Five Shadows

I’m pulling out another UFO to finally baste and work towards quilting as my goal for November.

This was the start – pulling fabric back in 2014.

I taught this as a class at a LQS, Curve it Up by Sew Kind of Wonderful using their Quick Curve Ruler.

After completing the class, it just hung in my “to be quilted” closet until my sister-in-law saw it and said she’d love it for her lake cottage. We shopped and bought fabric for one more border to enlarge it, and bought the back and binding fabric.

She liked the yellow for the border saying it will go in a guest bedroom that is painted yellow.

Now to get it basted and start on the quilting.

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

This is a seven year old UFO finally completed and gifted!

Angela Walters says something along the line of ‘finished is better than perfect’. This quilt is far from perfect, now that it is finished, I have to agree with Angela.

It’s looking pretty good in the above photo. Hopeful the quilt police will not come by and take a closer look! I know where all the mistakes are. Gah!

The pattern is Remembering Victoria from the book Traditions from Elm Creek Quilt. My son and daughter-in-love selected the pattern and fabrics before their wedding. I’m embarrased that it took me so long to finish this quilt, but am more than happy that is it finally completed! I finished up the machine quilting on Friday, October 18th and got the binding on Saturday, October 19th in time to gift it on Sunday, October 20th for their 7th wedding anniversary.

The quilt measures 90″ x 100″

Northcott and Moda fabrics, Superior Master Piece Thread for quilting Color #131.

Completing this quilt was my One Monthly Goal for October. Done! I dragged it out of the corner, and made myself finish it! PHEW! Completed it good!

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

Finally finished, a 7 year old UFO!

TaDa! So Happy! I gifted this quilt to my son and daughter-in-love Sunday, October 20th, on their 7th wedding anniversary!

And I completed the 3rd block of the Happy Little Things BOM too!

Embroidered 4″ center, pieced 12″ finished block. I’m using Carolyn Friedlander fabrics.

Last To-Do List:

1. Quilt outer border of son’s quilt.  ✔️ Quilted, bound, gifted!
2. Happy Little Things, block 3  ✔️

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

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.

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.

Finished! Such a nice word!

The quilt my 4 year old grand daughter designed is completed and ready for some picnic activity!

Most of the blocks are quilted with a motif my grand daughter selected from these two books: 250 More Continuous-Line Quilting Designs by Laura Lee Fritz and Free-Motion Machine Quilting 1-2-3 by Lori Kennedy.

This was a fun one to quilt, here are some of my fav blocks.

Lollipop Flower page 91, Lori’s book.

Claire’s Peony page 98, Lori’s book.

Trees & clouds page 54, Laura’s book.

Stars and loops, I cut out freezer paper stars and traced around them.

Butterflies and loops, using Little Butterflies Stencil by Laundry Basket Quilts.

We used a striped fabric cut on the bias for this fun binding. And in the white border I stitched ‘Let’s have a picnic!’ ‘Time for a picnic!’ etc.

The back is a bright kitty print.

The quilt is 59″ square. Warm & Natural batting.

Next up is planning a picnic with my grand children!

Linking to One Monthly Goal sponsored by Patty at Elm Street Quilts.

My husband thinks this was the best stop on my recent road trip with my two grands and DIL!

It was our stop in Hamilton, MO at Missouri Star Quilt Co.

Why was this the best stop? Because it was Sunday and all the shops were closed! That saves a lot of stress on a wallet! But we stopped to give the two grands a bit of time to run around and eat a snack. Plus DIL loved window shopping there for a bit of a break from driving. She is definitely putting it on a future road trip stop when heading back to MO but during open hours!

At the mural with 4 quilts, my grand daughter liked this quilt the best, so we posed for a photo.

(photo from Pinterest)

I did shop at a lovely quilt and yarn shop in Rolla, MO. Uniquely Yours at 404 East State Rte 72.

I bought fabric for a new project. Gasp! I broke my no new project rule again! Thing is, I’ve been keeping an eye out for a summery design for a wallhanging for my living room. Once I saw this panel at Uniquely Yours, I bought it and a coordinating print.

I also bought Deborah Easter Rubles’ book.

I had seen her cutting method demoed at a quilt show, but didn’t buy the book at the time. I’ve asked about it at quilt shops, but this is the first time I’ve seen it at a shop. Turns out she’s from Missouri and had demoed at Uniquely Yours. The gals at the shop kindly did a demo for me that refreshed my memory as to why I thought it would be a worth while purchase. Next project, I’ll be cutting strips with this method. Oh, and I have an autographed copy of the book.

Last to-do list:

1. Pooh quilt ✔️ Finished and delivered. Take a look here.

To-Do List:

1. quilting grand daughter’s picnic quilt

Linking to To-Do Tuesday.

Picnic time!

Which means time to finish the picnic quilt my grand daughter and I are making together.

Four year old grand daughter selected fabrics from my stash, and showed me where to place them in the 4 x 4 quilt design. Then we looked through free-motion quilting books where she selected way too many designs for each square. Her mother joined in the fun drawing out the designs and even coloring in the paper plan to match the quilt.

Grand daughter selected the kitty print for the back of the quilt, and we are going with the strip for the binding.

My July Goal is to get this quilt sandwiched and quilted! Have to make that back first tho. Then we will have ourselves a nice little picnic!

Linking to One Monthly Goal with Patty of Elm Street.

Saturday the local quilt shop held their annual PJ sale. Most items in the store started at 30% off from 8am – Noon. From Noon – 3pm the discount was 25% off. Very generous!

Recently, my 4 year old granddaughter came for a visit bringing along a drawing she had created. She showed it to me saying it was a quilt. Got to love her for that, right!?

Then she said we needed to make it. OK! I asked what size she wanted it, and she replied, “The size of the drawing.”  Hmmm. I asked her what she planned on doing with a quilt that small, to which she did not have an answer. I suggested making it a doll size quilt. She thought about that, and then stated it could be bed size. Hmmm. I reminded her that I just gave her a new bed size quilt for Christmas. Then I suggested a picnic size quilt. She jumped on that idea and was ready to get started on her quilt.

She ‘shopped’ from my stash and these were her first selections.

During her next visit we sewed together 14″ squares to create her quilt. She carefully laid them out in the same order as her drawing.

Then Saturday we took advantage of the PJ sale at the local quilt shop,

and she selected fabric for the back and binding. She loved just about every fabric in the clearance isle, but we finally narrowed it down to the cats, and stripe for binding. The sale was perfect timing as there was just no right fabric in Grandma’s stash!

Next up will be deciding on quilting motifs. She is anxious to see the quilt completed and ready for a picnic! Looks like I better get that back made and quilt sandwiched!

Last week’s to-do list:

1. Work on Mystery quilt or
2. Work on Basket & Blooms or
3. Work on granddaughter’s quilt  ✔️

This week’s to-do list:

1. Work on granddaughter’s quilt

Linking to To-Do Tuesday

Once the holidays of Christmas and New Years passed, I switched to prepping for an upcoming event.

My eldest son married his beloved Saturday, January 19!

All the photos I’m sharing are from cell phones of relatives. Professional photos will come later.

My kiddos, grands, happy newly weds, me & my husband, groom’s aunt & uncle.

It snowed all day long, and was so windy. Bride arriving in snow boots and leggings!

My kiddos. Son Luke, Daughter Anna, DILove Alicia, Son Noel, Daughter Charis. Luke was best man, Charis was also on the groom’s side, but what do you call her, a groom’s person? Wish I had a photo of the whole wedding party.

Happy Couple at the reception!

My husband, John and me.

Sunday morning we hosted a brunch in our home for family and friends before they headed back to their homes.

Dear friends, the Roses, made biscuits and gravy for 24 people! We also served quiche, fruit, yogurt & granola, juices & coffee.

Fun facts: the wedding gown was my mother’s. Sadly she passed last February, not living to see her gown being worn in her grandson’s wedding. This is the fourth time for it to be used in a family wedding. My sister and also my cousin wore the gown at their weddings. The fur stoles worn by my daughter and me are from my husband’s grandmother.

As for sewing this week, I’ll be adding borders to 2 quilt tops for my sister-in-law. She commented on all the quilts in my house. I told her to pick one out. Then showed her a few I would part with and she selected one. Then I took her up to my sewing room, and showed her finished tops that so far do not have homes. She selected 2. But she wants them bed size. I’ll be adding one border to each.

And get this! A local quilt shop held a 60% off one item sale yesterday. One item could be up to a 10 yard cut of fabric! We selected fabric to finish the 2 quilts. 10 yards for one and 7 yards for the second, using same fabric for border & back. What a deal!

I’m taking a breather today – we had 7 guests staying with us for the wedding. And yes, each bed had at least one quilt on it! Some had 2! We woke up to -8 degrees Fahrenheit Monday morning! Our first guests arrived Wednesday night, and the last of our guests left 6:30pm Monday night! What a full and fun wedding celebration!

I’d say the New Year is going extremely well for me. How is your January going?

Most recent goals:

1. Finishing Helen Godden’s FMQ Christmas ornaments ✗ I really wanted to finish this one up, but wedding prep happily took up my time!
2. Finish 2018 Temperature quilt (I’m giving myself the month of January to finish it.) ✗ Not touched.
3. Start a new project for my soon to be DIL! ✔️ DIL selected a pattern, I was able to buy a fabric kit, book and ruler at 15% off. I’ll share more about this quilt once I get going on it.

This week’s to-do list:

1. work on 2018 temperature quilt. I have some embroidery of dates and temperatures to do by machine.
2. work on adding borders to SIL 2 quilt tops. I have a quilting sewing day scheduled with friends for Thursday, I plan on working on the borders then.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.