Five Shadows

This is my one finish for the month of May with OPAM sponsored Peg and Kris. This is a year long challenge to finish at least one project a month and then post it  on your blog. Of course if you are making more than one project a month, you share those as well. I’ve had a very slow month.

I bought this pattern from vendor Kaye Moore, while at the International Quilt Festival, Chicago, in April.

I changed it up just a bit by hand stitching yo-yo hearts to the background fabric and free motion stitching the saying.

I really love how this turned out! I am not a hand embroiderer, so I’m very tickled by my attempt at those french knots! This was playing and I hope to do more, learning hand embroidery!  The idea to free motion machine stitch the saying came from Rebecca Sower’s red thread sessions. Altho I have done free motion quilting, I’d never done free motion writing, but once I saw Rebecca’s session # 3, I knew that was how I would apply the saying for this project. (Thanks for the inspiration Rebecca!) And the last bit about this piece is the fabric is all from a swap/challenge hosted by Melissa of Ardea’s Nest. 8 of us swapped fabric and then use a piece of each of the fabrics in one project. I used the fabrics to make the heart yo-yos. Thanks for hosting the sawp/challenge Melissa! It was fun being a part of it and I’m just plain-o tickled with my piece!

And, I just kept playing with the hearts – this piece is not finished yet. I know, I need to learn some other embroidery stitches.

(Photography by Noel Schutt. Thanks son!)

But sorry, no photos to show. I hate excues, but here I go: PROM!!!!  I’m the coordinator this year and all this week has been nothing but getting everything finalized and squared away for the Prom tomorrow night!

I’ll leave you with this one teaser. This is step one of a three step ‘follow me blind’ challenge.

Actually, as a little quiltie, I could count this as a finish as is!

Hoping tomorrow I’ll have my finished work to show you!

I have a big ZERO completed for March for the One Project a Month. Oh well. But I have been working on other projects. That means sometime this year I’ll have several completed quilts. Maybe I should just plan a few small projects a month so as to have something completed to show when the end of the month rolls around!

The is a sneak peak of an idea I’m playing with for a quilt challenge. Three Creative Studios: Passage.

The are a few of the many blocks my daughter has sewn for a bed size quilt she is working on. She is being very diligent!

I had five finishes for February and you can tell I’m running behind as I post about them in March! One bed size quilt, three journal totes, and one small quilt.

Here is the quilt I started in December all complete with a proper binding. My 14 year old asked who the quilt would be for when complete, and this quilt was one I was just making for  the fun of it. No plans on who would be gifted with it! So Dear Daughter claimed it!  It did my little heart good to know that she was ‘taken’ by the quilt and looked forward to it being completed and on her bed!

This is a double size quilt and coordinates with two pillows I also made. The photos of the pillows are much more accurate color wise.

I told Dear Daughter, if she got her room cleaned up – we could take a picture with the quilt and pillows on her bed! Ha ha! I don’t think I see that posted too soon!

Other finishes for February was the 3 Creative Studios Quilt Challenge quilt. Make a quilt using the word ‘puzzle’ as a prompt. See that quilt here. And the journals totes are here.

Here are three more totes I’ve created for my quilting friends. That makes 4 down and 4 to go! The first is for my friend Mary. The picture is of Mary with her sister in a red Radio Flyer Wagon from their childhood. Mary loves to travel so that is the theme I aimed for on the journal tote cover. I used two small pieces of fabric printed with maps that I had saved in my scrap pile. I hope Mary has fun on her travels!

Next is a bird house theme for my friend who has her kitchen decorated with birds and birdhouses. I picked up the little bird on the birdbath during a shop hop last summer in Ohio.

This girly version is for a friend who is all things pink, purple and feminine. She recently moved to SC and I hope  this friendship theme suits her.

These three totes make three finishes for OPAM so far for February. I have a quilt that is almost complete. I’m working on hand stitching down the binding. Here is a snick peek. I’ll show the whole quilt once it’s complete!

This weekend I’m off to a quilting retreat! I’ll be teaching a few projects using strip quilting. And a friend will be teaching the above quilt and another version of it. I hope to take pictures to show all the goodness of the weekend – - but I’ll warn you that I usually forget to take pictures while I’m busy sewing!

As posted earlier, I’ve joined the group One Project a Month (OPAM) as incentive to myself to create and blog about it. I have two new projects to show so far for January.

This is called Wonky Half Log Cabin Pillow, from a tutorial on Jacquie Gering’s blog,  Tallgrass Prairie Studio.  (Jadquie has lots of tutorials available, and I must say, this one was very well written! It’s the only one I’ve used so far.) I love this design! I made a quilt similar to this years ago and donated it to an auction. Years ago as in before my blog existed! This pillow is for my daughter. I have a Chevron quilt in progress for her, and used the left over strips for the pillow.

This is the front cover to a little tote that opens like a book. I made this as a gift for the OWOH project that starts January 25. Come back to my blog on the Jan 25 – Feb 15 for a chance to win it! The design could also be altered to create a journal cover – I’m thinking of future projects here.

I can’t count this one for OPAM, because I finished in back in July. That was when I planned on being busy making Christmas gifts for 2009 – my personal Christmas-In-July-Sewing-Event! But this is the only one I completed! LOL I still plan to send it to my MIL as a thank-you for the Christmas gifts she sent our family. I think the snowmen can be displayed throughout the winter season.  It is small, 8″ across, and I think could be used as a candle mat, coffee mat or just a decoration. And if it gets used as a pot holder – I’m OK with that too!

There is a link on the side bar to OPAM if you are interested in seeing what the other 199 ladies are working on this year!  And do check out Lisa’s OWOH Event to join in the blog hopping to see what hundreds of other creative people are up to and consider joining too! All the rules are posted on the event page.

I saw the badge for OPAM, One Project a Month, on Melissa’s blog. And I got to thinking – I could do this – I have a long list of WISP, Works in Slooooooow Progress! – I have another list of projects I’d like to complete this year – I have a list of projects I’ve unearthed as I moved and organized my ‘space.’ So, I took the jump and signed up! It is all for fun. A kind of motivation to complete projects. Hosted by Kris and Peg. Read all about it on their blogs or the OPAM blog.