Five Shadows

The Dance of the Dragonflies is getting there, but not done yet! I picked out the fabric for the borders, but have not gotten to any cutting or piecing on the project this past week. I did get all the little curves stitched down. This is a pattern by Annette Ornelas of Southwind Designs.

Above photo shows the Dragonfly pieced on the left, and curved stitching on the right.

In above photo you see all the dragonflies set together waiting for sashing and borders. Hopefully the wait will end this week!

Moving on to Rick Rack! Have you made binding with the Rick Rack method? The Rick Rack is sewn down the center of the binding, press binding in half, then sew to the back of the quilt. When you turn the binding to the front of the quilt, the Rick Rack now shows on the front and you stitch in the ditch between the it and the binding.

Above photo shows 2 pieces with Rick Rack Binding, next is a Flange Binding, and far right is a traditional binding.

Another work-in-progress is this Rectangle Tablerunner. I used Calypso Batiks and Moda Grunge. Bloc-Loc Ruler for squaring up, and a traditional binding because I thought the prints already had a lot going on with out adding a Flange or Rick Rack. I still have some hand stitching to complete the binding.

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

Happy Stitching Gals and Guys! And as you finish up a quilt this week, what type of Binding will you be using? Do you have a favorite?

Self-binding Baby Blankets are my current ‘go-to’ for baby showers.

Here are just a few, made from two coordinating flannels.

Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe just got in a shipment of Riley Blake Flannels. The top/right blanket are Riley Blake. The other 2 blankets are older prints, I don’t know the manufacturer.

Tomorrow is Featherweight Club at the quilt shop. Here are last month’s blocks.

The club meeting sneaks up on me ever month! I just made the blocks yesterday. So much for avoiding last minute to sewing!

Not photoed is the table runner I free motion quilted but still have the binding to tack down. And also the Dance of the Dragonflies is almost complete! I cut out the border pieces today. Pictures promised next time!

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

This week’s list will be binding the table runner and finish piecing Dance of the Dragonflies. I know, I listed them last week, but successfully worked on both, even tho not complete! I had forgotten about the Featherweight Club and then had a few baby blankets that needed to be made. That is life, right!?

Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe in Roanoke, IN carries part of the line of Bloc-Loc rulers. This week I’ve played with the rulers for Half Rectangle Triangles and also Half Square Triangles. These are handy little rulers that help with squaring up rectangles and squares for accurate piecing.

They are a bit pricey but, I do recommend adding them to your selection of quilting tools. I have found myself grabbing the ruler for HST often, as it is very useful for trimming multiple sizes of HST. I own the 5 1/2″ HST Ruler. This week I have added the 4 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ HRT set to my favorite tool list. I also want to purchase the set of Flying Geese rulers, as I have borrowed a friend’s. The Flying Geese rulers are useful for trimming other units than just geese too!

BTW, the little 4 1/2″ blocks in the photo are all made from the trimmings of the larger blocks I made. The large block is 16″ finished.

Previous To-Do List:  ✔︎Dance of the Dragonflies (pieced),  ✔︎cleaning out my sewing room (rearranged)

This weeks To-Do List:  Finish Dance of the Dragonflies, quilt table runner – pictures of both to follow.

I got together with a friend and played with Barbasol Shaving Cream and Fantast/x All Purpose Inks. Here are a few of our pieces -

Simply spray some Barbasol on to a plate. Add a few drops of the inks in different colors. Use a toothpick to swirl the inks around. Lay PFD fabric on top of the shaving cream and ink, lightly press until you see the colors coming through the fabric. Peel fabric up off of shaving cream, lay on flat service and wipe off shaving cream with an old credit card, ruler, or squeegee. Allow to dry and then heat set with a hot dry iron. Your fabric is now ready to use a a project!

I used the fabric to make these needle cases. Aren’t they cute!?

Cut your marbled fabric into 2- 3 1/2″ x 5″ rectangles. You will also need a thin piece of batting that size. Layer the fabrics right sides together and place the batting on top. If you want the ribbon ties, cut two pieces each 7″ long. Pin the ribbon between the two layers of marbled fabric at the ends with the ribbons in the sandwich, making sure not to catch the ribbon in any stitching other than on the two ends. Stitch 1/4″ around the four sides of the layered fabrics and batting, leaving about 2″ opening on one long side. Trim corners. Turn the needle case right sides out through the opening. Press the opening seam allowance in 1/4″ and then top stitch around the needle case 1/8″ from edge. Cut craft felt or wool felt about 1/4″ smaller than the needle case. I used a pinking rotary blade for a decorative edge. Line up felt in the center of the needle case and stitch through all thicknesses down the center of the case, which will be the spine of the needle case.

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and find time to play with some fabric marbling!

Have you ever used PFD (prepared for dyeing) fabric or inks? What did you make?

I’m linking to Stitch All The Things To-Do Tuesday.

This week I plan on working on Dance of the Dragonflies, and cleaning out my sewing room.

Jolene Star pattern by Laundry Basket Quilts.

I used a Rambling Rose Jelly Roll from Moda. Love the colors.

Pictured are the templates I’m playing with this week. There are some pretty funky shaped templates out in the quilting world!

I used to fear using templates, but lately, I am liking them. How about you, do you like using templates?

I’m a day late and a dollar short, but I’m linking up to Linky Tuesday and To-Do Tuesday.

My hopes for quilting this week are to finish a few blocks with the templates – rug mugs? And deliver the rest of the pillowcases I’ve made. Dare I mention the baby quilt now languishing in the corner patiently waiting for quilting? GOT to get to that!

Oh my, sometimes I just have to laugh at myself! Like when looking over my list for last week’s sewing. I forgot when coming up with the list that Easter was last weekend! Can I say “a little sewing might have gotten accomplished”??  :-)

Here is a picture of my darling 3 month old granddaughter, Lillah. Her momma, Kim, took the photo Easter morning.

And here is Lillah with her Grandpa, my hubby John, after Easter dinner at our house.

That was the only picture that I know of taken at our home Easter Sunday. Too bad as the whole family was over, we missed a good photo op time. We had a wonderful time together and a lovely afternoon walk in the warm NE Indiana weather.  All Lillah’s aunts had fun holding and cuddling with her. Grandma didn’t get much time with her tho. That’s OK as it was so nice having all our adult children home for our celebration, plus getting to see them interact with Lillah.

Sewing! I got the binding  and buttons sewn on Stitcher’s Garden. She’s all done now!

And I pieced  3 blocks for the Featherweight Club, meeting Wednesday, April 8th, at Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe, Roanoke, IN. I think they are so cute! The blocks and the machine! ha ha! The 12″ block – Windblown was a new one for me.

And here is the first block for the Curves without Piecing pattern: Dance of the Dragonflies. Actually two blocks. The first block shows what the piecing looks like before you go back and stitch the curves. The block on the right shows the finished block. Interesting process, a bit tedious. These are small 6″ blocks with out the sashing. But I do like the results, and I’m sure I’ll get quicker with the piecing now that I’m familiar with it.

This week I have a sewing date with friends and I plan on taking the Jolene Star and Sweet Mint patterns to work on. So those two are on my To-Do list for this week. I’ll save the baby quilt I never seem to get to until next week. At least the kitchen table where I spray baste baby quilts is all cleaned off, so I’ll have a better chance at getting to it soon! Fingers crossed!

Linking to  Freemotion by the River – Linky Tuesday and Stitch All The Things – To-do Tuesday.

More pillowcases! I’ve been having fun pairing up fabrics for the pillowcases. That task is more time consuming than the actual sewing them together. I think I’m just about at a stopping point. After I pair fabrics in my stash with the new Riley Blake Chevrons and Riley Blake Dots I just purchased from Craftsy, I’ll be moving on to other projects.

Pillowcases will be donated to ConKerr Cancer.

22 made this past week, 50 total this year

Last week I linked up to Stitch All The Things To-Do Tuesday List. It seems I’m having difficulty following my own list! Those baby quilts that need quilting? They have been left untouched. But all those pillowcases make up for something, right!?  Plus I get the Stitcher’s Garden quilt back from the longarm quilter – that was unexpected!  Of course binding that quilt went to the top of my list. I put a flange binding for it and returned it to the quilt shop. Oops! I’ll have to get it back for pictures.

My To-Do Tuesday list this week:

personal sewing goals: How about one baby quilt FMQed and bound? Featherweight Club – 3 blocks.

quilt shop sewing goals: Prep and sew one block (maybe more?) of Dance of the Dragonflies by Annette Ornelas. Continue working on the Laundry Basket Quilts Jolene Star table topper and a Sweet Mint table runner, patterns by Edyta Sitar.

I’m linking to Connie’s Linky Tuesday and Christine’s To-Do Tuesday

Do you have a favorite charity you sew for and donate to?

A friend and I started a Featherweight Club at Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe, Roanoke, IN where we both work part time. Check out the Facebook page to see Vicki’s lovely blocks.

Above are my first month blocks, using Timeless Tradition BOM by Bits ‘n Pieces. The Featherweight machine was purchased from blog friend, Vicki Welsh when she listed it on Ebay last year. I switched out that hot-burn-your-fingers light bulb to an LED bulb I found at Stitch All the Things. We put in a group order and Brad offers free shipping. If you happen to be searching for a better light bulb for your Featherweight, go to Brad.

I took advantage of Craftsy‘s recent sale for my Birthday!

I ordered the Free Spirit Box of 14 one yard cuts, Cotton + Steel Good Fortune Quilt Kit, some die cut hexes and layer cakes. When my order arrived it was missing the Free Spirit Box but came with a Robert Kaufman mystery box.  Oh my. NOT at all what I expected or wanted. But Craftsy was quick to fix the mistake and sent the Free Spirit Box and said I could keep the Robert Kaufman box.

Box on left – I didn’t order but got to keep in the mixup. The bright happy Free Spirit on the right is what I ordered and got in the second shipping. Only there were three one yard cuts of the same print in the Free Spirit box. Hmm. When I read the description, it seems to imply that there are 14 different one yard cuts per box.

This bird print is the one I got triplicate of. It is cute and I’ll use it in a baby quilt, so I’m not complaining, just saying I got 11 prints of 14 cuts. Maybe that is usual? Anyway, I was pleased with how Craftsy quickly correcting the shipping mistake. Plus they offered free shipping on my next order. I just ordered several more one yard cuts and some Auriful thread yesterday.

This the the Cotten + Steel kit. I love the bright colors and prints!

To-Do Tuesday List:

This week I have several baby quilts I want to FMQ and bind. And a pile of pillowcase pieces cut and ready to serge into pillowcases for ConKer Cancer.

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

Happy Quilting!

May I introduce you to Lillah June. My first grandbaby!

Family Smooch! on Lillah, the daughter of my son, Luke, and his lovely wife, Kimberly June.

Aunt Anna came up for a visit.

Lillah and me.

Lillah is all coos and smiles now. She is precious!

With Easter just around the corner, it is time to pull out the bunny patterns at Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe and demo a bit of machine appliqué.

Here is a cute little bunny in a tulip ready to share some Easter cheer.

The pattern is part of Blooming Bunnies by Eat Cake Graphics. I’ll be demoing Misty Fuse and decorative machine stitching using this bunny pattern Saturday, March 14th, at Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe, Roanoke, IN 10-4.

Spring also brings plans for the upcoming Row by Row Experience Shop Hop 2015!  And here is Fabrics and Friends Row. The theme this year is H2O. Fellow employee Vicki and I came up with this design:

dimensions are 8 1/2″ by 36 1/2″.  The Row by Row Experience begins June 21st and runs through September 8th. Each participating quilt shop creates and provides free patterns for their Row.  Kits available for purchase, and of course there will be prizes! Why not ask your favorite quilt shops if they are participating this year? It’s open to all quilt shops in the USA and Canada.