Oh how I LOVE getting Mail!!

I LOVE getting stuff in the mail - although most of the time its boring stuff like junk mail and bills - the junk mail I don't mind, the bills I could do without.  Every once in a while something comes that just rocks my world and I have been waiting for this arrival for a week or so!!

I have been seeing people post blocks online that they have made from Farmers Wife Sampler Quilt book for the past few months and it has piqued my interest.   I went to a few of my local quilt shops and the Chapers book store that was close to my house - none of them had this book in store so I wound up having to order it online.  It came to the house the other day and the lovely UPS guy left the package on the doorstep and left without checking to make sure we were home which we weren't.  When I got home from my Moms house the other day my husband was a little perplexed at what could be in the box since he didn't remember ordering anything (most of the online ordering is his!) but when he asked me I jumped up and ran to the box - I knew exactly what it was!!

The back has a picture of a completed quilt with all 111 blocks in full color.  Just looking at it makes me want to sit down at my sewing machine and create something beautiful.  That being said I have no idea how to use paper templates and if there are any special techniques that I need to accomplish any of these blocks. (yep, thats me: jumping right in without knowing what I'm doing!) Even if I don't make a single block from this book thats ok, the stories and the pictures are beautiful.  

I also ordered Nancy Ziemans Sewing A to Z along with my Farmers Wife book.  It has tonnes of tips and tricks for everything from appliques to zippers and a bunch of stuff in between.  I have been PVR'ing Nancys sewing show on KSPS (or whatever american public broadcasting station it is) - much to my husbands horror - for the past few weeks and she has had some really cool ideas and tricks.  Its amazing what one will watch when they are up a few times in the middle of the night with a nursing baby!  When I saw the book online at the same time as I was ordering the Farmers Wife block I knew I had to add this book to my sewing book collection.  I'm all about having reference material on hand when I don't know how to do something and sometimes its just nice to look at the pictures and daydream!

I've got a few more books lined up in the que that I'd like to get, until then I'm more than happy with The Farmers Wife and Nancy Ziemans books!  They'll keep me busy for a while.