Five Shadows

Put a Heart On It!

Here’s what’s up with my challenge for this week. I pulled a few fabrics and a vintage hankie with a lace edge. Next I dug through some hand-me-down quilting stencils finding several with heart motifs.

I settled on a stencil that fit nicely on the hankie.

Using a Frixion pen & stencil I drew the design onto the hankie. With Misty Fuse & pink fabrics, I fused hearts on to the hankie – thus removing the Frixion pen marks for the rest of the quilt! Oops! Have you used Frixion pens for marking your quilts? The pen marks remove with heat. So think through your project first as to when to mark your quilt! After machine blanket stitching around the hearts I remarked the ‘flowers’ on the hankie. Then I stitched the rest of the design out with Aurifil thread, 4020. It’s a simple design, but fits the challenge.

To finish the little quilt, I zigzagged stitched, using Aurifil 2021, around the outer edge of the hankie leaving the lace free flowing. The quilt with lace is 13″ square.

This will be gift for a friend celebrating her birthday, I’m taking her out for lunch Wednesday. So far for all three Season 11 challenges I have gifted the little quilts. I wonder if I’ll be able to keep up this dual purpose with the rest of the challenges?

Linking to Project Quilting Season 11:3

For February, I’ll be working towards completing the 2019 Happy Little Things BOM hosted by Jacquelynne Stevens.

I hand embroidered the flower motif for the center of each of the 4 blocks.

Using Carolyn Friedlaner fabrics, I built the block around the embroidered center.

Each block needs to be sashed. Once sewn together, there are two borders to complete. My plan is to get the top all pieced. If all goes well, maybe I’ll even sandwich, quilt, and bind. This will be a nice quilt to display in my living room this Spring.

What are you working on this month? Check out everyone else’s plans at Elm Street Quilts.

Linking to One Monthly Goal.

Only eleven more months until Christmas!

2017 Christmas Countdown, 21″ x 20″

I am actually very late – as in two and three years. But I finished two UFOs that are now ready for Christmas 2020!

Christmas Countdown 2018, 15″ x 23″

This next one was the Christmas countdown for 2019, which I did manage to keep up with all the daily stitching.

Christmas Countdown 2019, 19″ x 21 1/2″

These are Helen Godden Christmas Countdown wall hangings with a little stitching to be done every day December 1-24th. She demos in a short video which she posts on her Facebook page. I didn’t keep up in 2017 & 2018. They are done now! Helen has lots of teaching videos and online classes. Take a look!

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

This past week I did find some time to work at piecing Bat Moon Rising.

I was thinking the rows are done and ready to go together. But looking at this photo, I think I’ll do some ripping and move the bat just off the left of the moon over a few squares. And then on the right of the moon all the bat tips are lined up, so I’ll move one of those over more to the right. Then I might be more pleased with the placement of all these winged bats. Overall, I’m pretty pleased with this quilt. Pattern by Sew Kind of Wonderful from their book Mini Wonderful Curves. I’m making my version wider, thus the need to rearrange the bats a bit.

Project Quilting – I did jump in, participating in this past week’s challenge, Team Colors. Since I’m not much for following sports I decided to honor my DS friend by making her a little quiltie – Team Ruth! using her love of pink and unicorns.

This little wall hanging measures 16″ square. The lettering is fusible appliqué. The Unicorn is colored with crayons and then machine stitched to add to the mane and outlining of the unicorn. It was a fun little project.

Last To-Do List:

1. Bat Moon Rising  - get back to piecing!  ✔️
2. Maybe play along with Project Quilting 11:2.  ✔️

To-Do List:

1. Continue piecing Bat Moon Rising
2. Select a UFO to work on

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

Go Team!

For the 11:2 Team Colors Challenge I focused on a little quiltie for my friend Ruth.

Ruth is one amazing young lady full of life. Among her many interests are songs, shows and movies by Hannah Montana, cheer leading, finger nail polish, unicorns, all things pink, and a new love for coffee which is mostly milk. Ruth has Down Syndrome. So here is to Ruth and her team of loving supporters and family. Go Team Ruth!

I changed up my plans from doing appliqué to using crayons to color the Unicorn. FMQing outlining, and swirls added to the mane. This little quilt is 16″ square.

This is just my second time to participate in Project Quilting, having just learned about it recently. This was another fun challenge. Thanks for hosting Kim & Trish!  Project Quilting, Season 11:2

This past week I spent very little time in my sewing room. Even so, I did manage to complete the little vintage truck wall hanging for my son and daughter-in-law. They went away for the weekend to celebrate their wedding anniversary, so I didn’t see them to give the little gift. I’ll see them later this week. It finished at 15″ x 10 3/4″ pattern by Buttermilk Basin.

I’ll report back later their reactions!

Happy stitching, All!

Last To Do List:

1. Finish up Vintage Truck for son & DIL for their 1st wedding anniversary on the 19th. ✔️ Finished!
2. Back to Bat Moon Rising quilt.  ✗ Nope, didn’t get to this. Other family needs took precedence.

To Do List:

1. Bat Moon Rising  - get back to piecing!
2. Maybe play along with Project Quilting 11:2.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday.

Last week I did get the tea cozy made for my daughter-in-law. But totally changed all my fabric & design plans. I came across a quilting challenge I could not resist, so changed my plans to meet the rules of the Project Quilting 11:1 Challenge – Notably Numeric. Read all about what I came up with for the challenge here.

We opened our home to a dinner party given by our son & DIL in honor of her 30th birthday. We had 22 happy people in our home!  DIL loves to cook for family and friends so she prepared and served the meal at our house. Son & DIL are currently refinishing the oak floors in their home, so could not host their own party. Their floors are lovely, BTW! And so is their newly remodeled kitchen with beautiful Amish built cabinets.

I made a tea cozy and apron from a vintage table cloth. If you followed the link above you’ll see I’m reposting photos -

Both the tea cozy and apron were gifted to my DIL along with great grandmother’s tea set.

Flip side of tea cozy. Simple wavy lines quilted on my Featherweight. It was my first time to quilt on the FW and it worked like a dream! I used fusible batting, Aurifil thread.

I’m so tickled I had time to make the apron.  Upon opening the apron, she put it on and kept it on for a while. I think she liked it (wink wink) along with the other gifts.

Last To Do List:

1. Make Tea Cozy by Friday night to gift to my DIL. ✔️ Done!
2. Maybe work on an apron? ✔️ and done!

To Do List:

1. Finish up Vintage Truck for son & DIL for their 1st wedding anniversary on the 19th.
2. Back to Bat Moon Rising quilt

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

How is it that Project Quilting has escaped my notice for the past 10 seasons? I stumbled upon the Project Quilting Challenge earlier this week and decided to join in. Thank you for accepting me as a new member!

I had already decided before discovering this challenge that I would be making an apron and a tea cozy for my daughter-in-law for her 30th birthday which is tomorrow, Friday, January 10th. Hmmm, could I figure out a way to make the tea cozy fit the challenge?

After changing my mind several times on numbers, such as morse code or the use of numerals, I decided to use 30 squares to represent each of Alicia’s 30 years.

Here’s the tea cozy with three rows of ten 1″ squares for Alicia’s 30th Birthday.

I used a vintage table cloth to construct the apron, so continued with it for a matching tea cozy. I used 10 fabrics for the squares to coordinate with the table cloth.

Tab on top and binding are also from the table cloth. Cozy is 10″ wide and 11″ tall at the top of dome.

The reason the whole apron and tea cozy idea as birthday gifts came about was when my son mentioned that Alicia would love to inherit Great Grandmother’s tea set. I’m very happy to pass it on to her!

The set includes the tea pot, sugar & creamer, 4 luncheon plates, and 3 tea cups. Sadly one tea cup came broken when the set was passed down to me. Alicia will be the 4th generation to own this set. I’ve enjoyed using the tea pot, but never used the rest of the set. It is a small pot for the size tea cozy I made, but Alicia owns other larger pots that will fit snuggly into the cozy.

And the Apron

Linking to Project Quilting 11.1 Challenge

We went directly into birthday season with our family. January 3rd and 7th are our two grandchildren’s birthdays, our second son’s 2 kiddos. And the 10th will be our daughter-in-law’s birthday, wife to our first son. We had a party here on the 3rd for our granddaughter, and we went to our son’s home for an ice-cream party tonight for our grandson. Friday we will be opening our home for another birthday dinner. Our DIL loves to cook for her family & friends on her birthday, and right now we are the ones with room to hold the number of people invited.

After talking with my son, it was decided gifting my DIL a family tea set would be perfect for her.

There are also 4 saucers and 3 tea cups I haven’t dug out of the cabinet yet. Sadly one tea cup came broken to me 20 years ago. This set now goes to the fourth generation!

I had thought last week I’d make an apron for my DIL. And I still hope to do so. I’m kind of bumping making an apron to making a tea cozy.

Here are the fabrics I’ve pulled for making the tea cozy.

Hopefully I’ll get both the cozy and apron made!

Here is what I’ve done on the vintage truck wallhanging for my son & DIL’s first wedding anniversary.

I’ve machine blanket stitched around the truck, hearts, basket, etc. I’ll probably add some more embellishments, but I’ll set this aside to work on the tea cozy. Their anniversary is on the 19th of this month, so I have time to finish it.

Last To Do List:

1. Finish wall hanging for DIL & son. ✗ worked on, not finished.
2. Make apron for my DIL.  ✗ pulled fabric, have not cut into it yet.

To Do List:

1. Make Tea Cozy by Friday night to gift to my DIL.
2. Maybe work on an apron?

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

I spent the first day of January 2020 cleaning my very messing and disorganized sewing room. I thought of taking photos, but then decided against that!

If you are anything like me, you won’t be surprised that I unearthed a few forgotten projects. Having just finished Helen Godden’s Christmas Countdown Quilt-Along for 2019, I knew I had at least one other of her Christmas Countdown quilts from previous years in progress. Found it!

Not only did I find that one, but also another one which I don’t even remember starting.

Finishing these 2 UFO Christmas projects will be my January goal.

As I was cleaning, I packed a box and labeled it “Christmas in July Projects.” My plan is to pull it out in July and start the projects I have not gotten to, other than buying fabric. They are all Christmas related, stockings, tree skirt, etc.

I seem to be a “quilt topper” not finisher! That needs to change! This might be a year of finishing. But time will tell as there are always so many lovely designs out there to distract me!

Happy New Year, fellow quilters!

Linking to One Monthly Goal with Patty of Elm Street Quilts.