Five Shadows

A day late and a dollar short! But I’m spending time with the new twin grand babies, and Oh my heart! They are so precious!

This past week I my sewing room -

To-Do Tuesday, November 7, 2023

1. Keep up with Twilight Stars QAL ✓
2. I don’t seem to be getting much else accomplished. So I’ll leave this one open ended.

1. Keep up with Twilight Stars QAL – That I did!

Two blocks stitched together. These are 8″ finished blocks.

I was hoping to get to some prepping for upcoming blocks but nope, didn’t happen.

To-Do Tuesday, November 14, 2023

1. Next two blocks of Twilight Stars QAL
2. Saturday road trip with hubby. Stopping at a quilt shop might happen.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday with Carol of Quilt Schmilt blog.

Another set of Twin Babies! Sunday my son and his wife’s babies arrived early at 30 weeks! What a surprise. We have two healthy baby girls that need to do a lot of growing before they can head home from NICU. We are so thankful they are doing so well at such an early birth date. Praising God, and continuing in prayer that the babies grow well! Mom and Dad are both doing well to, with some tired thrown in the mix!

Sewing. There is next to nothing happening in my sewing world. But I have been enjoying time with older set of twin grand babies – they are a whooping 7 weeks old now, and today was their original due date!

To-Do Tuesday, October 24, 2023

1. Twilight Stars QAL – keep up with two new blocks posted tomorrow. ✓
2. Progress on baby quilt pictured above. X

1. Twilight Stars

I did find time to stitch up two stars.

And for this week -

To-Do Tuesday, October 31, 2023

1. Twilight Stars QAL Keep up with two blocks per week.
2. Wednesday is our second meeting of the month of my church sewing group. Local hospital called asking if we would make drain pouches for surgery patients. That is something we did in the past, so sure, we will make them again.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Carol of Quilt Schmidt.

Oh sweet baby twins! I got home last night after spending three days and two nights helping out my daughter with the twins as her hubby had to be out of town for work. They are growing well on mommy’s milk but as premies are still low are the growth charts. Little girl is in the 1% tile, and big fella is in the 10% tile.

So did any sewing happen in my world this past week? Not much! Oh, and it’s Thursday, not Tuesday. Such is life with tiny twins in the family! We are so blessed! Mom and Dad are doing well too! Lack of sleep? You bet. But doing well. Daughter and I even made it out to her garden for a bit these past 2 days. She’s prepping to plant garlic. And weeding! They take over so quickly!

Back to my TDT list -

To-Do Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Here goes – it will be a short list!

1. Finish one block of Twilight Stars. Prep for next two. ✓
2. Meeting with church sewing group tomorrow. We plan on doing assembly line sewing to make turbans for ladies with cancer. Donated to local hospital. ✓
3. Baby quilts? ✘

1. Twilight Stars

Block 72 of the QAL. And pieces prepped for upcoming weeks.

2. Church sewing group

No photos, but we made a pile of turbans to donate to the local hospital for cancer patients.

3. Baby quilts.

No progress but I did pull out the one I started a while back. Hope to finish the top this weekend.

So here’s this week’s list -

To-Do Tuesday, October 24, 2023

1. Twilight Stars QAL – keep up with two new blocks posted tomorrow.
2. Progress on baby quilt pictured above.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Carol of Quilt Schmidt.

Not much sewing happening here this past week. Besides holding precious new born twins, I’m still putting up produce for my daughter. This week was pumpkins, eggplants, and roasting pumpkin seeds. Not sure, but I might be at the end of picking and putting up produce. There are still tomatoes coming in. I’m wondering if I should wrap green tomatoes in brown paper to store so they continue to ripen. Otherwise cold weather might damage them while still on the vine.

In quilting and sewing, I made one quilt block this week. LOL Not much to show here!

To-Do Tuesday, October 10, 2023

1. Keep up with Twilight Stars QAL
2. Maybe work on those baby quilts for nephew and niece. Ha! Maybe next week!

1. Twilight Stars QAL

Block 49, and HST pieces for the next block. I have until Friday to stay on track, that’s when the next two blocks are revealed. Blocks are from the book Triangle Gatherings from Primitive Gathering.

2. Baby quilts

I’ve got nothing to show. Not much sewing happening here this week!

BUT! I did make it to the Auriful Thread Lab class today!

Here are the pretty threads included in the class. We have a fun project to make from Jo Avery. And these are some of her favorite Cotton 80wt, Cotton 12wt, and Wool 12 wt threads to use in the project.

To-Do Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Here goes – it will be a short list!

1. Finish one block of Twilight Stars. Prep for next two.
2. Meeting with church sewing group tomorrow. We plan on doing assembly line sewing to make turbans for ladies with cancer. Donated to local hospital.
3. Baby quilts?

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Carol of Quilt Schmidt.

This past week I did manage to fit in some little bits of sewing. I caught up on the Twilight Stars QAL! Phew! I hope to stay on track now.

Here’s the bits that happened this past week -

To-Do Tuesday, October 3, 2023

1. Catch up on Twilight Stars QAL ✔︎
2. Progress on baby quilts for relatives. ✘

1. Twilight Stars

I caught up on the last four weeks of the Twilight Stars QAL! Two blocks per week. These are 8″ finished blocks. The butternut squash is to represent all the gardening and veggie freezing I’ve been doing for my daughter since the birth of her twin babies. Butternut squash store well as is, so that is a plus.

Today I’ll be making soups and homemade bread to share with my daughter and family. She and her husband are vegan, so I’m learning a lot about vegan cooking. I made a chickpea eggplant stew for them last night, all the veggies fresh from their garden. Yum!

2. Quilts for baby nephew and niece.

Nothing happened with these. Sigh.

My SIL has to return to work the next three days, then off the following week. So my daughter has asked me to come and help her through the day with the twins. She has them on a three hour nursing schedule and all is going well. I’m happy to help out!

OH! I forgot to announce them are home! Baby boy was released from NICU Thursday, and Baby girl on Sunday! We originally thought Baby girl would be in NICU longer. They are all so happy to be home and getting into a new family routine.

To-Do Tuesday, October 10, 2023

1. Keep up with Twilight Stars QAL
2. Maybe work on those baby quilts for nephew and niece. Ha! Maybe next week!

That’s it for this happy grandma!

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Carol of Quilt Schmidt.

Twin grand babies update! Two weeks old! Baby boy no longer has his feeding tube! He is growing. They both are growing! Mom, Dad and babies continue to enjoy all the snuggles.

Hubs and I went out to our daughter’s garden this morning and dug up 2 bushels of sweet potatoes, picked more tomatoes and peppers. I’ll be freezing those. The sweet potatoes need to cure and then be stored.

My niece announced on FB Sunday that she is expecting twins early next year! That is three sets of twins due in our family in a span of 5 months! I guess twins do run in the family!

Again, not much sewing happened in my world this week.

To-Do Tuesday, September 26, 2023

My twin grand babies are already a week old! I got to visit them in NICU Saturday and hold both of the precious little ones. They are doing great. Off oxygen and IV. They both just need to put on the weight so they can go home. Mom is doing well! And Dad too!

My daughter is a farmer and has a booth at a local Farmer’s Market. The last market was September 6th. So she made it through the season before going into labor. But the garden continues to produce so much that she asked family to go pick what they want. My DIL and I have been going out and filling the car trunk with  tomatoes – 4 varieties, peppers – 3 varieties, eggplant 2- varieties, squash – 4 varieties, kale – 2 varieties, raspberries, and dug up some sweet potatoes as well. Plus there is so much more we have not gotten to. Then we head back to my house where we process the goods for the freezer or dehydrating. We will be sharing everything with my daughter of course!

I’ve not put much time into sewing this week. But here we go -

To-Do Tuesday, September 19, 2023

1. Tomorrow my church sewing group meets. I’ll be starting an new quilt for charity. ✔️
2. Catch up on Twilight Stars QAL  ✗
3. Make two quilts for two nephews expecting babies. Maybe only get to one this week! ✗

1. Wednesday at my church group I cut out pieces for a new charity quilt.

Moda fabrics that have some glow in the dark designs.

2. Twilight Stars QAL

Week 13 – One 6″ block is the last of 25 blocks for a small size quilt. I need to lay the blocks out and get them sewn together!  As you can see I’m switching to a larger 8″ block with a different floral print for the background fabric. I’ve cut out fabric for the next 18 blocks and have some of the Foundation Paper Piecing completed, but I’m so far behind!

3. Two baby quilts. – Didn’t happen. I wonder why!?  But our little niece was born on the same day as our twin grand babies! And she weighs the combined weight of the two twins! That’s to be expected. But kind of fun to think about! Nephew was born Friday.

OK. I have more chopping of vegetables to do. I plan to make butternut squash soup for supper and have whole wheat oat bread baking. I’ll try to get to those quilt blocks soon!

To-Do Tuesday, September 26, 2023

It’s September! I’m looking forward to cooler breezes and temperatures.

I’ve got some sewing sad (and happy) news –  my sewing machine decided to do a slow death. The computer screen has been flickering and slowly getting dimmer each time I turn on the machine. I called the LQS to make sure this was something they could fix, and of course it will be pricey. $$$. AND of course the shop tries to talk me into upgrading. Ha ha!  I new that would happen. AND husband and I talked before I left with my dying machine with him saying I should upgrade. I’m not going to turn that down! So that happened. Didn’t take much talking on the LQShop’s part!

I bought the upgrade and I’ve done a little sewing on the new machine while figuring out some of the features I’ll be using most.

While I was waiting for my new machine, I pulled out a 25 year old machine to patch a pair of work pants for my hubby.  It’s an old Bernina that is a workhorse! It can just fly over the thick seams.

Here’s how my TDT week went -

To-Do Tuesday, August 29, 2023

1. I’ve got to get cracking on the next set of twin baby quilts! – Kind of!
2. Stitch next set of Twilight Stars QAL blocks. – Done!
3. I’ll fill in the blank for this as the week moves along. – Two projects!

1. I scratched my first twin quilts idea and moved on to a new idea!  I bought all new fabric for the next set of twin baby quilts. I went to the LQS for backs for what I intended to give the twins, and found the cutest Minky! It doesn’t go with the original tops, so I planned all new quilt tops.

The nursery theme is outdoor/nature/hiking/mountains. So I thought this animal print will be perfect. I’ll be using the vine prints for the backs.

2. Twilight Stars QAL

Week 12 of Primitive Gathering Twilight Stars. I have one more block to make in this size, 6 ” finished, using the 3/4″ Triangle Papers. Then I can piece together the blocks for a small quilt. I’m going to switch to a larger paper size for the next set of blocks.

3. My fill in the blank – I sewed up two items.

Project 1 – I made another set of blocks from the Aurifil Thread Lab August lesson.

This is a pattern by Amy Friend who taught Foundation Paper Piecing FPP. I had the floral fabric left over from the first set of twin baby quilts, that will now be charity quilts.  I like the fabric combo in these blocks.

Project two -

I finished this quilt top as a gift for a friend’s birthday.

She lives in a nursing home, so whenever I gift her something, I make sure her name is large and prominent! These are 3″ tall letters that I filled in with thread painting. The top has been finished for a while, so I just sandwiched it and did the serpentine quilting with a walking foot. This is the last project I finished on my dying machine. I was so glad that the screen held out while I completed this project.

What to work on this coming week? Here we go -

To-Do Tuesday, September 5, 2023

1. Baby Twin Quilts!
2. Stitch Week 13 Twilight Star QAL
3. Piece the 4 FPP blocks together. Quilt if there is time.
4. Friday, quilting with friends.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Carol of Quilt Schmidt.

Is it really nearing the end of August!? How did that happen so quickly?!

Here’s a bit of what happened in my world this past week.

To-Do Tuesday, August 22, 2023

1. Gah! Elephant quilts! ✔️
2. Keep up with Twilight Stars QAL.  ✔️
3. Baby shower for my daughter expecting twins! I’ve got food to prepare!  ✔️

1. Elephant quilts completed and gifted!

My daughter and her husband are expecting twins! A boy and a girl! We are all so excited!

I used a Tula Pink fabric with elephants for the baby quilts. One in the pink color way and one in the blue. Top photo is accurate for color.

I put a soft Minky on the backs. Sorry for the blurry photo.

Funny thing, I asked my daughter before deciding on the Tula Pink elephants if she still liked elephants. She said she did. And on the day of the shower, she was wearing an elephant bracelet!

And guess what!? Our family has more surprises!

My DIL is also expecting twins! Two baby girls! She is 10 weeks behind my daughter! This is the first pregnancy for both of them. Can we say super excited! Four grands added to our family by the end of the year!

2.Twilight Stars QAL

Week eleven. The center of the star blocks are from Triangle Gatherings Book by Primitive Gatherings.

3. Baby shower was a fun outdoor party with plenty of good food, sunshine, gentle breeze, friends and family!

My daughter and SIL!

Hubs and me with the happy couple.

To-Do Tuesday, August 29, 2023

1. I’ve got to get cracking on the next set of twin baby quilts!
2. Stitch next set of Twilight Stars QAL blocks.
3. I’ll fill in the blank for this as the week moves along.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Carol of Quilt Schmidt.

Ok, friends. What is up with the weather and allergies this season? I’ve been fighting dizziness off and on for over a week. Last Wednesday it was so bad, I spent the day in bed sleeping. Now I’m having a rather rough day – dizziness building – as the day moves along. I hope whatever I share today makes some sense. I’m going to head to bed as soon as I post this.

To-Do Tuesday, August 1, 2023

1. Play with stripe fabrics. ✔️
2. Back to working on our daughter’s house. ✔️
3. Pull out a PUP? ✔️ Or two!

1. Stripes!

I sewed the stripe blocks together I shared last week, and added a border with blocks in the corners. The local quilt shop is having a customer appreciation sale Thursday – Saturday. I’d like to go and buy fabric to finish this quilt top. 37″ square, I think I’ll add another border. It’s a bold one!

These stripes are much calmer. I have a ways to go on piecing this one.

2. Things are really moving along at our daughter’s house!

Paint!

Primed and starting to paint. (That’s cardboard on the floor, so don’t worry about seeing paint there!) She might have mentioned painting one wall with an accent color.

Outlets and switches installed through out bedrooms and hall!

Daughter spent sometime cleaning out castoffs that had accumulated in dining room. She still has a ways to go cleaning there & back porch too.  No photo. Not worth showing the clutter!

Bathroom floor slowly progressing. Daughter wanted to tackle installing the tile floor. It’s a bit more difficult than she expected.

3. My grand daughter pulled out a PUP! We shopped together for this quilt back in November 2022. We have worked on it a little here and there. I thought we would get it finished over summer vacation. When I mentioned it this summer, she didn’t want to work on it. Now this being the last week of vacation, she asked to work on it. We made progress but still a ways to go.

Piecing houses. Adding roofs previously sewn, to house squares. The quarter inch quilting foot with the metal flange and tape strip are really helping her sew accurate seams. Oh and slowing down the speed of the machine!

Her Layout. After about 4 different tries! Just like a real quilter! Next up white tone on tone sashing.

Here’s my PUP! Previous Unfinished Project for those wondering.

While looking for something else, I came across this wool kit I started years ago used for teaching a class at a retreat. This should be good for evening stitching!

To-Do Tuesday, August 8, 2023

1. Stripe quilts.
2. Shopping LQS appreciation sale.
3. Work on circle quilts.