Five Shadows

What a week! Besides missing a trip to visit friends and attend a graduation party, with too much coughing and getting over the Covid sore throat, the week went pretty well. When I sat down to write this post, I realized I did way more quilting & sewing than I thought!

To-Do Tuesday, May 24, 2022

1. Finish Week 13 of EPP for Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden ✔️
2. Prep Week 14 EPP ✔️
3. Keep cutting up t-shirts. Buy the fusible I need for the quilt. ✔️
4. Stitch more shirts to aprons. ✔️
5. Get rid of this bug! ➞ Hope so! Retested negative for Covid!

1. Finished Week 13 of Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden

Once again I forgot to take a photo of the week’s rosettes before attaching it to the growing quilt. But Week 13 is completed and attached.

2. Prep Week 14 EPP

Week 14 not only prepped but sewn together and …

attached to the ever growing quilt. Weeks 1 – 14!

3. Prepping t-shirts for fusible.

T-Shirts cut up and woven fusible purchased. I’ve not used this fusible before, so hope it works well. The LQS will order a bolt for me if I like it!

4. Shirts to Aprons

One of Dad’s two Hawaiian shirts turned into an apron. With a pocket front and center.

5. Get over Covid – I tested negative! So that’s a plus! But I have a lingering cough that I’m so looking forward to getting over! Sore throat is a thing of the past too.

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I actually got back to template quilting with the Sew Steady Class The Next Steps Template Quilting with Donelle McAdams. Here are four blocks from Lesson three.

Finished, this block will be 12″ x 6″. Straight line quilting with the rulers I used. An appliqué will go on this block. I’ll get to that later.

12″ when finished HST pieced block with Orange Peel quilting using the curved edge of ruler shown.

12″ finished whole-clothe block using the Spin-D-Flex Feather 7.5″ template, 1/2″ circle, 4″ arc templates. Fanciest block in this set of lessons.

Friendship Star with straight line quilting.

Looking through my photos, I didn’t take any of Lesson 2! Guess I’ll go back and do that. All the blocks will be sewn together using the Quilt-As-You-Go method.

To-Do Tuesday, May 31, 2022

1. Prep and piece week 15 of Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden
2. Test out fusible I bought on a few t-shirts.
3. Photo Lesson 2 of The Next Steps Template Quilting, blocks & templates.

Linking to Linda’s To-Do Tuesday over at Texas Quilt Gal.

This crazy Sore Throat is lingering on from Covid. Good thing, Hubs continues to test negative even though he has an ongoing cough. We are supposed to be visiting friends in Knoxville, TN this weekend, but canceled that trip. Our friends say they will come visit us later in June. That will be fantastic!

Did I get anything accomplished this past week?

To-Do Tuesday, May 17, 2022

1. Prepping week 13 EPP for Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden ✔️
2. That might be all I get done as I don’t know how I’ll be feeling with this Covid virus.
3. but …
4. Work on Lesson 3 of The Next Steps Template Quilting ✗
5. Experiment with Terial Magic liquid stabilizer – make a pillow from a t-shirt ✗

1. The only quilting I did this week was hand stitching English Paper Pieced hexies.

Week 13 of Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden still needs a few stitches to be completed. Then it’s ready to attach to the slowly growing quilt.

Oh! I did accomplish a few other things. I pulled out some of my Dad’s shirts and started cutting them up to turn into aprons.

Here is the first of the aprons. Since I’m starting with medium size shirts, they will end up being aprons for Dad’s 17 great grandchildren. I want my 7 year old granddaughter to try this one on, but since I had Covid this past week, family are all staying clear from me! So soon, soon we will be back to normal and family visits. I might add pockets, I’ll see what granddaughter thinks once she tries it on. The oldest grands are 8 yrs old, so I think this well work for all 17 kiddos.

I also started cutting into t-shirts for a quilt for a nephew. Besides those little bits of crafting, I spent a lot of time lounging with library books and walking in our backyard.

Here’s a small garden tour for you -

Hubs is all about native plants. Here is a woodland area. Columbine are doing well this year.

This week the cultivated Iris are opening up. Here are three of my favorites -

Michigan Pride

Rustler

Purple Pepper

What do I hope to accomplish sewing wise this week?

To-Do Tuesday, May 24, 2022

1. Finish Week 13 of EPP for Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden
2. Prep Week 14 EPP
3. Keep cutting up t-shirts. Buy the fusible I need for the quilt.
4. Stitch more shirts to aprons.
5. Get rid of this bug!

What do you have planned for this week? Take a look at To-Do Tuesday Link up hosted by Linda of Texas Quilt Gal for all the craftiness happening around the web.

Ugh. Allergies are so much worse this week. I’ve heard other people are suffering more than usual too with allergies. I love all the spring flowers blooming but this is getting ridiculous!  Sore throat started Sunday night and I woke up with out a voice Monday morning. And then a friend I was with Friday tells me she tested positive for Covid. I also tested positive this morning. So Bummed. I’m taking Mucinex per doctor’s suggestion since my symptoms are rather mild. My friend and I are fully vaccinated! Maybe that helps with keeping the case mild.

Lady Slippers blooming in our backyard. The little bit of purple is in the right upper corner is Jacob’s Ladder.

Before all the headache and sore throat hit I did have a successful week of stitching and quilting.

To-Do Tuesday, May 10, 2022

1. Keep plugging along on the EPP.  ✔️
2. Finish the Minky backed baby quilt.  ✔️
3. Meeting with my quilting group Friday – two of us will work on memory clothing quilts for a mutual friend’s family. But first we are meeting at a newly relocated quilt shop. I hear it is bigger and better. Quilts n Gifts in Bluffton, IN.  ✔️

1. English Paper Piecing

Here is week 12. No leaves this week. The leaves are a bit of a challenge for me.

And here is weeks 1-12 almost attached.

2. Baby quilt with Minky back.

I don’t know why I procrastinated so long on finishing this quilt. I didn’t have any problems quilting it using a walking foot. I do like how it turned out, Stitched-in-the-Ditch. Quilting and binding this quilt was my One Monthly Goal for May.

3. Shopping and quilting with my quilting group – The new location of Quilts n Gifts in Bluffton, Indiana is bigger and better. Owner Mary has over 6000 bolts of fabric and all the goodies to go with the fabric. I bought Sew Lazy cotton fusible interfacing for the clothing quilts a friend and I are making for a grieving family. We used up all we bought and have to purchase more. I really like this product better than the Pellon I’ve used for other clothing & t-shirt quilts. It’s more pricey but I think it is worth the extra expense as it is easier to use. When ironed with steam it stays adhered to the clothing.

To-Do Tuesday, May 17, 2022

1. Prepping week 13 EPP for Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden
2. That might be all I get done as I don’t know how I’ll be feeling with this Covid virus.
3. but …
4. Work on Lesson 3 of The Next Steps Template Quilting
5. Experiment with Terial Magic liquid stabilizer – make a pillow from a t-shirt

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Linda of Texas Quilt Gal.

Allergy Season! I’m feeling it today.

Here’s what happened this past week in my sewing room.

To-Do Tuesday, May 3 – 10, 2022

1. EPP attach Week 10 to the quilt, prep Week 11. ✔️
2. Baby quilt  ✔️
3. I’ve been given my Dad’s shirts to make memory items for family. Pillows? Aprons? I want to make two each to send to my siblings and then they can see if their adult children would like either. That’s the plan for now. I hope to have these four completed and mailed for Father’s Day.  ✗

1. English Paper Piecing

Weeks one through ten of Homage To Grandmother’s Flower Garden. I’m using 1/2″ paper hexies. The flowers are left over Fossil Fern fabrics from a quilt I made for the grand daughter.

Week 11 is almost ready to attach to the rest of the quilt.

2. Baby quilt for my new great niece.

I’m currently stitching-in-the-ditch. I’m using a textured Shannon Minky fabric on the back.

The quilting is going surprising well with using a walking foot. I’m thinking about quilting a flower in the center of the four blocks.

3. I’ve not gotten in to the bag of Dad’s shirts yet. At least I’m thinking of the possibilities. One little step at a time.

What will be on my to-do list for this week?

To-Do Tuesday, May 10, 2022

1. Keep plugging along on the EPP.
2. Finish the Minky backed baby quilt.
3. Meeting with my quilting group Friday – two of us will work on memory clothing quilts for a mutual friend’s family. But first we are meeting at a newly relocated quilt shop. I hear it is bigger and better. Quilts n Gifts in Bluffton, IN.

This week was filled with things not on my quilting list! But all is well!

To-Do Tuesday April 26th

1. Week 10 (and beyond?) of EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden ✔️
2. Quilt & bind baby quilt ✗
3. Lesson One of Next Steps template quilting course with Donelle McAdams✔️

1. EPP continues!

This is week 10 for Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden. Oh! Oops! I sewed one leaf in the wrong place. It’s ripped out and ready to go where it belongs. I was hoping to have week 10 attached to the main quilt by now. It’s not. Yet I’m still finding stitching EPP relaxing in the evenings.

2. I didn’t touch the baby quilt. Something else popped up. While my grandson was building spool towers last week, my DIL commented on the disarray of my fabric.

And she was right! It’s a mess. In the above photo you can see scraps & leftovers from finished quilts. As I finish a quilt, the fabric has just been thrown onto these two shelves. Then when I need a bit of something I dig through the mess.

My DIL offered to help organize! Not just criticize! We took all the fabric scraps to my guest bedroom and sorted by color. Then I bought baskets for storage.

End result?

Fabric neatly folded and place in these baskets by color family. The baskets will be easy to grab to find just what I need for smaller projects. I might end up cutting some of the fabric into squares to sew together for charity quilts. That will be in the future as I have several UFOs that will be turned into charity quilts first.

And while I was being bitten by the organizing bug, I tackled this book shelf too.

I didn’t get a before photo. Just imagine where all the baskets are a disarray of quilty things. Top basket is wool projects. On next shelf the basket is holding sandwiched fat quarter size and smaller pieces for FMQ & template quilting practice. The basket on the middle shelf holds small projects I might get to one day. Bottom two baskets hold specialty fabrics & kits.

Trust me, it looks so much better and I’m feeling so much better about the clean up too! Thanks to my DIL for that one little comment.

Of course there are other areas of my sewing room that need tackling, but this is it for now. As I cleaned, my pile of projects to finish for charities grew! I’ll enjoy the process of reducing that pile. I should have taken a before and after photo of that pile as it went from neat to a mess!

3. Next Steps template quilting

I’m finding template quilting so relaxing! Who knew!

Here are three blocks quilted. The 12″ pieced block and elongated block are quilted with Sew Steady 6″ Spiral Template. The 12″ solid block is quilted with a straight ruler.

Photoed are the ruler, Spiral Template, and a spacing gauge used during quilting.

Close-up of quilting on pieced block. I’m using Fancy That Design’s Song Book fabric line. The background is by Benartex. I’m using Superior Threads King Tut 40 weight variegated thread Color 985 for quilting.

To-Do Tuesday, May 3, 2022

1. EPP attach Week 10 to the quilt and prep Week 11.
2. Baby quilt
3. I’ve been given my Dad’s shirts to make memory items for family. Pillows? Aprons? I want to make two each to send to my siblings and then they can see if their adult children would like either. That’s the plan for now. I hope to have these four completed and mailed for Father’s Day.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Linda of Texas Quilt Gal.

Warm weather, sunshine, rain, and migrating birds all equal happiness! This week I saw the first Rose Breasted Grosbeak in our backyard. We just put out the Oriole bird feeder as those south of us have reported seeing Baltimore Orioles. I hope they find us again this year as they migrate through.

On to quilting!

To-Do Tuesday April 19th

1. Finish Week 9 of EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden – the quilt-a-long is on Week 16. I started late, but I hope to eventually catch up. ✔️
2. Sandwich baby quilt with Minky fabric, start quilting. ✔️
3. Prepping 4 clothing quilts for grieving family. ✔️

1. EPP

Here are weeks one – nine all sewn together. I keep forgetting to take a picture of just the week’s progress before attaching to the growing quilt. I’ll try to remember this week!

Week 10 prep and stitching. I’m reusing papers, and glue basting with Sewline glue pen.

2. Sandwich baby quilt

I’m using a textured Shannon fabric for the back of this baby quilt. This will be only my second time to quilt on Shannon/Minky fabric. Last week’s experiment of quilting on Minky went well. I’m upping the game, so to speak, and moving on to the textured Shannon. Can you see the texture in photo above?

Baby quilt is spray basted with 505 Spray. I’m still pondering how to quilt. Yes, I might be a bit hesitant in quilting with the textured Shannon as the back to this quilt! Should I just do In-the-Ditch quilting, or some design in the geese? I will most likely keep it simple for now and do ITD.

3. Prepping clothing for quilts.

A quilting friend has asked if I would help make four quilts from clothing for a grieving family. We met last Tuesday to start cutting the clothes into 6 1/2″ squares. Here’s what we got from the cotton/poly items. The rest will have to be fused with webbing before cutting into squares. Turns out it will only be the two of us working on the quilts. Our plan right now is to have the four quilts ready to gift by Christmas time. For me, ironing fusible webbing is the most tedious part of the process and is the next step for these quilts. We will meet again on May 13th to tackle that job.

On to what I hope to do this week.

But first! – I followed a Squirrel this week.  I watched a free template quilting class with Donelle McAdams. And then decided to sign up for the 8 week Next Steps online course. I have most of the templates she will use for the course, but have not used them enough to feel comfortable with template quilting. So I jumped in and signed up for the course. It’s through Sew Steady University.

Block One sewn and prepped for quilting. Picking out thread. I’m using Fancy That – Song Book by Moda fabrics and added a Benartex for the back ground. The backing is a piece left over from my stash, Rambling Rose by Moda.

My grandson decided to help pick out thread for the quilt block. I did like his selection of yellows!

Picking thread evolved into building thread towers!

To-Do Tuesday April 26th

1. Week 10 (and beyond?) of EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden
2. Quilt & bind baby quilt
3. Lesson One of Next Steps template quilting course

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Linda of Texas Quilt Gal

Just little bits of sewing did happen over the past few days. And a project for my One Monthly Goal was worked on too.

To-Do Tuesday April 5th

1. EPP continues on Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden.  ✔️
2. Three more seams to finish piecing Nebula.  ✔️

1. EPP. I’m working on week 8 of the Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden sew-along.

This is a background rosette sewn together and hexies that go around it prepped with glue basting.

Background for week 8 complete, and Rosette Flower underway.

2. Nebula! Pattern by Jaybird Quilts. The top is finished! I only had three seams left to sew to pull it all together.

Here’s the top, it will be a while before I get it sandwiched and quilting started. I want to finish up a few smaller projects before I start on quilting Nebula.

I pulled out a top from the past to quilt and donate to charity – it’s my One Monthly Goal for April.

After stitching around the preprinted blocks of Geo Zoo panel, I used circle quilting templates from Sew Steady in the first border. I did large meandering in the outer border.

That’s it for this week.

To-Do Tuesday April 12th

1. Mug rug for an April birthday
2. EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden.
3. Charity quilt – I’m going to see if I can sandwich and quilt a baby blanket using printed fabric and Shannon/Minky fabric. I’ve never used the fuzzy stuff but hear babies love the soft fabric. If it works I plan on using it for a back of a pieced baby quilt.
4. More circle quilting on the Geo Zoo panel.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Linda of Texas Quilt Gal.

Wow! Can plans change quickly!

What is up for To-Do Tuesday March 22?

1. Focus on Nebula! ✗
2. Get guest bedroom set up. New sheets, new curtains. Rearrange some furniture. ✗
3. Continue growing Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden. ✔️

My Dad passed on one week ago today. I’ll not repeat the details, you can read about Dad here and here if you are so inclined. My husband and I traveled from IN to PA to be with him. I took along the EPP, and did make some progress on it in the evenings.

Lawrence (Larry) G. Loper

December 17, 1926 – March 31, 2022

1. Nebula – not touched for obvious reasons, three more seams and it will be a top!

2. I still need to make headway on setting up a guest bedroom, but our friends who had planned on visiting this weekend had their own crisis, and are not traveling for our visit. We are all hoping a visit will still happen in the near future.

3. EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden

Week 7 minus leaves that go in those odd holes. I’m using 1/2″ hexies.

Weeks 1 – 7 again minus the leaves. I’ll get to those this week. I didn’t take leaf templates with me when I traveled to be with my Dad.

Week 8 progress.

This week I’ll focus on the missing leaves. And continue working on Week 8 of Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden.

To-Do Tuesday April 5th

1. EPP continues on Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden.
2. Three more seams to finish piecing Nebula.

It’s Thursday, so I think I’ll keep that list short.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Linda of Texas Quilt Gal.

Weather is warming up, Spring showers have arrived, and Spring flowers are popping up!

On to quilting, what did I accomplish this week?

To-Do Tuesday March 15, 2022

1. I’m putting Nebula at the top of the list. My design wall is in the guest bedroom. I really need to get that room under control for guests coming in April! ✔️
2. Prep and start stitching week 6 of Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden. ✔️
3. Will I shop for fabrics to complete the baby quilt? ✗

1. Nebula, three of the 6 sections are sewn together. I really thought I’d have the top sewn together by now. Maybe this week! I’ll share pictures once I complete the piecing.

2. Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden

Week 6 completed.

Weeks 1-6 all stitched together.

Week 7 under way.

3. Baby quilt. Again no shopping.

Instead I pulled out an older quilt that only needed binding.

I finished it up with a flange binding, and it is now ready to donate. 48 inches x 54 1/2 inches.

What is up for To-Do Tuesday March 22?

1. Focus on Nebula!
2. Get guest bedroom set up. New sheets, new curtains. Rearrange some furniture.
3. Continue growing Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Linda of Texas Quilt Gal.

I don’t know where this past week went, but I sure didn’t get much done in the way of quilting.

To-Do Tuesday March 8, 2022

1. Work on baby quilt, but I have to shop for border, back and binding. This might not happen. ✗
2. Two mug rugs for birthday gifts for two quilting friends. ✗ half way there
3. Continue EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden.  ✔️
4. Finish piecing Nebula top. ✗

1. Baby quilt – I didn’t go shopping, and made no progress on completing the baby quilt.

Here is where I left off on sewing together the quilt top.

2. I only completed and gifted one mug rug.

Made in shades of greens, my friend’s fav color, March birthday. 8″ square. I used scrap fabrics and Superior Threads So Fine 50 weight for piecing and stitch-in-the-ditch quilting. Bitty Barn Block pattern by This & That.

3. Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden

Week 5 completed.

And stitched in place. My flower garden is growing!

5. I hope to finish piecing the final section of Nebula today. Didn’t touch it this past week.

This is the last section waiting to be pieced together. Then the 6 sections are sewn together for a completed quilt top.

What to work on this week?

To-Do Tuesday March 15, 2022

1. I’m putting Nebula at the top of the list. My design wall is in the guest bedroom. I really need to get that room under control for guests coming in April!
2. Prep and start stitching week 6 of Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden.
3. Will I shop for fabrics to complete the baby quilt?