Five Shadows

Last week I did get the tea cozy made for my daughter-in-law. But totally changed all my fabric & design plans. I came across a quilting challenge I could not resist, so changed my plans to meet the rules of the Project Quilting 11:1 Challenge – Notably Numeric. Read all about what I came up with for the challenge here.

We opened our home to a dinner party given by our son & DIL in honor of her 30th birthday. We had 22 happy people in our home!  DIL loves to cook for family and friends so she prepared and served the meal at our house. Son & DIL are currently refinishing the oak floors in their home, so could not host their own party. Their floors are lovely, BTW! And so is their newly remodeled kitchen with beautiful Amish built cabinets.

I made a tea cozy and apron from a vintage table cloth. If you followed the link above you’ll see I’m reposting photos -

Both the tea cozy and apron were gifted to my DIL along with great grandmother’s tea set.

Flip side of tea cozy. Simple wavy lines quilted on my Featherweight. It was my first time to quilt on the FW and it worked like a dream! I used fusible batting, Aurifil thread.

I’m so tickled I had time to make the apron.  Upon opening the apron, she put it on and kept it on for a while. I think she liked it (wink wink) along with the other gifts.

Last To Do List:

1. Make Tea Cozy by Friday night to gift to my DIL. ✔️ Done!
2. Maybe work on an apron? ✔️ and done!

To Do List:

1. Finish up Vintage Truck for son & DIL for their 1st wedding anniversary on the 19th.
2. Back to Bat Moon Rising quilt

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Home Sewn by Us.

How is it that Project Quilting has escaped my notice for the past 10 seasons? I stumbled upon the Project Quilting Challenge earlier this week and decided to join in. Thank you for accepting me as a new member!

I had already decided before discovering this challenge that I would be making an apron and a tea cozy for my daughter-in-law for her 30th birthday which is tomorrow, Friday, January 10th. Hmmm, could I figure out a way to make the tea cozy fit the challenge?

After changing my mind several times on numbers, such as morse code or the use of numerals, I decided to use 30 squares to represent each of Alicia’s 30 years.

Here’s the tea cozy with three rows of ten 1″ squares for Alicia’s 30th Birthday.

I used a vintage table cloth to construct the apron, so continued with it for a matching tea cozy. I used 10 fabrics for the squares to coordinate with the table cloth.

Tab on top and binding are also from the table cloth. Cozy is 10″ wide and 11″ tall at the top of dome.

The reason the whole apron and tea cozy idea as birthday gifts came about was when my son mentioned that Alicia would love to inherit Great Grandmother’s tea set. I’m very happy to pass it on to her!

The set includes the tea pot, sugar & creamer, 4 luncheon plates, and 3 tea cups. Sadly one tea cup came broken when the set was passed down to me. Alicia will be the 4th generation to own this set. I’ve enjoyed using the tea pot, but never used the rest of the set. It is a small pot for the size tea cozy I made, but Alicia owns other larger pots that will fit snuggly into the cozy.

And the Apron

Linking to Project Quilting 11.1 Challenge

We went directly into birthday season with our family. January 3rd and 7th are our two grandchildren’s birthdays, our second son’s 2 kiddos. And the 10th will be our daughter-in-law’s birthday, wife to our first son. We had a party here on the 3rd for our granddaughter, and we went to our son’s home for an ice-cream party tonight for our grandson. Friday we will be opening our home for another birthday dinner. Our DIL loves to cook for her family & friends on her birthday, and right now we are the ones with room to hold the number of people invited.

After talking with my son, it was decided gifting my DIL a family tea set would be perfect for her.

There are also 4 saucers and 3 tea cups I haven’t dug out of the cabinet yet. Sadly one tea cup came broken to me 20 years ago. This set now goes to the fourth generation!

I had thought last week I’d make an apron for my DIL. And I still hope to do so. I’m kind of bumping making an apron to making a tea cozy.

Here are the fabrics I’ve pulled for making the tea cozy.

Hopefully I’ll get both the cozy and apron made!

Here is what I’ve done on the vintage truck wallhanging for my son & DIL’s first wedding anniversary.

I’ve machine blanket stitched around the truck, hearts, basket, etc. I’ll probably add some more embellishments, but I’ll set this aside to work on the tea cozy. Their anniversary is on the 19th of this month, so I have time to finish it.

Last To Do List:

1. Finish wall hanging for DIL & son. ✗ worked on, not finished.
2. Make apron for my DIL.  ✗ pulled fabric, have not cut into it yet.

To Do List:

1. Make Tea Cozy by Friday night to gift to my DIL.
2. Maybe work on an apron?

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Home Sewn by Us.

I spent the first day of January 2020 cleaning my very messing and disorganized sewing room. I thought of taking photos, but then decided against that!

If you are anything like me, you won’t be surprised that I unearthed a few forgotten projects. Having just finished Helen Godden’s Christmas Countdown Quilt-Along for 2019, I knew I had at least one other of her Christmas Countdown quilts from previous years in progress. Found it!

Not only did I find that one, but also another one which I don’t even remember starting.

Finishing these 2 UFO Christmas projects will be my January goal.

As I was cleaning, I packed a box and labeled it “Christmas in July Projects.” My plan is to pull it out in July and start the projects I have not gotten to, other than buying fabric. They are all Christmas related, stockings, tree skirt, etc.

I seem to be a “quilt topper” not finisher! That needs to change! This might be a year of finishing. But time will tell as there are always so many lovely designs out there to distract me!

Happy New Year, fellow quilters!

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

Straight into the new year – it’s Birthday Season for my 2 grands, and also for my newest DIL. Plus January brings the 1st year Wedding Anniversary for my eldest son and his lovely wife!

I have a little appliqué in progress for my son and DIL. She loves vintage. Owning a vintage truck is on her bucket list. When I saw Buttermilk Basin’s vintage truck pattern, I just had to make it for her!

I’m still looking for the right background fabric. This piece still needs a lot of stitching to finish it up. Then framing.

I plan to make an apron for my DIL for her birthday. I did some digging in the fabric stash today and did find something I think will work. That will be next up. Photos coming.

What do you have new going on in 2020?

Last To Do List:

1. Finish quilting and bind Christmas Countdown quilt.  ✔️ see it here
2. Enjoy Christmas with family!  ✔️

To Do List:

1. Finish wall hanging for DIL & son.
2. Make apron for my DIL.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Home Sewn by Us.

Here are a few of my projects from 2019. Some are still tops waiting to be quilted.

I played with stencils to create little appliqué and machine embroidery quilts, 8 1/2″ x 10.”

My DIL asked for a table runner. She loves appliqué, here is what I made for her -

UFO! I pulled out this oldie. Only had 2 blocks to finish, then finished top.

Another UFO. Top was ready for quilting, finished it up and gifted to my nephew.

Yet another UFO finished for my son and DIL.

Hexie & Panel quilt top done, waiting to be quilted.

In December I followed along with Helen Godden’s Christmas Countdown Quilt Along and finished this little wallhanging. 19″ x 20 1/2″

Also in December I made a quilt for my Dad using his neckties.

To-Do List

1. Make up a working list for 2020 – UFOs to finish, tops to quilt, new quilts to start!

Happy New Year All!

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Home Sewn by Us.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays!

Season’s Greetings!

For December’s OMG I planned on keeping up with Helen Godden’s 24 day Christmas Countdown Quilt Along.

Success!

I did keep up with the daily quilting, which was just a little bit each day. Then Christmas Eve was also quilting the background.

Christmas Day I finished with the binding before family came over to Celebrate Christ’s Birth.

In December, I also wanted to make six small quilt gifts for my quilting friends.

I used part of the Christmas Countdown Quilt Along design to create six little quilts.

I made little ‘pillow cases’ and slipped them over clear plastic free standing picture frames.

The Merry Christmas is hand embroidered.

The yellow flame, holly berries, and outline of holly leaf are colored with Sharpie markers.

These were really fun to make!

Happy New Year, All!

Linking to One Monthly Goal hosted by Patty of Elm Street Quilts.

Merry Christmas All!

This past week had some twists and turns. One lovely happening was my grand daughter came home from her last day of school for the year to pack her backpack and say she was going to Bamma’s (I’m Bamma) for a sleep over. Hubs and I thought the was a good idea.

I had planned to get together with grand daughter to take her shopping so she could select little gifts for her parents and brother. That changed from taking her shopping to helping her make gifts.

We made 2 felt ornaments, one each for her Mommy and Daddy.

I might have helped with the French Knots, but she picked out the floss colors.

She did some coloring for her other set of grandparents. Oops, forgot to take a photo before she wrapped them up.

And we made a treat for her to share with her family Christmas day.

Everything is wrapped and ready for Christmas Day!

Papa got in on the fun and the two of them built a Lego Blue Jay.

Her Daddy had given Papa a set of 3 Lego birds 2 Christmases ago. Grand daughter and I built the Hummingbird earlier this year. There is still a Cardinal to build.

I’ve kept up with Helen Godden’s Christmas Countdown Quilt-a-Long.

Just need to quilt the 4 corners and attach binding. This may happen later today.

I still have a few gifts to wrap, soup to make, and Christmas Eve service to attend later tonight. Keep Christ in Christmas!

Merry Christmas, All!

Last To Do List:

1. Host quilting group Thursday. ✔️
2. Start on Christmas stockings.  ✔️

To Do List:

1. Finish quilting and bind Christmas Countdown quilt.
2. Enjoy Christmas with family!

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Home Sewn by US.

I’m checking things off the Christmas To-Do List!

This past week I focused on making a quilt for my Dad using his discarded neckties.

Above is a little bud using a tiny bit of one of Dad’s ties.

This photo shows a flower made from ties and the quilting.

And here is the lap size quilt, finished at 47″ x 56″. The background is meandered. The vine is echoed, and little curlicues are quilted on each of the flower petals. Warm N Natural Batting, Superior and Auriful threads. Dad moved into assisted living last year and said he no longer wanted his neck ties. I talked him into selecting 2 of his favorite ties to keep, just incase he ever wanted to dress up. Then I suggested using the rest of his ties for a quilt. He liked that idea. I hope he likes what I did with the ties! I shipped the quilt to him yesterday. His birthday is later this week, perfect timing to complete & ship the quilt!

I have four more little quilties ready for gift giving. One will be gifted Christmas day, and the other three are for my Curvy Quilters group. We are meeting Thursday, so again, phew! I’m glad to finish them up in time to gift.

The design is adapted from Helen Godden’s free Christmas Countdown Quilt-A-Long.

My December One Monthly Goal is to keep up with Helen’s Quilt-A-Long.

At day 17, it’s looking pretty good, and I’ve kept up with the daily design. Phew!

This week I hope to start on a few Christmas Stockings. I’ve a few appliqué ideas. I need to dig through fabric and see if I have nice back ground fabrics.  Procrastination? Maybe. I want to make 4 stockings that show each person’s interests. Maybe I’m making it too hard on myself, and should just go with a Christmas theme.

What are you up to the week before Christmas?

Last To Do List:

1. Make lap quilt for my Dad from his neckties. Mail by the 16th!  ✔️ Made, photoed, and mailed!
2. Finish up the 3 gifts for my quilting friends.  ✔️ Phew! All done and ready to gift Thursday and Christmas day.
3. Dream about making some Christmas stockings.  ✔️ I did a little checking around on the web, looking for ideas.
4. Bat Moon Rising – probably not. Putting on back burner until holiday prep is complete.  ✗

To Do List:

1. Host quilting group Thursday.
2. Start on Christmas stockings.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday Hosted by Home Sewn by Us.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! With celebrating our Savior’s birth comes time with family and friends. Part of the celebrating brings gift giving. Today I’ll be meeting with friends and I made each a little giftie.

I traced and slightly altered one of the candles from Helen Godden‘s free Christmas Countdown Quilt-A-Long. I made a pillow-like-case and slipped it over an acrylic photo frame.

I used Sharpie and Fabrico pens for coloring and outlining. Auriful and Mettler threads for the FMQ. Merry Christmas is hand embroidered  with Auriful thread. The finished quilt is 8 1/4″ wide by 10″ tall. I have three more to do the hand embroidery on before stitching them to slip over a picture frame.

That’s it for this week. I caught a bug – going around my family – and spent a couple days in bed. Not how I wanted to spend my time, but I’m glad to be over it! Hope it stops with me, sparing everyone else.

Hope you are all staying happy and healthy!

Last To Do List:

1. Continue stitching up Bat Moon Rising ✗  Illness struck, and most quilting stopped for a few days.
2. Make a few quilted gifts for my quilting friends. ✔️ 4 complete, and 3 to finish up.
3. Keep up with Helen’s quilt-a-long ✔️So far so good!

To-Do List:

1. Make lap quilt for my Dad from his neckties. Mail by the 16th!
2. Finish up the 3 gifts for my quilting friends.
3. Dream about making some Christmas stockings.
4. Bat Moon Rising – probably not. Putting on back burner until holiday prep is complete.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Sewn by Us.