Five Shadows

One more side to go! Building 4 rows of Clam Shells for the fourth side of the quilt will be my goal for April.

I’m using a machine blanket stitch to appliqué the Clam Shells to the border background fabric.

Once the top row is stitched in place, I measure down 2 1/4″ from the top of the stitched Clams for placement of the second row of Clams.

There will be four rows of Clam Shells as the outer border on the quilt.

Once this final side of Clam shells is stitched in place, it will be time to sandwich and quilt. Let’s see how far I get on this project this month!

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

Squirrels! It’s Spring and so many are running around! The animal type, and the quilting type – quilt alongs! I decided to go ahead and play along with Sew Kind of Wonderful’s Rock the Block quilt along. Every Thursday they are showing a new free block with a video. We have completed three weeks.

Week one: Mesmerized.

14 1/2″ square

Week two: Links

7 1/2″ x 14 1/2″

Week three: Crown Flower

7 1/2 x 11″

There will be 9 blocks in all, and then sashing. Instructions list how many of each block to make. Right now I’m only making one of each. I don’t need another large quilt, so I’ll see as this QAL progresses if one each will work for a small quilt. If not, I can always go back and make more blocks. As you can see Sew Kind of Wonderful loves curved piecing! They have created three rulers for curved piecing. I happen to own them all and have used them all – I like curved piecing too. Which is why I jumped in on the QAL.

Clam Shells! I now have three sides of the clam shell border completed. And first row of fourth border pinned.

Not sure if I have enough thread on that spool to finish, but here is hoping. My LQS did not have a matching thread. After stitching the final fourth side it will be time to sandwich and quilt.

Spring flowers continue to bloom!

Daffodils! Two varieties so far. There are a few more varieties yet to open up.

Happy Easter all! I pray you know God’s blessings.

Last Week’s To-Do List:

1. Clam Shells – keep multiplying! ✔️3 sides completed!
2. Maybe follow a squirrel … Sew Kind of Wonderful QAL  ✔️ 3 blocks made

This Week’s To-Do List:

1. Finish appliquéing clam shells.
2. Next block of Rock the Block.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday.

I’m making good progress! Which was my goal for March. Progress on a Clam Shell border.

I now have 3 borders completed, but not attached to the quilt.

I machine blanket stitched the clams in place, one row at a time, building on top of the previous row.

Here is the final side.

First row of clam shells pinned in place.

One more side! I feel like I’m finally seeing the end of piecing this quilt top!

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

Are you getting tired of me posting my appliqué Clam Shells?

This week I had time to pin and stitch 3 more rows in place.

The ruler is showing how I’m lining up the next row. I’m measuring down from the top of the previous row by 2 1/4 inch. Pinning, and then stitching with a blanket stitch. After I stitch this last row in place, I move on to the top and bottom borders.  4 more rows of clam shells on each.

Spring flowers keep popping up! Here are Prim Roses. They came back! I thought they are an annual, but they must have survived our relatively mild winter.

Purple Prim Rose

White Prim Rose.

The great outdoors, and some Spring Cleaning might be keeping me away from my sewing machine. But I really want to finish this quilt for my son and DILove!

Last Week’s To-Do List:

1. Continue with Clam Shells ✔️
2. Project Quilting 12.6 – last challenge! What will I do?  ✔️ Completed! I made a mini Indiana Puzzle mug rug.

This Week’s To-Do List:

1. Clam Shells – keep multiplying!
2. Maybe follow a squirrel … Sew Kind of Wonderful QAL

Linking to To-Do Tuesday

Stitch Stitch Stitch by machine.

I’m not sure if I’m using the best method at this point, but I do have one side of the last border stitched.

Four rows of  Clam Shells machine blanket stitched. Only 20″ of the 113″ long border showing in photo.

I’m pondering how to quilt these, maybe just echo inside the Clam Shells. That comes much later as I have the other three sides of Clam Shells to attach to to background fabric before completing the border.

Playing with some designs. Just a diversion at this point.

I traced the Clam Shell shape into rows on this piece of Moda Grunge, and played with stitching.

I leave you with a glimpse of what the quilt will look,

First Clam Shell side, not yet attached to center of quilt.

Last Week’s To-Do List:

1. Clam Shells – stitch stitch stitch! ✔️ One side of outer border has clam shells stitched in place.

This Week’s To-Do List:

1. Continue with Clam Shells
2. Project Quilting 12.6 – last challenge! What will I do?

Linking to To-Do Tuesday.

I didn’t reach my goal for February. I did work on the quilt but not much.

The goal is to make the Clam Shell border that will go around this quilt -

The pattern is from Sue Pelland’s Hearts and More Book. The quilt is on the cover.

I started the quilt in August of 2020. I’m kind of dragging my feet at this point. Here’s hoping I make good progress this month.

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

Project Quilting 12.4 Challenge is Snail Trail. Find all about the challenge here. There is time for you to join in on the fun, quilts must be finished by February 21, at noon CST.

Using the Snail Trail block, I built a flower.

I started with four yellow fabrics cutting squares at just one inch.

Then built around the center in light and dark purples, going very scrappy. Then I used two greens fabrics for leaves.

Here’s the finished pieced top before quilting.

And here is the back. Seams pressed open and flat with the help of Acorn Precision Piecing Products. This little starch brush is new to me, and I really liked how it applied the starch, which helped with pressing the seams.

Here is a short youtube video if you are interested in learning about Acorn products. I bought the product at my LQS.

Snail Trail Flower mug rug quilted and bound. 8 1/2″ square. I used Aurifil thread through out project.

Back, showing quilting.

My list for To-Do Tuesday did not include the PQ12 challenge. But I’m happy to let it sneak in!

I did finish prepping all the Clam Shells.

228, top right. 66 with concave curves pressed over.

See the difference? The 66 with concave seam pressed will be the bottom row. 4 rows of Clam Shells total.

Mock up. I still need to cut and mark white fabric for lining up Clam Shells in straight rows.

See the snow through the window? We got an additional 12″ over night on top of the 6″ we already had! Nice stay indoors and quilt weather!

This week I need to switch to creating a baby quilt for a new nephew. Fabric bought and quilt planned.

See you next week!

Last Week’s To-Do List:

1. Stick with Clam Shell making ✔️ All made!

This Week’s To-Do List:

1. Need to make a baby quilt.
2. Layout Clam Shells on background (which needs to be cut) and start stitching in place.

Linking to Project Quilting 12.4 and To-Do Tuesday hosted by ChrisKnits.

My Janome is home! She needed a cleaning and a tune up. I had a few questions about her.

While sewing I would sometimes get a little loop on the under side every 5-6 inches. Not always, and I could not get that loop when I wanted to have something to show the repairman. Turns out there was a spring that had come loose in the hook assembly. Hoping that solves the problem.

Another problem I have is tension when sewing with a cone of thread. There is a little $3 thread guide attachment that clicks into the hole for upright spool pin. The guide is supposed to help with tension when sewing from a cone of thread. I’ve not tried it out yet, but again, hoping is solves the problem.

thread guide in place of spool pin

Clam Shells are in the making. The freezer paper templates I used for the first 228 clam shells got a bit beat up. I decided to make more templates to replace them. At this point I’m moving slowly, but progress is being made.

I’ve used Sue Pelland‘s Hearts & More Template to cut three layers of freezer paper fused together to make the clam shell shapes.

Using the freezer paper templates, iron to wrong side of fabric. Cut 1/4″ around freezer paper. Snip the 2 concave edges. Press edges around the freezer paper template. Once edges are pressed and have cooled some, remove the freezer paper. The Clam Shells are ready to appliqué in place.

Last Week’s To-Do List:

1. Make more Clam Shells ✔️ Slowing moving ahead
2. Since Janome is in for a cleaning, I’ll dig out the old Bernina and see how she is doing. ✗ Sewing mojo left and Bernina stayed packed away.

This Week’s To-Do List:

1. Stick with Clam Shell making

Linking to To-Do Tuesday. This is the last week Roseanne of Home Sewn by Us will be hosting. I’ll miss her happy posts! She is handing on the hosting to Chris of Chris Knits with next Tuesday being her first to host. Thank you Chris for continuing To-Do Tuesday!

Complications kept me from shopping this past week. Hopefully I’ll make it out the door today to LQS. I also need to drop off my machine for a tune up and cleaning.

I’m taking part in the Project Quilting Season 12 Challenge. This Sunday the third challenge was announced. Virtual Vacation.

My family and I have been talking about doing a trip up to Northern Michigan – visiting light houses along Lake Michigan coast line, Sleeping Bear Dunes, and Traverse City Botanical Gardens. The Gardens are of interest because I learned they have a Fairy Trail there. My granddaughter is at the age where she is all about fairies.

For PQ 12.3 Virtual Vacation Challenge I made a Fairy Pillow for my granddaughter.

Here is the backside of stitching completed for the pillow.

And the front -

I traced a coloring page for the fairy then stitched over the lines, filled in her wings. I added fused & stitched flowers and vine for her to be in a pretty garden.

Close up of our charming little fairy.

Close up of free form flowers.

Pinks and purples are granddaughter’s favorite colors right now so pink & purple it is for this 16″ pillow. All stitching is with Aurifil 50# threads. The Fossil Fern fabrics are left over from a quilt I made for her bed.

I bombed on my To-Do list. Hopefully this week will be much better.

Last Week’s To-Do List:

1. Shop for fabric?  ✗ Change of weather brought on three days of migraine suffering. Snow was lovely!
2. Start layout and stitching Clam Shells in place  ✗  decided to make one more row of clam shells

This Week’s To-Do List:

1. Make more Clam Shells
2. Since Janome is in for a cleaning, I’ll dig out the old Bernina and see how she is doing.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Project Quilting.

Clam Shells! I have 228 prepped and ready to stitch in place to finish a quilt I started back in August 2020.

The clam shells will be the outer border to finish a queen size quilt.

Playing with the clam shells -

Three deep which will go on a white background. I’m thinking of making one more row – which means prep more clam shells.

After that, the background fabric needs prepped and the clam shells attached! That is my goal for February.

If all goes well, I’ll even get this quilted and bound!

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