Five Shadows

The celebrations started February 15th with our soon to be son-in-law’s birthday. Then son #2 born on February 23rd. In March we have birthdays on the 4th, 7th, 14th, 19th, and 21st. That would be my husband, myself, daughter #2, daughter #3 and son #1. Then one more birthday April 13th which is our daughter #1. Our other son-in-law and daughter-in-law make us wait until June and then November to complete the birthday celebrations. I’m hoping for grandchildren to finish out the year instead of clustering in March! I suppose I could mention that my brother and sister are also born in March, as is my mother-in-law and two sister-in-laws. My father-in-law born in February and my mother born in April, as is a brother-in-law!

Since I have been busy with birthday dinners, I didn’t accomplish much in sewing this week. I like making a favorite meal for each of my children on their birthday and they can invite friends over. They seem to think this tradition should continue even though 3 of them are out of our house, 2 are married! Last Wednesday we enjoyed sweet potato burgers, cole slaw, tossed salad and coconut poke cake with our now 19 year old daughter. And we celebrated our son’s 33rd birthday on Sunday (instead of Friday) with homemade Steak Gyros and apple crisp.

Today I did manage to applique this cute little bunny and Tulips on to Moda Toweling using Misty Fuse and Edyta Sitar’s Laundry Basket Quilts pattern Spring Surprise.

I’m linking to To-Do-Tuesday with Red’s Needles and Threads.

And since I didn’t get to anything from my list last week, it carries over to this week.

Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fiber is having a Spring Break Giveaway all week long! She creates gorgeous hand dyed fabrics and sells them on Etsy. Visit her blog this week to enter to win. And while there take a look around at her beautiful quilts and fabrics!

This past week I played just a bit with a new to me ruler. Creative Grids 90° Double-Strip Ruler. I used the pattern Savvy by Rachel Griffith Designs and Moda’s fabric line Hearty Good Wishes. I do like the ruler, but have to warn you that there will be bias edges when working with this ruler. So do be aware of potential stretching due to the bias cuts. Rachel’s pattern is well written and easy to follow. Since I didn’t use her color way, I wrote out a chart with my colors to keep track of fabric placement. This was my first time to use a Rachel Griffith Designs pattern and I must say, I’ll be looking for her other patterns. I just love it when I find patterns that are well written. I’m putting Rachel’s Smitten pattern on my wish list!

I finally got caught up on my Building Blocks Quilt Along hosted by Leah Day. Dare I show you my blocks? When you see them, you will realize my desire to improve my free motion quilting. I’ve got a long way to go before my FMQ is pretty. ☹

And, crazy as I am, I started a new project that I’m calling Eat Your Fruits and Veggies, or Whirled Peas. I’m using Amy Gibson’s foundation piecing pattern Tilt-A-Whirl. I’m reacquainting myself with foundation piecing, its been a while. I think I’m going to enjoy the process once I get it going assembly line style. Only two blocks completed so far:

It’s finished! That is, the top of the Pineapple Quilt using Cut Loose Tropical Fruit Pattern and Creative Grids Pineapple Trim Tool is finished. And on its way to the longarm quilter, Paula Reuille. I have to say I really love this quilt. It is my first ever Pineapple quilt, and I admit, I was leery of the trim tool/ruler before I started using it. That all changed as I worked on the quilt blocks, the instructions and method just all clicked as the quilt blocks progressed.