Five Shadows

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter Weekend. We enjoyed having our out-of-town children visiting including our grand-daughter. And of course those who live in-town too!

Quilting! I’m loving how the Sew All Around quilt turned out! And I’m not a pink person. But for some reason, I do like this combination of blues and pinks.

I like how the dark pink and blue binding frames the quilt.

Digging into my stash, I found this piece for the back that is perfect color wise for the quilt top.

I did go ahead and put a sleeve of sorts on the back for hanging the quilt. I put triangles in the top two corners and a tab in the center.

 

I’m using a yard stick cut to size and placed in triangles and tab to support the quilt for hanging. Using a yard stick for hanging a quilt is a trick I learned from my first quilting teacher 20 some years ago. She liked a yard stick for two reasons, they are basically flat so quilts hang nicely against the wall, and also they are inexpensive from the local hardware store.

Silly me, I should have used 2 tabs instead of just one in the center of the back! I didn’t leave a space for just one nail for hanging! I might be slitting a little hole in that tab for the nail to be centered in the back of the quilt. (Yesterday was not my best day, had a stomach bug all day, and it must have affected my brain as well. sigh)

Here is a close up of the Signature variegated thread I used for the quilting.

Do you have a favorite way to hang small wall quilts? Please share!

Last Thursday, at my Curvy Quilters sewing day, I got the hexies all sewn together into a quilt top.

I’m pondering if I should add borders. I’m also wishing I could find more of the Moda Honeycomb “From Outside In” precuts or even fabric, to make 3 more rows for a twin size quilt. But this is an older line, and I’m not finding it for sale as I search on line. I used three packs of Honeycomb precuts for ~54″ square quilt top.

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

1. Continue Sew All Around BOM, binding is next, I’m not sure if I will put a sleeve on it for hanging. ✔️ Binding and sleeve on!
2. Continue Fusion Blanket. ✗
3. Hexie quilt top – hope to finish piecing top this Thursday at my quilting group day. ✔️ Top pieced. Add borders or not?
4. Enjoy Easter with family. ✔️ We had a wonderful time with family and perfect weather too.

This week’s To-Do List:

1. Get back to blanket stitching Fusion Blanket squares.
2. Need to work on OMG for April – charity quilts!
3. Sit Down Free Motion Quilters April BOM pattern is up and ready. Paper Piecing this month.
4. Hexie quilt – borders or not? Figure out a plan for the quilt.

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

This month I’m participating in Gosia Pawlowska’s Sew All Around BOM. You can find it on her blog Quilts My Way or Facebook.

I’m behind. This week’s lesson is on attaching a sleeve on the back for hanging. But I just finished the simple grid quilting.

The quilting was done with a walking foot on my Janome. I used a variegated blue trilobal polyseter by Signature Size 30 for the top and a 50 weight Aurifil for the bobbin. I’m pleased with the quilting.

I’m moving along on the Fusion Blanket. The first set of squares are all blanket stitched.

I decided I’d like to make the blanket a little larger, so I stitched up more squares now waiting for blanket stitching. That means more blanket stitching in the evenings. I have continued to practice 2 crochet stitches that will be used to connect the squares. I will eventually get brave enough to share a photo of that progress! Ha!

The t-shirt quilt is now a top and waiting on the Longarm quilter. Sorry no picture. I might be getting it back to bind, if so, I’ll get a photo then. it’s large and I need help holding it up for a photo. Adult kids need to come home and help. tee hee

This week’s To-Do Tuesday List

1. Sew t-shirts together with sashing and border. ✔️ Pieced and ready for longarm quilter.
2. Sandwich and quilt Sew All Around BOM quilt top. ✔️ Sandwiched and quilting underway.
3. Continue Fusion Blanket. ✔️ Part 1 blanket stitching complete, but making more squares that will need blanket stitching.

To-Do List for this week:

1. Continue Sew All Around BOM, binding is next, I’m not sure if I will put a sleeve on it for hanging.
2. Continue Fusion Blanket.
3. Hexie quilt top – hope to finish piecing top this Thursday at my quilting group day.
4. Enjoy Easter with family.

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

I finally got myself going on the t-shirt quilt. The shirts are fused with interfacing, and cut to size. The 20 in the photoed pile below are 14 1/2″ square.

Sashing is 2 1/2″ wide. There are also 3 shirts prepped at 16 1/2″ x 20″ not photoed.

Do you recognize the figure in the top t-shirt? That is John Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed. A legend here in NE Indiana. Fort Wayne has a park dedicated to him where the Johnny Appleseed Festival is held in September. The story goes that he provided apple seeds or saplings to pioneers moving west so they could have apple trees to grow where they settled. It is said he wore a tin pot as a hat, thus the pot on his head in the graphic design.

Next is the Sew All Around BOM with the blocks are sewn together. This week is sandwiching and machine quilting.

I’m calling this little quilt Mixed Berry Smoothie. The designer of the quilt made it up in yellows, gray and black and called it Lemon Juice.

My Fusion Blanket is coming along slowly.

I have 28 squares blanket stitched with 8 more to go. Then I need to sew a few more squares to get the blanket to the size I want. Then, on to crocheting. The crocheting is going to take lots of practice on my part, as I attempt to learn the stitches needed for this blanket.

I watched the 2012 version of Wuthering Heights last night, but just could not make myself pick up a needle to blanket stitch the 8 remaining Fusion Blocks above. I didn’t make any progress on the Dropcloth Embroidery Sample either. Usually, I like stitching while watching movies.

How is your week going? Learning anything new?

Last week’s To-Do Tuesday List, how did I do?

1. Concentrate on t-shirt quilt. ✔️ T-shirts fused and cut to size, sashing cut.
2. Next step of Sew All Around BOM. ✔️ Top pieced.
3. Continue Fusion Blanket. ✔️28 squares blanket stitched, 8 more to go, and a few more to sew.

This week’s To-Do Tuesday List

1. Sew t-shirts together with sashing and border.
2. Sandwich and quilt Sew All Around BOM quilt top.
3. Continue Fusion Blanket.

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

It’s April and no fooling!

I found 3 more charity quilt tops last week.

I thought I was all caught up on charity quilt UFO tops.

But while looking for a back for another quilt,

I came across 3 more tops intended to be veteran quilts.

With the tops, I had backs, batting, and even binding strips folded all together in a nice neat pile.

My goal for April will be to complete these three quilts with FMQ and binding.

Linking to

One Monthly Goal over at Elm Street Quilts.

My goal for March was to complete 2 charity quilts with free motion quilting and binding.

Here are 3 charity quilts as I left them several years ago. I completed one for my February goal.

When I pulled them out of storage I thought they were just tops and backs. But I found that I had already sandwiched them and each had some straight line quilting.

Here are all three quilts, complete with simple free motion quilting, some ruler work for the straight lines (stars), and binding attached. That was a happy yet simple goal for a very busy March. I plan on tackling a larger quilt with more quilting next month.

Linking to One Monthly Goal over at Elm Street Quilts. Thank you Patty for the link up!

It is Spring, after all, so why not go off of my well made plan for the year and head down a bunny trail by starting a new project!?

At the beginning of this year, I kind of promised myself no more starting new quilting projects until I got a handle on more UFOs and WIP. Sigh. That latest until March!

Maybe I should stay off of Facebook, because I see so many neat Quilt Alongs, BOMs and new patterns that grab my attention. I need to say no! But I went ahead and started a new BOM called Sew All Around. Off I go on yet another Bunny Trail!

I did attack a UFO. This one I started back in 2012. The Fusion Blanket, part pieced and part crochet.

I had sewn the squares way back in 2012, and have just started the blanket stitching around them. I’m meeting up with a friend tomorrow who will be teaching me how to crochet. Next step is to crochet the blanket stitched squares together. Check out this tutorial if you’d like to start one of your own.

2012 UFO – that’s 5 years old! What is the oldest UFO you have ever decided to return to and work on?

Last week’s To-Do Tuesday List, how did I do?

1. Continue hand work on Dropcloth Sampler. ✗ Didn’t touch it.
2. Blanket stitching 4 1/2″ squares. ✔️In progress!
3. Start customer T-shirt quilt. ✔️ Prepping t-shirts.
4. Enjoy weekend with family. ✔️ It is always nice to see our adult kids and our grandchild!

This week’s To-Do Tuesday List

1. Get back to Dropcloth Sampler.
2. Continue Fusion Blanket.
3. Continue t-shirt quilt.
4. Next step of Sew All Around BOM.
5. Enjoy Curvy Quilters sewing Thursday.

This pretty bouquet was at the grocery store, and I could just not resist as I do love Hydrangeas. Isn’t it pretty!

I hope you are not getting tired of seeing this next quilt! It is the free motion quilt sampler from the Facebook group: Sit Down Free Motion Quilters. This week I attached the binding, so I wanted to show it one more time. I used scraps of binding leftover from previously made quilts.

And here are the three charity quilts that will go to Veterans. I attached the binding on to them this week, again using binding scraps left from previously made quilts.

Do you have a box of bits of bindings? I do like the scrappy look. Even though it does not show in the above photo, each quilt has at least 2 different fabrics in the binding.

Thursday was my sewing day with my Curvy Quilters group. I dug around for a UFO to work on and came upon the beginnings of a hexie quilt.

I had 3 packs of Moda Honeycomb hexies of the fabric line From Outside In by Malka Dubrawsky. There are 42 hexies per pack. I used the solids and some tone-on-tone line prints for the centers, and cut the remaining hexies in half, then sewed them around the center hexies. Now I just need the right fabric for set triangles. That means more shopping!

I had a simple list for this week to complete as Hubby was home on Spring Break. We had a nice week that passed way to quickly! Yet, I actually got all my little projects checked off the list this week.

Last week’s To-Do Tuesday List, how did I do?

March is here! One of my favorite months! And one of the busiest months for my family.

I usually try to not take on anything extra during March.

That said, my goal for this month will be to finish two more charity quilts.

I finished one last month and made good headway on the other two.

My plan is to finish the free motion quilting on the last two, complete with binding.

 One Monthly Goal

I  have a few finishes to share. The first two I started a few years ago when I did demos for a local quilt shop.

This is Sew Kind of Wonderful’s Metro Hoops using their Quick Curve Ruler.

I used a Moda Jelly Roll of Best Day Ever, yardage of a Moda swirl print in yellow, and blue for the border, white and cream for the background. Fabric is purchased for the back, waiting for my attention. I’ve been looking at Pinterest to get ideas on how to quilt Metro Hoops. I had all the blocks sewn, so just finished putting them in rows and attaching the border. I have a flange binding made in the blue with a pop of yellow as the flange.

Next up is a Laundry Basket pattern Sweet Mints by Edyta Sitar. I had several blocks constructed, and decided to stop at that to make a table runner.

A quilting friend suggested I cut two blocks in half for the above design. I like how it turned out. Binding and back are ready. Another top that needs my attention to free motion quilt and bind!

Speaking of free motion quilting, I am continuing to practice with the free instructions presented by Jeanne Harrison’s Facebook group Sit Down Free Motion Quilters.

I have one more lesson to go for the last two side borders of this FMQ sampler.

This is actually the back of the quilt as the light color thread shows up so much better than on the light front fabric.

I need more practice on swirls!

Diagonal lines.

Even though I told myself I would not sign up for a Block of the Month this year, when I saw Jeanne Harrison was offering one in the Facebook Sit Down Free Motion Quilters group, I decided to go ahead and join in. One more way to learn FMQ!

This appliqué block was January’s design.

And February’s “block” was piecing the units for the border and setting blocks: quarter square triangles in 2 sizes and flying geese.

Charity quilts:

I finished one charity quilt using this decorative stitch to secure the binding.

I attached the binding to the back and pressed it to the front. Then stitched through all the layers to secure the binding in place. This was my first time to use something other than a straight stitch.

Have you ever used a decorative stitch to finish your binding?

My last To-Do Tuesday List, how did I do?

1. Pillow case sewing with friend. ✔️ We selected and cut fabrics for 22 pillow cases, I showed her how to do the burrito method to sew them together. I’ll be getting back with her soon to see how she is doing.
2. Continue working on charity quilts. ✔️One complete, and two in progress.
3. Continue work on FMQ sampler.✔️Two more side borders and the sampler will be complete!

This week’s To-Do Tuesday List:

1. Continue working on 2 charity quilts.
2. Continue FMQ sampler.
3. Set up time to meet with my friend making pillow cases.
4. My husband’s Spring Break (college professor) starts this Friday and runs thru March 12th. I don’t think I’ll be getting much done in the sewing room. I’ll be happily spending the week with him!

One Monthly Goal – February Goal Finish Link-Up

My goal for February was to work on three charity quilts, with finishing at least one.

I did a bit of quilting on all three, finishing one, and today attached the binding.

I did a simple back and forth ribbon in the blue and white strips.

In the printed star strip I outlined the blue stars and then stitched stars in the blue and red squares.

I have a box of left-over lengths of bindings. They come in handy for small quilts and also for making multi-colored bindings.

I used 2 reds for this quilt. Above is a close up of the decorative stitch I use to secure the binding.

Head over to Elm Street Quilts to check out more February finishes.  How about joining up for the March One Monthly Goal?