 lg); 11 strips (1 - 1") september - section nine: 5 blocks (2sm, 1 md, 2 lg); 11 strips (4 - 1") october - section ten: 11 blocks (6 sm, 2md, 3 lg); 22 strips (5 - 1") november - quilt and bind monthly posts on the first of each month, i will post the section specifications that include blocks, strips, and any special instructions/tips. megan will also be posting her section and thoughts. for those who want to work ahead, i will also post brief info for the next section or optional work ahead ideas. there will be a link party at the end of each month where participants can link up blog or instagram posts about their sections. other things to note the instructions give the finished measurements for each block. this means what it will measure once it's been sewn into the quilt. if you want to know the unfinished measurement, which is what i use most often in these posts because i want to know how big the block is supposed to be before i attach it to anything, add .5" (1/2 inch) for the seam allowance that hasn't been taken in since the block isn't sewn into place yet. finished size + 1/2" = unfinished size what the pattern calls "square in a square blocks" are also commonly called "economy blocks." i've previously written about making them here. links to tutorials for sq in sq/econ blocks are included in that post. there's a tutorial for a different method than our pattern uses, here. some thoughts on pinwheel blocks are here. some of the 1" wide strips are paired together (B&C, F&G, H&I). yes, when sewn these do equal the same as the 1.5" wide strips. so technically you could just use a 1.5" strip in place of these. however, it gives added interest and variety to the quilt to vary the width occasionally as the pattern does. there is a partial seam between strips 50 and 51. you could avoid this by converting the 6.5" strip into one 4.5" strip and one 2.5" strip. i realize these two numbers don't equal 6.5", but you have to factor in the additional seam allowance by adding 1/4" for each side of the cut, which is 1/2" total. (and i hope i've done that correctly!) where ever this occurs in the pattern, i will try to make note for you and give alternate measurements. i've previously shared thoughts on optional cutting tools that are helpful for this project here. section six (june) has several square in square blocks that will fall below sections 1 - 4 in the same strips. because june is a large month, it might be helpful to make a few of those sq-in-sq blocks ahead of time as you work on the other sections. on the months we are working with sections above section six, i'll let you know which strips will have section six sq in sq blocks below them so you can get a head start. if you have any questions, please ask in the comments. if you are a no-reply blogger, please email me directly instead. #GypsyWifeQuiltAlong2016 on instagram

This is Dana's Gypsy Wife quilt, pattern by Jen Kingwell Jen Kingwell patterns are always so much fun to quilt, and Dana's fabric choices are so interesting to explore as I quilt. Dana added some length to the quilt to make it bed sized. Here are 3 photos of the same part of the quilt...before quilting during quilting and fresh off the frame When quilting this sort of a quilt, I try to leave some frames (and in this quilt some of the long strips) unquilted, to give the eyes a bit of a resting place, and it's another way of adding texture as well. Dana and I decided to group several of the stripes together in the quilting--and to keep the quilting costs reasonable this was all freehand--no rulers. I'm so lucky my Innova can handle ditching vertically and horizontally so easily. I picked several quilting designs and just kept repeating them, always a good method for sampler quilts, where each block is unique. So many photos....but each part of the quilt is unique.... I have fun spotting fabrics I've used in quilts before... The quilting shows nicely on the back too---love using a wool batting.

“Gypsy Wife” by Jen Kingwell is one of my all-time favourite quilt patterns. I had so much fun making this quilt and it’s reflected in my fussy cutting and colours. Raylee Bielenberg, of Sunflower Quilting, has custom quilted my quilt top and it’s stunning. MY VERSION OF “GYPSY WIFE” BLOCK TUTORIALS Click an image below...

the strips of the gypsy wife quilt form a major portion of its distinctive character. on the back of the pattern, the requirements list c...

We will be working on this last part of Section 6(right). There are 7 blocks in this part of the section Indian Hatchet.... 6in Pinwheel with Border.... 6in Courthouse Steps with 3 borders .... 4in Bordered Square-in-a-Square.... 5in Square-in-a-Square.... (1) 3in and (2) 4in

On 3 August Nicole Calver (of Snips Snippets) and I will be kicking off the Jen Kingwell’s Gypsy Wife Quilt Sew-along. Jen...

i have no new blocks to share just yet, so i am sharing a copy of megan's beautiful work as she assembles section 1 of the gypsy wife qui...

I haven't blogged in quite some time... I think life just got very busy between family and work. The loss of several people... family and f...

Half Square Triangles are the blocks of choice for this week in the Jen Kingwell’s Gypsy Wife Quilt Sew-along. I...

i have no new blocks to share just yet, so i am sharing a copy of megan's beautiful work as she assembles section 1 of the gypsy wife quilt. by the way, she has written a brilliant tutorial on assembling the block sections with partial seams. it's got me thinking they aren't so bad after all! now, just because i finished it and also because there are busy friends out there who are working ahead of the quilt along schedule, i'm sharing the spreadsheet i made for the blocks, broken down by section and month of the quilt along. there is no pressure to work ahead! everyone should feel like they can work at their own pace, whatever that is. click images to enlarge again, why do they come out different sizes?! you can download a pdf copy of the block chart here. or, if you are viewing it on your cell phone, you can click on the chart to enlarge the image, and then take a screen shot, which you can then zoom in on. it might be handier for some people to have a copy on their phone. if you are confused about the "block id" column, that was for personal use. when i was working my way thru the book the first time around, i found it helpful to give each block an id tag, which i marked in the instructions and in the assembly charts for cross-referencing purposes. you can just ignore it. i've seen several section 1's already assembled on instagram at the hashtag #GypsyWifeQuiltSection1 (and even some section 2's!) it's pretty exciting to see so many of them coming together. now that my sewing room renovations are complete, as of yesterday, i can assembly my own section 1 this weekend. we can do this, friends! as always, you can follow along with everyone over on instagram at #GypsyWifeQuiltAlong2016.

I haven't blogged in quite some time... I think life just got very busy between family and work. The loss of several people... family and friends... that I was close too just took all my energy away. But now, I am back. While browsing around facebook recently I discovered an exciting new group to follow along as we piece an amazing quilt together. I jumped all in and even volunteered to be a moderator!... what was I thinking! :) The pattern is The Gypsy Wife by Jen Kingwell of Amitie.com.au This looks like an amazing challenge for me to occupy my "downtime" between church and family and work and will feed my creative soul. Join us on facebook at Gypsy Wife quilt along 2019 (sorry, when I figure out how to put the link here I will... for now just search for us on facebook) UPDATE: here is the link to our facebook page .... https://www.facebook.com/groups/1020630088120710/ Everyone must purchase their own copy of the pattern... which can be found by doing a google search. There are several sites and shops that you can purchase from (ie Etsy, Ebay, Amazon, and various online quilt shops). No measurements or sizes will be posted... you must have your own pattern so as not to break copyright laws. This will be a guided quilt-along.... that means beginning February 2, 2019 (and the first Saturday of each subsequent month) we will announce which blocks or section of the quilt we will be working on. Throughout the month we will post hints and tips to help you with challenges along the way (such as accurate cutting and sewing partial seams). The quilt has been broken down into sections like so: We are working out the details of how exactly we will do this... but just like eating an elephant, it will be one bite at a time! ********************** So to get this started and be ready to begin sewing on Feb 2 here is a list of fabric requirements. You can start gathering your fabric while waiting for your pattern to arrive. Several months ago I found a collection of 99 fat quarters for sale on a website that I can no longer remember the name of. I fell in love with this collection and purchased it with no particular project in mind. I think it will be perfect for this project. I think I have decided to use neutrals for a background rather than a variety of colors, so I may need to dig through my stash for a few more fat quarters. But this will be enough to get me started. A search of Pintrest will show you a variety of backgrounds and colors that others have made to help you decide on your own color theme. Here is a blank coloring sheet that I believe you can print off and practice coloring your own way.

Welcome, welcome new friends and old. I would like to take a quick minute to show you all my entry into this season of Sewvivor. Fair warnin...