Five Shadows

Let’s just say I threw last week’s to-do list out the window and decided on a bit of Crazy. Happy Crazy.

First, I feel in love with Minki Kim‘s book Diary in Stitches.

Just take a look at this! Or go leaf through it on Amazon.

See her sketch on the left page? And then see how she interpreted it with stitching and fabric on the right page? What a wonderful idea! I love how only bits and pieces of the design are embellished with fabric. I want to play with this idea.

But what I really did was start a new FMQ project sponsored by the Facebook Group Machine Quilting Tutorials with Jeanne. She is teaching a Row by Row quilt this year using FMQ. Here is part of my first row.

This design got me thinking about stencils. And about my friend who gave me a large pile of stencils in all shapes and sizes.

So I dug through them and settled on these,

thinking I could use the stencils and bits of fabric to play around with Minki Kim’s style of design.

I dug out my scraps of already fused fabrics left over from making appliqué quilts.

Then using the stencils and fabric I started playing.

I traced the portion on the stencil I wanted to use on to background fabric. Then traced bits of the leaves, rose bud and flower on the fused fabric. (I use Misty Fuse for machine appliqué quilts, keeping the scraps in ZipLoc bags.) I fused the fabric in place with a hot iron and then had fun stitching around and over the fabrics and along the lines of the rest of the stencil design.

So much fun! And I’m loving the look and results!

Heart stencil and free hand Love.

Flowers and love.

Heart!

But that was not enough Crazy for the week. I had visited a quilting friend. We’ve been friends for 20 or so years. As she gets older, her hands are just not cooperating as they once did. She showed me several of her UFOs she had intended to complete and donate to charities. I offered to take them to complete them for her.

I took 4 sets of 12 blocks each with sashing already cut, which will make 4 baby quilts.

…

You know, not like I don’t have any UFOs of my own! I shared this at my quilting group yesterday and they did think I was crazy! We had a good laugh and I got busy on the first of 4 quilt tops.

Here’s the first completed baby quilt top. 9″ blocks & 2 1/2″ sashing and border. Top is 37″ x 48 1/2″ My friend has a lovely stash of fabric which I’m sure will provide backing and binding. I’ll take this back to her and see if she wants me to finish it, or perhaps she will want to machine quilt it.

That’s my Crazy for the week. It was fun and I hope to be so inspired again! Plans this week will be a repeat of last, temperature quilt, and backs for 2 finished tops.

Last week’s to-do list:

1. Sew up backs for the 2 above quilts.
2. Stitch together hexies for the temperature quilt.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.

Where did the week go? Or is it weeks?

I did manage to get the borders sewn on to the 2 quilts for my sister-in-law. Sorry, no photos of the tops, but this is the block making up one quilt.

The other quilt was made using these fabrics and the Curve it Up pattern by Sew Kind of Wonderful.

I’ll share photos once these 2 are all quilted.

A now UFO I’m working on in the 2018 Temperature quilt. All the hexies are now made and ready to finish sewing together. Read more about it here.

Last week’s to-do list:

1. work on 2018 temperature quilt. I have some embroidery of dates and temperatures to do by machine. ✔️
2. work on adding borders to SIL 2 quilt tops. I have a quilting sewing day scheduled with friends for Thursday, I plan on working on the borders then. ✔️

This week’s to-do list:

1. Sew up backs for the 2 above quilts.
2. Stitch together hexies for the temperature quilt.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.

I didn’t get very far on my goal for January which was to work on completing my 2018 temperature quilt.

I did pull fabric for embroidering the name of each month. I used the fabric from the low temp of the first day of the month as the background for embroidering the name of the month. The embroidery is all completed.

I also decided to embroider the temperature range on each fabric used in the quilt.

Small progress for January, but here’s hoping I complete this project this month.

I used a Frixion pen to mark lines. Next step, iron the pen marks off. Then it’s time to piece all the hexies together. That will be my goal for February.

Linking to One Monthly Goal over at Elm Street Quilts.

Once the holidays of Christmas and New Years passed, I switched to prepping for an upcoming event.

My eldest son married his beloved Saturday, January 19!

All the photos I’m sharing are from cell phones of relatives. Professional photos will come later.

My kiddos, grands, happy newly weds, me & my husband, groom’s aunt & uncle.

It snowed all day long, and was so windy. Bride arriving in snow boots and leggings!

My kiddos. Son Luke, Daughter Anna, DILove Alicia, Son Noel, Daughter Charis. Luke was best man, Charis was also on the groom’s side, but what do you call her, a groom’s person? Wish I had a photo of the whole wedding party.

Happy Couple at the reception!

My husband, John and me.

Sunday morning we hosted a brunch in our home for family and friends before they headed back to their homes.

Dear friends, the Roses, made biscuits and gravy for 24 people! We also served quiche, fruit, yogurt & granola, juices & coffee.

Fun facts: the wedding gown was my mother’s. Sadly she passed last February, not living to see her gown being worn in her grandson’s wedding. This is the fourth time for it to be used in a family wedding. My sister and also my cousin wore the gown at their weddings. The fur stoles worn by my daughter and me are from my husband’s grandmother.

As for sewing this week, I’ll be adding borders to 2 quilt tops for my sister-in-law. She commented on all the quilts in my house. I told her to pick one out. Then showed her a few I would part with and she selected one. Then I took her up to my sewing room, and showed her finished tops that so far do not have homes. She selected 2. But she wants them bed size. I’ll be adding one border to each.

And get this! A local quilt shop held a 60% off one item sale yesterday. One item could be up to a 10 yard cut of fabric! We selected fabric to finish the 2 quilts. 10 yards for one and 7 yards for the second, using same fabric for border & back. What a deal!

I’m taking a breather today – we had 7 guests staying with us for the wedding. And yes, each bed had at least one quilt on it! Some had 2! We woke up to -8 degrees Fahrenheit Monday morning! Our first guests arrived Wednesday night, and the last of our guests left 6:30pm Monday night! What a full and fun wedding celebration!

I’d say the New Year is going extremely well for me. How is your January going?

Most recent goals:

1. Finishing Helen Godden’s FMQ Christmas ornaments ✗ I really wanted to finish this one up, but wedding prep happily took up my time!
2. Finish 2018 Temperature quilt (I’m giving myself the month of January to finish it.) ✗ Not touched.
3. Start a new project for my soon to be DIL! ✔️ DIL selected a pattern, I was able to buy a fabric kit, book and ruler at 15% off. I’ll share more about this quilt once I get going on it.

This week’s to-do list:

1. work on 2018 temperature quilt. I have some embroidery of dates and temperatures to do by machine.
2. work on adding borders to SIL 2 quilt tops. I have a quilting sewing day scheduled with friends for Thursday, I plan on working on the borders then.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.

My goal for January will be to stitch together all of the 365 pieced hexies I made throughout 2018 for my Daily Temperature Quilt.

First I want to machine embroider the names of the months and temperature range on the fabric I used. Then I plan on using a monofilament thread and zigzag stitch the hexies together. Fingers crossed my plan works.

Linking to Elm Street Quilts where Patty hosts One Monthly Goal.

Happy New Year!

Looking back over 2018 and selecting the Best Of for this post, I find I am just as tickled with this Teddy Bear Quilt as I was in April. This was a quilt for a customer who wanted a baby quilt using the grandfather’s terry cloth robe. I paired the robe with Moda Grunge Dots making a 2 sided quilt with a Teddy Bear on each side.

Teddy in the terry cloth pocket.

Pocket & Moda side of quilt.

Teddy peeking out from under the terry cloth.

Terry cloth side of quilt.

Another favorite is this Heart Quilt I made for my nephew’s baby girl.

Quilted using a walking foot in a simple grid design.

Scrappy machine attached binding.

I started a Jodi Barrow’s Square in a Square quilt, not finished, but I do love the blocks.

I’m pairing a lovely Hummingbird print with fabrics from my stash, and using Jodi’s Letters to a Soldier book. These brights look nothing like her Civil War prints!  I hate that this is now an UFO, as I have not stitched on it since the summer. Here’s hoping 2019 will see progress!

A quick project I made for my father when he moved into an assisted living apartment are these orphan block placemats and coasters.

I thought these would be nice and cheery in his little kitchenette.

My last creative juices for 2018 got me going on two Christmas stocking for my two grand children.

The Snowman was for my grand daughter and the Christmas Moose (a moose with a scarf makes it a Christmas Moose, right!?) was for my grand son.

Goodbye 2018 and Hello 2019!

Happy New Year all!

Upcoming To-Do Plans include

1. Finishing Helen Godden’s FMQ Christmas ornaments
2. Finish 2018 Temperature quilt (I’m giving myself the month of January to finish it.)
3. Start a new project for my soon to be DIL!

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.

December Recap

My goal was to make several gifts for Christmas gift exchanges with my quilty friends.

I found several fabric ornament tutorials and made these:

and these

and these which I started after Christmas. I’m jumping ahead for 2019 Christmas!

They need button centers and ribbon for hanging.

Plus I started and completed 2 Christmas stockings for my 2 grand children.

And finally! I bound Chic Country for my grand daughter’s birthday! Which we will celebrating tomorrow. Sew Kind of Wonderful pattern.

With just these bits of sewing completed, along with Christmas gatherings, Church, time with family & friends, I’m pleased with how the month of December has played out. I hope you also had happy celebrations with family and friends and are looking forward to a Happy New Year!

Linking to One Monthly Goal.

What a wonderful life! I enjoyed Christmas with my family gathered around. We are blessed to know the King, and to celebrate his coming to earth. I do love Christmas with its special meaning and all the trappings of gift giving, eating yummy foods, sharing time with family and friends.

This year I made 2 stockings for my 2 grand children. We hung them by the chimney with care

and then filled them before the children arrived Christmas day.

My grand daughter wanted a snowman. And my daughter suggested a Christmas Moose for baby grandson. Adding a red scarf makes a moose a Christmas Moose, right?!

Merry Christmas all, and Happy New Year!

How did I do on last week’s To-Do List:

1. Finish Christmas Stockings for the grands. ✔️

This week’s To-Do List:

1. Bind Chic Country quilt, finally.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.

One of the gals in my quilting group thought it would be fun for each of us to make fabric stars to exchange at our December meeting. Here are the stars I made.

You can find instructions at Geta’s Quilting Studio.

I also made these stars for another gift.

I found a link on A Spoonful of Sugar for these folded Hexagon Ornaments – take a look at her pretty ornaments! Angie’s Bits and Pieces has a great Youtube showing how to fold the hexie star ornaments. She is using them as flowers on a quilt. Christmas Star Ornaments or Flowers, they are pretty used either way!

I took along extra pre-cut hexies to the party, thinking my friends would like to try their hand in making them. I was right, and they each folded up a hexie star and plan on making more for gift giving.

I’d like to try these ornaments next, time permitting. That little adventure might be waiting until next year!

The photo is from Through the Eyes of a Quilter Blog. You can find a how-to video on the post and some nice hints for creating these adorable ornaments.

Since I have nothing else to do – I’m adding 2 more projects to my week before Christmas. I’m laughing, are you joining in with me!? For several years I have planned on making new Christmas Stockings for our family members, and I have just not gotten around to doing so. Sunday, I decided enough! And dug through fabric, patterns, and internet for ideas and actually started 2 stocking for my 2 grand children! That is at least a start on the 7 stockings I’d like to make.

Here is the one, so far, for my grand daughter.

The Sing for Me snowman & cardinal pattern caught my eye. I used the bird pattern, reduced the size to fit the stocking. Grand daughter likes pink and purple, so Mrs Snowman got hat, scarf & mitten in those colors. Do you see the pink and purple tassel hanging off the hat? That was my daughter’s idea.

And this one is for my grand son, also in progress.

The moose will get a red scarf as he is to be a Christmas moose. I’ll also add evergreen trees. At least the stockings are both started!

Husband and I are hosting Christmas in our home this year. Everyone is to arrive at noon. We will have lunch together, then open gifts, then games and family fun!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! I hope you are enjoying the countdown and not stressing out!

How did I do on last week’s To-Do List:

1. Side stepping again – finish up some little quilt gifts for gift exchange. ✔️ Little gifts all done and gifted at parties this past week.

This week’s To-Do List:

1. Finish Christmas Stockings for the grands.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.

Progress! I finished the second quilting plan on Chic Country. I would like to make one more pass by quilting curved lines. For that, I’ll need to practice using a ruler while quilting. I’ve not mastered that yet – holding a ruler while moving the quilt. I’ll practice for a while and see if I can get the look I’m wanting.

That said, I’ve set Chic Country aside for a bit as I work on making a few gifts for upcoming holiday gift exchanges.  I’ve made 4 Be Merry quilties, inspired by this pillow. They are  displayed on an 8″ x 10″ clear vertical photo frame like the one below.

The little quilts slip over the frames.

My daughter brought over the beautiful Poinsettia Thanksgiving Day, I just had to put it in the photo too!

For the Be Merry quilts, I layered and quilted the background fabric, then fused the words and flowers in place. Then I stitched over the words and flowers in matching threads. I layered a back fabric with the finished top, right sides together, stitched the two sides and top, turned it right sides out, and then slipped the finished quilt over the photo frame.

Earlier, I made snowmen tea-towels.

I bought ready made tea-towels and added the appliqué snowmen heads. I fused the heads and carrots in place, blanket stitched around them, and machine stitched the eyes and mouths in place.

Next up will be making several fabric ornaments. I need to shop for fusible interfacing before starting those.

Are you doing any holiday stitching?

How did I do on last week’s To-Do List:

1. Stitch stitch stitch on Chic Country quilt. ✔️

This week’s To-Do List:

1. Side stepping again – finish up some little quilt gifts for gift exchange.

I’m linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.