Five Shadows

Self-binding Baby Blankets are my current ‘go-to’ for baby showers.

Here are just a few, made from two coordinating flannels.

Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe just got in a shipment of Riley Blake Flannels. The top/right blanket are Riley Blake. The other 2 blankets are older prints, I don’t know the manufacturer.

Tomorrow is Featherweight Club at the quilt shop. Here are last month’s blocks.

The club meeting sneaks up on me ever month! I just made the blocks yesterday. So much for avoiding last minute to sewing!

Not photoed is the table runner I free motion quilted but still have the binding to tack down. And also the Dance of the Dragonflies is almost complete! I cut out the border pieces today. Pictures promised next time!

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

This week’s list will be binding the table runner and finish piecing Dance of the Dragonflies. I know, I listed them last week, but successfully worked on both, even tho not complete! I had forgotten about the Featherweight Club and then had a few baby blankets that needed to be made. That is life, right!?

Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe in Roanoke, IN carries part of the line of Bloc-Loc rulers. This week I’ve played with the rulers for Half Rectangle Triangles and also Half Square Triangles. These are handy little rulers that help with squaring up rectangles and squares for accurate piecing.

They are a bit pricey but, I do recommend adding them to your selection of quilting tools. I have found myself grabbing the ruler for HST often, as it is very useful for trimming multiple sizes of HST. I own the 5 1/2″ HST Ruler. This week I have added the 4 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ HRT set to my favorite tool list. I also want to purchase the set of Flying Geese rulers, as I have borrowed a friend’s. The Flying Geese rulers are useful for trimming other units than just geese too!

BTW, the little 4 1/2″ blocks in the photo are all made from the trimmings of the larger blocks I made. The large block is 16″ finished.

Previous To-Do List:  ✔︎Dance of the Dragonflies (pieced),  ✔︎cleaning out my sewing room (rearranged)

This weeks To-Do List:  Finish Dance of the Dragonflies, quilt table runner – pictures of both to follow.

Jolene Star pattern by Laundry Basket Quilts.

I used a Rambling Rose Jelly Roll from Moda. Love the colors.

Pictured are the templates I’m playing with this week. There are some pretty funky shaped templates out in the quilting world!

I used to fear using templates, but lately, I am liking them. How about you, do you like using templates?

I’m a day late and a dollar short, but I’m linking up to Linky Tuesday and To-Do Tuesday.

My hopes for quilting this week are to finish a few blocks with the templates – rug mugs? And deliver the rest of the pillowcases I’ve made. Dare I mention the baby quilt now languishing in the corner patiently waiting for quilting? GOT to get to that!

Oh my, sometimes I just have to laugh at myself! Like when looking over my list for last week’s sewing. I forgot when coming up with the list that Easter was last weekend! Can I say “a little sewing might have gotten accomplished”??  :-)

Here is a picture of my darling 3 month old granddaughter, Lillah. Her momma, Kim, took the photo Easter morning.

And here is Lillah with her Grandpa, my hubby John, after Easter dinner at our house.

That was the only picture that I know of taken at our home Easter Sunday. Too bad as the whole family was over, we missed a good photo op time. We had a wonderful time together and a lovely afternoon walk in the warm NE Indiana weather.  All Lillah’s aunts had fun holding and cuddling with her. Grandma didn’t get much time with her tho. That’s OK as it was so nice having all our adult children home for our celebration, plus getting to see them interact with Lillah.

Sewing! I got the binding  and buttons sewn on Stitcher’s Garden. She’s all done now!

And I pieced  3 blocks for the Featherweight Club, meeting Wednesday, April 8th, at Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe, Roanoke, IN. I think they are so cute! The blocks and the machine! ha ha! The 12″ block – Windblown was a new one for me.

And here is the first block for the Curves without Piecing pattern: Dance of the Dragonflies. Actually two blocks. The first block shows what the piecing looks like before you go back and stitch the curves. The block on the right shows the finished block. Interesting process, a bit tedious. These are small 6″ blocks with out the sashing. But I do like the results, and I’m sure I’ll get quicker with the piecing now that I’m familiar with it.

This week I have a sewing date with friends and I plan on taking the Jolene Star and Sweet Mint patterns to work on. So those two are on my To-Do list for this week. I’ll save the baby quilt I never seem to get to until next week. At least the kitchen table where I spray baste baby quilts is all cleaned off, so I’ll have a better chance at getting to it soon! Fingers crossed!

Linking to  Freemotion by the River – Linky Tuesday and Stitch All The Things – To-do Tuesday.

A friend and I started a Featherweight Club at Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe, Roanoke, IN where we both work part time. Check out the Facebook page to see Vicki’s lovely blocks.

Above are my first month blocks, using Timeless Tradition BOM by Bits ‘n Pieces. The Featherweight machine was purchased from blog friend, Vicki Welsh when she listed it on Ebay last year. I switched out that hot-burn-your-fingers light bulb to an LED bulb I found at Stitch All the Things. We put in a group order and Brad offers free shipping. If you happen to be searching for a better light bulb for your Featherweight, go to Brad.

I took advantage of Craftsy‘s recent sale for my Birthday!

I ordered the Free Spirit Box of 14 one yard cuts, Cotton + Steel Good Fortune Quilt Kit, some die cut hexes and layer cakes. When my order arrived it was missing the Free Spirit Box but came with a Robert Kaufman mystery box.  Oh my. NOT at all what I expected or wanted. But Craftsy was quick to fix the mistake and sent the Free Spirit Box and said I could keep the Robert Kaufman box.

Box on left – I didn’t order but got to keep in the mixup. The bright happy Free Spirit on the right is what I ordered and got in the second shipping. Only there were three one yard cuts of the same print in the Free Spirit box. Hmm. When I read the description, it seems to imply that there are 14 different one yard cuts per box.

This bird print is the one I got triplicate of. It is cute and I’ll use it in a baby quilt, so I’m not complaining, just saying I got 11 prints of 14 cuts. Maybe that is usual? Anyway, I was pleased with how Craftsy quickly correcting the shipping mistake. Plus they offered free shipping on my next order. I just ordered several more one yard cuts and some Auriful thread yesterday.

This the the Cotten + Steel kit. I love the bright colors and prints!

To-Do Tuesday List:

This week I have several baby quilts I want to FMQ and bind. And a pile of pillowcase pieces cut and ready to serge into pillowcases for ConKer Cancer.

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

Happy Quilting!

With Easter just around the corner, it is time to pull out the bunny patterns at Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe and demo a bit of machine appliqué.

Here is a cute little bunny in a tulip ready to share some Easter cheer.

The pattern is part of Blooming Bunnies by Eat Cake Graphics. I’ll be demoing Misty Fuse and decorative machine stitching using this bunny pattern Saturday, March 14th, at Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe, Roanoke, IN 10-4.

Spring also brings plans for the upcoming Row by Row Experience Shop Hop 2015!  And here is Fabrics and Friends Row. The theme this year is H2O. Fellow employee Vicki and I came up with this design:

dimensions are 8 1/2″ by 36 1/2″.  The Row by Row Experience begins June 21st and runs through September 8th. Each participating quilt shop creates and provides free patterns for their Row.  Kits available for purchase, and of course there will be prizes! Why not ask your favorite quilt shops if they are participating this year? It’s open to all quilt shops in the USA and Canada.

This week I have attempted to sew up three different projects using the BasiX Template for using 2 1/2″ strips. Aren’t these just so cute?

The blocks pictured below are from one of two patterns that come with the template. I was going to make three blocks for a table runner, but ran out of the cream fabric. And wouldn’t you know it, I go to the quilt shop and that bolt is gone. Fortunately, they do re-order Moda Solids, I’ll have to be patient and wait.

This next design is also included with the template. I chose to make a table runner using strips from Moda’s Rustic Weave Jelly Roll.

The next pattern is called Twinkle Toes. I used the same Moda Rustic Weave Jelly Roll for the blocks, adding a white dot on black for the pinwheels and a solid white for the background. I love it! It is so bright and cheery. Still needs an outer border which I’ll find fabric for during my next trip to the LQS. But, I must say, I had a dickens of a time with the pattern. Seems the yardage is wrong as well as dimensions in some of the steps. I went to the Quilt Queen Designs website (xblocks.com) to see if they list corrections for patterns, and although I did find one correction for another pattern, I couldn’t find any corrections for Twinkles Toes.

Do you ever find mistakes in patterns and then check out the designer’s website to see if corrections are listed?  I do, and am always happy when I find they do have a corrections page.

I’ll be demoing X-Blocks and BasiX templates this Saturday at Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe in Roanoke, IN from 10-3.

Update! I just revisited xblocks.com and there IS a revision for Twinkle Toes dated 2-16-15.  I’m glad to know I’m not crazy, and they do post corrections!

I’m linking to Connie’s Linky Tuesday.

Thank you, Vicki, for hosting the Drunkard’s Path quilt along! Even though I didn’t finish the quilt, I did have fun playing with Drunkard’s Path units. And it was great visiting the blogs of other participants. There is so much creativity out there in the wide world of quilting!

From the playing I did with the Drunkard’s Path units, my favorite pieced design was the Lily quilt, designed by Lynne Edwards for the Creative Grids Corner to Corner Curve Strip Ruler.

2014 brought several changes to my family. In May, our daughter, Anna, married Nathan. We are very happy to welcome Nathan to our family! In August, Anna and Nathan moved two hours away for Nathan’s job.

Nathan & Anna with my husband and little ol’ me.

In June, our youngest daughter, Charis, graduated from high school. Her freshman college year started in August at a college about an hour away.

My girls, Anna, Charis, Janelle, and Kim

The weekend of Anna’s wedding, our son Luke and his wife, Kim, announced that they were expecting – our first grand baby is to be born around December 30th! Kim and baby are doing well and we are waiting, ever so patiently, for the little one to make his/her appearance!

Kim’s birthday, John & I, Luke & Kim

Just this past week, I started moving my sewing into Anna’s former room. I’m so excited about having a dedicated space that will be all mine! As I move my supplies into the new room, I’m weeding through and moving only what I really want, like or will use into my new space. I’m sorting through the UFOs, setting some aside for charity quilts, and others that I intend to finish in 2015 to either use of gift.

Looking into the sewing room from the doorway.

Looking from the book shelve across room towards the cutting table and computer table.

I have a lot of organizing and purging to do as I set up the new room. The quilt in the foreground is my 2014 Block of the Month, Stitcher’s Garden. Two more borders and it will be complete!

Merry Christmas! everyone!

Block 12!

Almost complete! The blocks with sashing are sewn together. Today I’ll work on the borders.

Picture to follow!

I’m linking up to Connie’s Linky Tuesday over at Freemotion by the River