Five Shadows

I have a big ZERO completed for March for the One Project a Month. Oh well. But I have been working on other projects. That means sometime this year I’ll have several completed quilts. Maybe I should just plan a few small projects a month so as to have something completed to show when the end of the month rolls around!

The is a sneak peak of an idea I’m playing with for a quilt challenge. Three Creative Studios: Passage.

The are a few of the many blocks my daughter has sewn for a bed size quilt she is working on. She is being very diligent!

First off, here is my Block of the Month (BOM) for Three Creative Studios. It’s called Amish  Star.

Next are some blocks I’m working on for a quilt for my middle daughter. She chose the pattern – Goose Tracks and asked that the quilt be very blended. Blended, meaning that you can’t tell where one block ends and another starts. She also chose the fabrics – Ginger Blossom collection which are mostly large scale prints, and she added some smaller scale coordinating fabrics. This will be a very hot pink quilt once completed!  The Goose Tracks block have 29 pieces in each 10″ block. We decided to alter some of the corners, making some of the construction easier. Here are two blocks leaving out the pieced corners and two Goose Tracks Blocks with the pieced corners. The alter blocks will have one – three pieced corners.  We think it will blend very well this way!

And this last set of blocks is for a charity quilt. Chevron pattern in brights.

My two youngest girls both just started quilts. But I forgot to take pictures! Next time!

I had five finishes for February and you can tell I’m running behind as I post about them in March! One bed size quilt, three journal totes, and one small quilt.

Here is the quilt I started in December all complete with a proper binding. My 14 year old asked who the quilt would be for when complete, and this quilt was one I was just making for  the fun of it. No plans on who would be gifted with it! So Dear Daughter claimed it!  It did my little heart good to know that she was ‘taken’ by the quilt and looked forward to it being completed and on her bed!

This is a double size quilt and coordinates with two pillows I also made. The photos of the pillows are much more accurate color wise.

I told Dear Daughter, if she got her room cleaned up – we could take a picture with the quilt and pillows on her bed! Ha ha! I don’t think I see that posted too soon!

Other finishes for February was the 3 Creative Studios Quilt Challenge quilt. Make a quilt using the word ‘puzzle’ as a prompt. See that quilt here. And the journals totes are here.

3 Creative Studios is hosting a quilt challenge all year long. Every other month they will post a word and the challenge is to interpret that word in the form of a quilt. The first word was “Puzzle.”

When reading the word puzzle, my thoughts went immediately to Autism. A puzzle piece is often associated with autism – used as a logo. Several years ago I briefly worked with a local company, Sensory Critters, who create items to help those with autism. The little fellow below is part of Sensory Critters’ logo. I had visions of using him (stitched here in outline form) along with the fabric pictured in my puzzle quilt.

But alas, sometimes things happen in life that take us off our course. That happened to me last week. Instead of happily working on the puzzle quilt, I found myself dealing with a group I belong to with issues I can not discuss here. I found myself puzzling over people’s behavior, dealing with strained and frayed relationships, and looking for answers to money issues. As these are being resolved and now thankfully working towards closure, I found myself thinking of a new Puzzle quilt for the challenge. It is with great joy that I share this little creation! It was so fun to make and very healing after all the stress of the past week and a half!

I have either a very long title for it, or a choice of three titles: Missing Pieces, Too Many People & Not Enough Money, or Where Does All the Money Go?  Notice the frayed edges of the ‘people’ fabric and the striped fabric. I left the raw edges on purpose. If I had the time to shop for fabric, I would have liked to use novelty fabric printed with bills – $5, $10, $20s. But, I happened to have the coin fabric in my stash, so that is what I used!  It was called “Mrs. Nelson’s 2nd Grade.” I loved that!! And had to include the selvage in the quilt!  The quilt is bound with ribbon and tomato bag netting.  This was a great challenge and I look forward to the next word being revealed!  Oh! And I do hope to get back to the Sensory Critters quilt in the near future.

Last week I attended a 5 day quilting retreat. Late nights! Laughs! Good food! And sewing! Here are a few pictures of gals with their projects.

Dody and her quilted bag. Class taught by Twila. Dody used the charm pack/door prize she won to make this bag.

Norma and her quilted bag. She used strips instead of squares.

Cynthia and one of two bunk bed quilts she is piecing for her two sons.

Mary and the table runner she made. Class taught by me! Isn’t it cute how she set it up with the candle she won as a door prize?

Mary and the pillow she made for a friend.

This is a pile of baby quilts Twila made and brought to the quilting retreat that needed tying to finish them. She brought 19 quilts! And I believe other ladies made 3 more while at the retreat! These will be donated to charities.

This is Twila! She taught several classes at the retreat. And she made the 19 baby quilts! This is another quilt she made for her neice while at the retreat.

Here is Marty holding one of the quilts she is tying. Several other ladies worked on the baby quilts too. Sorry I do not have pictures of everyone!  And I did not get pictures of all the other projects ladies worked on! I wish I had! We should have kept count of how many projects were completed in 5 days! It would have been interesting to see!

I worked away on a quilt for my teen daughter. I promise a picture soon.

And here is the group of ladies holding many of the quilts that Twila made. Do you see Mary in the middle holding her dog Molly?

Here are three more totes I’ve created for my quilting friends. That makes 4 down and 4 to go! The first is for my friend Mary. The picture is of Mary with her sister in a red Radio Flyer Wagon from their childhood. Mary loves to travel so that is the theme I aimed for on the journal tote cover. I used two small pieces of fabric printed with maps that I had saved in my scrap pile. I hope Mary has fun on her travels!

Next is a bird house theme for my friend who has her kitchen decorated with birds and birdhouses. I picked up the little bird on the birdbath during a shop hop last summer in Ohio.

This girly version is for a friend who is all things pink, purple and feminine. She recently moved to SC and I hope  this friendship theme suits her.

These three totes make three finishes for OPAM so far for February. I have a quilt that is almost complete. I’m working on hand stitching down the binding. Here is a snick peek. I’ll show the whole quilt once it’s complete!

This weekend I’m off to a quilting retreat! I’ll be teaching a few projects using strip quilting. And a friend will be teaching the above quilt and another version of it. I hope to take pictures to show all the goodness of the weekend – - but I’ll warn you that I usually forget to take pictures while I’m busy sewing!

I’ve been busy flying on my Magic Carpet around the world in Blog Land! I’ve met so many wonderful people and am admiring their creativeness! This all through One World One Heart hosted by Lisa of A Whimsical Bohemian. Check it out! And you can join in through Feb 8th!

I finished this tote today.

It is going to a friend I will visit with later this evening. Shanette, director of Kibbutz El-Shammah, is here in the USA visiting from South Africa! Friends and I have made several quilts for the staff of the Kibbutz, and I wanted to give her a little something at our visit tonight. If I find an updated link to the Kibbutz – I’ll update this post.

Last week I finished this pillow – another one for my daughter. This is a Pink Chalk Studio Pattern – free download. (Thank you Kathy!)

Next up is a braided table runner. I really need to clean the kitchen so you can see how great it looks on the counter! My DH remodeled the kitchen two summers ago. We did a good job of taking the during pictures – but not good at posting or showing the completed job! Must put that on the ‘to do list’!

And here is my Block of the Month (BOM) hosted by 3 Creative Studios. Pop on over if you are interested in joining in! Plus they have lots of other goodness offered on their website! Check ‘em out!

As posted earlier, I’ve joined the group One Project a Month (OPAM) as incentive to myself to create and blog about it. I have two new projects to show so far for January.

This is called Wonky Half Log Cabin Pillow, from a tutorial on Jacquie Gering’s blog,  Tallgrass Prairie Studio.  (Jadquie has lots of tutorials available, and I must say, this one was very well written! It’s the only one I’ve used so far.) I love this design! I made a quilt similar to this years ago and donated it to an auction. Years ago as in before my blog existed! This pillow is for my daughter. I have a Chevron quilt in progress for her, and used the left over strips for the pillow.

This is the front cover to a little tote that opens like a book. I made this as a gift for the OWOH project that starts January 25. Come back to my blog on the Jan 25 – Feb 15 for a chance to win it! The design could also be altered to create a journal cover – I’m thinking of future projects here.

I can’t count this one for OPAM, because I finished in back in July. That was when I planned on being busy making Christmas gifts for 2009 – my personal Christmas-In-July-Sewing-Event! But this is the only one I completed! LOL I still plan to send it to my MIL as a thank-you for the Christmas gifts she sent our family. I think the snowmen can be displayed throughout the winter season.  It is small, 8″ across, and I think could be used as a candle mat, coffee mat or just a decoration. And if it gets used as a pot holder – I’m OK with that too!

There is a link on the side bar to OPAM if you are interested in seeing what the other 199 ladies are working on this year!  And do check out Lisa’s OWOH Event to join in the blog hopping to see what hundreds of other creative people are up to and consider joining too! All the rules are posted on the event page.

I saw the badge for OPAM, One Project a Month, on Melissa’s blog. And I got to thinking – I could do this – I have a long list of WISP, Works in Slooooooow Progress! – I have another list of projects I’d like to complete this year – I have a list of projects I’ve unearthed as I moved and organized my ‘space.’ So, I took the jump and signed up! It is all for fun. A kind of motivation to complete projects. Hosted by Kris and Peg. Read all about it on their blogs or the OPAM blog.

Melissa has received her gift and is pleased with it! I can’t wait another second to show off the gifts because I’m so excited about them!  So hopefully Lenna has received hers as well!  I really like them and will be making more as gifts. In fact I made one yesterday to be my One World One Heart gift. Here is what I made for Melissa:

And this one is for Lenna – she just moved to Florida so I went with the palm tree theme:

These are 12″ x 12″ totes, with a fabric  collage of my own design as the cover, and then on the inside are plastic baggies to hold your art/sewing supplies. I suggest NOT storing scissors in the baggies! There is ribbon to tie the tote closed. No matter what your art/craft, I think these are good for traveling. I have kept my hand quilting supplies in one for years. I just grab it to travel on trips and to take classes. Mine was a gift from a quilting friend years and years ago. If a baggie blows out, just cut it out. If they all get worn out, cut them out and add more in by sewing another center strip of fabric in place.