Five Shadows

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

Season’s Greetings!

For December’s OMG I planned on keeping up with Helen Godden’s 24 day Christmas Countdown Quilt Along.

Success!

I did keep up with the daily quilting, which was just a little bit each day. Then Christmas Eve was also quilting the background.

Christmas Day I finished with the binding before family came over to Celebrate Christ’s Birth.

In December, I also wanted to make six small quilt gifts for my quilting friends.

I used part of the Christmas Countdown Quilt Along design to create six little quilts.

I made little ‘pillow cases’ and slipped them over clear plastic free standing picture frames.

The Merry Christmas is hand embroidered.

The yellow flame, holly berries, and outline of holly leaf are colored with Sharpie markers.

These were really fun to make!

Happy New Year, All!

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

This week filled up with lots of doing, but not much quilting. Here are just a few things I did get to this week.

First, I had to tackle my messing sewing room since I couldn’t get to the cutting mat to continue with Bat Moon Rising!

I did get the mat cleared off, but not the rest of the counter top to the right of the mat.

Anyway, that gave me room enough to cut out more Bat Moon Rising pieces.

I only got a little bit of piecing completed.

Sunday was a day spent with family. Birthday celebration and a Train Show. Our granddaughter thought the Hodges Hand Cars was the best part of the Train Show. Here she is riding a Hand Car.

You turn that wheel round and round to go around the track. She thought it was great fun. Husband thought it was great exercise and a fun way for kiddos to run off some of their energy! LOL

Our grandson, not yet big enough for the Hand Car, sure enjoyed watching the bigger kids!

He stood there going “whoo whoo!” He loves anything with wheels and loves to imitate the sounds too.

Woot! I finished stitching Dropcloth Sampler last night.

I’ll figure out how to frame it, most likely an embroidery hoop, after Thanksgiving. I’ll try to remember to keep an eye out for a hoop while shopping this weekend.

Next up – Thanksgiving baking! Remember those Pumpkin Dinner Rolls I posted last Tuesday? I’m making them today, and putting together the dressing. The turkey is defrosting in the fridge.

I hope you are all enjoying gearing up for the Holidays!

Last To-Do List:

1. Continue with Curve it Up quilting ✗
2. Keep piecing Bat Moon Rising ✔️
3. Piecing block 4 of Happy Little Things ✗
4. Finish Satin Stitch in the Dropcloth Sampler ✔️

To Do List:

1. Thanksgiving baking, cooking!
2. Enjoying Thanksgiving with family and friends.
3. Make and mail a little snowman mug rug for my SIL.
4. Any quilting or piecing I might find time for this Thanksgiving week

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Home Sewn by Us.

Bat Moon Rising is coming along. I’m using an ombre fabric for the background, which means more fussing with placement of the fabric.

I’ve started with light background around the moon and will work into the darker fabric as I move away from the moon. This is a Sew Kind of Wonderful pattern from the Mini Wonderful Curves book.

Happy Little Things: Block 4 embroidery is all stitched up. I’ll be using the fabrics shown for piecing the block.

I didn’t think I got much hand work done this week, but when I pulled out Happy Little Things last night, I only had a little bit of stitching to complete the design. Plus, since I took a road trip last Friday, which included stopping at a new-to-me quilt shop, I bought larger embroidery needles that worked well with the Perle Cotton.

With Thanksgiving in the USA just around the corner, I’m dreaming of making these cute pumpkin rolls for dinner – and use them as part of the table decorations.  Or this version. Maybe both, since I have some vegans in the family.

(photo from Handle the Heat)

Do you have any special recipes that always make it to your dinner table during the Holidays?

Last To-Do List:

1. Continue quilting Curve it Up ✔️ I didn’t get much done, but any progress is better than none.
2. More fabric cutting, then start piecing Bat Moon Rising ✔️ I’m happy with the out come so far!
3. Hand embroidery in the evenings ✔️Finished block four of Happy Little Things, but didn’t get to Dropcloth Sampler.

To Do List:

1. Continue with Curve it Up quilting
2. Keep piecing Bat Moon Rising
3. Piecing block 4 of Happy Little Things
4. Finish Satin Stitch in the Dropcloth Sampler

Linking to To-Do Tuesday sponsored by Home Sewn by Us.

Last week I quilted my friend’s Crazy 9-Patch quilt. Here is a close up of some of the quilting.

I met up with her Friday, and she liked the quilting on the 9-Patch and the Cherry quilt which I worked on the previous week.

I got the idea for the cherries from Lori Kennedy. Lori has a lovely blog where she demonstrates her many FMQ motifs.

I had a big “Oops!” while quilting on the cherry quilt! I thought the stitching took on a different feel. So I stopped and took a look at the back.

Yep. The back and batting got turned under and caught in the stitching. At least it was not too many stitches to rip out and fix! Has this ever happened to you?

Hand embroidery: Evenings after supper is when I try to fit in some hand stitching. But not so much this past week. With the weather turning cooler and evenings growing longer, I should be finding more stitching time this Fall & Winter.

The little I did do this week was on an old sampler.

This is a Dropcloth sampler I bought through Etsy a few years back.

Since I’m still so new to hand embroidery and don’t know many of these stitches, I’ve been watching youtube to learn them. I think I’m coming along ok with this new skill.

New quilt: This is a photo from Sew Kind of Wonderful’s book Mini Wonderful Curves.

The quilt is titled Bat Moon Rising, and I think it will be perfect for a friend expecting her first baby.

Bat and moon pieces are all cut. I’m using an ombre (not shown) for the background, so that might require some thoughtful cutting.

How was your week? What do you have planned for this coming week?

Last To-Do List:

1. Quilting friend’s quilt.  ✔️ Basted, quilted, delivered!
2. Evening hand embroidery.  ✔️Just some stitches completed on an older sampler.

To-Do List:

1. Quilting Curve it Up, my One Monthly Goal for November. I spray basted it yesterday. Get to the quilting.
2. We have guests coming this weekend. I’ve got to do some house cleaning and meal prep.
3. Work on piecing Bat Moon Rising if time allows.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Home Sewn by Us.

That UFO. I’ve finished the straight line quilting in the pieced blocks, and have moved on to the curved quilting.

This is a quilt for my son and his lovely wife, I shared about here. It’s all marked for the curved quilting.

I cut a three inch circle from card stock  and grabbed a Sewline white ceramic lead marking pencil. Then traced around the circle to mark the curves within the brown squares.  I can continuous line quilt through the brown squares from one side of the quilt to the other. After the quilting is completed in the brown squares, there are just 2 borders to quilt. Phew! The end is in sight!

Another project all marked and ready to go is October’s block 3 of Happy Little Things BOM. I’m embroidering the center of each block.

Next step, select the embroidery floss for this month.

Here’s September’s block 2 all completed.

Happy Little Things do make me happy!

Last To-Do List:

1. Finish September’s Happy Little Things block ✔️
2. progress on son’s wedding quilt ✔️

To-Do List:

1. Stay focused on son’s quilt!
2. Lego building with son and DIL – I’ll share about that next week.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday

The block I’m currently working on from the Bird Song Sing-A-Long pattern is called Rock’n Robin.

Mr. Robin needs an eye, and some dimension added to his wings and tail feathers. Plus some water droplets splashing out of the birdbath.

The second pattern for the Happy Little Things BOM was released, and I got it started.

Traced, fabrics selected, and embroidery underway.

Also this week, I made headway on my One Block Wonder hexie panel quilt. Read about it here. If you have not seen OBW panel quilts, go to Pinterest and search for One Block Wonder with Panels to see some amazing quilts!

Baby time!

I got to play with this cutie this week.

He loves anything with wheels! I pulled out his dad’s old wooden train set and he played happily for over an hour with it! Who says toddlers have short attention spans!?

I have a few toys here from our children’s childhoods. Our adult children mostly took what they wanted with them, got rid of a few things, and I kept a few. It amazes me how this train kept his interest for so long! I pulled it out once for his older sibling, and she had no interest in it at all.

Do you have a favorite childhood toy or memory? I still have a very warn & loved stuffed kitty-cat.

Last To-Do List:

1. Finish Rockin’ Robin Block,  ➤  worked on but not finished
2. Work on Hexie Panel quilt ✔️

To-Do List:

1. Same as last week, finish Rockin’ Robin Block
2. Work on Hexie Panel quilt

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Home Sew by Us.

Last week’s goals, I finished the Fence Rail Star quilt, which was also my August One Monthly Goal.

Wonky Star label.

And I finished this little cutie embroidery quilt block design by Jacquelynne Steven called Happy Little Things.

I’m using Friedlander fabric by Carolyn Friedlander for the pieced blocks. I used scraps of floss, various brands, for the embroidery.

I started working on a 2018 Row by Row quilt. Have you heard of the Row by Row Experience? Have you collected any of the free patterns? You have to visit participating quilt shops between June 21st and September 3rd to pick up a copy of their free Row by Row pattern. This year’s theme is Taste the Experience.

Back to what I’m doing. I hopped around on the web to see what shops are doing out of my area. I found that back in 2018 Susan Rooney designed 8 individual patterns for 8 New York quilt shops for the Sew Musical theme. The finished quilt is Birdsong Sing-A-Long. I bought the pattern and 2 kits.

I finished “Hummin’ a Tune or Two” Quilt-As-You-Go method, and machine appliquéd the Hummers and flower.

I also have the background ready for “Rockin’ Robin” and I’m working on tracing and cutting out Mr. Robin and his birdbath. The 2 blocks will be finished at 18″ square. 4 more blocks will also be 18″ square and 2 will be 12″ x 27″ to make a 48″ x 54″ quilt.

That’s it for this week. How did your week go?

Last To-Do List:

1. Quilt borders of Fence Rail Star quilt & bind!  ✔️ Finished! Take a look here.
2. Finish embroidery block  ✔️It so cute! I’m looking forward to the next block release.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Home Sewn By Us.

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.

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.

I’ve signed up for a hand embroidery class! It doesn’t start until October 30th, but it has already filled up! There will be a kit to purchase at the first class.

Since I’m a beginner, I asked if this class would be appropriate for me, a newbie. And I was assured it would be a good class for learning, I think she said 14 different stitches. I’m hoping I can handle it!

This week’s progress: I got a few more Dancing Star blocks underway. And the FMQ squiggles are all completed on Chic Country. On to the next section! I have 2 more designs to quilt on Chic Country. I hope to finish it this month.

Road trip! I had a blast with my friends. We visited Caroline’s Cottage Cottons in Rome City, IN. Caroline is a delightful person. Her shop is adorable. And her shop was  one of the 10 top shops featured in the Fall 2018 Better Home & Gardens Quit Sampler Magazine. !!!!   Yes, I bought a copy of the magazine and asked Caroline to autograph it! Check her out on Facebook.

Photo from her recent vending at the Ohio One Stop Shop Hop.

From the quilt shop we went to Turkey Lake Tavern in Elmira for lunch. I recommend their fish special. Yum!

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

1. Continue paper piecing Dancing Stars ✔️
2. Continue FMQ Chic Country ✔️
3. Road trip with friends to a quilt shop north of us. ✔️

This week’s To-Do List:

1. Continue paper piecing Dancing Stars
2. FMQ Chic Country

That should be it for this coming week. How was your week? Starting anything new?

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.