Five Shadows

Hubs and I are home from a quick trip to celebrate with a few friends. Friday night we celebrated with friends on their 50th wedding anniversary. Saturday we celebrated with one young man retiring from serving in the Navy. At both parties we enjoyed reconnecting with friends and making a few new ones.

To-Do Tuesday, June 20, 2023

1. Finish binding the anniversary quilt to gift this Friday! ✔️
2. And off we go on another short trip to the anniversary party and a retirement party. ✔️

We had a great time catching up with friends at both of the parties.

Other quilting – Before we left on our trip, I pulled out a PUP (Previous Unfinished Project) and sewed up another block.

This is from an online class  The Next Steps in Template Quilting from Sew Steady with Donelle McAdams. I started this class in April 2022, then set it aside back in September when we started helping our daughter with her house renovation.

Maybe I’ll get a block or two done in between the renovations since my responsibilities there seem to be slowing down.

Here’s a short list for this week -

To-Do Tuesday, June 27, 2023

1. I received a box of 36 t-shirts just before we left on our trip. I’ll start making three t-shirt quilts from them for a customer.
2. Quilt Block 13 of my PUP quilt.
3. Thursday I meet with my quilting group. I plan on taking along the EPP Owl.

Linking to To Do Tuesday hosted by Carol of Quilt Schmidt.

Happy Summer!

Phew, the heat is here. I’m thankful the temperatures cool off during the night!

Here’s what is happening in my little quilting world.

To-Do Tuesday, June 13, 2023

1. Sandwich and quilt anniversary quilt! ✔️
2. Daughter’s house – finish sanding drywall mud. ✔️
3. Other quilting? ✗

1. The Anniversary quilt is sandwiched! And quilted! And binding part way on!

First up, echoing appliqué in center of quilt.

Then quilting Grannie Square blocks. Can you make out the flower? I use Amanda Murphy’s Good Measure Every Oval Template.

And Westalee Spin-E-Fex ruler for another flower.

In the outer border I use Amanda Murphy’s Good Measure Ribbon Candy Template.

Here you can see FMQ curls in the inner 2″ border, and the Ribbon Candy design in outer border.

I did meandering in the outer border corners of pieced blocks. Quilt is ready to be trimmed and binding attached.

Quilted and trimmed!

Binding ready and wound on Missouri Star Quilt Co clear acrylic bolt tool. I found it works well for binding. The tool was gifted to me by a friend. The binding is sitting on the floral print quilt backing.

2. At our Daughter’s house, bedrooms are mudded and sanded. AND ready for primer! I hoping she has a painting party with friends to complete all the painting. BUT she has a bathroom to complete first. So hubs thinks I should do the priming. Gah! I do not like painting! Hubs is working on building two closets in the eves of the front two bedrooms. That means there will be touch up work in painting anyway if it is done now.

3. I didn’t do any other quilting.

To-Do Tuesday, June 20, 2023

1. Finish binding the anniversary quilt to gift this Friday!
2. And off we go on another short trip to the anniversary party and a retirement party.

See you next week!

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Carol of Quilt Schmidt.

We are back from our quick trip to TN to visit with friends and then spend a few days in the Smokie Mountains with some of our family.

I’ll share a few photos, just know Hubs didn’t take along his camera equipment so photos are a bit lacking.

To-Do Tuesday, June 6, 2023

1. Hubs and I are taking a short break from house reno to visit friends and family for a few days.
2. But first, Wednesday sewing with church group
3. I’m taking the Owl EPP along on our short trip.

1. Tennessee Trip!

Mama bear and her 4 cubs walking across the street. FOUR cubs! Isn’t that cub standing on its hind legs just the cutest! We saw 9 bears in just three days. That’s more than the total I’ve seen in our many trips to the mountains. Sadly, I think it is because humans are building in and destroying their natural habitat. I hope they survive.

We had a beautiful clear day to walk up to Clingmans Dome. I didn’t get any photos. And family has not yet shared theirs with me. Then rain came in over night. The next day clouds were blowing in over the mountains. This photo is from Newfound Gap. I loved watching the wispy clouds  moving through the mountains.

Just a fern growing along a rock. Didn’t ID which fern this is – there are so many plant varieties in the Smokies!

One of my favorite things to do in the Smokie Mts is find waterfalls! This is Mingo Falls in Cherokee, NC. Hubs and I visited Mingo in December 2017, it was a chilly walk with ice on the path. We wanted to see Mingo again in the Spring. Well worth the drive over the Smokies to the NC side. Plus Elk, you see elk along the way. Again, no photo.

2. At my church group sewing day before our TN trip, I tried sewing on one of the group’s sewing machines. It had the wrong bobbin in the case. After changing out the bobbin and rethreading, I still could not get it to work. So off to sewing machine spa it goes. Other than an hour or so of chatting, I didn’t accomplish anything!

3. I didn’t touch the Owl EPP on our trip. We filled our days with hiking and enjoying family. Plus the lighting in the cabin was not good for hand work.

No change, same photo as last week.

We are back home, and kind of back to normal. We visited daughter #2 at her farmer’s market booth today.

I bought this lovely bouquet plus spring salad mix, bok choy, radishes, & cilanto. Yummy meals coming!

How was your week?

To-Do Tuesday, June 13, 2023

1. Sandwich and quilt anniversary quilt!
2. Daughter’s house – finish sanding drywall mud.
3. Other quilting?

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Carol of Quilt Schmidt.

We are staying busy at our daughter’s reno house. Sanding drywall might be finished up today! Hubs and I are not planning on doing the painting. I think she should have a painting party with her friends. Maybe I’ll take pizza over. Tee hee!

Here’s a few photos of projects going on there and a bit of sewing/quilting at my house.

To-Do Tuesday, May 30, 2023

1. I’m keeping daughter’s house at the top of the list. Dry wall mudding is the chore of the week.
2. Make headway on Anniversary quilt!
3. Friday is quilting day with friends. I hope to alter two t-shirts with a friend’s help. The shirts have ‘flutter’ sleeves that I just do not like.    And I’m taking along an EPP project, handwork.

Screws and glue are used to pull and hold the plaster to the lath foundation. Once the glue has dried, the round white discs are removed. Daughter has done all the ceiling repair.

Dry wall mud fills in the holes and cracks. Isn’t that an improvement!? This will be sanded. Then it’s ready for paint!

All the sanding should be completed today.

Daughter is learning how to install a tile floor. Looking good! I like the tile and design she decided to use for her bathroom floor.

2. Anniversary quilt

Label is made and back is purchased and stitched together. That’s as far as I got, no sandwiching or quilting.

3. My friend talked me into leaving the flutter sleeves on the t-shirts. Easier for both of us, ha ha!

New EPP

I won this Barn Owl EPP pattern a few years ago. It’s my current evening handwork project. But I’ve not worked on it much in the evenings! It is also my take along project. It’s going with me today to my quilting group. Hostess says she has cheese, crackers, and wine for us! As you can see, I’m doing the background in greens. The owl I will do in browns.

Other quilting -

The last of the braided table runners is made and ready to gift today. I taught this at a retreat back in 2012 I believe. When digging in my sewing room for something else, I came across fabric left for 4 kits for the runner. I decided to finish them up as gifts. This one goes with me today to gift to one of my quilting friends.

So you can see, not much is happening right now in my sewing/quilting world.

Here’s this coming week -

To-Do Tuesday, June 6, 2023

1. Hubs and I are taking a short break from house reno to visit friends and family for a few days.
2. But first, Wednesday sewing with church group
3. I’m taking the Owl EPP along on our short trip.

I hope you all have a lovely week.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Carol of Quilt Schmidt.

Family, sewing, quilting, and house reno. That’s my life now.

Here’s my list and what happened this past week -

To-Do Tuesday, May 23, 2023

1. As Hubs works on drywall finishing at daughter’s house, I hope to get going on stripping the wood trim that was removed from bedrooms to update electric. Drywall ✔️
2. Sandwich three baby quilts and anniversary quilt. ✔️ – kind of 2 out of 4
3. ??? Guess I’ll see which way the wind blows again this week in my sewing world. I really should get started on quilting the anniversary quilt.

1. Here are a few photos of what’s happening at the house

This might not look like much of a difference from last week’s photo but this is the second layer of drywall mud. Ready to be sanded before applying the last coat of mud. The mudding might just be finished this week through out the house!

Frame for tub was built, and tub set in place.

Bathroom floor tile. Daughter playing with layout.

This is how you fix ceilings with cracked plaster. It looks like a mess now, but will look brand new soon!

My plans to start stripping woodwork was vetoed. I’m just barely keeping up as the clean-up crew and go-fer! I do what I’m told to do! Ha ha!

2. Sandwich quilts.

My Daughter in Love has been learning to quilt. She did such a beautiful design recently on a charity quilt that I asked if she would be willing to quilt the Trip Around the World Variation. She said yes! And here she is doing a large floral design at my Baby Lock Tiara III.

And here is my daughter straight line quilting the giraffe quilt for her coworker. It was well received at the party.

Sorry for the lousy photo of the finished Giraffe baby quilt. Daughter was flying out the door with it for the party. It finished up at 35 1/2 x 47 1/2 inches. Bound in Moda green grunge. I don’t remember which thread she use for quilting.

Two quilts completed.

3. Today I bought fabric for the back of the anniversary quilt. So I hope to get moving on that one soon.

The other project I worked on was making a tote for storing my large Clammy Rulers,

A t-shirt came with the ruler order but I ordered a size too small. I figured I could cut it up and use in the design of the tote. So here she is. Another circle design with the quirky saying from the t-shirt. Now all my Latifah Saafir rulers and patterns are stored together in this tote.

To-Do Tuesday, May 30, 2023

1. I’m keeping daughter’s house at the top of the list. Dry wall mudding is the chore of the week.
2. Make headway on Anniversary quilt!
3. Friday is quilting day with friends. I hope to alter two t-shirts with a friend’s help. The shirts have ‘flutter’ sleeves that I just do not like. And I’m taking along an EPP project, handwork.

House renovation – Reno is moving along at our daughter’s house!  Pictures below! In my sewing world, I actually did get more sewing done than I thought I’d get to this week.

Here we go -

To-Do Tuesday, May 16, 2023

1. Daughter’s house!  ✔️ Playing in mud!
2. Labels – I really need to get those done.  ✔️ One made. One designed.
3. Wednesday, meeting with church sewing group. ✔️
4. ???  I guess I’m tired and just don’t know what I’ll get to the rest of this week. ✔️I found a few things to work on.

1. Daughter’s house!

This might not look like much to you – first coat drywall mud is up through out the house!

Here’s the bathroom. And look! subfloor installed! Daughter plans to lay the tile herself.

First coat of tape and mud! If you look back through my posts, this is the wall shared with the attic steps. It’s looking so good! I think this will be the reference wall for the reno moving ahead.

2. Labels – one made and attached to the quilt. Quilt is bound and washed. Ready to gift.

(Not showing label for privacy) Trip Around the World, quilted, bound, backing and binding shown in photo. Quilt is 63″ x 65 inches. Quilted with Omni Superior Thread.

3. Church group. We finished 8 more heart pillows for cancer patients. One gal worked on quilting, and another worked on a binding. I cut out jersey knit for turbans. We had a nice time visiting during our 2 hour meeting.

4. Sewing did happen!

This is what I’ve done with the Granny Square blocks. Appliqué center surrounded with Granny Squares, 2″ cream border, 6″ border of 9-patches and cream fabric. The blocks are all made with squares leftover from the Trip Around the World quilt above. Top is 62″ square. This will be a 50th Wedding Anniversary gift.

I stitched up another circle quilt top using Latifah Saafir’s Clammy Ruler technique.

Daughter likes this one as a baby quilt for her coworker and says she will quilt it. The center is a Charley Harper print. I’ll get it sandwiched for her this week. Binding is made.

I pulled out a pieced table runner to quilt, and darn if I didn’t flip the back and had to do some ripping out.

Here she is quilted and bound and ready to gift. Note the Lilly of the Valley in this photo. I love the scent of these flowers and fill my house with them during their short blooming season.

That’s it for this week.

To-Do Tuesday, May 23, 2023

1. As Hubs works on drywall finishing at daughter’s house, I hope to get going on stripping the wood trim that was removed from bedrooms to update electric.
2. Sandwich three baby quilts and anniversary quilt.
3. ??? Guess I’ll see which way the wind blows again this week in my sewing world. I really should get started on quilting the anniversary quilt.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Carol of Quilt Schmidt.

Another week flies by! Sunday was Mother’s Day here in the United States. Some of my family picnicked with Hubs & me at a state park. We went on a hike, and played at the playground. It was a nice day, somewhat cloudy with the high of 68F.

I hope you all had a good week, and if celebrating Mother’s Day, I hope you enjoyed the day!

Here’s how I did on my list -

To-Do Tuesday, May 9, 2023

1. Continue on daughter’s house!  ✔️
2. Back for Trip Around the World variation quilt. And quilt it! ✗
3. Stitch applique in place for the Granny Squares quilt.  ✔️
4. Create labels for two quilts.
5. I’ve been asked to make 3 t-shirt quilts by the end of May. I don’t have the t-shirts yet but hope they are delivered this week and I’ll get going on those! – Still don’t have the t-shirts.

1. Daughter’s house!

Third bedroom. Before -

Another wall came out. While pulling out the closet walls, our daughter decided to work on the bedroom wall as well. Apparently all the wall paper, several layers of paint and more wall paper and paint was what was holding up the plaster! So down came the wall in the bedroom and in hall going up the attic steps.

After

Drywall up! And in closet too. What a difference a little unfinished drywall makes!

The attic side is completed too. And the wall is insulated.

Mudding is next.

2.  Trip Around the World variation, I didn’t work on this quilt at all.

3.  Granny Squares quilt

The appliqués I cut out last week are all stitched in place! I used a blanket stitch for all the appliqués.

Oops look what I did! I missed stitching a flower center. And the top got flipped under into the way. So I had to rip out the stitching and start again.

Applique completed! and Granny Squares stitched on. This quilt will get more borders.

4.  Create labels – nope.

5.  I don’t have the t-shirts yet, so can’t work on the quilts.

So that’s my list from last week. But ya know, there is always something else to work on. Dear Daughter asked if I’d make two baby quilts, one for a long time friend, and one for a co-worker.

For a jungle theme quilt I pieced 36 – 5″ charms from a Jungle Paradise pack I had on hand. Then using Latifah Saafir’s Clammy Ruler I cut out a circle from the background piece, and cut the pieced section into a circle and stitched them together. This went together so easily! Look Latifah up on Youtube for instructions. Top is 35 x 43 inches.

The second is a panel by Penny Rose Fabrics called This & That. I just added the polka dot fabric to widen it. Top is 36 x 43 inches. DD says she will do the quilting for both quilts.

And for this week -

To-Do Tuesday, May 16, 2023

1. Daughter’s house!
2. Labels – I really need to get those done.
3. Wednesday, meeting with church sewing group.
4. ???  I guess I’m tired and just don’t know what I’ll get to the rest of this week.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Carol of Quilt Schmidt.

Daughter’s house is moving along, as you will see in photos below. That’s the big news for now!  I only did a bit of stitching in my sewing room this week. Not much, but some!

To-Do Tuesday, May 2, 2023

1. Daughter’s house – guess it should go at the top of the list now that we are hanging drywall.  Drywall up makes it look so close to finished! Which is deceiving, as there will still be so much to do. But once it’s finished, painting!  ✔️
2. Sewing with my church group Wednesday morning.  ✔️
3. Granny Square quilt – keep at it.  ✔️
4. Hand work at night – hexies for now.  ✗
5. Backing for Trip Around the World variation quilt. ✗
6. Sew Clammy Tote.  ✗
7. Sew Featherweight Embroidery borders so it can be framed.  ✗

Stuff happened!

1. Daughter’s house

Main bedroom – south wall ready for drywall.

West walk is also ready for drywall. Hubs peeking into room.

Drywall up. Not mudded. But doesn’t that look great!

Tada! Another wall up! And not photoed is the drywall up in the second bedroom. It’s been a productive week!

2. Wednesday morning sewing group – oops forgot to take photos! We worked on stuffing heart shaped pillows for cancer patients. Delivered 15 quilts to hospice, and other misc diddly jobs completed.

3. Granny Square quilt. So, my ideas for this quilt keep evolving.

Latest thought -create a basket of flowers for the center.

Something like this. I cut out the appliqués on a friend’s accuquilt cutter this morning. Currently playing with layout.

On to this week -

To-Do Tuesday, May 9, 2023

1. Continue making headway on daughter’s house!
2. Back for Trip Around the World variation quilt. And quilt it!
3. Stitch applique in place for the Granny Squares quilt.
4. Create labels for two quilts.
5. I’ve been asked to make 3 t-shirt quilts by the end of May. I don’t have the t-shirts yet but hope they are delivered this week and I’ll get going on those!

Between working at my daughter’s house and working on the t-shirt quilts, I might not be getting anything else completed this week!

I hope you all have a good week! Happy stitching and enjoy the great outdoors!

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Carol of Quilt Schmidt.

Happy May!

So, this week didn’t actually go according to plan. I know I did stuff, but what exactly is questionable. Ha ha!

To-Do Tuesday, April 25, 2023

1. Create back for Trip Around the World variation.  ✗
2. Clean house – it’s been neglected for too long.  ✔️
3. Featherweight embroidery – finish it up, buttons and border for framing.  ✗
4. Figure out something for evening handwork – hexies? Hmm. Maybe? 
5. Daughter’s house – wish I could say the end is in sight!  ✔️

What I did and didn’t do -

1. I didn’t work on a back for Trip Around the World. But I did start a new project from the leftover squares. More on that in a bit.

2. Clean house. Mostly accomplished! My bedroom and bath got a major deep clean and sure does look nice! I hope it can stay that way for a while! The other bath and half bath also got a cleaning. Kitchen, dining room, foyer, bathroom floors all got a good scrubbing including the grout in my bathroom floor. Just about the only think still needing attention is dusting the living room and changing out winter decor quilts for spring. All boring stuff I know, but with working on my daughter’s house reno, my house maintenance has been neglected.

3. I didn’t touch that cute Featherweight embroidery.

4. I’m sticking with the hexies for now for evening stitching. And I didn’t get far on them this past week. I’m feeling kind of burnt out on them, yet didn’t dig anything else out to work on in the evenings.

Hexie designs will be added to a background fabric to make mug rugs. I’m aiming to create three to gift to quilty friends.

5. Daughter’s house has insulation in! And also drywall installation has started!

This was once a bathroom! Floor was rotted. The whole room was gutted top to bottom.

Look! New floor joists covered with new subfloor! Plumbing and electric in! Insulation! And not photoed yet, yesterday drywall started to go up! People! This is major progress! And so exciting to see!

Here’s what I did work on that was not on my To-Do list.

1) I started making 9-patches with 2 1/2″ squares left over from the Trip Around the World quilts.

Then they evolved into Granny Squares.

I’ve got 10 finished blocks of the above color way. I think I’ll do a basket of flowers in the center of the quilt and place Granny Squares around it. Then figure out what to do with the 9-patches. No pattern, I’m just playing and building the quilt as I go.

2) I mentioned the Giant Clammy Experience hosted by Latifah Saafir in my last post. Registration is closed, the first online class was yesterday, May 1st. I watched the class and pulled fabric for the first project which is a tote to hold the rulers.

Floral canvas with a mottled red for the lining.

3) Yesterday Hubby and I hung the first pieces of drywall in our daughter’s house! We started in the bathroom. I didn’t get a photo as I had to leave to pick up grandkids from school. Next week there will be more photos of the progress.

Here’s this week’s list -

To-Do Tuesday, May 2, 2023

1. Daughter’s house – guess it should go at the top of the list now that we are hanging drywall.  Drywall up makes it look so close to finished! Which is deceiving, as there will still be so much to do. But once it’s finished, painting!
2. Sewing with my church group Wednesday morning.
3. Granny Square quilt – keep at it.
4. Hand work at night – hexies for now.
5. Backing for Trip Around the World variation quilt.
6. Sew Clammy Tote.
7. Sew Featherweight Embroidery borders so it can be framed.

I’m being very optimistic here! I might end up helping with drywall more than sewing/quilting this week. Maybe I’ll surprise myself and get to play in the sewing room! Here’s hoping!

I hope you all have a great week in your sewing room/studio. Or garden! It is that time of year here in the USA!

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Carol of Quilt Schmidt.

Hello Fellow Quilters!

I did not have a productive week. I spent most of it either sleeping or lounging as I caught some crazy bug and then I think Spring allergies hit me as I lost my voice and had the yuck sinus stuff. I’m feeling almost normal now. So here’s hoping for health and a more normal week ahead!

Here’s last week’s to-do list, and like I said not much happened.

To-Do Tuesday, April 18, 2023

1. Trip Around the World variation. I need to have this top pieced, quilted, and bound by first of June! ✔️
2. Featherweight embroidery – attach buttons. Add a border so it can be stretched over canvas and framed. ✗
3. Evening handwork, hexies.  ✗
4. Wednesday morning is church group sewing day.  ✗
5. Daughter’s house.  ✔️

1. Trip Around the World variation

The previous week I was working on the fourth row. I did manage to complete that and then decided to add a fifth row since I still had lots of 2 1/2″ squares already cut. I went with 4 x 5 blocks for a top. Each block is 16″ square, making the top 64″ x 80″ without any borders. This was the one thing I worked on a little at a time this past week.

2. I didn’t touch the Featherweight embroidery.

Still needs buttons sewn into place.

3. And no evening handwork. I was just too worn out from whatever bug I picked up.

4. And I missed the Wednesday morning sewing group at my church.

5. Daughter’s house  - there was progress there as Hubby was better from the bug he had two weeks ago, so he’s back working on the house.

Plus! BIG NEWS – the building inspection PASSED!

That means insulation and dry wall can go in. I was at the house yesterday helping a bit with that. Saturday daughter got a good chunk of the insulation in two of the bedrooms!

As you can see I had a rather slow week. I hope the illness is behind us and life moves on at a more normal pace.

Other news. I signed up for a quilt along with Latifah Saafir. Are you familiar with her Clammy Rulers? The supplies for the QAL arrived yesterday! The QAL sign up was offered only for a short time with limited supplies available. I’m pleased I got in!

Latifah added a few goodies.

T-Shirt, stickers, postcards, and a pattern. The goodie I like the best is the sticker that says

Life is short. Use the Good FABRIC!

Isn’t that true!?

That’s all I have for you this week. Here’s what I hope to accomplish next -

To-Do Tuesday, April 25, 2023

1. Create a back for Trip Around the World variation.
2. Clean house – it’s been neglected for too long.
3. Featherweight embroidery – finish it up, buttons and border for framing.
4. Figure out something for evening handwork – hexies?
5. Daughter’s house – wish I could say the end is in sight!

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Carol of Quilt Schmidt.