Five Shadows

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.

Hello Quilting friends! I had a short week of sewing, only a few star blocks made. We worked at our daughter’s house, and I started a reno project at my own house. I’ll keep that one under my hat for a while, but it might involve getting a Gammill longarm! Wink Wink !!!

Here’s what happened this week -

To-Do Tuesday, July 11, 2023

1. Twilight Stars – will I catch up before the new blocks are shared this Friday? ✔️
2. I have an idea for a Christmas Countdown I’d like to get started on to gift to my grands by the end of November. That means starting two new projects. Hmmm.  ✗

1 Twilight Stars QAL!

I caught up on the first five weeks of the Twilight Stars QAL hosted by Primitive Gatherings. I’m stitching up 6″ finished blocks using Primitive Gatherings 3/4″ Triangle Papers. Each week we make two blocks from the Triangle Gatherings Book and then set the blocks in the star points. I’m using Dapple Dot by Riley Blake for the block & star point design and Joy in the Journey by Dani Mogstad for Riley Blake for the background. I just love the tiny floral print with the Dapple Dot. It’s such a happy combination.

2. Christmas countdown. The Accuquilt die for numbers won’t work for what I have planned, the numbers are just too big. Maybe I’ll think on embroidering the numbers? Hmmm.

I didn’t do any other sewing, but tonight I do hope to sew up some turbans for cancer patients. I said I’d make up a few by my church quilt meeting tomorrow! I better get to it!

I did do one other sewing related thing though. I sign up for the Aurifil Thread Lab at Clothesline Creations in Middlebury, IN which meets once a month for the next six months. We had our first Lab today!

We received a box full of goodies including Aurifil’s Swatch Book. Aren’t those colors gorgeous!? We have a little project to make with the spools of threads pictured. I’ll be showing that maybe by next week if I get it completed. Each month a different instructor will present a project in her specialty. It’s going to be fun! It’s not too late to join in if you are interested in learning about all Aurifil has to offer in threads.

On to my daughter’s house -

Here’s where we left off last week – framing in a closet.

Here it is with drywall installed.

And mudded! It looks splotchy because mud is drying. What a difference! Priming soon! Then after painting, shelving will be added.

That’s it for this week. How was your week for quilting and crafting?

To-Do Tuesday, July 18, 2023

1. Turbans! Hope to get to a few tonight.
2. Meeting with Church sewing group tomorrow, Wednesday.
3. Friday some friends and I are going to the One Stop Shop Hop in Wabash, IN. I’ve got a shopping list!
4. Friday is also the day Primitive Gathering announces the next two blocks to be made for Twilight Starts QAL. Looks like busy weekend sewing ahead for me!
5. Aurifil thread project.

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

Happy Independence Day to my USA quilting friends!

Here’s how my week went and also photo updates of my daughter’s house.

To-Do Tuesday, June 27, 2023

1. I received a box of 36 t-shirts just before we left on our trip. I’ll start making three t-shirt quilts from them for a customer.  ✔️
2. Quilt Block 13 of my PUP quilt.  ✔️
3. Thursday I meet with my quilting group. I plan on taking along the EPP Owl. ✔️

1. T-Shirt quilts

33 t-shirts have been trimmed to 16 1/2″ square. And then sleeves were cut and pieced together to make the 12th block for each of the three quilts. Above is the layout for one of the quilt tops and the sashing for this quilt. The three quilts will all have different sashing. These shirts are showing a big Chicago Bears and Cubs fan!

2. Quilt Blocks from my Previous Unfinished Project – PUP! I not only quilted Block 13 but moved on to a few more blocks.

Block 13 – 12 1/2″ square, quilted using Sew Steady/Westalee Design templates Spin-E-Fex and Spiral templates.

Block 14 – 6 1/4 x 12 1/5″ as a whole cloth, no piecing. Here is a close up of the design as it doesn’t show up well on this print I selected for the filler blocks. This used the Spinning Wheels template for the flower petals.

Block 15- 8 1/2″ square, I messed up this design and decided to just stop at this point. It’s not supposed to be oblong, and I’m not ripping out. Templates used are the Arc and Spin-E-Fex.

Block 16 – 8″ x 8 1/2″ – this is what is called a TempLee block. The top fabric has fusible like Heat N Bond Lite attached and then is layered with a ‘peeker’ fabric. The design is quilted and then the top fabric cut away to reveal the peeker fabric. I like it! Spin-E-Fex template was used for the quilting design.

3. EPP Owl

I didn’t get far, third row is started. And my owl will be facing the opposite direction. Hmm. That seems to happen to me a lot. It still works though!

On to my daughter’s house!

She’s got her bathroom tiles in place. Next up, grout.

The beginning of the priming paint!

In the smallest bedroom, a closet in the eves is being remodeled.

Drywall now in place. One more coat, sanding, and then ready for primer.

This dead space in the eves was opened in main bedroom to create a closet like the one above.

That’s a lot of progress!

This coming week’s list -

To-Do Tuesday, July 4, 2023

1. Continue with T-Shirt Quilts!
2. Wednesday sewing group at church – not sure what I’ll be working on.
3. ??? Maybe I’ll sew up & quilt more blocks from my PUP.

Happy quilting all! That’s it for me this week. Time to get cracking on the t-shirt quilts!

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

We are back from our quick trip to TN to visit with friends and then spend a few days in the Smokie Mountains with some of our family.

I’ll share a few photos, just know Hubs didn’t take along his camera equipment so photos are a bit lacking.

To-Do Tuesday, June 6, 2023

1. Hubs and I are taking a short break from house reno to visit friends and family for a few days.
2. But first, Wednesday sewing with church group
3. I’m taking the Owl EPP along on our short trip.

1. Tennessee Trip!

Mama bear and her 4 cubs walking across the street. FOUR cubs! Isn’t that cub standing on its hind legs just the cutest! We saw 9 bears in just three days. That’s more than the total I’ve seen in our many trips to the mountains. Sadly, I think it is because humans are building in and destroying their natural habitat. I hope they survive.

We had a beautiful clear day to walk up to Clingmans Dome. I didn’t get any photos. And family has not yet shared theirs with me. Then rain came in over night. The next day clouds were blowing in over the mountains. This photo is from Newfound Gap. I loved watching the wispy clouds  moving through the mountains.

Just a fern growing along a rock. Didn’t ID which fern this is – there are so many plant varieties in the Smokies!

One of my favorite things to do in the Smokie Mts is find waterfalls! This is Mingo Falls in Cherokee, NC. Hubs and I visited Mingo in December 2017, it was a chilly walk with ice on the path. We wanted to see Mingo again in the Spring. Well worth the drive over the Smokies to the NC side. Plus Elk, you see elk along the way. Again, no photo.

2. At my church group sewing day before our TN trip, I tried sewing on one of the group’s sewing machines. It had the wrong bobbin in the case. After changing out the bobbin and rethreading, I still could not get it to work. So off to sewing machine spa it goes. Other than an hour or so of chatting, I didn’t accomplish anything!

3. I didn’t touch the Owl EPP on our trip. We filled our days with hiking and enjoying family. Plus the lighting in the cabin was not good for hand work.

No change, same photo as last week.

We are back home, and kind of back to normal. We visited daughter #2 at her farmer’s market booth today.

I bought this lovely bouquet plus spring salad mix, bok choy, radishes, & cilanto. Yummy meals coming!

How was your week?

To-Do Tuesday, June 13, 2023

1. Sandwich and quilt anniversary quilt!
2. Daughter’s house – finish sanding drywall mud.
3. Other quilting?

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

We are staying busy at our daughter’s reno house. Sanding drywall might be finished up today! Hubs and I are not planning on doing the painting. I think she should have a painting party with her friends. Maybe I’ll take pizza over. Tee hee!

Here’s a few photos of projects going on there and a bit of sewing/quilting at my house.

To-Do Tuesday, May 30, 2023

1. I’m keeping daughter’s house at the top of the list. Dry wall mudding is the chore of the week.
2. Make headway on Anniversary quilt!
3. Friday is quilting day with friends. I hope to alter two t-shirts with a friend’s help. The shirts have ‘flutter’ sleeves that I just do not like.    And I’m taking along an EPP project, handwork.

Screws and glue are used to pull and hold the plaster to the lath foundation. Once the glue has dried, the round white discs are removed. Daughter has done all the ceiling repair.

Dry wall mud fills in the holes and cracks. Isn’t that an improvement!? This will be sanded. Then it’s ready for paint!

All the sanding should be completed today.

Daughter is learning how to install a tile floor. Looking good! I like the tile and design she decided to use for her bathroom floor.

2. Anniversary quilt

Label is made and back is purchased and stitched together. That’s as far as I got, no sandwiching or quilting.

3. My friend talked me into leaving the flutter sleeves on the t-shirts. Easier for both of us, ha ha!

New EPP

I won this Barn Owl EPP pattern a few years ago. It’s my current evening handwork project. But I’ve not worked on it much in the evenings! It is also my take along project. It’s going with me today to my quilting group. Hostess says she has cheese, crackers, and wine for us! As you can see, I’m doing the background in greens. The owl I will do in browns.

Other quilting -

The last of the braided table runners is made and ready to gift today. I taught this at a retreat back in 2012 I believe. When digging in my sewing room for something else, I came across fabric left for 4 kits for the runner. I decided to finish them up as gifts. This one goes with me today to gift to one of my quilting friends.

So you can see, not much is happening right now in my sewing/quilting world.

Here’s this coming week -

To-Do Tuesday, June 6, 2023

1. Hubs and I are taking a short break from house reno to visit friends and family for a few days.
2. But first, Wednesday sewing with church group
3. I’m taking the Owl EPP along on our short trip.

I hope you all have a lovely week.

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

Family, sewing, quilting, and house reno. That’s my life now.

Here’s my list and what happened this past week -

To-Do Tuesday, May 23, 2023

1. As Hubs works on drywall finishing at daughter’s house, I hope to get going on stripping the wood trim that was removed from bedrooms to update electric. Drywall ✔️
2. Sandwich three baby quilts and anniversary quilt. ✔️ – kind of 2 out of 4
3. ??? Guess I’ll see which way the wind blows again this week in my sewing world. I really should get started on quilting the anniversary quilt.

1. Here are a few photos of what’s happening at the house

This might not look like much of a difference from last week’s photo but this is the second layer of drywall mud. Ready to be sanded before applying the last coat of mud. The mudding might just be finished this week through out the house!

Frame for tub was built, and tub set in place.

Bathroom floor tile. Daughter playing with layout.

This is how you fix ceilings with cracked plaster. It looks like a mess now, but will look brand new soon!

My plans to start stripping woodwork was vetoed. I’m just barely keeping up as the clean-up crew and go-fer! I do what I’m told to do! Ha ha!

2. Sandwich quilts.

My Daughter in Love has been learning to quilt. She did such a beautiful design recently on a charity quilt that I asked if she would be willing to quilt the Trip Around the World Variation. She said yes! And here she is doing a large floral design at my Baby Lock Tiara III.

And here is my daughter straight line quilting the giraffe quilt for her coworker. It was well received at the party.

Sorry for the lousy photo of the finished Giraffe baby quilt. Daughter was flying out the door with it for the party. It finished up at 35 1/2 x 47 1/2 inches. Bound in Moda green grunge. I don’t remember which thread she use for quilting.

Two quilts completed.

3. Today I bought fabric for the back of the anniversary quilt. So I hope to get moving on that one soon.

The other project I worked on was making a tote for storing my large Clammy Rulers,

A t-shirt came with the ruler order but I ordered a size too small. I figured I could cut it up and use in the design of the tote. So here she is. Another circle design with the quirky saying from the t-shirt. Now all my Latifah Saafir rulers and patterns are stored together in this tote.

To-Do Tuesday, May 30, 2023

1. I’m keeping daughter’s house at the top of the list. Dry wall mudding is the chore of the week.
2. Make headway on Anniversary quilt!
3. Friday is quilting day with friends. I hope to alter two t-shirts with a friend’s help. The shirts have ‘flutter’ sleeves that I just do not like. And I’m taking along an EPP project, handwork.

House renovation – Reno is moving along at our daughter’s house!  Pictures below! In my sewing world, I actually did get more sewing done than I thought I’d get to this week.

Here we go -

To-Do Tuesday, May 16, 2023

1. Daughter’s house!  ✔️ Playing in mud!
2. Labels – I really need to get those done.  ✔️ One made. One designed.
3. Wednesday, meeting with church sewing group. ✔️
4. ???  I guess I’m tired and just don’t know what I’ll get to the rest of this week. ✔️I found a few things to work on.

1. Daughter’s house!

This might not look like much to you – first coat drywall mud is up through out the house!

Here’s the bathroom. And look! subfloor installed! Daughter plans to lay the tile herself.

First coat of tape and mud! If you look back through my posts, this is the wall shared with the attic steps. It’s looking so good! I think this will be the reference wall for the reno moving ahead.

2. Labels – one made and attached to the quilt. Quilt is bound and washed. Ready to gift.

(Not showing label for privacy) Trip Around the World, quilted, bound, backing and binding shown in photo. Quilt is 63″ x 65 inches. Quilted with Omni Superior Thread.

3. Church group. We finished 8 more heart pillows for cancer patients. One gal worked on quilting, and another worked on a binding. I cut out jersey knit for turbans. We had a nice time visiting during our 2 hour meeting.

4. Sewing did happen!

This is what I’ve done with the Granny Square blocks. Appliqué center surrounded with Granny Squares, 2″ cream border, 6″ border of 9-patches and cream fabric. The blocks are all made with squares leftover from the Trip Around the World quilt above. Top is 62″ square. This will be a 50th Wedding Anniversary gift.

I stitched up another circle quilt top using Latifah Saafir’s Clammy Ruler technique.

Daughter likes this one as a baby quilt for her coworker and says she will quilt it. The center is a Charley Harper print. I’ll get it sandwiched for her this week. Binding is made.

I pulled out a pieced table runner to quilt, and darn if I didn’t flip the back and had to do some ripping out.

Here she is quilted and bound and ready to gift. Note the Lilly of the Valley in this photo. I love the scent of these flowers and fill my house with them during their short blooming season.

That’s it for this week.

To-Do Tuesday, May 23, 2023

1. As Hubs works on drywall finishing at daughter’s house, I hope to get going on stripping the wood trim that was removed from bedrooms to update electric.
2. Sandwich three baby quilts and anniversary quilt.
3. ??? Guess I’ll see which way the wind blows again this week in my sewing world. I really should get started on quilting the anniversary quilt.

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

Another week flies by! Sunday was Mother’s Day here in the United States. Some of my family picnicked with Hubs & me at a state park. We went on a hike, and played at the playground. It was a nice day, somewhat cloudy with the high of 68F.

I hope you all had a good week, and if celebrating Mother’s Day, I hope you enjoyed the day!

Here’s how I did on my list -

To-Do Tuesday, May 9, 2023

1. Continue on daughter’s house!  ✔️
2. Back for Trip Around the World variation quilt. And quilt it! ✗
3. Stitch applique in place for the Granny Squares quilt.  ✔️
4. Create labels for two quilts.
5. I’ve been asked to make 3 t-shirt quilts by the end of May. I don’t have the t-shirts yet but hope they are delivered this week and I’ll get going on those! – Still don’t have the t-shirts.

1. Daughter’s house!

Third bedroom. Before -

Another wall came out. While pulling out the closet walls, our daughter decided to work on the bedroom wall as well. Apparently all the wall paper, several layers of paint and more wall paper and paint was what was holding up the plaster! So down came the wall in the bedroom and in hall going up the attic steps.

After

Drywall up! And in closet too. What a difference a little unfinished drywall makes!

The attic side is completed too. And the wall is insulated.

Mudding is next.

2.  Trip Around the World variation, I didn’t work on this quilt at all.

3.  Granny Squares quilt

The appliqués I cut out last week are all stitched in place! I used a blanket stitch for all the appliqués.

Oops look what I did! I missed stitching a flower center. And the top got flipped under into the way. So I had to rip out the stitching and start again.

Applique completed! and Granny Squares stitched on. This quilt will get more borders.

4.  Create labels – nope.

5.  I don’t have the t-shirts yet, so can’t work on the quilts.

So that’s my list from last week. But ya know, there is always something else to work on. Dear Daughter asked if I’d make two baby quilts, one for a long time friend, and one for a co-worker.

For a jungle theme quilt I pieced 36 – 5″ charms from a Jungle Paradise pack I had on hand. Then using Latifah Saafir’s Clammy Ruler I cut out a circle from the background piece, and cut the pieced section into a circle and stitched them together. This went together so easily! Look Latifah up on Youtube for instructions. Top is 35 x 43 inches.

The second is a panel by Penny Rose Fabrics called This & That. I just added the polka dot fabric to widen it. Top is 36 x 43 inches. DD says she will do the quilting for both quilts.

And for this week -

To-Do Tuesday, May 16, 2023

1. Daughter’s house!
2. Labels – I really need to get those done.
3. Wednesday, meeting with church sewing group.
4. ???  I guess I’m tired and just don’t know what I’ll get to the rest of this week.

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