Five Shadows

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?

Block 12!

Almost complete! The blocks with sashing are sewn together. Today I’ll work on the borders.

Picture to follow!

I’m linking up to Connie’s Linky Tuesday over at Freemotion by the River

My daughter and I signed up for a re-upholstery class. It started September 15th. We are half way through the class now, 5 more weeks, meeting one evening a week. Here I am at the first class, just starting to pull out tacks and staples. It took me two classes to get it all pulled apart. My daughter is doing a wing-backed chair and it took her 4 weeks to pull it all apart with my help! I tell you what! Pulling staples is hard work! At least for me! My hands would be so sore the next day!  Tonight I retied the springs in the bottom of the chair. That was even harder on the hands! They hurt so much right now and I just got home from class. I hope they won’t be hurting like this tomorrow.

Earlier today, I started two new things. A tote, using Quilts Illustrated pattern Charm Party Tote. I’m modifying it by adding a zipper. Here is one side with the charms sewn together. I did a simple meandering stitch.

This morning while reading the blogs I follow, Amy of 13 Spools announced she will be hosting a Feather Quiltalong featuring Angela Walter’s Free-motion Quilting with Feathers Craftsy Class.  That class has been on my wish list, so I went and looked at it again. I pondered if I should take yet another Craftsy class -how many Craftsy classes are too many? I considered all the other projects I have going, or at least started. I went back and looked at Amy’s post again and read the comments. Then I thought about the tote I’m working on and decided a feather would look nice on it for the quilting. So, I took the plunge and signed up for Angela’s Craftsy Class and then went back and left a comment on Amy’s blog. I watched a few of Angela’s lessons while eating lunch, and then I jumped right in and quilted my first ever feather on one side of the Charm Party Tote.

That makes my second new thing for the day free-motion feathers. It’s not perfect, but it was fun! I’m showing the batting side because you really can’t even see it that well on the Charm side, the thread blends in well. My Charm Party Tote will be meandered on one side and feather quilted on the other side. More fun, right?!

Have you signed up for any Craftsy Classes? If so, how many?  This Feather class makes 20 for me. Several are free ones, and I do try to buy when they are on sale. Luckily for me Angela’s was on sale today!

I’m linking up to Connie’s Linky Tuesday over at Freemotion by the River.

Last week two of my daughters and I traveled back east to Pennsylvania to visit my parents.

Phew! The charity quilt tops are complete! No pictures yet, though.

Since I felt like the charity quilts are now under control I went back to working on the baby quilts! I had two already quilted, so this weekend I attached the flange binding.

Here is my favorite baby quilt so far:

I love the bubble fabric! The back (sorry no picture) is a Batik River Otter Print. I used the walking foot to quilt the spiral, using the guide bar set at 1″.

Here is a close up of one of the 9″ pieced blocks:

This next quilt was inspired by the theme fabric – line drawn animals, butterflies, and leaves. I wanted to show off the fabric, so just put a pieced border around it. Then I thought it needed another border in the theme fabric to set the pieced border off. I quilted straight lines using Jacquie Gering’s Echoing In lesson from her Walking Foot Craftsy Class.  The spiral idea is from Jacquie’s class too. I’m loving her class!

Close up:

Linking up to Linky Tuesday over at Freemotion by the River!

Oh dear! I’m so very late! I signed up to make some charity quilts and I thought I had until the end of October, but I found out Saturday that they are due by September 30th! Oh no! I was a month off! I am usually not a procrastinator, but this time I have really messed up. That means I have put the babies quilts on the back burner, once again, sigh, and have amped up the charity quilt production. No pictures yet!

And just because that is not enough to be doing, I’m going to be teaching 3 classes at Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe in Roanoke, IN this Fall! Tee hee! So excited about that!

Toes in the Sand Quilt Top.  The Pattern is by Jaybird Quilts and uses the Hex N More Ruler. I love love love this ruler. We have kits made up in Batiks, or gals can buy their own color way. This will be a 2 part class to learn cutting with the ruler and machine piecing the shapes (hexies, half hexies, diamonds, and triangles) and will included some in-set seams.

Charm Party Tote by Quilts Illustrated. This nice sized tote is constructed from a favorite charm pack.

Beginning garment sewing – easy PJ bottoms. Flannel and an easy drawstring casing.

I’m linking up to Freemotion by the River Linky Tuesday.

I finished up two more baby quilt tops over the weekend. The first is a print with drawn cats, dogs, chickens, butterflies, and flowers. The back and binding will be a turquoise stripe.

The next one is a bubble print and the back is going to be a Batik otter print. This top is my new favorite!

Wednesday, August 27, another little babe joined our extended family. He was a bit early, but is doing well, still in NICU. That means I am still 2 quilts behind. I plan to make a receiving blanket for him  first and then a quilt will be added to that list I just can’t seem to reach the end of! I’ll pick up fabric Thursday from Fabrics and Friends Quilt Shoppe in Roanoke, IN. His name is Jonah, and I know just what fabric I want and how I’ll use it!

I’m linking up with Connie over at Freemotion Quilting by the River Linky Tuesday.

The rest of the week I’ll be quilting up some of these baby quilt tops!

Oh my! I’m so late it is embarrassing! My intention was to make quilts for my nephews and nieces as they had their babies. And even though I have started several quilts with the plan of presenting the quilt to the parents while their baby was still a newborn – I am, oh, let’s say up to 3 years behind on some of these quilts! But with another wave of babies due, including my first grand baby! I’m making an effort at finishing up 9 quilts in the next 3 weeks! One is complete, and 4 tops are ready to sandwich, and one top is in progress. Another one is planned with fabric ready to be cut. I have 2 more on the drawing board, does that leave me only one short? Hope so!

I’ve decided to go with simple pieced tops to get ‘em done! I’m using what I think will be theme fabric that the family will understand why I put it in their baby’s quilt. The zigzag here is my new favorite ‘solid’ – Grunge by Moda. Polar bears and penguins on the back.

The back for this top will be a different polar bear print.

Simple wedge piecing using a variety of purple and pinks from my stash to coordinate with Alexander Henry Just Hanging print for the back. I’ll show the backs to the quilts once quilted.

This is the oldest quilt top that for some reason just got lost in the shuffle and the baby is (gasp) now three!

Another quilt top that lost its way and will soon be going to a 2 year old grand-niece.

I’ve been listening to Stephanie over at Modern Sewciety while sewing. Have you listened to any of her podcasts? I’m really enjoying them!

I’m linking to Connie’s Linky Tuesday over at Freemotion by the River. Lots of gals are linking up! Go check them out!