Five Shadows

Just in time for Christmas, I have three finishes this past week.

One was a rush t-shirt job for a customer. She had the shirts all prepped, so I only had to do the piecing with sashing. Then it went to the longarm quilter and back to me for binding. She picked it up Sunday and was pleased with the results. I was pleased to make a little extra cash right before Christmas!

The second finish is the quilt I’ve slowly pieced over the past 2 years. I only worked on it at my monthly quilting group – the Timeless Tradition quilt. This past week I did the quilting on a friend’s longarm. It was so nice of her to volunteer the use of her machine for the quilting.  I’m more used to sitdown quilting on my domestic machine, so it was a totally different feel using the longarm. Completely different process too, other than pulling the bobbin thread up to the top when starting to quilt! The quilt is in the mail to be gifted to my brother and sister in law for Christmas!

And, I’m so pleased that I kept with my goal of using fabrics from my stash for Timeless Tradition! Even the border, back and binding, all from my stash!

The third is a little quilt made from a panel that I added HSTs to the sides making it large enough for a wheelchair lap quilt. It is in the mail as a gift for my mother.

I’ve added on more project to my Christmas to-do list! Crazy right? I wanted to make a little something for my daughter in law’s parent’s as they will be visiting from Arizona. After talking my ideas over with my daughter in law, we settled on a Christmas themed pillow. I just happened to have an orphan Wreath block that I am turning into a pillow. Next up – making red piping for the trim. Then I have grocery shopping and a little prep for our Christmas meals.

I’m feeling relaxed and in control. How about you? Are your Christmas & Holiday plans coming together with out all the crazy stress? I hope so!

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

1. Piece new t-shirt quilt ✔️ Pieced, quilted, bound, and returned to owner!
2. Keep plugging away on Timeless Tradition appliqués. Hopefully get to borders. ✔️Completed, boxed and mailed today!
3. Find that flannel for the pj bottoms! ✗  I might need to buy new fabric.

To-Do Tuesday List for this week:

1. Finish a pillow to gift Christmas morning. Should be doable because I found an orphan Wreath block to use for the pillow top!
2. Grocery shopping for Christmas day eats.
3. Enjoy Christmas Eve with church family, and Christmas day with family!

Merry Christmas everyone!

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

Last week, while being sidetracked from my to-do list, I made up a spreadsheet of the quilt tops I’ve completed over the past year. Some were WIP, Works in Progress from previous years. Some were new quilts, and others are from One Block Wonders BOM, Block of the Month, I joined for this year. I’m pleased to say, I got the tops all measured, batting all cut, and even some have backs and binding ready! The large tops I placed on hangers and they are neatly stored in my sewing room closet.

While organizing the tops, I came across the cute May Blossoms table runner I made back in the Spring while participating in the One Block Wonders BOM. I allowed myself to be sidetracked once again to finish the table runner instead of sandwiching and quilting the Christmas Tree Skirt, which is what I should have been completing.

When I set aside the May Blossoms table runner, the top was pieced and appliqué fused in place.

This past week, I blanket stitched the appliqué, sandwiched, and started the quilting.

Shucks, its not done, but well on the way.

If you are interested, Sandy of Upstairs Hobby Room has 8 of the 12 One Block Wonders patterns listed on Craftsy. She plans on posting all 12 patterns soon. For the BOM, Sandy provided instructions for one pieced block each month. Then we used the block design anyway we wanted. For May I added stems, leaves, and buds to make the table runner. I pieced 3 blocks for each end of the runner to be form a flower.  Sandy is now has expanding the instructions to make full size quilts, available on Craftsy.

At my Thursday Curvy Quilters sewing day, I worked on piecing star points on to pieced and appliquéd blocks for the Timeless Tradition BOM.

Oh, and I selected, prep, cut appliqué pieces and fused the pieces in place for 4 blocks before going to Thursday’s sewing.

I’m using all fabrics – so far – from my stash for the Timeless Tradition quilt and I’m liking how it is turning out. Using from my stash was just a little challenge I decided to try. So far so good!

This weekend we have out-of-town family coming for a visit. That means I need to do a little sprucing up of guest rooms. I’m looking forward to spending time with them!

One of the quilting Facebook groups I follow posted this today: Quilting makes me feel ______. How would you fill in that blank? I’m feeling accomplished right about now!

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

1. Piecing star points on BOM Timeless Tradition blocks. ✔️
2. Select, prep, cut appliqué pieces for 4 blocks of Timeless Traditions BOM. ✔️
3. Sandwich and quilt Christmas tree skirt. ✗
4. Purchase November’s Machine Quilting Block Party pattern. ✔️

To-Do List Tuesday for this week:

1. Sandwich and quilt Christmas tree skirt!
2. Finish quilting May Blossoms table runner.
3. Continue piecing Timeless Tradition quilt top.
4. Enjoy family visiting this weekend.

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

I got sidetracked this week with my quilting plans! I was going to pull out the huge roll of batting to cut it for the tree skirt. I hate pulling it out, unrolling it and cutting it.

So I thought, what if I measure all the tops I have waiting to be quilted* and cut batting for each while I have the batting out. That would save me some time by not having to pull it out multiple times, right? So I started measuring the tops, and then decided to create a chart to catalog tops, backs and batting size needed, all for easy reference.

 

Then I got sidetracked from THAT! Because, I decided to measure out some fabric for a few backs too.

Besides that lovely idea, I am working on a WIP (work in progress) BOM (block of the month) Timeless Tradition – started in the winter of 2015. I dropped out of the group, but since I’m making the quilt at the request of my brother, I do need to finish it. My goal is have it ready to gift for Christmas 2016. So, back to being sidetracked. In my stash, I found a fabric that would be great for the star points of the BOM. But it would also be great for a back of another quilt. See where this is going? I stopped measuring the quilt tops and looking for backs and switched to focus on which fabrics to use for star points and which to use for the back. After more digging in the stash, I selected the fabrics and even cut out the star points. (I plan on taking that project to this Thursday’s Curvy Quilters sewing day. So actually, that was not time wasted. See how this noggin works?)

The deep blue triangles and burgundy triangles (above) will be star points on some of the blocks for the Timeless Traditions BOM.

Now my handy Tops to be Quilted chart is organized with nine quilts listed. I still have table toppers to list. In a way, I’m actually ahead, because this is something I planned to do before the New Year, 2017. *I have saved these tops because I’m determined to quilt them myself on my domestic machine instead of sending them to the longarm quilter. 2017 is going to be my year to concentrate on  improving in free motion quilting, walking foot quilting, and maybe even learn some ruler ‘play’ quilting.

One of my goals from last week was to mark and quilt the October block for Leah Day’s Machine Quilting Block Party. I did accomplish that!

There are two more months and blocks to this BOM. Leah has already shared how to connect the blocks with her Quilt-as-You-Go method. It might be January before I start that process.

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

1. Mark and quilt block for Oct Machine Quilting Block Party. ✔️
2. Complete Christmas tree skirt, sandwich and quilt. ✗ top completed, but still need to sandwich and quilt

To-Do List Tuesday for this week:

1. Piecing star points on BOM Timeless Tradition blocks.
2. Select, prep, cut appliqué pieces for 4 blocks of Timeless Traditions BOM.
3. Sandwich and quilt Christmas tree skirt.
4. Purchase November’s Machine Quilting Block Party pattern.

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

One of my goals for this past week was appliquéing 3 monkeys on top of a pieced baby quilt. I’m happy to say I got those completed.

Or so I thought! Do you see what is missing!? The mouth! My son noticed it while taking pictures for me and pointed it out!

I also appliquéd the baby’s name on to the quilt.

I was just about to sandwich the quilt when I remembered I needed to add the baby’s name! I used the font Arial Rounded at 425 points for the lettering (but I took the little curl off the bottom of the ‘t’.) Where was my brain while working on this project? No monkey mouths and almost no baby name! I’ll go back and add the mouths to the three monkeys. Then I’ll finally be ready for some FMQ.

Thursday, I hosted my quilting group. At which time I stitched up the last 4 pieced blocks for the Timeless Tradition BOM. I’m using fabrics from my stash and making it very scrappy. Each month there are two 6″ blocks and one 12″ block to make. But there was an extra 12″ block this month, so I decided to use yet another set of fabrics for it. I think this last block is my favorite, the cream, red and green block. I like how the pieces are intertwining around the center square.

There are 4 appliqué blocks to make for the Timeless Tradition BOM. Then the setting triangles. I’d love to have this quilt completed in time for Christmas, it will be interesting to see how fitting it in goes with everything else I’d like to accomplish.

Last Christmas my daughter asked if I would make a Christmas tree skirt for 2016. Of course I said yes! I inquired as to what style she was picturing and also what colors. We looked at lots of patterns on line, and I dug out a few I already owned. She selected Tula Pink’s Moxie pattern that IS NOT a tree skirt, but should work well with some modifications.

I was lucky in that a local quilt shop had their Christmas fabrics 50% off between Christmas last year and New Year’s Day. Only thing was that I had to buy one yard pieces. The pattern calls for fat quarters, so I have enough fabric to make 4 tree skirts! I’m making 2, and will figure out another project with the rest of the fabrics. My daughter selected golds and cream prints for the skirt. This past week I cut out the fabric and my plan is to have it finished by Thanksgiving. That way she will have it for decorating this upcoming Holiday Season.

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

1. Appliqué monkeys on to baby quilt. ✔️
2. Sandwich baby quilt and begin FMQ. ✔️ oops! add those mouths then FMQ.
3. Select fabric and piece next set of Timeless Tradition BOM. ✔️
4. Select fabrics for Oct Machine Quilt Block Party block. ✗ Nope, didn’t get to that.

Tuesday To-Do List for this week:

1. FMQ and bind baby quilt.
2. Select fabrics & sew Oct Machine Quilt Block Party block.
3. Christmas tree skirt.

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