Five Shadows

Finally finished, a 7 year old UFO!

TaDa! So Happy! I gifted this quilt to my son and daughter-in-love Sunday, October 20th, on their 7th wedding anniversary!

And I completed the 3rd block of the Happy Little Things BOM too!

Embroidered 4″ center, pieced 12″ finished block. I’m using Carolyn Friedlander fabrics.

Last To-Do List:

1. Quilt outer border of son’s quilt.  ✔️ Quilted, bound, gifted!
2. Happy Little Things, block 3  ✔️

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

Or,

Progress on My Son’s Quilt

Not the best photo so show the quilting, but I completed the curve quilting in the brown print squares, Orange Peel style.

And the first border. One more border to go, and then the binding.

I also got some handwork in this past week.

Block 3 of Happy Little Things BOM by Jacquelynne Steves

Thursday through Sunday I was on grandchild duty! We had a lovely time. I had hoped to have Lego photos to share, but my son & DIL being under the weather, have not shared photos of their display with me yet. Maybe I can share with you next week.

Last To-Do List:

1. Stay focused on son’s quilt! ✔️
2. Lego building with son and DIL – I’ll share about that next week. ✔️

To-Do List:

1. Quilt outer border of son’s quilt.
2. Happy Little Things, block 3

Linking to To-Do Tuesday

That UFO. I’ve finished the straight line quilting in the pieced blocks, and have moved on to the curved quilting.

This is a quilt for my son and his lovely wife, I shared about here. It’s all marked for the curved quilting.

I cut a three inch circle from card stock  and grabbed a Sewline white ceramic lead marking pencil. Then traced around the circle to mark the curves within the brown squares.  I can continuous line quilt through the brown squares from one side of the quilt to the other. After the quilting is completed in the brown squares, there are just 2 borders to quilt. Phew! The end is in sight!

Another project all marked and ready to go is October’s block 3 of Happy Little Things BOM. I’m embroidering the center of each block.

Next step, select the embroidery floss for this month.

Here’s September’s block 2 all completed.

Happy Little Things do make me happy!

Last To-Do List:

1. Finish September’s Happy Little Things block ✔️
2. progress on son’s wedding quilt ✔️

To-Do List:

1. Stay focused on son’s quilt!
2. Lego building with son and DIL – I’ll share about that next week.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday

What do you do when you started a quilt and just really do not like it?

What do you do when that quilt was selected by your future daughter-in-law, and she and your son also selected the fabrics?

I’ve struggled with this quilt for several years. I originally told the happy couple that I hoped to have it completed by their first anniversary. That did not happen.

So many points are just not matching, or worse yet – cut off. Ugh! I just don’t like it! Or maybe I should say, I really do not like my piecing in this quilt. I tried at least 3 different ways, rulers, to cut and get accurate seams and points to no avail. Sigh.

I considered scrapping it and starting all over again with a similar pattern. But, I showed it to my quilty friends and they encouraged me to just finish it and move on!

January of this year, I pulled it out of the corner of my sewing room and started quilting it. Then once again abandoned it.  Last month I started machine quilting it on my sit down Baby Lock Tiara III.

I still don’t like it, but I am plugging along.

October goal? Finish it! And finally give it to my son and DIL as October 20th will be their 7th, yes Seventh! Anniversary.

I need some positive vibes to get flowing, and get ‘er done!

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

I love Autumn! It should be a time of crisp weather and lovely changing colors. So far we are having record highs, it was almost 90 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday! And so far our Maple tree is turning brown instead of shades yellow, orange and reds. I’m hoping it will soon surprise me with it’s color brilliance!

On to quilting – Yippie! I finished the Hexie Panel quilt!

Read all about it in this post.

I need to buy a back for the Hexie quilt, and luckily the LQS is having a moving sale! 30% off. I try to buy backs from the clearance wall, but didn’t see anything I liked with enough yardage on the bolt last week. But I just got a notice from the shop, Edward’s Sewing Center, that they just added 200 more bolts to the clearance section, so I’ll run over again to take another look. 30% off their already discounted clearance section is hard to pass up!

Happy Little Things BOM embroidery for the block is complete.

One little goal for this week is to do the piecing with the fabrics shown. That way I’ll be ready for when block 3 is released.

My big goal for October is going to be to finish the quilting on a much neglected quilt.

This was supposed to be a wedding quilt for my son and DIL. I was hoping to have it completed by their first anniversary. They will be celebrating their 7th anniversary this month! I better finish it before the cold weather sets in or another year ticks by!

I did at least half of the quilting on it last month, so now is it a WIP or still a UFO!?

Last To-Do List:

1. Keep working on Hexie Panel quilt. ✔️So happy! Quilt top all pieced!

To-Do List:

1. Finish September’s Happy Little Things block
2. progress on son’s wedding quilt

Linking to To-Do Tuesday

Down to the wire! I was beginning to think I’d miss my goal for September, but phew! made it!

I did quite a bit of seam ripping. But finally got the hexies all properly lined up and spaced out. I sewed all the hexies together like a picture frame to be placed over the panel.

Photo above shows the “picture frame” with inner seams all pressed under 1/4″ and ready to be pinned to the panel.

Close up of hexie frame pinned to panel

And TaDa! The picture frame stitched in place on the panel.

Finished feels good!

My goal for September was to finish the Hexie Panel quilt top. I should explain that this was a demo I saw at the Shipshewanna Quilt Festival but I did not buy the book _One Block Wonders_ by Maxine Rosenthal. My quilt is made with a variation of the old Stack-n-Whack method. I used 7 panels to make this quilt. 6 panels piled exactly on top of each other with the floral print all pinned to line up. Then cut into strips, I cut at 2 3/4″ and then used a 60 degree ruler to cut triangles. Each cut should give you 6 of the same print, and when sewn together give you the kaleidoscope hexie. Those hexies are sewn around the 7th uncut panel. Cool! I’m loving it!

If you like this quilt and want to see more truly amazing panel quilts, type in ‘one block wonder panel quilts’ at Pinterest. And be amazed!

I’m placing this quilt into the ‘to be quilted’ pile for a while. Next up, my son’s wedding quilt. More about that in October’s OMG post!

Linking to Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal. Hop on over to see what other quilters worked on during September.

Rock’n Robin got his eyes, and water is splashing around him.

I’ve not settled on how to add dimension between his wings and body. I’ve got several ideas, but have not landed on one yet.

Hexie Panel progress!

The hexies are all sewn together around the floral panel, but not sewn to the panel. I need to shop for some solid black fabric and a back to finish this quilt. I’ve sewn this quilt together on my 1951 Featherweight Singer sewing machine. It is a sturdy little machine with a lovely stitch. But I’ll be finishing the top using a blanket stitch on my Janome. The above photo is my temporary set up in my kitchen.

Edwards Sewing Center, the local quilt shop I frequent is having a moving sale! 30% off! I’ll be heading there Thursday for the fabrics I need to finish the Hexie Panel quilt.

Last To-Do List:

1. Same as last week, finish Rockin’ Robin Block ➞ almost there!
2. Work on Hexie Panel quilt ✔️kept chugging along!

To-Do List:

1. Keep working on Hexie Panel quilt.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday

The block I’m currently working on from the Bird Song Sing-A-Long pattern is called Rock’n Robin.

Mr. Robin needs an eye, and some dimension added to his wings and tail feathers. Plus some water droplets splashing out of the birdbath.

The second pattern for the Happy Little Things BOM was released, and I got it started.

Traced, fabrics selected, and embroidery underway.

Also this week, I made headway on my One Block Wonder hexie panel quilt. Read about it here. If you have not seen OBW panel quilts, go to Pinterest and search for One Block Wonder with Panels to see some amazing quilts!

Baby time!

I got to play with this cutie this week.

He loves anything with wheels! I pulled out his dad’s old wooden train set and he played happily for over an hour with it! Who says toddlers have short attention spans!?

I have a few toys here from our children’s childhoods. Our adult children mostly took what they wanted with them, got rid of a few things, and I kept a few. It amazes me how this train kept his interest for so long! I pulled it out once for his older sibling, and she had no interest in it at all.

Do you have a favorite childhood toy or memory? I still have a very warn & loved stuffed kitty-cat.

Last To-Do List:

1. Finish Rockin’ Robin Block,  ➤  worked on but not finished
2. Work on Hexie Panel quilt ✔️

To-Do List:

1. Same as last week, finish Rockin’ Robin Block
2. Work on Hexie Panel quilt

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

This past Thursday was my Curvy Quilters sewing day. Our little group meets in our members homes. We gathered and sewed at Pat’s house. Pat has a lovely large design wall in her studio. I got to play with my hexies and panel quilt laying it out on her design wall.

After fiddling with placement of the hexies, I sewed together 7 diagonal rows starting at the bottom right corner. The picture was taken before any rows were sewn together. I’m liking how this is looking!

Pat suggested I leave the quilt on her design wall and return soon to continue sewing the rows together. I took her up on the offer as picking up and labeling the rows would have been overwhelming at this point.

My goal for September will be to complete this quilt top.

I plan to get to Pat’s this week and get more sewing in, and hopefully to a point where it will be easier to label and transport it home.

Linking to One Monthly Goal sponsored by Patty at Elm Street Quilts.

Last week’s goals, I finished the Fence Rail Star quilt, which was also my August One Monthly Goal.

Wonky Star label.

And I finished this little cutie embroidery quilt block design by Jacquelynne Steven called Happy Little Things.

I’m using Friedlander fabric by Carolyn Friedlander for the pieced blocks. I used scraps of floss, various brands, for the embroidery.

I started working on a 2018 Row by Row quilt. Have you heard of the Row by Row Experience? Have you collected any of the free patterns? You have to visit participating quilt shops between June 21st and September 3rd to pick up a copy of their free Row by Row pattern. This year’s theme is Taste the Experience.

Back to what I’m doing. I hopped around on the web to see what shops are doing out of my area. I found that back in 2018 Susan Rooney designed 8 individual patterns for 8 New York quilt shops for the Sew Musical theme. The finished quilt is Birdsong Sing-A-Long. I bought the pattern and 2 kits.

I finished “Hummin’ a Tune or Two” Quilt-As-You-Go method, and machine appliquéd the Hummers and flower.

I also have the background ready for “Rockin’ Robin” and I’m working on tracing and cutting out Mr. Robin and his birdbath. The 2 blocks will be finished at 18″ square. 4 more blocks will also be 18″ square and 2 will be 12″ x 27″ to make a 48″ x 54″ quilt.

That’s it for this week. How did your week go?

Last To-Do List:

1. Quilt borders of Fence Rail Star quilt & bind!  ✔️ Finished! Take a look here.
2. Finish embroidery block  ✔️It so cute! I’m looking forward to the next block release.

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