Agri-Spouse Friday - Week 7

Have you ever had one of those weeks? This was one of those weeks for me. When you live in Alberta you learn to accept snow whenever it comes. I have lived in Alberta since 1985 and have had snow on the ground during every month of the year. Twice actually. Yes, I have seen snow on the ground in June, July and August. Twice. During different years certainly but it has happened. For all of that, I love Alberta and wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

So, yes, we had snow this week. We didn't get quite as much snow as places in Alberta further south of here but we had snow. Panorama posted this shot:

This was how much snow they received earlier this week. We didn't get that much here thank goodness.

Brianna received her half-yellow belt in Tae Kwon Do on Tuesday. She has passed out of Little Dragons now and is into the bigger kids children class officially. That does mean that I now have to buy her sparring gear since they do full on sparring once they get to half-yellow. I just can't imagine anyone kicking and whomping on our little girl, pads or not.

Rhylee has decided to join the competitive team at Tae Kwon Do. I wasn't sure how he would do. They have two rules. No whining and no quitting. I didn't expect Rhylee to finish the tryout class and make the team with those rules but he did! He also managed to complete the classes on Tuesday and Thursday. He was pushed hard and still wants to keep going. I think it will be good for him to keep it up but I didn't think he would do it. Yay him!

The real problem though was a certain Farmer's Wife Alonger's two boys. The two of them are lucky to have survived the week. Now, I'm not saying who these two boys are but I will say that it may particularly be the "Mighty Eskimo". Because of those two boys, I ended up having to drive downtown FOUR times this week. GAH! Today I had to drive downtown to get a bowtie. We are going to a Mess Dinner tomorrow night for the "Battle of Panjiway". I'll be honest, I don't even know where Panjiway is but we are going to a dinner to commemorate it. 

As with other Mess Dinners, he will wear his fancy Military Tux and I wear a lovely red gown. Hopefully this time we will get someone to take a picture of the two of us together. With that said, we checked on his mess kit the other day and realized that somehow we had misplaced his bowtie. How does that happen? How do you lose a bowtie that doesn't even untie?

With that said, here are the photos from the blocks last week.

Marian's Broken Sugar Bowl:

Suzanne's Broken Sugar Bowl:

Marian's Prairie Queen:

And Suzanne's Prairie Queen:

And now for this week's blocks. This week's blocks are very similar to last week's blocks. Again, I am going to use my colours just for descriptive purposes.

We'll start this week with Block #72 - Railroad.

Cut two black squares 3" x 3".
Cut two green squares 3" x 3".
Cut ten black squares 1 1/2" by 1 1/2".
Cut ten green squares 1 1/2" by 1 1/2".

Place one 3" green square RST with one 3" black square. Pin on the diagonal. Draw a line diagonally on the wrong side of the lighter fabric. Sew a seam 1/4" from the line you have just drawn and then sew a 1/4" seam on the other side of the line you drew. Then place your ruler along the line you drew and slice the two HSTs apart Set the seam and press to one side. Place the other 3" green square RST with he remaining black 3" square and repeat the HST process. Trim your HSTs to 2 1/2" square. You should now have four green/black HSTs that measure 2 1/2".












Place one 1 1/2" green square RST with one 1 1/2" black square and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press toward the darker fabric. Repeat for the other nine 1 1/2" square sets. Take one green/black square set and place it RST with another green/black square set so that the opposite colours are together and the seams nest neatly and sew a 1/4" seam. Repeat for the other green/black square sets until you have five green/black four patch sets. Organize your pieces RSU the way you want them to look.


Flip square 2 RST onto square 3 and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press toward square 3. Flip square 5 RST onto square 6 and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press toward square 5. Flip square 8 RST onto square 9 and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press toward square 9. Flip square 1 RST onto square 4 and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press toward square 4.




Now flip square 7 RST onto square 4 and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press toward square 4. Flip the 2/3 set RST onto the 5/6 set, nest the seams neatly and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press toward the 2/3 set. Flip the 8/9 set RST onto the 5/6 set, nest the seams neatly and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press toward the 8/9 set. Flip the 1/4/7 set RST on the 2/5/8 piece, nest the seams neatly and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press to one side and the first block is finished.

Next we'll do Block #98 - Waterwheel.

Cut one brown square 3" by 3".
Cut one pink square 3" by 3".
Cut two blue square 3" by 3".
Cut eight blue squares 1 1/2" by 1 1/2".
Cut four orange squares 1 1/2" by 1 1/2".
Cut four pink squares 1 1/2" by 1 1/2".
Cut four brown squares 1 1/2" by 1 1/2".

Place one 3" blue square RST with one 3" pink square. Pin on the diagonal. Draw a line diagonally on the wrong side of the lighter fabric. Sew a seam 1/4" from the line you have just drawn and then sew a 1/4" seam on the other side of the line you drew. Then place your ruler along the line you drew and slice the two HSTs apart Set the seam and press to one side. Place the other 3" blue square RST with the remaining brown 3" square and repeat the HST process. Trim your HSTs to 2 1/2" square. You should now have four green/black HSTs that measure 2 1/2".

Place one 1 1/2" blue square RST with one 1 1/2" orange square and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press toward the darker fabric. Repeat to make two pink/brown sets. Then repeat for the rest of the 1 1/2" squares, matching a blue square with another colour. Organize the sets RSU in the correct order. Take one square set and place it RST with another square set so that the the seams nest neatly and sew a 1/4" seam. Repeat for the other square sets until you have five four patch sets. Organize your pieces RSU the way you want them to look.

Flip square 2 RST onto square 3 and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press toward square 3. Flip square 5 RST onto square 6 and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press toward square 5. Flip square 8 RST onto square 9 and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press toward square 9. Flip square 1 RST onto square 4 and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press toward square 4.

Now flip square 7 RST onto square 4 and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press toward square 4. Flip the 2/3 set RST onto the 5/6 set, nest the seams neatly and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press toward the 2/3 set. Flip the 8/9 set RST onto the 5/6 set, nest the seams neatly and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press toward the 8/9 set. Flip the 1/4/7 set RST on the 2/5/8 piece, nest the seams neatly and sew a 1/4" seam. Set the seam and press to one side and the second block is finished.

This week's blocks weren't very different from last week's blocks so I would think that there shouldn't be any problems if you managed to complete last week's block. Suzanne and Marian finished theirs and I think Mom should be getting going with her blocks soon. 

I am looking forward to getting a better handle on our schedules and getting a bit more done in my sewing room. I did manage to get a bit of sewing room organizing done this week but I did not actually get any sewing done. With a bit of luck I will get some sewing done next week.

See you next week!

Tara