Five Shadows

Last year I saw the quilt on the cover of Sue Pelland’s book Hearts and More displayed at a local quilt shop. Having promised a quilt to my son, Noel and his wife, Alicia, I thought this quilt would be something they would like. They stopped by the shop to look at the quilt and loved it.

I bought the book, templates & fabric the quilt shop had kitted for the Clam Shell quilt.

Hearts and More book by Sue Pelland.

I’ve not started that quilt yet! Honestly, I don’t think that’s a big deal as they have spent the last year gutting and remodeling their almost 100 year old house. No reason to have a new quilt in all that mess! Actually, they stayed with us during most of the dirty demo. Plus, most of their house hold items have been stored in our basement and garage for the past year. As rooms are completed, items have been moved back into their house.

It’s time. I want to finish the quilt by the end of this year, if not sooner!

For August, my goal will be learning to use Sue Pelland’s Hearts and More Templates.

Plus I don’t want to do raw edge appliqué, so there will be some tweaking of the pattern on my part. Oh, and I need to enlarge the quilt for their queen size bed. Not too many changes to conquer, right!?

August goal – start Clam Shell quilt for my son and DILove! The center of the quilt is made up of Drunkard’s Path blocks. That is where I’m starting.

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

My OMG for July was finishing up two baby quilts I’m calling Splash.

Moda Slice precut solids triangles and pattern. I cut the triangles in half to make 2 smaller quilts. Then followed the pattern for piecing layout, but added my own appliqué, omitting the anchor.

Top before appliqué is added. (I made 2 identical tops.)

Appliqué pieces: baby whale, mother whale tail, scuba diver.

Fabric selected for the two quilt backs.

Scuba diver applique.

Quilted and bound.

Close up of baby whale.

Quilting around scuba diver.

Quilting, I hope it looks like ocean currents. Back. Flange binding.

The quilts measure 46″ x 51″  Quilted with Superior Thread King Tut #1031 Edwardian Blue, 50 weight.

All done! All happy!

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

My goal for June was to finish the Color Me Happy Triangle quilt, and make progress on two Splash quilts. I did finish the triangle quilt and almost got to sandwiching the Splash quilts.

My goal for July will be to complete the two Splash quilts.

Blocks pieced and trimmed.

Appliqué pieces are prepped. I’m not using the anchor that came with the pattern, switching it up.

Top pieced.

Appliqué blanket stitched in place.

Time to piece the backs, sandwich, and get busy quilting these two quilts. That and binding the quilts will be my goal for July.

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

During the month of June, I’ve focused on finishing at least one baby quilt, and making progress on a few more.

It’s been a good month for meeting my main goal – finishing a baby quilt for my niece’s new little girl.

I did a curvy line stitch for the quilting using the walking foot.

Close up, and also two solid pink fabrics for a flange binding.

A flower motif for the center of the quilt.

Oh, plus while quilting, I decided to rip out the plain white corners and replace with printed fabric triangles.

Before quilting, and ripping out corners.

Quilted, bound, washed, labeled and ready to gift.

Two Splash quilts are well under way for two little boy quilts.

Blocks are pieced

and trimmed. Tops are actually pieced waiting for appliqué to be added.

Finishing these two quilts will be July’s OMG.

Linking to Patty’s One Monthly Goal. Thank you Patty for hosting the linky party!

I have several baby quilts in the making.

This one needs a back which I plan to shop for, then sandwich, quilt & bind – my goal for this month.

Several years ago, Moda offered 10″ triangle precuts they called Slice.  Apparently they didn’t sell well as they are no longer available. I had purchased 2 packs of Color Me Happy by V and Co. For this baby quilt, I cut some of the triangles in half, paired they up with tone on tone whites I had in my stash. The top measures 48″ square.

I also had in my stash a pack of Slice in Moda solids. It came with a pattern called Splash for a 72″ x 78″ quilt.

Again, I’ve cut the triangles in half and will make 2 quilts 48″ x 54″. I’ve stitched up the flying geese, but need the back ground fabric to finish. I might add a whale instead of the anchor.

For June OMG, I plan on finishing the Color Me Happy triangle quilt. If I make any progress on the two Splash quilts, that will be a bonus!

Linking to OMG hosted by Patty of Elm Street Quilts. Thanks Patty for this fun monthly link-up party!

Go take a look to join up, or see what other quilters are up to this month!

The Curve It Up quilt I pieced, I believe back in 2015 is now all quilted! That means I did meet my OMG for May!

Here it is on a queen size bed, in a very sparse bedroom. My youngest moved out the beginning of March. This room is in transition to be a guest room. For close up of blocks go here, and here.

For the quilting in the large 12″ wide outer yellow border, I went with following the quilting lines of the inner turquoise border. Circles were added for more interest. Next I planned to match stick quilt out to the edge of the quilt top.

I started match stitch quilting on one corner.  That is 7″ worth on both sides. That is slow going! And I quickly decided I needed a new plan!

New idea – do another set of lines following the turquoise border, and then mirror them adding the circles in the outer set of lines.

Next – what to do at the corners?

Following the lines on either side of the match stick quilting, I quilted the curves and added one row of circles. My daughter, mentioned above, visited yesterday and she said the corners looks like the sun. I’ll go with that! Especially since this is such a bright quilt with white, blue, turquoise and yellow!

Next decision was how to  quilt the corners of the top border as it is narrower at just 6″ wide.

Instead of curves this time, the first two sets of straight lines meet and continue around the quilt. The next two sets I just quilted to the edge of the quilt.

This quilt is a Sew Kind of Wonderful Pattern called Curve It Up, and uses their Quick Curve Ruler for cutting pieces. I used their quilting rulers QCR Sidekick for the curved and straight quilting lines. That pattern makes a 68″ x 86″ quilt, but with the wide yellow borders added at 12″ on three sides and 6″ wide on the top, the quilt is 92″ x 104″. Thread for quilting – Superior Threads King Tut 40 weight – #1031 Edwardian Blue, #927 De Nile Variegated Aqua, #985 Shekels Variegated Yellow, Aurifil 50 weight #2021 Natural White. Aurifil #2021 in bobbin.

The fabric I want to use for the binding is the dark blue Moda Grunge that is used in the second border. My LQS is out of that Grunge! It is ordered, and should arrive late June. I’ll have to be patient and wait for the fabric to finish up this quilt with a nice binding!

Linking to One Monthly Goal hosted by Patty of Elm Street Quilts. Thank you Patty for hosting!

I was so close at completing my April goal, but then my machine did all the acting up you don’t want to see. Threads breaking, tension problems, eye lashes on bottom, tight stitches on top. I cleaned & oiled the machine, changed out the needle, rethreaded everything several times, replaced the bobbin, filled a new bobbin, changed out top thread. And it just got worse. This went on for 2 frustrating days.What was I missing? Finally I just walked away.

Several days later, I go tackle the problem again. Rethread everything again, put in a new needle again, work with top and bobbin tension again, and tada! It is finally running smoothly after an hour or so of fiddling! I have no idea what exactly was the issue with the machine, I’m just glad it finally cooperated!

My May goal will be to finish quilting  Curve It Up, pattern by Sew Kind of Wonderful.

Here are some close ups of a few blocks -

Rail Fence

Churn Dash

Saw Tooth Star. Blocks are 16″ square.

What’s left to quilt is the Saw Tooth Star above, sashing, and 3 borders.

Sure hope the machine is happy this month!

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

Here’s my plan for April. I pulled out an oldie.

I made this quilt as a class sample back in 2014 using the Curve it Up book by Sew Kind of Wonderful. I never quilted it. Back in January 2019 my sister-in-law said she would love another quilt from me. So I showed her some finished tops. She selected this white, blue and yellow Curve it Up top saying it would like nice in her guest bedroom which is painted yellow. She wanted it to fit a queen size bed, so she purchased the marbled yellow for an outer border.

So now you see how far behind I am in finishing this quilt for her! I just keep letting other things hop in front of it. I better stop doing that and get ‘er done!

When I pulled the partially quilted top out, I found I have quilted just 3 1/2 blocks. Above is the 4-patch block with only 2 sections quilted. I have a ways to go!

Wish me luck! And creativity for how to quilt each block!

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

In 2019, I followed along with Jacquelynne Steves, Happy Little Things BOM. I choose to use hand embroidery for the flower in the center of each block. I used scrap whites for background fabrics for the flowers.

The rest of the quilt was pieced using a Fat Eight pack of Carolyn Friedlander’s Friendlander line of fabric. This was purchased from Crimson Tate quilt shop in Indianapolis, IN. Finishing this quilt was my OMG for March.

Scrappy binding using up bits of the fabric pack.

The back is pieced from the fabric pack too!

Quilt measures 30″ x 36 1/2″.

It’s my new Spring quilt hanging in my living room.

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

Hello fellow OMGers!

First up, I did finish my February goal of completing the piecing of my version of Happy Little Things, but I didn’t get a post written. The top is pieced, the back is pieced, it’s sandwiched and quilting started! That means I completed more than just my OMG. Ha ha, but like I said, no post.

For March I’ll finish quilting HLT and binding it.

Oh! I already made a scrappy binding!

And the back is scrappy too.

I’m using up most of the Fat Eighth pack. I do have some bits and pieces left and 3 Fat Eighths I didn’t include in the quilt. They might show up in some quilt some time in the future.

What is your goal for the month?

Linking to One Monthly Goal hosted by Elm Street Quilts.