Five Shadows

Thangles. Do you know about them? Do you use them? Thangles is a paper piecing method to make half square triangles (HST). And I just learned that you can make quarter square triangles (QST) too! I just made their Mama & Her Kitten pattern. And I must say using the Thangles to make such tiny QST   for the kitten head and ears was pretty simple. The website has a nice little video showing how to construct HST.

Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe is gearing up to start a new Block of the Month Program. This BOM uses Thangles Scrappy Stars Pattern. Kits will soon be available through the quilt shop.

Quilts are on their way to the Long-arm Quilter.

Daughter # 1 and her hubby asked for his & her matching plaid bathrobes for Christmas.  My Dear Hubby and I did some on line searching for said matching plaid his & her bathrobes and came up short. Did I mention that flannel was also a requirement in the matching part of the his & her plaid bathrobes? Phew! What a list to try to accommodate!

Since the on-line search did not pan out, I up and said to Dear Hubby that I could make plaid matching his and her flannel bathrobes for the two. I  already had 6 pairs of flannel PJ bottoms in the making for my crew. So just how difficult would it be to find 12 yards of matching plaid flannel? A lot harder than I expected! I found out that our local Joann Fabrics flannel comes only  8 yards to a bolt. What is up with that!? And since it was now so close to Christmas, there was not two partial bolts of the same fabric to be had. Oh bother. I could go to the local quilt shop, but their flannel is expensive. I had already bought flannel there for the PJ bottoms when the shop held a BOGO for each yard of fabric purchased. It was their anniversary sale the first weekend in November. And a great sale it was! My only other option seemed to be to check out the local Hancock Fabrics store. Boy was I pleased when I found they carry bolts of flannel with 12 yards per bolt! And I was even more pleased when I found a bolt of green plaid! And then I learned they had  Simplicity patterns for one dollar each! I bought two of the same pattern so I didn’t have to trace anything. A his and a her pattern each! Now I just hoped I had the right plaid to make the couple happy with their homemade Christmas gifts.

Here they are wearing their PJ bottoms, matching green plaid bathrobes. Notice they are also wearing slippers – given to them by daughter # 2 who did not know what I was up to with making PJs or bathrobes!

Looking forward to a new year of sewing, and having come across many interesting challenges on the web, I’ve decided to sign up for two. Here is my plan, I’ve signed up for the Free Motion Quilting Challenge offered by Sew Cal Gal. I took a free motion quilting class at a local quilt shop this past year, and have just not played/practiced around with it enough to feel comfortable with FMQ. This challenge should help. There will be 12 experts giving free advice during the year. One FMQer per month. And there is a Facebook page with loads of advice and encouragement.

Then the Color Palette Challenge caught my eye, offered by Vicki of Field Trips in Fiber and Judy of Patchwork Times. But would I really follow through with two different challenges, I wondered? Vicki suggested that the two could be combined. The more I’ve thought about it, I believe Vicki is right. I could use her color palette to create a mini quilt each month and then use the encouragement to FMQ that piece.

Then I remembered a Block of the Month pattern series I bought several years ago. Baskets & Blooms by Joined at the Hip (2000!) And now my thought is I’ll create the BOM using Vicki’s color palette and practice the FMQ in the background of those blocks.

Here’s to a Happy New Year with new sewing experiences!

Recently made for a Holiday party.

Parmesan Red Pepper Bread Stick yummy goodness!

My daughter helped me out on a recent commission. I received a bag of fabrics along with the instructions to create two baby quilts that must have a rainbow as part of the design. I gave the job to my very creative daughter, Janelle. She sketched out two similar ideas, we bought more fabric (background for the rainbows, backing and binding) and she got busy with the piecing and fusing. Then she hand quilted the two quilts!

Here are her results – Rainbow with happy rain drops:

Rainbow with happy cloud.

Cute quilts, don’t you think?

I make shop models for Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe, 126 W. Second Street, Roanoke, IN 46783. Owner Deborah Roehm’s Victorian house is bursting at the seams with lovely fabrics, patterns, books, tools.  Josephine’s Knot by Calico Carriage Quilt Designs is the latest top I have pieced. 63″ x 100″.

Quilt #2. I am currently working on four clothing quilts for a client. These will be memory quilts made of t-shirts, sweatshirts, dress shirts, ties, handkerchiefs, slacks, jeans, and bib overalls. I’ve decided to call them Not Just T-Shirts Quilts because of the variety of clothing in them. They are similar in construction to t-shirt quilts. Several of the clothing types need to be backed with a fusible interfacing for stability. Theme fabric have been incorporated to add interest to the quilt top. Dog prints in this quilt top, theme Yorky Dogs. 67″ square finished quilt.

Because of the quantity of clothing, the piecing has spilled over on to the back. There is a pocket in the lower right corner that my client may use to tuck a personal note in for the recipient of this quilt.

I’ve signed up for the challenge for several reasons. I’ve played at FMQ for a long time. Sometimes being successful and sometimes not. I have been following Leah Day’s blog all year, but have not taken the time to play and practice to improve. Leah is one of the 12 teachers listed who will be teaching us how to FMQ in this challenge. I even took a class from a local quit shop – bought stuff, but haven’t used it. This challenge sounds doable! So I’ve signed up! Sign up here if you are interested. (Thanks to I’m Doing Stuff for posting about this challenge on her blog.)

I just found Lily’s Quilts: Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet. What two great ideas! So I am linking to her. See the links on my side bar if you are interested.

I’ve been working on clothing quilts lately. 4 to be exact. A clothing quilt is like a t-shirt quilt, only it incorporates a larger variety of clothing. The 4 I have been working on include t-shirts, dress shirts, ties, sweat shirts, slacks, jeans, and bib overalls. Here is the first completed quilt:

I added theme fabric and just a bit of bright fabric that coordinate with the t-shirts to add visual interest to the top.

I had more clothing items than I could fit into the top – so they spilled over on to the back-

And in the corner I placed a pocket with yet another piece of clothing – denim from a pair of jeans.

Another project has been a baby quilt-

This quilt is for young friend Brianna, who is expecting her first baby in early January 2012. I have been taken by the simplicity in Victoria Gertenbach of Silly BooDilly hand quilting, and decided to try my own simple quilting of just straight lines by machine for this baby quilt. Brianna is going with an elephant theme for baby Hadyn. I don’t have a picture, but the back is the cutest ever animal print, Jolly Jungle Animals by Henley Studio.

I’ll share clothing quilts 2-4 as soon as I get the binding on!