Five Shadows

After a false start, the quilt for my second grand baby is coming along nicely.

I was thinking trees would work well with this Forest Fellows panel.

My first thought was trees made from flying geese units, but then my eyes fell on this pattern by Cut Loose Press called Crazy Christmas Trees.

(photo from Cut Loose Press)

I bought this pattern earlier in the year and have it hanging in my sewing room with the Spider Web ruler, waiting to be made! Ha! Maybe that will happen for Christmas 2018? Anyway, I thought those trees might look nice added to the Forest Fellows panel and I made up a set of 4, thinking I’d use 3 on the front and put one on the back.

But when I laid the trees out with the panel, they just did not seem to match the ‘feel’ of the panel.

Back I went to my FIRST and original plan of making trees from flying geese units!

Much better! I’m pleased with how this is looking! I have some teal flannel that will make a nice comfy back.

Today I squeezed in a last minute project for a friend living in a nursing home:

I was invited to the Christmas dinner held tonight, and didn’t want to show up empty handed. Using the snowflake block from I Wish You a Merry Quilt-A-Long, I stitched up a canvas bag and turned the quilt block into a pocket. My friend said she will wait and open the gift Christmas day. I hope she likes it!

Last Wednesday I had a little sewing time with quilty friends. I decided to take along the Chic Country quilt in progress. I was pleased with the few hours of sewing and the blocks coming together for this quilt. I had first thought I’d take along the panel and some fabrics to work on the quilt for grand baby #2 but thought it would take too much brain power. You know, when you get together with friends it is lots of talking and laughing, so more mindless sewing is best!

Are you working on any last minute gifts?

How did I do on last week’s To-Do Tuesday List?

1. Work on sewing Chic Country blocks.  ✔️ I didn’t count, but I got several sewn together.
2. Make baby quilt for grand baby #2 who will be arriving on or about January 6th.  ✔️ Top made, pictured above!

This week’s To-Do List:

1. Prep back for baby quilt.
2. Pack for get-away with Husband!

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.

This week I pulled out some panels and pre-cuts to whip together some gifts.

First up Mr. & Mrs. Bunnikins and their 3 baby bunnies from a panel:

Here they are sewn up and needing fiber fill.

And here they are a happy bunny family ready to gift to my grand daughter.

I’ve decided I don’t like sewing panel dolls! The directions were not the clearest, and all those tiny little pieces to sew and turn right sides out just about did me in. Not my thing! I could not get Mr. Bunnikins bow tie to look nice, so I dug in my stash and made him a bandana instead of the bow tie.

Next up, I turned a few pre-cut hexagons into mug rugs.

These will be gifted tomorrow to a few quilting friends.

I finished all the petal units for Chic Country! I’ll be working on sewing them into blocks at the quilting get-together tomorrow!

How did I do on last week’s To-Do Tuesday List?

1. Finish sewing the petal units for Chic Country. ✔️ Finished!
2. Sandwich and start quilting another quilt made by a friend. ✗ I don’t see getting to this until January 2018! Friend said she is ok with that. Phew!
3. 4 secret gifts to complete. ✗ Putting this off until the last week of December.

This weeks To-Do List:

1. Work on sewing Chic Country blocks.
2. Make baby quilt for grand baby #2 who will be arriving on or about January 6th.

I have two gifts to start and finish this month.

One is a Christmas gift for my granddaughter.

It’s a panel to make a bunny doll family – the Spring Bunny Fun panel has preprints to make Mr. & Mrs. Bunnikins and 3 baby bunnies. I thought this would be a nice gift for Granddaughter as baby brother will be added to her family on or about January 6, 2018! She is also getting a doll quilt, which her mother requested.

Baby brother will be receiving a quilt when he arrives.

I purchased this Forest Fellows panel and coordinating prints. I’m usually NOT a panel person, so this is new territory for me!

I had such good intentions of starting these projects soon after I purchased them. Ha ha! Didn’t happen. One is from a June Shop Hop! In the next two weeks I need to start and finish both, as we will be traveling the last half of the month. Maybe I’ll be doing some hand stitching to finish them up! We will see!

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

On this last day of November, 2017 I completed my November goal of piecing & trimming the alternate units for Chic Country.

Phew!  …  and Happy Dance!

I couldn’t resist laying out some of the units to see the how the quilt top will come together! I must say, I am happy!

I hosted my quilting group today. It was nice to have the gals here to chat with while finishing the last of the units. I’ll be putting this project away until January.

Linking to One Monthly Goal with Patty at Elm Street Quilts. Go check out what the other participants have been working on this month! And then join in for December!

Happy Thanksgiving, Friends!

Our trees are all but bare here in the Midwest. So maybe this table topper will add some Autumn color for Thanksgiving Day. This is not a new quilt, but one of my favorites.

Looking over my to-do quilting list from last week, I think I obviously made up the wrong list! But, thankfully, I did get a few new things moving along!

First, a dear friend’s birthday is Wednesday. I saw a cute little quilt on Marie’s Quilts that included quilt piecing around a cross stitched design. I started with the butterfly scene stitched by my Mom.

Last year, sadly, my mother became a permanent resident of the dementia unit at the retirement home where my parents have lived for the past 10+ years. We are thankful for the good care she is receiving and that Dad can visit her everyday. Sis and I helped Dad with some cleaning out and downsizing. I brought home some of my mother’s cross stitching & needle work. When I saw Maria’s post of how she put together her needle work and quilting, I knew that was what I wanted to do with some of my mother’s pieces. Please follow the link above to see Maria’s gorgeous Home Sweet Home quilt!

I’ll be gifting this to my friend who loves pinks, purples, and butterflies. Since the butterfly needle work did not have pink or purple, I added appliqué flowers in a range of pinks. I made and added a 3-D butterfly, and appliquéd some orange butterflies in keeping with the needle work. I hope it all works together. Quilted, but still needs a binding.

Close up of 3-D butterfly.

Next, not on my to-do list, is a table runner for my Daughter-in-law. She & fam will be visiting for Thanksgiving and staying through the weekend. Friday is her birthday. Making a table runner as a birthday gift was added to the list! She had asked if I would make a runner for to protect her cedar chest that is placed at the end of their bed. Grand daughter, 2 years old, climbs up on the chest to then climb up on the bed.

Leftover blocks came in handy for this runner. Pieced and basted, and quilting started today. I’m thankful I have one more day to work on it before they arrive from out of town!

I wish you many thankful days and many blessings for you and yours!

How did I do on last week’s To-Do List?

1. Continue with stitching petal units for the Chic Country quilt top. ✗
2. New commission – 5 polo shirts to be made into pillows. ✔️ Pillows completed and ready to be delivered.
3. Squeeze in some quilting on the queen size quilt. ✗

To-Do Tuesday List for this week:

1. Quilt, bind and gift table runner.
2. Bind butterfly quilt to gift next Thursday
3. Enjoy Thanksgiving with family & friends!

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.

This is what is on my kitchen table right now.

I’m sharing it just because I don’t have much else to share in this post.

This week I did piece more Chic Country petal units, but a picture would be similar to the ones posted the past few weeks. So I won’t bore you with that.

Also this week, I free motion quilted another little quilt a friend made for one of her grand children.

Cute bears outlined, meandering & loops, hearts in the border.

And a star in the star blocks.

I never got over the fear of spray basting the queen size quilt. So, today I took the quilt to a friend’s studio. She let me load it on her longarm where I basted it with large circles. It is added to my To-Be-Quilted List, hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze in time over the next two weeks to work on it. This is the largest quilt to date that I will attempt to quilt on my Baby Lock Tiara III. Wish me luck!  I’ll post photos as I progress with it, but believe me, the basting today is not photo worthy!

What is the largest quilt you have completed on your home machine?

How did I do on last week’s To-Do List?

1. Chugging along on the Chic Country quilt top. ✔️ More petals completed.
2. FMQ next quilt top my friend has asked me to quilt.  ✔️Finished. I have 2 more to do for her.
3. Hopefully spray baste the quilt for my son and DIL later this week when weather clears up.  ✔️ NOT spray basted, but I took it to a friend’s house and loaded it on her longarm. I basted large circles. Now to FMQ on my sit-down Tiara III.

To-Do Tuesday List for this week:

1. Continue with stitching petal units for the Chic Country quilt top.
2. New commission – 5 polo shirts to be made into pillows.
3. Squeeze in some quilting on the queen size quilt.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.

10 more sets of alternate block petals. That’s 14 sets total and 26 more to go. I hope to finish these sets this week, and move on to piecing them into blocks.  The pattern is Chic Country by Sew Kind of Wonderful.

Above is some FMQ I did for a friend.

How has your week been? Successful?

How did I do on last week’s To-Do List?

1. Keeping on with the Chic Country.  ✔️
2. Overcome my fear of basting a queen size quilt. ✗ I still have not spray basted this quilt, but my excuse this time is rainy weather kept me from spray basting the quilt outside.
3. FMQ a lap size quilt for a friend – she made the quilt, I’m quilting it. ✔️

To-Do Tuesday List for this week:

1. Chugging along on the Chic Country quilt top.
2. FMQ next quilt top my friend has asked me to quilt.
3. Hopefully spray baste the quilt for my son and DIL later this week when weather clears up.

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

I’m going to keep plugging away on the Chic Country quilt top.

I didn’t complete my October OMG, visit here if you’d like to read about October – Not a Finish.

9 blocks complete, and 72 more to go!

I’ve made a total of 160 petals, 4 make one block for a total of 40 blocks.

I have pieces cut for the 40 alternate blocks.

My goal will be to sew & trim the 160 alternate block petals.  Maybe I’ll have time to sew together a few more blocks, but that will not be part of my November OMG.

With Holiday sewing and prep for family gatherings, I’m hoping my OMG will be more realistic than last month.

Linking to OMG

Petals, petals and more petals!

Phew, all the petal units for what I’m calling the flowers of Chic Country are sewn together!

And all the pieces for the alternate blocks are cut!

With just 5 blocks sewn together, I have 75 more to go. Onward with piecing!

Be sure to follow the links below to see what other quilters are doing this week.

How did I do on last week’s To-Do List?

1. Sew sew sew blocks for Chic Country. ✔️ Half of the petals are sewn and all the the pieces for the next 80 alternate petals are cut.
2. Mail Ocean Theme quilt to Elliott.  ✔️Arrived safely!
3. I’m thinking of asking my friend if I may use her longarm to baste my son’s quilt. I’m overwhelmed at the thought of spray basting a queen size quilt.  ✗  My friend’s husband landed in the hospital with a bad infection from a dog bite/attach. So I have not asked about using the longarm.

To-Do Tuesday List for this week:

1. Keeping on with the Chic Country
2. Overcome my fear of basting a queen size quilt.
3. FMQ a lap size quilt for a friend – she made the quilt, I’m quilting it.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday and Linky Tuesday.

Perhaps I over committed for the month of October for the One Monthly Goal.

Photo from Sew Kind of Wonderful website of mini Chic Country.

Apparently this quilt top is going to take more like three months to complete as I also work on customer quilts and other plans for the month. I’m using the pattern for the 57″ square Chic Country making 80 – 9″ blocks. But I’m enlarging the quilt for a twin size bed 72″ x 90″.

5 blocks sewn together to test my skills for creating this pattern.

Plus this month I came down with bronchitis. That was at least a week of not doing anything but resting.

What did I accomplish on my OMG besides completing 5 blocks?

Half of the petals are sewn and trimmed for 40 blocks.

All the pieces for the 40 alternate blocks are cut.

That’s it. Sigh. So on to November with a continued OMG in making Chic Country.