Five Shadows

I just started a new project.

Several years back I attended a lecture by Jodi Barrows on her Square in a Square system. I already owned one of her rulers and a book or two. But I hadn’t gotten into them enough to really become familiar with her techniques.

I’ll be working through Jodi’s Letters to a Soldier Sampler Quilt book, but instead of using her line of Civil War fabrics I’m using the  Hummingbird print pictured above. I fussy-cut 56 Hummingbirds in 2 1/4″ square to 5 1/2″ square to use in the sampler blocks.

This is one of three new quilts I planned out at the end of 2017. The plan for the year is to continue quilting the finished quilt tops so they don’t turn into UFOs, while starting a few new projects.  I have to have something to take to work one while sewing with friends, right?!

How did January go for you? Do you have any finishes or headway made on new projects? I’d love to hear about them!

How did I do on last week’s To-Do List:

1. FMQ a quilt for a friend, she made it, I’m quilting it. ✔️ Completed and returned to her.
2. Make 3 quilty gifts for a gift exchange Jan 25th. ✔️ Sorry, no pictures.

To-Do List for this week:

1. Work on Hummingbird quilt.
2. Work on back for Chic Country quilt.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.

Phew!  This quilt took longer to piece than I expected.

Here she is with blocks being laid out, not the final layout, but getting a taste of what the top would look like.

The finished quilt top is 7 rows by 9 rows with the half block border going around the outer edge to finish off the secondary circles.

I’m pleased with the top. Love the secondary circles. Fingers crossed when it comes time to quilt!

Pattern: Chic Country by Sew Kind of Wonderful

Fabric: Fossil Fern by Benartex

Top measures: 73 1/2″ x 91″

Linking to One Monthly Goal sponsored by Elm Street Quilts

It would be nice to say New Year, New Goals. But that is just not going to happen as I have so much to finish from last year. And the year before. And projects bought with good intentions that have not been touched but tucked away in a closet. And the tops completed 2017 and waiting to be quilted.

You get the idea!

I’m actually excited about finishing those quilts carrying over from 2017.

Thoughts for 2018:

I was thinking about not selecting a word for 2018, but as I get together with my quilty friends the word “finish” keeps resurfacing. I’m sticking with that, “Finish!” for 2018!

As I look over my list of completed quilts from 2017, I’m kind of impressed with what I did accomplish.

• 20 quilt tops quilted and bound
• 12 of the 20 were quilts from table runner size to lap size, carried over from previous years
• 8 of the 20 were quilts made from start to finish – mostly baby quilts

My goal for January 2018 is to complete this quilt top! The pattern is Chic Country by Sew Kind of Wonderful. I’m enlarging it for a twin size bed for my grand daughter who recently moved from a toddler bed to a twin.

I’m linking to One Monthly Goal hosted by Patty of Elm Street Quilts. Go take a look at the other posts as everyone gears up for a new year of quilting! You can join in too!

Happy New Year everyone!

Grand daughter loved her little bunny family with the babies in the pockets of Mama bunny’s skirt.

I tell you, turning those skinny arms & legs on Mama and Papa was a real chore. And then the bow tie beat me, so I improvised and made a bandana for Papa instead of the bow tie.

We celebrated Christmas with our adult children on Christmas Eve by attending church with my son’s family. In the evening we all gathered at my daughter’s home and exchanged gifts. We spent Christmas day at my son’s home. When hubs and I arrived our grand daughter had all her dollies lined up in her bed room on the new quilt I had made for her and the bunny family was included among the dollies. It was so nice to see her playing with them.

The quilt for grand baby number 2 was all pieced before hubs and I left on our trip. We came home after Christmas to a house at 32ºF/0ºC! The furnace was not working! I just could not sew in a house that cold, so once the furnace was repaired, grocery shopping done, laundry from our trip caught up, I had just 3 days to sandwich, quilt, & bind the Forest Fellows quilt top to reach the second part of my OMG for December.

Quilt top pieced.

And quilted and bound. I’m so pleased that I will have this quilt ready to present to my grand baby when we get that call that he has arrived!

I’m linking to One Monthly Goal. Be sure to go visit and see what all the other quilters have completed this busy month of December!

After a false start, the quilt for my second grand baby is coming along nicely.

I was thinking trees would work well with this Forest Fellows panel.

My first thought was trees made from flying geese units, but then my eyes fell on this pattern by Cut Loose Press called Crazy Christmas Trees.

(photo from Cut Loose Press)

I bought this pattern earlier in the year and have it hanging in my sewing room with the Spider Web ruler, waiting to be made! Ha! Maybe that will happen for Christmas 2018? Anyway, I thought those trees might look nice added to the Forest Fellows panel and I made up a set of 4, thinking I’d use 3 on the front and put one on the back.

But when I laid the trees out with the panel, they just did not seem to match the ‘feel’ of the panel.

Back I went to my FIRST and original plan of making trees from flying geese units!

Much better! I’m pleased with how this is looking! I have some teal flannel that will make a nice comfy back.

Today I squeezed in a last minute project for a friend living in a nursing home:

I was invited to the Christmas dinner held tonight, and didn’t want to show up empty handed. Using the snowflake block from I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long, I stitched up a canvas bag and turned the quilt block into a pocket. My friend said she will wait and open the gift Christmas day. I hope she likes it!

Last Wednesday I had a little sewing time with quilty friends. I decided to take along the Chic Country quilt in progress. I was pleased with the few hours of sewing and the blocks coming together for this quilt. I had first thought I’d take along the panel and some fabrics to work on the quilt for grand baby #2 but thought it would take too much brain power. You know, when you get together with friends it is lots of talking and laughing, so more mindless sewing is best!

Are you working on any last minute gifts?

How did I do on last week’s To-Do Tuesday List?

1. Work on sewing Chic Country blocks.  ✔️ I didn’t count, but I got several sewn together.
2. Make baby quilt for grand baby #2 who will be arriving on or about January 6th.  ✔️ Top made, pictured above!

This week’s To-Do List:

1. Prep back for baby quilt.
2. Pack for get-away with Husband!

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.

This week I pulled out some panels and pre-cuts to whip together some gifts.

First up Mr. & Mrs. Bunnikins and their 3 baby bunnies from a panel:

Here they are sewn up and needing fiber fill.

And here they are a happy bunny family ready to gift to my grand daughter.

I’ve decided I don’t like sewing panel dolls! The directions were not the clearest, and all those tiny little pieces to sew and turn right sides out just about did me in. Not my thing! I could not get Mr. Bunnikins bow tie to look nice, so I dug in my stash and made him a bandana instead of the bow tie.

Next up, I turned a few pre-cut hexagons into mug rugs.

These will be gifted tomorrow to a few quilting friends.

I finished all the petal units for Chic Country! I’ll be working on sewing them into blocks at the quilting get-together tomorrow!

How did I do on last week’s To-Do Tuesday List?

1. Finish sewing the petal units for Chic Country. ✔️ Finished!
2. Sandwich and start quilting another quilt made by a friend. ✗ I don’t see getting to this until January 2018! Friend said she is ok with that. Phew!
3. 4 secret gifts to complete. ✗ Putting this off until the last week of December.

This weeks To-Do List:

1. Work on sewing Chic Country blocks.
2. Make baby quilt for grand baby #2 who will be arriving on or about January 6th.

I have two gifts to start and finish this month.

One is a Christmas gift for my granddaughter.

It’s a panel to make a bunny doll family – the Spring Bunny Fun panel has preprints to make Mr. & Mrs. Bunnikins and 3 baby bunnies. I thought this would be a nice gift for Granddaughter as baby brother will be added to her family on or about January 6, 2018! She is also getting a doll quilt, which her mother requested.

Baby brother will be receiving a quilt when he arrives.

I purchased this Forest Fellows panel and coordinating prints. I’m usually NOT a panel person, so this is new territory for me!

I had such good intentions of starting these projects soon after I purchased them. Ha ha! Didn’t happen. One is from a June Shop Hop! In the next two weeks I need to start and finish both, as we will be traveling the last half of the month. Maybe I’ll be doing some hand stitching to finish them up! We will see!

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

On this last day of November, 2017 I completed my November goal of piecing & trimming the alternate units for Chic Country.

Phew!  …  and Happy Dance!

I couldn’t resist laying out some of the units to see the how the quilt top will come together! I must say, I am happy!

I hosted my quilting group today. It was nice to have the gals here to chat with while finishing the last of the units. I’ll be putting this project away until January.

Linking to One Monthly Goal with Patty at Elm Street Quilts. Go check out what the other participants have been working on this month! And then join in for December!

Happy Thanksgiving, Friends!

Our trees are all but bare here in the Midwest. So maybe this table topper will add some Autumn color for Thanksgiving Day. This is not a new quilt, but one of my favorites.

Looking over my to-do quilting list from last week, I think I obviously made up the wrong list! But, thankfully, I did get a few new things moving along!

First, a dear friend’s birthday is Wednesday. I saw a cute little quilt on Marie’s Quilts that included quilt piecing around a cross stitched design. I started with the butterfly scene stitched by my Mom.

Last year, sadly, my mother became a permanent resident of the dementia unit at the retirement home where my parents have lived for the past 10+ years. We are thankful for the good care she is receiving and that Dad can visit her everyday. Sis and I helped Dad with some cleaning out and downsizing. I brought home some of my mother’s cross stitching & needle work. When I saw Maria’s post of how she put together her needle work and quilting, I knew that was what I wanted to do with some of my mother’s pieces. Please follow the link above to see Maria’s gorgeous Home Sweet Home quilt!

I’ll be gifting this to my friend who loves pinks, purples, and butterflies. Since the butterfly needle work did not have pink or purple, I added appliqué flowers in a range of pinks. I made and added a 3-D butterfly, and appliquéd some orange butterflies in keeping with the needle work. I hope it all works together. Quilted, but still needs a binding.

Close up of 3-D butterfly.

Next, not on my to-do list, is a table runner for my Daughter-in-law. She & fam will be visiting for Thanksgiving and staying through the weekend. Friday is her birthday. Making a table runner as a birthday gift was added to the list! She had asked if I would make a runner for to protect her cedar chest that is placed at the end of their bed. Grand daughter, 2 years old, climbs up on the chest to then climb up on the bed.

Leftover blocks came in handy for this runner. Pieced and basted, and quilting started today. I’m thankful I have one more day to work on it before they arrive from out of town!

I wish you many thankful days and many blessings for you and yours!

How did I do on last week’s To-Do List?

1. Continue with stitching petal units for the Chic Country quilt top. ✗
2. New commission – 5 polo shirts to be made into pillows. ✔️ Pillows completed and ready to be delivered.
3. Squeeze in some quilting on the queen size quilt. ✗

To-Do Tuesday List for this week:

1. Quilt, bind and gift table runner.
2. Bind butterfly quilt to gift next Thursday
3. Enjoy Thanksgiving with family & friends!

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.