Five Shadows

Birthday month is underway! Hubs and I have celebrated our birthdays. Next Sunday we plan to gather with our family to celebrate our adult children’s birthdays. Not sure if the 13th will work for everyone. We might have to wait until the 27th.

Spring is arriving!

Snowdrops are pushing through the cold ground!

What sewing happened here during the past week?

To-Do Tuesday March 1, 2022

1. Finish piecing Nebula top.
2. Stitch together weeks 1-4 of Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden. Prep EPP week 5. ✔️
3. Circles! Granny’s Garden, continue with making the circle backgrounds. ✗

1. Nebula top

I did not complete the top as I had hoped. I have one section left to sew together. Then the six sections will be sewn together into a finished top.

Here are the five sections pieced waiting to be joined. I’m hopeful I’ll piece the final section and then get them all sewn together.

2.Week 1-4 are completed for Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden.

EPP 1/2″ hexies.

Piecing week 5. I’m still behind on this weekly quilt along. I should be working on week 11. Even though I’m behind, I’m happy with my progress. I guess I’m ahead in one way, I have hexie papers and fabrics cut for the whole quilt!

3. Circle for Granny’s Garden

Circles bottom right are pressed and ready to appliqué. Circles on bottom left are ready to be pressed.

Top circles waiting to be sewn to interfacing.

Things I should be working on this week -

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.
3. Continue Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden.
4. Finish piecing Nebula top.

Linking to Linda’s To-Do Tuesday Link on Texas Quilt Gal Blog.

Another week has flown by! And now it is March! Birthday month at my house! 5 of the seven of us are born in March. Starting with my husband on the 4th, me the 7th, and three of our five adult children all grown up out of the house, have birthdays later this month. We still get together for birthdays. It’s a fun and busy month!

Quilting happened this week -

To-Do Tuesday February 22, 2022

1. End of month is coming 5 days! Have to finish background pieces for Nebula, my OMG. ✔️
2. Hand stitching EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden, finish week 4. ✔️
3. Granny’s Garden, prep background circles if I finish Nebula background. ✔️

1. Piece background for Nebula.

Happy Dance! Background units are all pieced and 3 of the 6 wedge sections are sewn together! Read about it here.

2. Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden

Week 4 completed.

Last night I thought I better start stitching the first 4 weeks together before it gets too confusing.

The layout are weeks 1-4 in their proper places. Stitching was a bit slow going for me. Hopefully I’ll get faster at stitching as the year progresses.

3. Granny’s Garden, prep background circles

Interfacing and background fabric circles cut. I stitched just a few circles to the interfacing. They need to be trimmed and turned to right side. Progress!

To-Do Tuesday March 1, 2022

1. Finish piecing Nebula top.
2. Stitch together weeks 1-4 of Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden. Prep EPP week 5.
3. Circles! Granny’s Garden, continue with making the circle backgrounds.

Linking to To-Do Tuesday hosted by Linda of Texas Quilt Gal. Go take a look at what everyone is working on this week, and join in the fun!

Now that I’m sitting down to write a post, I see that I have accomplished some quilting this week. I had a two day headache and wasn’t ‘braining’ well. Oh those severe changes in weather do bring on those headaches. Blah. After tempts in the teens, we swung up to 50F and all the snow melted. Now we are back down in the 20F and expecting more snow.

Anyway, here is what I did sewing wise this week.

To-Do Tuesday February 15, 2022

1. Continue piecing Nebula background  ✔️
2. Keep hand stitching EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden ✔️
3. Granny’s Garden ✔️

1. Continue piecing Nebula background

Piecing is coming along and I’m playing with the layout. My design wall is not big enough to hold a queen size quilt! Top pieced triangles are folded under. I have more background pieced, but not pinned in place.

Poor photo, showing the original layout with no background. I’m liking the open star in the first photo.

Finishing background is my One Monthly Goal for February, so that is priority now. Get ‘er done!

2. EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden

Week 3 complete. 1/2″ hexies.

Week 4 progress.

Where I’m heading. Weeks one – three lay out with bits of week four in progress. I work on this for an hour or two in the evening while watching tv or a movie. The quilt along is on week 8, I’m slowing catching up.

3.Granny’s Garden

This is the second block for Granny’s Garden almost ready for machine stitching.

I still need to organize the pieces for the next 40 blocks to streamline production. Each of the 42 blocks will have flowers appliquéd to the cream background circle. I’m thinking of prepping all the backgrounds first. Then they will be ready for each flower. I started by prepping the flower pieces, switching to the background might get me to seeing more finished blocks!

To-Do Tuesday February 22, 2022

1. End of month is coming 5 days! Have to finish background pieces for Nebula, my OMG.
2. Hand stitching EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden, finish week 4.
3. Granny’s Garden, prep background circles if I finish Nebula background.

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

Valentine’s Day caught me by surprise. I had nothing special planned. With grandkids here over the weekend, we did do some crafting, coloring, Lego building, Barbie doll-ing. Then I saw a little heart bookmark tutorial on The Crafty Quilter and grands and I got busy making one each. They had fun digging through my extra charm packs to find just the right fabrics. The hearts were made and packaged up to gift before I thought about taking photos.

Also, hubs had oral surgery yesterday and is to be on a soft diet for a while. I just didn’t cook anything special last night. Today though, I’ve made a Copycat Panera Broccoli Cheddar Soup and homemade bread for supper.

What did I accomplish sewing wise this past week?

To-Do Tuesday February 8, 2022

1. Continue piecing Nebula background ✔️
2. Keep hand stitching EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden ✔️
3. Grandmother’s Flower Garden ✗

1. Nebula background

18 sections completed and 8 more underway

2. EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden

Week three progress. I have a long way to go to catch up. This might be a two year quilt in the making.

3. I didn’t touch Grandmother’s Flower Garden this week. Maybe this week I’ll get back to it.

I might be getting boring as far as posting as I’m keeping my to-do list the same for this week.

To-Do Tuesday February 15, 2022

1. Continue piecing Nebula background
2. Keep hand stitching EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden
3. Grandmother’s Flower Garden

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

Last week the snow arrived! About 7 inches at my house, but more like 12 inched a half hour north at my daughter’s house. Last night we received just a dusting more. I do love snow!

Here is the progress I made in quilting this past week.

To-Do Tuesday February 1, 2022

1. Continue piecing Nebula background  ✔️ cutting & some sewing
2. Slow stitching EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden ✔️
3. I started prepping another quilt last year to make this year – before I jumped onto the Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden wagon. I’d like to see if I could do one block a week for this 42 block Granny’s Garden quilt by Lori Holt. ✔️

1. Nebula – last year’s BOM. I’m working on the background.

Pieces cut and stitched. Slow going, but moving ahead.

2. EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden

Week One completed

Week Two completed

Week Three progress.

These are 1/2″ hexies. I’m behind, but supplies did not arrive until about week two. And I’ve not attached Week One & Two together. I’ll get there eventually!

3. Grandmother’s Flower Garden

Block One of 42. Progress! I am rethinking the construction. Instead of doing one block a week, I might prep all the back ground circles first. Then stems and leaves. Otherwise I’m doing a lot of thread switching for each different fabric color. And yes, I know I could use invisible thread, just not going there … yet.

I’ve selected two labor intensive quilts for this year!  My goal for this week will be the same as last week. Progress on the three quilts.

To-Do Tuesday February 8, 2022

1. Continue piecing Nebula background
2. Keep hand stitching EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden
3. Grandmother’s Flower Garden

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

Happy February everyone!

Little steps were made this past week. Not sure where this week went, but not much was spent on sewing.

To-Do Tuesday January 25, 2022

1. Work on back ground to Nebula quilt  ✔️
2. EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden ✔️

1. Nebula quilt.

Piecing for the Nebula background has begun!

2. EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden

Week One is all pieced. These are 1/2″ hexies. The pattern calls for 1″ hexies, but I don’t want a full size quilt, so I’m aiming for a wall hanging. We will see how it goes.

Week Two underway. The whitish rosette is part of the background.

That is it for this week. Snow is coming my way, so maybe I’ll be more productive this week.

To-Do Tuesday February 1, 2022

1. Continue piecing Nebula background
2. Slow stitching EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden
3. I started prepping another quilt last year to make this year – before I jumped onto the Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden wagon. I’d like to see if I could do one block a week for this 42 block Granny’s Garden quilt by Lori Holt.

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

Once I completed my son and daughter-in-love’s quilt, I’ve moved on to getting some other quilts completed and figuring out what I should be doing quilt-wise this year. I’ll be delivering the Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt next week! That makes two happy finishes held over from previous years!

To-Do Tuesday January 18, 2022

1. Finish Hungry Caterpillar quilt  ✔️
2. Start piecing background for last year’s BOM – Nebula  ✔️
3. Work towards catching up with EPP  ✔️

1. Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt is quilted and bound!

The quilt is just about 50″ square. The top was pieced by my daughter at least 10 years ago with raw edge appliqué cut from a panel. She intended to give it to a friend as a baby gift. But something happened along the way and she never finished it or gifted it. She gave it to me, pin basted. It sat in my sewing room for years until just recently when my church offered to put together a basket for our town’s local rescue mission fundraiser.

Tiny caterpillar on a quilted leaf.

No longer hungry!

Butterfly!

Soft flannel back. Ready to donate.

2. Nebula BOM from 2021

I’ve started cutting the fabrics for the background of Nebula. I’ve a long way to go.

3. English Paper Piecing Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden

Week One progress. The leaf unit where the tip of the leaf extends into the hexie is giving me a fit. I used a friend’s Go Cutter to cut the 1/2″ hexies, but am winging cutting the leaf units. One made accurately! Two more to make for this section of the quilt. Week Four started Sunday, so I’m no way catching up. I’ll keep plodding along.

To-Do Tuesday January 25, 2022

1. Work on back ground to Nebula quilt
2. EPP Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden

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

Oops! I forgot to post on Tuesday and now it is Thursday! My sewing group was canceled for today – Covid again. The hostess of our gathering has been exposed to Covid and her husband tested positive. We moved the meeting to my house, and one friend had planned on coming, but her daughter went into labor, so she is happily at the hospital with her this morning! That all said, I’ll take time to write my belated post this morning.

So what have I been up to stitching and quilting wise?

To-Do Tuesday January 11, 2022

1. Finish quilt for son & DIL! Only have the binding to complete and then launder!  ✔️
2. Quilt and maybe bind Hungry Caterpillar quilt. I’ll share its story next week.  ✔️
3. Prep fabric for EPP project I hope to work on through out this year.  ✔️

1.  I DID finish the quilt for my son and his lovely wife! They just celebrated their 3rd anniversary yesterday!

I started this quilt August of 2020. I used a quilt-as-you-go method. Meaning I first pieced the center, sandwiched and quilted it. Then I appliquéd the four vine sections, sandwiched and quilted. Then attached the vine sections to the center. Then four sections of appliquéd clam shells, sandwiched and quilted were attached to the quilt. Doing the quilt is sections made it possible for me to quilt each smaller section my domestic machine.

Not the best photo. I hope to get a better one with the quilt on their bed.

2. I’m currently working on getting the Hungry Caterpillar quilted.

This quilt was created by my daughter more than 10 years ago. She never finished it and gave it to me to finish. The Women’s Ministry group at my church is putting together a basket to donate to the local rescue mission’s auction coming up this Spring. Someone suggested a children’s quilt and I said I thought I had the perfect quilt to build on. Also added to the basket will be pillows, pillow case, Hungry Caterpillar book, and hopefully a stuffy. I have the outer border to quilt, and binding to attach.

3. I think I’m crazy to start another project before finishing last year’s BOM. I’m so slow at English Paper Piecing.

Prepping 1/2″ hexies!

Stitching progress in the evenings. I’m following along with Katja Quilt Shop Homage to Grandmother’s Flower Garden. The flowers will make a wreath. Go take a look at her quilt along! The pattern is written for 1″ hexies to make  a 82″ quilt. Doing 1/2″ hexies should give me about a 42″ wall hanging. I’m only on week one, and this is week three of the quilt along. I was waiting for supplies to arrive in the mail. I might switch to machine piecing if I continue to fall behind. But this handwork is supposed to be relaxing, right!?

To-Do Tuesday January 18, 2022

1. Finish Hungry Caterpillar quilt
2. Start piecing background for last year’s BOM – Nebula
3. Work towards catching up with EPP

I’ve been asked to sew together a t-shirt quilt top. But have not received the t-shirts or fabric yet. And I have the appliqué quilt Granny’s Garden started, but currently on the shelf. I want to finish the BOM  Nebula by Jaybird Quilts then I can go full steam ahead on Granny’s Garden and the EPP quilt.

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

I sneaked in a project this week that was not on my list.

This is a 10″ square mug rug birthday gift for a quilting friend I will be seeing Saturday. I used This & That Bitty Barn Block January pattern. It was a fun little quilt to put together.

To-Do Tuesday January 4, 2022

1. Continue working on the quilt for my son and DIL. Next steps: sashing added over seams, and appliqué added to mitered corners. Binding, but I don’t think I’ll get that far this week. ✔️
2. Continue prep for Granny’s Garden. ✗
3. Sewing Thursday with friends. Work on charity quilt. ✗

1. I’m full steam ahead on the quilt for my son and DIL! Sashing completed, leaves appliquéd over mitered corner seams, label made & attached to back, and binding underway!

You can seen the sashing between the appliqué flowers and clam shells. And Leaves are appliquéd in place over the mitered corner seam. Finishing this quilt is my One Monthly Goal. I hope to have the binding completed today!

2. I didn’t touch Granny’s Garden quilt this week.

3. Sewing with friends was canceled as Covid continues to lurk in every corner. The host’s husband was exposed to Covid, so we all played it safe and stayed home. THAT helped me make progress on my son & DIL’s quilt!

To-Do Tuesday January 11, 2022

1. Finish quilt for son & DIL! Only have the binding to complete and then launder!
2. Quilt and maybe bind Hungry Caterpillar quilt. I’ll share its story next week.
3. Prep fabric for EPP project I hope to work on through out this year.

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

What are you working on this week?

Happy New Year Friends!

Just last night January 3rd, most of my family was able to get together to celebrate our 2021 Christmas. One guest had tested positive for Covid the Thursday before Christmas, and since 6 of us had been around this person, we decided to postpone until we could be sure of negative Covid test results. I didn’t take any pictures, but my adult children did. Anyway, we had a lovely time of sharing in food, games, conversation, and gift giving. All Glory to our God and Savior!

So how did my quilting goals go this past week?

To-Do Tuesday December 28, 2021

1. Sew Clam Shell border on to quilt. ✔️
2. Prep pieces for Granny’s Garden.  ✔️
3. Celebrate Christmas!  ✔️

1. Clam Shell border has been attached to quilt!

I’m doing this quilt-as-you-go. Which means I have quilted each section before attaching them together.

The seams where sections are attached will be covered with the sashing I made, and shown in above photo. I used Pauline Roger’s  1 1/8″ Sashing Tool with strips cut at 2 1/4″ wide.

2. Prepping Granny’s Garden a Lori Holt pattern.

Prepping means cutting out pieces for the 42 blocks. I’ve cut for the first 21 blocks and am going back and prepping circles for appliqué. I ordered Lori Holt’s interfacing that will be used for stitching the flower petals and leaves. It just arrived yesterday. Here’s hoping I like her technique for appliqué!

I slipped in finishing this felted cactus pin cushion and gifted to a friend for a belated Christmas 2021.

To-Do Tuesday January 4, 2022

1. Continue working on the quilt for my son and DIL. Next steps: sashing added over seams, and appliqué added to mitered corners. Binding, but I don’t think I’ll get that far this week.
2. Continue prep for Granny’s Garden.
3. Sewing Thursday with friends. Work on charity quilt.

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