Five Shadows

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.

The weather is heating up this week here in NE Indiana. I’m glad I have inside things to do to keep me busy.

Here’s my list from last week and how I faired.

To-Do Tuesday, August 15, 2023

1. Tomorrow, Wednesday, is quilting/sewing day at my church. Stripe quilt. ✔️
2. Finish up two stripe quilt tops.  ✗
3. Sandwich elephant circle quilts.  ✗
4. Piece the FPP from today’s class.  ✔️

Here’s how my sewing went this past week -

1. Stripe quilt top

I’m calling this the calm stripe  quilt. While at my church Wednesday with my sewing group, I found the yellow in the fabric bin. I think it will work nicely for a border and the back.

Here’s a close-up of the fabric where you can see the fun stripes made from crescents, stars, hearts, etc.

2. Finishing two stripe quilt tops didn’t happen. But as you saw above, I did make progress on one stripe quilt! And finding free fabric is a plus.

3.  Looks like sandwiching is on hold for a while due to outside obligations and a fun family event coming soon.

4.  Aurifil Thread Lab class two!

We had a video lesson on Foundation Paper Piecing by Amy Friend. Plus the owner of Clothesline Creations had some extra tips new to me and very helpful!

This finished little quilt is 18″ square.

I used strips left over from a JayBird quilt I made a few years ago for the back. I think this will be displayed on my sewing room wall in the near future.

Last week I forgot to post the blocks from week 9 of Twilight Stars QAL with Primitive Gathering.

Week nine, Blocks 21 & 23 from Triangle Gatherings book.

Week 10, Blocks 11 & 26. Note that I’m using 3/4″ triangle paper, which are the tiniest pieces I’ve ever sewn on my machine. The star blocks are 6 1/2″ unfinished. Aren’t they cute!?

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!

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

I’m so thankful that the dizziness I experienced the beginning of last week has passed! I was able to move along a bit on some projects, and also did shop at the LQS on Saturday of last week. Here’s a look at what I hoped to do -

To-Do Tuesday, August 8, 2023

1. Stripe quilts. ✔️ Some progress.
2. Shopping LQS appreciation sale.  ✔️
3. Work on circle quilts.  ✔️4 tops completed.

1. Stripe quilts

I sewed up a few blocks from a much calmer stripe fabric than the bold top I shared last week.

2. Shop LQS customer appreciation sale.

I didn’t find everything I wanted, but I did find a yellow flannel for the back of this I Love You to the Moon And Back Panel. The gold and tan will be for a border of stars to enlarge the panel to baby size.

I found a print I think will work with the bold stripe quilt top. I’ll photo it once it is all together.

3. Circle quilts

Four tops completed. I hoped to find Minky or Shannon fabric for a soft backing for the circle quilts at the LQS sale. No luck. I looked in the flannel section and no luck there either.

This is a Tula Pink fabric cut to a 24″ circle. Excuse the poor lighting, let’s just call it a rainy day photo. This will be a quilt for my daughter’s baby boy.

Here’s a close up of the blue elephant.

And baby girl will get pink elephants. That’s right two babies! Twins due in October! I bought two pieces of pale Minky for the back, blue for baby boy, and pink for baby girl to make the quilts soft and cuddly.

No photos yet of the other two circle quilts.

Today was the second class of the Aurifil Thread Lab. Today’s lesson was FPP foundation paper piecing with Amy Friend. We received a free pattern which we started in class. I didn’t get very far. I hope to finish the small 18″ quilt this week and share it next Tuesday.

Here are the goodies we got in the Lab.

Ten spools of 50 weight thread!

Tula’s Neon set of three large spools, a large spool of green, and 6 smaller spools selected by Amy Friend.

I picked up a few more goodies while at Clothesline Creations in Middlebury, IN for the class.

Seashore Drive Honey Bun by Moda, two half yard Grunge pieces, a Lori Holt 14″ design board. And The Crochet was gifted to me from a fellow student.

To-Do Tuesday, August 15, 2023

1. Tomorrow, Wednesday, is quilting/sewing day at my church. I will work on the stripe quilt shown above.
2. Finish up two stripe quilt tops.
3. Sandwich elephant circle quilts
4. Piece the FPP from today’s class.

That’s it for me folks in my quilting world!

Or, I forgot an update on my daughter’s house – electric sockets, and switches are in! We are so close to having the final electrical inspection. But daughter has not bought the ceiling fans and lights she wants, so that is a hold up. She has almost completed painting the bedrooms that were started last week! Dining room ceiling is next. No movement on the bathroom, another hold up. But it is looking good you all!

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.

Happy August 1st everyone! Is it just me, or is this year flying by?

So much happened this past week at my house, but much of it I’m keeping as a secret for now.

Here’s what I did in my sewing world this past week -

To-Do Tuesday, July 25, 2023

1. Finish pin cushion for the July Aurifil Thread Lab class. ✔️
2. Get back to one of my PUPs, Previously Unfinished Projects! ✗
3. ??? Mystery project ??? ✔️

1. The Aurifil Thread Lab is turning out to be a fun adventure. But it’s Aurifil, so would I expect less!?

We received a sample box of all the weights of thread Aurifil offers. Karen L. Miller of Redbird Quilt Company demoed by video how to use all the different 7 weights of thread by making a pin cushion. And our homework was to make the pin cushion. I made all the same elements as hers, but changed up the placement ending up with a square cushion instead of a round one.

There are some oopses, but I’m pleased with the overall outcome.  This was my first time doing some of the hand work – like the two Fishbone Stitch leaves, stitching over the wool berry, and cross stitch patch. The pin cushion measures 6″ square and filled with ground nut shells, and little bit of flax seed and lavender buds.

2. I didn’t pull out an old PUP to work on, but started a new project. I’m crazy!

I’m playing with some bold stripes! At the One Stop Shop Hop last week, I bought two stripe fabrics to play with – this is the bold one. I’m really liking the design, kind of surprised me! This will be a charity quilt.

3. And the mystery project? I’m keeping it a secret for now. Hint – it involves a room remodel in our house.

That’s all I have this week!

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?

Hope you all have a productive week!

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

Good Morning quilting friends! July is flying by and August will be here in a minute it seems. Return to school ads are popping up everywhere. Today I have my grandson visiting while his sister is at choir camp. And his mom is busy with yard work.

Take a look at what happened in my quilting and sewing world this past week.

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 Stars QAL. Looks like busy weekend sewing ahead for me! ✔️
5. Aurifil thread project. ✔️ In progress!

Here’s my progress for the week -

1. I stitched up five turbans.

Here is my DIL modeling one of the turbans. Cute how it coordinated her top the day I asked her if she would mind trying it on.

2. I missed my Wednesday church sewing group because I woke up with a terrible headache in the middle of the night.  Not a migraine, thankfully, but did put me out for the day. My DIL took the turbans to the meeting for me.

3. We had One Stop Shop Hop fun! But it was so crowded! Maybe we should have gone in the afternoon instead of when they opened on the first day. We noticed it thinned out a bit as it neared lunch time.

I did make a few purchases. Top left – kit pattern and fabric. Top right – puzzle for when Christmas guests visit! Planning ahead! The rest are one yard cuts and two panels.

4. Blocks 3 & 8 are the blocks for Twilight Stars QAL using Primitive Gatherings Triangle Gatherings book.

6″ finished blocks, flowers from my daughter’s garden.

5. Aurifil thread project

The Aurifil Thread Exemplar box for our first month to Thread Lab came with seven spools of different weights and types of Aurifil threads. Karen L. Miller of Redbird Quilt Co. designed a pin cushion using the threads provided. Our homework is to make the pin cushion this month. Here is my work so far. I’m rearranging the elements to my own design.  I’m learning some new hand stitches while using Aurifil threads I’ve not used before in this Aurifil Lab. Fun! The fabrics I’m using are hand dyed by Vicki Welsh of Colorways.

To-Do Tuesday, July 25, 2023

1. Finish pin cushion for the July Aurifil Thread Lab class.
2. Get back to one of my PUPs, Previously Unfinished Projects!
3. ??? Mystery project ???

That’s it for me this week. How is your week going?

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.

Hubs and I are home from a quick trip to celebrate with a few friends. Friday night we celebrated with friends on their 50th wedding anniversary. Saturday we celebrated with one young man retiring from serving in the Navy. At both parties we enjoyed reconnecting with friends and making a few new ones.

To-Do Tuesday, June 20, 2023

1. Finish binding the anniversary quilt to gift this Friday! ✔️
2. And off we go on another short trip to the anniversary party and a retirement party. ✔️

We had a great time catching up with friends at both of the parties.

Other quilting – Before we left on our trip, I pulled out a PUP (Previous Unfinished Project) and sewed up another block.

This is from an online class  The Next Steps in Template Quilting from Sew Steady with Donelle McAdams. I started this class in April 2022, then set it aside back in September when we started helping our daughter with her house renovation.

Maybe I’ll get a block or two done in between the renovations since my responsibilities there seem to be slowing down.

Here’s a short list for this week -

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.

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

Happy Summer!

Phew, the heat is here. I’m thankful the temperatures cool off during the night!

Here’s what is happening in my little quilting world.

To-Do Tuesday, June 13, 2023

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

1. The Anniversary quilt is sandwiched! And quilted! And binding part way on!

First up, echoing appliqué in center of quilt.

Then quilting Grannie Square blocks. Can you make out the flower? I use Amanda Murphy’s Good Measure Every Oval Template.

And Westalee Spin-E-Fex ruler for another flower.

In the outer border I use Amanda Murphy’s Good Measure Ribbon Candy Template.

Here you can see FMQ curls in the inner 2″ border, and the Ribbon Candy design in outer border.

I did meandering in the outer border corners of pieced blocks. Quilt is ready to be trimmed and binding attached.

Quilted and trimmed!

Binding ready and wound on Missouri Star Quilt Co clear acrylic bolt tool. I found it works well for binding. The tool was gifted to me by a friend. The binding is sitting on the floral print quilt backing.

2. At our Daughter’s house, bedrooms are mudded and sanded. AND ready for primer! I hoping she has a painting party with friends to complete all the painting. BUT she has a bathroom to complete first. So hubs thinks I should do the priming. Gah! I do not like painting! Hubs is working on building two closets in the eves of the front two bedrooms. That means there will be touch up work in painting anyway if it is done now.

3. I didn’t do any other quilting.

To-Do Tuesday, June 20, 2023

1. Finish binding the anniversary quilt to gift this Friday!
2. And off we go on another short trip to the anniversary party and a retirement party.

See you next week!

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.