Five Shadows

Progress is happening on the Fence Rail Star quilt. Blocks and sashing are quilted. I’m moving on to the borders.

I think I might be improving in the FMQ, practice practice practice!

I started a little embroidery project. It’s a free BOM offered by Jacquelynne Steves called Happy Little Things.

The pattern is written with instructions for appliqué or embroidery. I’m enjoying the stitching.

Family time! My Dear Daughter in Law brought over the grands and ~1/2 bushel of apples from their apple trees. She made a delicious pie crust while my 4 year old grand daughter and I made the apple & cranberry filling. We followed The Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook recipe.

Yum! It was wonderful and enjoyed by 10 of our family members!

Other news, the clematis my husband transplanted from my father’s garden last summer is blooming!

Dad had to move into assisted living, and he had lovely flower and vegetable gardens. My brother, sister and I & our kids divided up many of the plants. We are tickled to have his clematis survive the transplant!

It’s been a good week.

Last to-do list:

1. Got to stay focused on the Fence Rail Star quilt! ✔️

To-Do List:

1. Quilt borders of Fence Rail Star quilt & bind!
2. Finish embroidery block

I’m linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Home Sewn by Us.

Progress!

The quilt I’m currently working on is the largest I’ve ever spray basted. It’s 80″ x 96″ which also makes it the largest quilt I’ve ever quilted on my Baby Lock Tiara III.

3 of 12 blocks quilted, progress! The process of basting a large quilt was a bit challenging.

Sunday, my grand daughter, hubby and I had a little picnic on the picnic quilt she designed.

Fresh fruit, cheese & crackers, chips, home made cookies & OJ. Sweet times with my grand daughter!

Last to-do list:

1. Quilt Fence Rail Star quilt for nephew’s September birthday. ✔️ A work in progress!
2. If time allows, create thank-you postcards. ✗ Didn’t get to these this week. I’ll get back to the postcards once I finish the Fence Rail Star quilt.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Home Sewn by Us. Christine of Sew All the Things has handed over the link up party To-Do Tuesday to Sue & Roseann of Home Sewn by Us. I met and followed Christine in the blogging world before she started hosting To-Do Tuesday 5 years ago. I will miss her weekly posts. Cheers to Christine and her new adventures, and Cheers to Sue & Roseann as they take on hosting the To-Do Tuesday party!

This past week I did some playing.

I want to make fabric postcards to have on hand ready to mail as needed for thank-you notes or thinking-of-you notes, etc. Here is my first attempt. The sunflower design turned out pretty much as I envisioned, but I learned that I need a firmer stabilizer.  I’ve not mailed this one yet, might mail it to myself to see how it looks having gone through the mail.

One little finished postcard. 4 1/4″ x 6″

Next up, I finished the 2 hexie blocks from a 2012 UFO.

This was block one from the April Craftsy 2012 BOM. The lesson was English Paper Piecing.

For block two, instructions said to create your own design using EPP. I just went with a simple Rosette and machine appliquéd the stem and leaves. Cute enough. These two hexie blocks completes all the blocks from the 2012 UFO! Phew! Don’t know when I’ll get them sewn together into a quilt top, but I’ll try to keep it on a front burner.

The last project I worked on this week is another UFO that will go to my nephew for his 21st birthday. It’s coming up in September. So I better get crack-a-lack’n on it! I added a border to this quilt top back in February, and have procrastinated on sandwiching and quilting it.

I can check off spray basting, finished today!

Last to-do list:

1. EPP 2 BOM blocks ✔️
2. Create some thank-you postcards  - does one count as completing this number on the list?

To-Do List:

1. Quilt Fence Rail Star quilt for nephew’s September birthday.
2. If time allows, create thank-you postcards.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Stitch All the Things.

This is an oldie, pieced in 2017. My goal is to quilt and bind it this month. Then I can gift it for a 21st birthday in September.

Back in January I added another border to it, and backing was purchased. Time to get it sandwiched and quilted!

Linking to One Monthly Goal hosted by Patty at Elm Street Quilts.

This week I finished the quilting and binding on the Picnic Quilt my 4 year old grand daughter designed.

Read all about it here.

And I made just a little headway on a very old BOM.

Hexies are cut for the April 2012 Craftsy BOM. Yes, that is right! 2012! I pulled this old and forgotten BOM out to work on earlier this year. Actually, I found it while looking for another BOM. I was very surprised to find this forgotten project buried under a partially made Basket quilt. Now I only have 2 more blocks to make to complete all the blocks. These last two are both made with English Paper Pieced Hexies.

Other projects on the horizon, I’m making a few fabric postcards to use as thank-you notes.

Start of a Sunflower Postcard.

What are you working on this week?

Last to-do list:

1. Continue and hopefully finish grand daughter’s picnic quilt.  ✔️
2. EPP 2 BOM blocks

To-Do List:

1. EPP 2 BOM blocks
2. Create some thank-you post cards

Linking to To-Do Tuesday.

Finished! Such a nice word!

The quilt my 4 year old grand daughter designed is completed and ready for some picnic activity!

Most of the blocks are quilted with a motif my grand daughter selected from these two books: 250 More Continuous-Line Quilting Designs by Laura Lee Fritz and Free-Motion Machine Quilting 1-2-3 by Lori Kennedy.

This was a fun one to quilt, here are some of my fav blocks.

Lollipop Flower page 91, Lori’s book.

Claire’s Peony page 98, Lori’s book.

Trees & clouds page 54, Laura’s book.

Stars and loops, I cut out freezer paper stars and traced around them.

Butterflies and loops, using Little Butterflies Stencil by Laundry Basket Quilts.

We used a striped fabric cut on the bias for this fun binding. And in the white border I stitched ‘Let’s have a picnic!’ ‘Time for a picnic!’ etc.

The back is a bright kitty print.

The quilt is 59″ square. Warm & Natural batting.

Next up is planning a picnic with my grand children!

Linking to One Monthly Goal sponsored by Patty at Elm Street Quilts.

I’ve had two sewing days with the two quilt groups I’m in since last Tuesday. That means finding something to take along to work on during our sewing time. I’m grateful for the friendship and encouragement I’ve found in this two groups.

Back in June, I attended the Shipshewanna Quilt Festival in Northeast Indiana. I purchased this little kit from vendor Sewing the Good Life. I took it along to my first meeting.

It’s my finish this week. I’m fairly new to embroidery, and I’m pleased with how this worked out.

Meeting with my next group, I moved on to an old Block of the Month. Gah! It’s from 2012! I found it a while back when I was looking for another UFO.

The blocks for July 2012 were 2 variations of the Dresden Plate block.

I only have 2 more blocks to complete this 7 year old BOM. Both are using English Paper Piecing hexies.

While at the Shipshewanna Quilt Festival, I saw a demo using panels in the One Block Wonder method. I could not resist buying panels to give this method a try. 7 of the same panel are needed. 6 of which are cut into triangles to form hexies that are placed around the remaining panel. Here is the beginning of my playing.

These are about half of the hexies I will be able to create from the 6 panels. I know I’m late to the game with this method that has been circulating around for a while. I’ve never been drawn to the Stack-n-Whack method, but once I saw what you can do with panels, I was hooked!

Do a search on Pinterest of “One Block Wonder with Panels” to see some fabulous quilts others are making!

Have you ever made a Stack-n-Whack or One Block Wonder quilt?

Last to-do list:

1. quilting grand daughter’s picnic quilt.  ✔️ Started, not much to show yet.

To-Do List:

1. Continue and hopefully finish grand daughter’s picnic quilt.
2. EPP 2 BOM blocks

I’m grateful to be ticking off some old projects this year. And I’m grateful for the resources to start new projects.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday.

My husband thinks this was the best stop on my recent road trip with my two grands and DIL!

It was our stop in Hamilton, MO at Missouri Star Quilt Co.

Why was this the best stop? Because it was Sunday and all the shops were closed! That saves a lot of stress on a wallet! But we stopped to give the two grands a bit of time to run around and eat a snack. Plus DIL loved window shopping there for a bit of a break from driving. She is definitely putting it on a future road trip stop when heading back to MO but during open hours!

At the mural with 4 quilts, my grand daughter liked this quilt the best, so we posed for a photo.

(photo from Pinterest)

I did shop at a lovely quilt and yarn shop in Rolla, MO. Uniquely Yours at 404 East State Rte 72.

I bought fabric for a new project. Gasp! I broke my no new project rule again! Thing is, I’ve been keeping an eye out for a summery design for a wallhanging for my living room. Once I saw this panel at Uniquely Yours, I bought it and a coordinating print.

I also bought Deborah Easter Rubles’ book.

I had seen her cutting method demoed at a quilt show, but didn’t buy the book at the time. I’ve asked about it at quilt shops, but this is the first time I’ve seen it at a shop. Turns out she’s from Missouri and had demoed at Uniquely Yours. The gals at the shop kindly did a demo for me that refreshed my memory as to why I thought it would be a worth while purchase. Next project, I’ll be cutting strips with this method. Oh, and I have an autographed copy of the book.

Last to-do list:

1. Pooh quilt ✔️ Finished and delivered. Take a look here.

To-Do List:

1. quilting grand daughter’s picnic quilt

Linking to To-Do Tuesday.

Picnic time!

Which means time to finish the picnic quilt my grand daughter and I are making together.

Four year old grand daughter selected fabrics from my stash, and showed me where to place them in the 4 x 4 quilt design. Then we looked through free-motion quilting books where she selected way too many designs for each square. Her mother joined in the fun drawing out the designs and even coloring in the paper plan to match the quilt.

Grand daughter selected the kitty print for the back of the quilt, and we are going with the strip for the binding.

My July Goal is to get this quilt sandwiched and quilted! Have to make that back first tho. Then we will have ourselves a nice little picnic!

Linking to One Monthly Goal with Patty of Elm Street.

Celebrating with Winnie the Pooh!

My goal for June was to salvage fabrics from an old nursery set, turning them into a usable quilt.

I used three parts of the set. The border print was taken from the bumper pad, the solid green fabric was crib skirting, and the appliqué pieces: Pooh, bee & butterflies are from the curtains. The green and white strip for the back and binding are an old sheet.

Pooh and the other appliqué pieces are placed to cover holes in the green fabric.

Isn’t the label the cutest?!

This was made for a family friend who was given the old set. A friend of hers found it at a yard sale. She asked if the pieces could be made into a quilt. Mission accomplished!

Linking to One Monthly Goal hosted by Patty at Elm Street Quilts. Hop over to see what other quilters have accomplished this month.