Five Shadows

Part of July and August my husband and I traveled to Oahu Hawaii. It was a great trip. We stayed with my sister and brother-in-law. And were also treated to a trip by them to the Big Island.

This past week I stumbled across a Cast Iron Cooking Facebook group. I’ve been hanging out there a bit reading recipes which inspired me to pull out my long neglected cast iron and give a few of the recipes a try. Up to this point, I really only used the 10″ skillet and scone pan for cornbread. I dusted off the dutch oven & roasted up a rather tasty chicken on a bed of herbed rice. And that scone pan? Actually used it for blueberry scones that turned out wonderful! Family raved!

I forgot to take a picture of the scones until after my son and I had each eaten one of them! Yummy!

Thursday, a few friends are coming over for a sewing day. I’ll be making another batch of the scones to share. Can’t wait!

I’ve not gotten to any quilting this past week, but Thursday I plan to make progress on my Paradiso paper pieced blocks. I did play around with a shoulder bag design using a t-shirt and yardage. Not finished yet, so photos next time!

This coming week I want to: Finish up the shoulder bag. Work on some Paradiso blocks. Pack for a trip hubs and I will be taking once his summer session ends later next week.

Are any of you Cast Iron Cooks? Do you have a favorite piece or recipe? Hope you have a good week!

First up, the cutie grand baby is just about crawling! She is adorable, if I say so myself! She and her parents came for a visit on the 4th of July, Independence Day here in the USA.

You think I should try and get that toy?

Determination!

Got it!

I did a little garment sewing this week. I hemmed a bridesmaid dress for my daughter. Hope she likes it. And I took apart a favorite t-shirt to use as a pattern to make a new one for myself. It is ok, considering I didn’t have pattern instructions to follow. I did a lot of guessing and practicing on fabric scraps.

With both of these projects complete, I think I’ll stay away from knits for a while and stick to woven cottons! Something like a little paper piecing with Kate Spain’s Paradiso fabric line.

How about you? Do you like garment sewing?

This week I hope to continue working on the Paradiso quilt. Plus meeting a customer who wants some hobo bags made out of some clothing that is sentimental to her. I spent time today looking for hobo bag patterns and have 3 to show her later this week when we meet up.

I’m linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.

News Flash! I just went over to Connie’s to grab the link to her Linky Tuesday and am pleasantly surprised that she has shared my Mr. Juggler from last week’s link up! Thank you Connie! I am honored!

Isn’t she pretty?

Last Fall my daughter, Janelle, and I took a re-upholstery class together. Each of us worked on our own project. Mine was a chair belonging to my middle daughter, Anna. Anna refinished the wood, and I did the re-upholstery. We are both pleased with how the chair turned out!

Here is what we started with! The end result is a big lovely difference!

I’m linking to Linky Tuesday and To-Do Tuesday!

I’m still working on the Dragonfly quilt – piecing the borders, sashing is complete. The Triangle Table runner is complete. The Dorm quilt for my daughter is all pieced. I’m deciding whether to quilt it myself or send to my favorite longarm quilter. It grew! And since it so large now (71″ x  81″) I’m not sure I should try and quilt it myself.

Have you ever done any upholstery?  I must say, since I have, I can now check it off the list – and never to it again. I did not enjoy the process.

Oh my, sometimes I just have to laugh at myself! Like when looking over my list for last week’s sewing. I forgot when coming up with the list that Easter was last weekend! Can I say “a little sewing might have gotten accomplished”??  :-)

Here is a picture of my darling 3 month old granddaughter, Lillah. Her momma, Kim, took the photo Easter morning.

And here is Lillah with her Grandpa, my hubby John, after Easter dinner at our house.

That was the only picture that I know of taken at our home Easter Sunday. Too bad as the whole family was over, we missed a good photo op time. We had a wonderful time together and a lovely afternoon walk in the warm NE Indiana weather.  All Lillah’s aunts had fun holding and cuddling with her. Grandma didn’t get much time with her tho. That’s OK as it was so nice having all our adult children home for our celebration, plus getting to see them interact with Lillah.

Sewing! I got the binding  and buttons sewn on Stitcher’s Garden. She’s all done now!

And I pieced  3 blocks for the Featherweight Club, meeting Wednesday, April 8th, at Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe, Roanoke, IN. I think they are so cute! The blocks and the machine! ha ha! The 12″ block – Windblown was a new one for me.

And here is the first block for the Curves without Piecing pattern: Dance of the Dragonflies. Actually two blocks. The first block shows what the piecing looks like before you go back and stitch the curves. The block on the right shows the finished block. Interesting process, a bit tedious. These are small 6″ blocks with out the sashing. But I do like the results, and I’m sure I’ll get quicker with the piecing now that I’m familiar with it.

This week I have a sewing date with friends and I plan on taking the Jolene Star and Sweet Mint patterns to work on. So those two are on my To-Do list for this week. I’ll save the baby quilt I never seem to get to until next week. At least the kitchen table where I spray baste baby quilts is all cleaned off, so I’ll have a better chance at getting to it soon! Fingers crossed!

Linking to  Freemotion by the River – Linky Tuesday and Stitch All The Things – To-do Tuesday.

May I introduce you to Lillah June. My first grandbaby!

Family Smooch! on Lillah, the daughter of my son, Luke, and his lovely wife, Kimberly June.

Aunt Anna came up for a visit.

Lillah and me.

Lillah is all coos and smiles now. She is precious!

2014 brought several changes to my family. In May, our daughter, Anna, married Nathan. We are very happy to welcome Nathan to our family! In August, Anna and Nathan moved two hours away for Nathan’s job.

Nathan & Anna with my husband and little ol’ me.

In June, our youngest daughter, Charis, graduated from high school. Her freshman college year started in August at a college about an hour away.

My girls, Anna, Charis, Janelle, and Kim

The weekend of Anna’s wedding, our son Luke and his wife, Kim, announced that they were expecting – our first grand baby is to be born around December 30th! Kim and baby are doing well and we are waiting, ever so patiently, for the little one to make his/her appearance!

Kim’s birthday, John & I, Luke & Kim

Just this past week, I started moving my sewing into Anna’s former room. I’m so excited about having a dedicated space that will be all mine! As I move my supplies into the new room, I’m weeding through and moving only what I really want, like or will use into my new space. I’m sorting through the UFOs, setting some aside for charity quilts, and others that I intend to finish in 2015 to either use of gift.

Looking into the sewing room from the doorway.

Looking from the book shelve across room towards the cutting table and computer table.

I have a lot of organizing and purging to do as I set up the new room. The quilt in the foreground is my 2014 Block of the Month, Stitcher’s Garden. Two more borders and it will be complete!

Merry Christmas! everyone!

My girls held a baby shower for my daughter-in-law, at my house a few Sundays ago. The theme was Turtles. So much homemade goodness! My middle daughter loves to bake. She made this lovely & yummy Turtle cake and cupcakes!

Kim, our expecting mommy, and Turtle Cake

Turtle Cupcakes

Turtle toys!

I followed the theme, and made a turtle ribbon blanket. Babies love the texture of the different ribbons. To add more texture, the background is flannel, the back is Satin, and the turtle shell was made with Texture Magic.

Kim received several homemade goodies. Here she holds a knitted sweater, hat, and booties. She also received hand knitted baby wash clothes, and homemade burp clothes.

Kim’s Grandmother sent a cross stitched Alphabet Blanket.

I sewed up a receiving blanket using an alphabet panel. “T” is for Turtle!

The girls forgot to get a picture of the four of them all together. They pulled off a nice party for Kim with 19 guests in attendance. Lovely day!

One more picture! At the shower given to Kim by our church, I gave her a Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt and several books.

I sewed up a very simple front with green wedges as leaves, appliqued the VHC on one of the leaves, and the butterfly floating near by.

Baby is due December 30th! My first grandbaby!

Progress!

The seat is covered and foam in place on the back.

Cording made and the three inside pieces sewn together.

Back covered! See the cording in the seam where the back and sides meet? This photo is the most accurate to the color of the upholstery fabric. Yes, we are working on ugly yellow tables.

Next up, buttons!

Upholstery is hard work!  But I am enjoying the time with my daughter!

My Path was a bit windy this week. I just got to my Cross the Drunkard’s Path Quilt Along blocks today, and now I’m not so sure my plan is going to work. I might have to do some tweaking and playing around with them to get them to feel right.

The white seems too bright to me. Maybe a gray would work better. And even tho I’ve shown these 4 blocks with green and blue set stones, my intention is to only use color set stones in about 1/4 of the blocks. More playing for sure, or maybe the white will grow on me?  I’m just not jumping for joy with the look right now.

Earlier this week I worked up another Curve it Up block which just happened to have Drunkard’s Path units in it. See the Star Points – Drunkard’s Path units!

I do like the subtle kind of white to white going on in this block. See Block 1 here.

For the Demo this weekend at Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shop in Roanoke, Indiana, I will be talking about how to use Creative Grids Storm at Sea Ruler using this quilt made by Linda Ridgeway.

And since I like changing things up a bit and showing other uses for rulers, I also made these three blocks.

Oh I just love love love the way this color wheel turned out! I used 12 fabrics from Moda Marbles, Grunge, & Solids, and Jenny Beyer prints for the wheel and Moda Grunge for the background.

All the pieces for these blocks were cut from the Creative Grids Storm at Sea Ruler. I used the Flower Filigree line from Quilting Treasures for the star blocks.

My path lead me on a short road trip this week with Daughter #1 to visit Daughter #2. Among the day’s adventures was a stop in at Crimson Tate! Heather and David are just as personable in real life as they are on their Facebook page! It was nice to meet them and chat for a bit. I could have bought one of everything in the store (if one only had the where-with-all to do so!) but settled for these two lovelies! If you are ever near Indianapolis, Indiana, stop in and visit them!

I’m linking up to Vicki’s Cross the Drunkard’s Path Quilt Along.