Five Shadows

Last Summer, I was asked by a client if I could make a hobo bag/cross-body bag out of t-shirts. I thought that would be doable, so playing around with a t-shirt I no longer used, I came up with a design. Life happened, and even though we chatted on the phone several times, we did not meet up again until this Spring. She liked my design, gave me two t-shirts, we picked out fabrics, and TaDa! Here is what I created for her.

Batik fabric creating a large outer pocket.

She wanted her bag to be larger/deeper/wider.  I added a squared bottom to get the wider. I cut the t-shirts as large as possible to increase the size. I used one shirt for the side of the bag with a large outer pocket created with Batik fabric.

Another t-shirt was used for the other side of the bag.

For the shoulder straps, I used a solid black fabric and fusible interfacing to add durability. Then I decided to get all fancy-shamancy and add hardware making the straps adjustable. This was my first time to make adjustable straps, which I found out are really very easy to make and attach to the bag.

Can you see the black hardware rings and sliders in the above photo?

I used one of the black t-shirt sleeves as an inner pocket.

The lining is the same fabric as the outer pocket.

I’m happy to report that my client was very pleased with her Hobo Bag!

So far I’m keeping up with Leah Day’s Machine Quilting Block Party.

Block #6 Solar Flares

Family news! Son #2 has accepted a job 2 hours south of us. I’m happy for him, since this is a step up for him in his chosen career, but that means less time with him and his family. Life will be changing for all of us. Less grand baby time, less time helping DIL who comes over weekly for sewing lessons – she’s making a quilt! Less shared meals. I’m sure we will all adjust to ‘less’ but hopefully more quality visits. After all, my hubs and I are the ones who moved away from our families. 10 hours, not 2!  That all said, I think this month will be filled up with helping them. They are on their 3rd round of house hunting. And grand baby is spending the day with me!

What about you? Are you keeping to your regular sewing schedule this Summer?

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

1. Start June’s Machine Quilting Block Party BOM ✔︎ Block cut and sewn together!
2. June’s One Block Wonders pattern should be available Friday! ✔︎ Printed off pattern. I’ll have to ponder what fabric to use this month.
3. Helping son pack and move. ✔︎ This is going to be on-going for a while. I’ve mostly been doing childcare, with several trips with them to house hunt.

To-Do List for this week.

1. Continue childcare for son and DIL as they prepare to move, they hope later this month or early July.
2. Prep for out of town wedding this weekend. (laundry, pack, gift shop, etc)
3. Maybe Monday mark and quilt block 6

I’ve made some progress on May’s One Block Wonders BOM. I decided to make a table runner using 6 blocks from May’s design.

I altered the 12″ May Blooms blocks to 6″ to create a 14″ x 43″ table runner. The appliqué pieces are fused in place using Misty Fuse, but still need to be stitched down. I really do like how this is looking!

I just finished machine quilting, literally – just minutes ago – May’s Machine Quilting Block Party BOM.

Night time photo color is way off! That is a white background. And I still need to remove the marking for the quilting guide lines. Ugh. Horrible photo. Sorry. But hey! I’m now ready for the June block that will be posted tomorrow!

I also made progress on the t-shirt Hobo bag. The red is a t-shirt and the black batik is forming a pocket. The Batik is also the lining. The flip side is a made from a black t-shirt. More photos next time. Straps will be solid black and the batik.

All it needs is the shoulder straps. I could have finished it last night, but decided to make the straps adjustable. Daughter and I ran errands today, and my plan was to stop at Joann’s and see what kind of hardware they have. I forgot to stop! I was just down the road by a few blocks, and totally forgot. And later I was even across the street from Hancock’s (going out of business) and mentioned to my daughter that I want to stop in Hancock’s after we finished in the store she wanted to stop in at. We both forgot! Let’s hope I can remember tomorrow!

I really am a list person and should have had a list today to remind me to stop at Joann’s! How about you, are you a list person?

To-Do List for this week.

1. Start June’s Machine Quilting Block Party BOM
2. June’s One Block Wonders pattern should be available Friday!
3. Helping son pack and move.

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

1. Hobo bag – making progress!
2. Curvy Quilters meet Thursday, I’ll work on the BOMs. ✔︎
3. I’m adopting a WIP from a local lady. It is a Trip Around the World. I pick it up today to finish the top for her. I’ll share more next week. ✔︎ This project turned out to be an Amish Diamond in a Square out of prints that I am guessing are from the 70′s. I didn’t take pictures, but the top is complete and returned for quilting.

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

Are you sensing a theme here on my blog? Slow it is! Since not much quilting is happening here, I’ll share a few beauties from our garden.

This is a tiny little Iris that I believe is named Bumble Bee.

Hubs is the gardener around here. As a college professor, he is teaching part time during the summer meaning he is home a lot more. He enjoys his time out in the garden.

I’m not sure of the name for this Iris, but I love those speckles on the falls.

Both Hubs and I have to find a new balance with the end of the school year, and it takes a few weeks. Not complaining! I enjoy having Hubs around!

Lilly of the Valley. My favorite Spring flower. Sweet scent! We have a large patch on the north side of our house that I can pick and keep in the kitchen. I love walking in the kitchen and smelling that sweet scent. Of course I love their scent out in the yard too!

How has your week gone? Does your sewing/quilting time change with the seasons?

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

1. Hobo bag – I bought and washed accent fabric for the bag this week. But no sewing.
2. Work on BOMs: Machine Quilting Block Party and One Block Wonders May block – I made a little progress on the OBW.

To-Do List for this week. Oh my! My list is not changing from last week!

1. Hobo bag.
2. Curvy Quilters meet Thursday, I’ll work on the BOMs.
3. I’m adopting a WIP from a local lady. It is a Trip Around the World. I pick it up today to finish the top for her. I’ll share more next week.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday at Stitch All the Things and Linky Tuesday at Freemotion by the River.

The slow theme continues.

I have two projects that I’m making up as I go along. No patterns. The going has been slow.

Project One:  is a 24″ pillow. The front is made of HSTs on point. The white triangles will be used for signatures at a graduation party.

I used fusible webbing Pellon P44F to add stability to the pieced HSTs. It will keep the fabric from shifting and will make it easier for guests to sign the piece. The HSTs are quilted in-the-ditch in 50 weight white Auriful thread #2021, sandwiched with a thin batting and a piece of muslin.

Black piping to frame the pillow.

A red t-shirt was used to create an envelope closure on the back of the pillow.

I asked last week if it would work to stuff a 24″ pillow form in a slightly smaller pillow case. The answer is yes! The pillow case is 23″ square.

Top photo – Don’t you think it worked too?

Project Two: is an over the should bag, kind of ‘Hobo bag’ of my own design, to showcase two t-shirts. T-shirts are fused for stability. I need to shop for fabric for handles, lining, and inner & outer pockets. (sorry, no pictures yet)

I won another drawing! Julie of The Crafty Quilter is holding a monthly drawing this year as incentive to complete UFO projects. These cute gifties arrived in my mailbox: A fabric & bead necklace made by Julie, Scraps ‘n Fats pattern, and Vintage Picnic Charm Pack. Thank you, Julie!

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

1. Finish Signature pillow.  ✔︎ Completed today!
2. Bind t-shirt quilt. ✔︎ Bound, delivered, and paid!
3. Construct Hobo bag. ✗ Started, not completed yet.
4. Work on BOMs, Timeless Traditions, Machine Quilting Block Party, One Block Wonders if time allows. ✔︎- Kind of. On my sewing day with friends, I cut out 6 OBW blocks and got 3 of them pieced.

King Size Bargello in the making! Here is the Wave 80″ square. Borders up next. Then some appliqué!

As it is a new month, I have downloaded and pieced May’s block for the Machine Quilting Block Party.

At my last Curvy Quilters sewing day I pieced the three blocks for Month 5 of Timeless Traditions. This BOM is on my UFO list.

All the blocks for this quilt are being pieced on my Featherweight sewing machine. There are 4 blocks of appliqué and also an appliqué border, so I will be switching to my Janome for that. I like using a blanket stitch for machine appliqué which is not available on the Featherweight.

Just wondering, have any of you Featherweight owners ever used it to machine appliqué? Straight stitch, perhaps?

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

1. Bargello quilt – keep doing the wave! ✔︎ 80″ square waves complete!
2. T-shirt quilt – borders, prepare binding, deliver to longarmer. ✔︎ Delivered to the longarm quilter!

To-Do List for this week:

1. Hobo bag made from t-shirts.
2. HST signature blocks – 24″ pillow with t-shirt back.
3. Setting aside Bargello to complete #1 & 2. Might get back to Bargello if time allows. If so – borders!

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.

Or at least like I’m finally focusing on a few things from my quilting to-do list, after being under the weather for a few weeks.

The Bargello strips from last week are starting to do the wave!

Just over half way there! This panel is 43″ x 80″ and I’m heading for 80″ square! This is step 2 in the sewing process. After the wave is complete, there  are borders to attach and appliqué motifs to create and attach.

The t-shirt quilt top I’m finishing for a friend is coming along.

The photo is showing only 1/4 of the top. I have 2 borders to add before it goes back to my friend for longarm quilting.

Good mail day! I actually have had a few recently!

I won a drawing on Vicki Welsh‘s blog for particapating in her monthly UFO busting. She said she would send me scraps of her hand dyed fabric and look what she sent! Oh so gorgeous! But scraps? Some of those pieces are almost an 1/8 of a yard! Very generous! Thank you Vicki!

I also won a drawing on Christa Watson‘s blog for particapating in her Facets Quilt Along! I won the Batik jelly roll and the Aurifill Thread she sales through her online store. Follow the links on her website to her Amazon store and pattern store. My dear hubs bought Christa’s latest book for me, which is co-authored with Angela Walters. Thank you Christa for hosting the Facets Quilt Along!

I’m pleased with what I have accomplished this week! How about you!?

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

1. Bargello quilt – cut & position & sew that Bargello wave. ✔︎ Half of the way through that wave!

To-Do List for this week:

1. Bargello quilt – keep doing the wave!
2. T-shirt quilt – borders, prepare binding, deliver to longarmer.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.

Leah Day is running a Mystery Block of the Month this year called Machine Quilting Block Party. Each month you get instructions to piece a 12″ block with borders, and  a video link where Leah teaches how she Free Motion Quilts the block. Since one of my goals for this year is to improve on my FMQ, I signed up for Leah’s BOM. Once all the blocks are pieced and quilted, Leah will teach how to attach them all together, quilt-as-you-go style.

March’s block:

April’s Block:

For my taste, these blocks are a bit too heavily quilted, but since the idea is to learn FMQ, I’m sticking with the plan and designs. It has been interesting to try out some of the motifs. I’m actually enjoying the process. I am interested in seeing how all 12 blocks will come together by the end of the year. Stay tuned, as I share each monthly block – and hopefully on time!

King size Bargello under way! After much math & fretting, I have decided on making 6 strip sets in 2 different color sets that once cut and sewn into a Bargello wave with equal an 80″ square for the top of a king size mattress.

Strip set one:

Strip set two:

The sets are ready to be cut in various widths, and repositioned for sewing back together for that famed Bargello wave. Fingers crossed all goes well!

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

1. Recover from what ever this flu-creepy crud is that is currently plaguing me! ✔︎ Yes, thank you Lord!
2. Keep plugging away on the king size Bargello. ✔︎ Strip sets all sewn and ready to cut.
3. Fit in FMQ March’s Block Party BOM. ✔︎ All caught up!

To-Do List for this week:

1. Bargello quilt – cut & position & sew that Bargello wave.

Yesterday was a great day. Today, not so much. I started out today with flu like symptoms. My day turned in to sleeping, coughing, sneezing, aching. Blah blah blah. NOT how I envisioned this week going!

Monday, I hosted my quilting group, Curvy Quilters. We jokingly started calling ourselves that when at one time all of us where working on some curved version of a quilt design. 2 of us love Sew Kind of Wonderful‘s Quick Curve Ruler and patterns. And another gal in the group decided to give the ruler a try, and she loved how easy sewing curves was! The name stuck, and we are the Curvy Quilters!

We had a birthday in our group, so I made a little cake that we shared at lunch time.

Usually when we meet, I work on one of my UFOs and that has proven to be a good way to check several off my list this year. But yesterday, I decided to work on April’s One Block Wonders, Diamond Path. I had a pile of 2 1/2″ scrappy strips left from other quilt projects, and thought they would work great in this month’s design.

Here is my scrappy version of Diamond Path with a cream border, and piano key border with HST in the corners.

At 38″ square it could be used as a wall hanging or a colorful baby quilt.

With all the customer projects I have right now, Diamond Path will join my ever growing pile of Tops to-be quilted.

I did meet up  with a customer at the local quilt shop Friday and now have t-shirts for a hobo bag and for the back of a signature pillow. I have to stop by the local big box store to buy a 24″ pillow form.

Two t-shirts and black, red, & white fabric for the hobo bag and a signature block pillow. We forgot to buy a fun red print to go along with the bag. Sigh. Another trip needed to the LQS. Hard life, isn’t it when you have to visit a quilt shop!?

Yesterday, I inherited a t-shirt quilt to finish piecing. My friend who does them along with her longarm business needed help to finish this one as she cares for her aging mother. She has the t-shirts cut and fused, ready to square up. I’ll do that and sash them, sewing together the top and get it back to her for quilting.

That’s 35 fused t-shirts! Fusing is the worst part in my opinion, so the rest should be a breeze!

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

1. Bargello quilt has to be on the top of the list. ✔︎ Strips are being sewn together. I’m thinking this is a bigger undertaking than I originally thought! One step at a time, I’ll get-er-done!
2. Meeting a customer who wants a signature quilt and hobo bag. ✔︎ I have the t-shirts and fabrics. Customer selected a simple HST design for the signatures.

To-Do List for this week:

1. Recover from what ever this flu-creepy crud is that is currently plaguing me!
2. Keep plugging away on the king size Bargello.
3. Fit in FMQ March’s Block Party BOM.

I’m keeping the list short this week as I recover from these flu type symptoms. My focus will be on the Bargello when I have enough energy and a brain to tackle it! Deadlines for the t-shirt projects are fortunately in May and June, phew! I’ll have time for those later.

How about you? Are your plans going well? Anything new on the horizon?

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

How about that! Sometimes I just surprise myself! I finished the Facets Quilt-Along with Christa Quilts on time!

I completed all 8 steps of the quilt along including gathering fabrics, improv piecing, cutting the improv sections into triangles, piecing top, basting – I spray basted, straight line quilting, FMQ, and binding – I used a flange binding. Christa put each participants name in a drawing for each step they complete. I was a lucky winner of one of her bonus prizes – a jelly roll from her online shop! Thanks Christa, for a great QAL! This was the second QAL of Christa’s that I have played along in. She is having another QAL starting up soon.

Last summer my daughter designed a quilt for her new king size bed. We shopped for fabrics, selecting teals, grays, and yellow in various prints. She pieced the top, and I offered to quilt it for her.

When I got her top, back and batting from her, I thought, “what have I gotten myself into!?” It was way larger than anything I have attempted to quilt on my home sewing machine. A friend who owns a longarm offered the use of her machine to do the straight line quilting my daughter requested. I think it turned pretty well! I had it all quilted and bound for her to pick up while visiting for Easter. She loves it! Phew! It does look pretty nice in her bedroom!

I’m behind on Leah Day’s BOM I signed up for this year. I really want to improve my FMQ and thought her BOM sounded like something I could keep up with, having only one block per month to piece, mark, baste, and quilt.

Above is February’s block. I finished the quilting today. NOT keeping up, am I?

March’s block. I pieced it yesterday, but my fabric markers are running out of ink and pencil is out of refills, so I didn’t get it marked. I’ll have to grab a new pen or refill for the pencil Friday while at the local quilt shop.

April’s block! All pieced – which is this week’s assignment, so I’m kind of on schedule, kind of?? ha ha!

Are you particapating in any Block of the Months or Quilt Along programs this year? I’d love to hear about them!

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

1. Finish the Facets quilt!  ✔︎ Yes yes yes! I’m so very pleased with it!
2. Start on Bargello quilt. ✔︎ Started organizing the strips today! I recalculated, and glad I did! I’m aiming for a king size bargello!
3. Procrastinate even more on the MQBP March block, but go ahead and purchase the April block.  ✗  Ha Ha! I didn’t procrastinate! I pieced 2 blocks, and quilted Feb block!  ✔︎ And I did purchase and piece the April block! All caught up for this week!

To-Do List for this week:

1. Bargello quilt has to be on the top of the list.
2. Meeting a customer who wants a signature quilt and hobo bag.

I’m linking up to Linky Tuesday , To-Do Tuesday and UFO Link Up!  Have a good week!

This is Week 8 and the last week of the Facets Quilt Along hosted by Christa Watson of Christa Quilts.

I’m currently quilting in the blue triangles, and then there are swirls to do in the improv pieced triangles. Then the home stretch for the binding! Friday is the deadline for completing, if you want your name entered in Christa’s prize drawing. Participants get one chance per week completed, for a total of 8 chances. My goal is to complete the quilting and binding this Friday.

Above is the back of Facets, and you can see the quilting lines completed so far in the blue triangles. I’m using a ruler and ruler foot on my domestic Janome. (psst! I’m taking Amy Johnson’s Craftsy Class – Quilting with Rulers on a Home Machine) Facets is a learning process! Not perfect, but I’m happy with it!

I should be farther along on the Facets but this got in the way! Just kidding! Not in the way, but it called my name loud and clear and I just had to make it! Sandy is hosting the One Block Wonder BOM. She provides a pattern for one block each month that she has created, and participants use the pattern to create at least one block or any size quilt they desire. I downloaded the pattern for March early on, and then never got to it. Last week I saw Sandy’s post of her lovely quilt using March’s block, and decided Monday (yesterday) I would work on the block. I love it!

Here is my quilt top so far.

Monday I hosted my little quilting group, and this is what I worked on. I finished it up today. Still need to decide about borders. I was gifted a Fat Quarter pack of Raindrops by Andover Fabrics for my birthday. When I saw Sandy’s quilt I knew Raindrops would be perfect for this pattern! I used Kona Snow for the white. 25 Blocks set 5 x 5 measuring 60″ square so far. Thank you Sandy, for the great pattern!

While working on the One Block Wonder yesterday, of course the gals asked what I was up to. I explained about the One Block Wonder BOM, and they laughed and said, “So you are starting 12 unfinished projects this year!”  I laughed and said, “Yes, I guess so! I have been making mostly table toppers or runners with the monthly pattern, but none of them are completed. I’ll have to put them on next year’s ‘to be quilted’ list!” I actually thought by just making a table topper, I’d be able to get each one pieced, quilted, and bound in a month’s time. I’m still hoping to finish at least some of these projects monthly!

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

1. Continue quilting the Facets quilt. ✔︎ It is coming along! Hope to bind it Friday.
2. Shop and prepare my part for our family Easter Dinner. ✔︎ We had a wonderful day and hope you did too!
3. Maybe work on the Machine Quilting Block Party Feb block??? At least get it marked for quilting! ✗ Nope. Because I decide to make the One Block Wonder quilt instead of working on the MQBP block.

This week’s To-Do List:

1. Finish the Facets quilt!
2. Start on Bargello quilt.
3. Procrastinate even more on the MQBP March block, but go ahead and purchase the April block.

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