BOMs Away Monday 16 - First Moments of an Empty Nest

Welcome to my Link-Up for BOMs Away Mondays! 

(We'd love to see the BOM you're working on lately.)

Just now got home from the third and final road trip to tuck all our chicklets away at their far-spread school locations. The first moments of an empty nest are not welcome ones!  :P

I have to say, I had the best time at Batiks Plus while we were in St. Louis. Cookie was so very, very gracious to Heather and Scott and I, and it was delectable fun to comb through hundreds of headers to put a palette together for a quilt!! Not to neglect mentioning the incredible mini show of gorgeous, gorgeous art quilts.  They're so much more fabulous in real life than the catalogs and monitor can display!  Can't wait for the latest kit about to come out, and Cookie will have one sold here for sure!  ;D


The only sewing I got done this week was BOM-related. Three more Baby Janes:

A-1, A-3, B-1

Oh, look! I need to fix a spot on A-1. . .   No surprise at my being distracted lately.

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What interval project have you got going? Weeklies are welcome along with regular projects that you’ve broken into monthly units, and –of course- true BOMs.   Share your eye candy and show off your progress since the last time you linked up! There are some wonderful monthly and weekly projects going on out there. You guys amaze me. :D

BOMs Away Monday 15 - barely back home

Welcome to my Link-Up for BOMs Away Mondays! 

(We'd love to see the BOM you're working on lately.)

I did get just a wee bit of BOM work done on the trip - My first two Baby Janes for the Dear Jane BOM club I was INSANE enough to join! I stitched them while we were sitting outside Denver International Airport, waiting for Scott to arrive and join us for taking Devon to her brand new college home.  Need to trim them to size now that I'm home with my rulers and mats!

Oh! And here she is as Rapunzel in her dorm room. You have to go upstairs to do Juliet.  ;D  

What interval project have you got going? Weeklies are welcome along with regular projects that you’ve broken into monthly units, and –of course- true BOMs.   Share your eye candy and show off your progress since the last time you linked up! There are some wonderful monthly and weekly projects going on out there. You guys amaze me. :D

Our Cats' Quilt Penchants - Pets on Quilts Show 2011

I’m bummed that this week is the single most difficult week in the year for me to get to my computer, because I’ve *really* been looking forward to following all the posts in the 2011 Pets On Quilts Show over at SewCalGal’s!  I’ll be snatching moments here and there as I can, but those will be few and far between as we drive 1700 miles EACH WAY to take Devon out to college. (Why do they have to go so far away??)

In the meantime, though, I wanted to share some fun shots I have of our cats this past year, as pertains to my quilts. We have way too many cats for one house, but there are times when that is really very interesting. For example, if we didn’t have so many felines, I never would have found out that each kitty has his or her own color preferences! (Don’t believe anything that says cats are colorblind – it’s obviously not true.)

Boo Girl doesn’t really pay much attention to the quilting going on (which is weird, because we all know how much cats usually love to lay on fabric, patterns, cutting mats, etc.).  But when I was working on these Geese On the Pond blocks with the greens, she had to be on or by them the whole time they were out. Does she like the green because it makes her eyes pop?  (That’s still a UFO, btw.)

Koko (short for Kao Ko Kung) is my blue baby. He doesn’t go for the fabric piles, but he loves to sit cuddled next to me, so he’s right there for just about every binding or label that I stitch. 

When I was doing the binding on Heather’s graduation quilt last summer, I could swear he’d purposefully kept my spot for me when I got up to go get a drink!

 While he always wants to be by me, other than that time of marking my place, he could be relied on to leave the project alone. 

(I almost didn't put that pic up - me in all my get-up-and-go-straight-to-the-sewing-machine glory. ick!)

UNTIL this next one one came out. 

When I plopped the sailboats and mariner’s star on my “design floor,” he suddenly flew over and stretched himself out across them. He kept trying to cover as many as possible. I’d wrestle them out from under him so I could rearrange them, then go off somewhere and he’d relax. As soon as I’d walk back toward them to get a look, he’d throw himself down on them again!

And when I auditioned the various blues for that project (you can see the finished quilt at this post), he went nuts, laying on the fabrics so pestily and getting angry when I’d move him or them. Every time I had that top out he had to come lay on it. And when I got it back from the longarmer’s, he went ape with excitement. You should have seen how ANGRY he got when I wouldn't let him sit on it while I was binding it and adding the embellishments. (But I couldn't have cat hairs all over it!)  Pretty funny.  Everything since then has seen more of the former “yeah, ok, you’re working on something” attitude. 

Except. . . we were working on tucking tails for this quilt full of the pretty blues he likes. Can you see him all burrowed in there?

And one last shot of his preference for blue - Does he like that color so much because he's got those gorgeous sapphire blue eyes that you sometimes find on a Siamese?

Marco is a typical cat - you ca't keep him from laying on any pile of fabric he can find to lay on. He’d be in heaven if someone would leave a pile of fabric out just for him to make a nest in. But the quilts themselves – he doesn't really care for. 

(Although, put a piece of paper on one and he'll brave even pins to sit on that!) 

But when this one came along from Em at Em Cellebrates! and I draped it over the sofa, that funny cat couldn’t go away from it. He laid on the sofa next to it, talking, talking, talking up a storm to it for DAYS! 

It was the funniest thing. I still wish I knew what that cat was saying to that quilt!

Selma obliged me by sitting on this wheelchair quilt for me, but it was clear she was performing a task. What I don’t have a picture of, unfortunately, is the quilts that she went wild over. 

This gorgeous calico mama goes crazy for purple (she doesn't care about pink). Or maybe it was the neon colors interspersed in these tornado relief quilts. 

Oh, look! I do have one shot of a cat that I sewed in a quilt! (well, a block, anyway)

Cats and quilts – they just go together so well, don’t you think?  

BOMs Away Monday 14 - on the road

Welcome to my Link-Up for BOMs Away Mondays! 

(We'd love to see the BOM you're working on lately.)

I did not sew any BOMs this week - drove 9 hours for the first kidlet's fall destination and currently on the road for many, many more hours from Florida to Boulder, Colorado for the second kidlet's destination and Freshman year installation. I wanted you guys to have your regular link-up, though, so please share.  :D

What interval project have you got going? Weeklies are welcome along with regular projects that you’ve broken into monthly units, and –of course- true BOMs.   Share your eye candy and show off your progress since the last time you linked up! There are some wonderful monthly and weekly projects going on out there. You guys amaze me. :D

Road Trip! Birdie #2 taking off

Too bad Scott can't get enough time off from the clinic to help with the driving!

Fly, Dev!

Just in Time - What a Hoot, Devon! is ready for the dorm

What a Hoot, Devon!
75x103 in.
100% cotton fabrics, Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 batting
Original design pieced by Lynette Caulkins, quilted by Patty Butcher
Niceville, Florida 2011

Gosh, I usually feel exuberant when a quilt is finished - but I tied off the last eye button and felt like crying, instead.  :(   That's because this quilt is finished just in time to make the road trip out to Colorado to take Devon off to college. And that means Heather will be gone soon, too!  meh.

These guys are going to do a terrific job of cheering up Dev's dorm room and reminding her of how much we love her at home!

Patty did a  terrific quilting job. It's almost the same job as the quilting on Heather's, except that now Patty has a computer attachment, so she was able to work out a really neat white border treatment that coordinates with the Celtic knots in the corners. Very cool!  





She also wrote "2011" in each corner's quilting.

I think this guy is my favorite. 

No, maybe this guy.

Or this one!

No. It's this one.  :D   Because my Baby Girl worked so hard to get that gold-tassel Summa Cum Laude with a heavy AP load, despite having to fight dyslexia, and while remaining incredibly active in a demanding band program and giving service to her community.

Here's to you, Devon!!  

UFO busted! 13 Gags at 11

"13 Gags at 11"
50x60 in
Marissa's first quilt, pieced summer 2011
and quilted summer 2013 in Niceville, Florida
Minky/cotton front, minky back, poly batt

I think it's a cute, snuggly quilt with nice colors. Marissa, 13,  crinkles her nose all up because it's totally unappealing to her now.  Nevertheless, she seemed happy to have finished her very first quilt and sees it as a fun memento of what her tastes were when she was 11.

Two summers ago, when she pieced the top, she thought the fabrics were awesome - So awesome, she wouldn't let me sway her from sewing her first quilt with minky as one of the checkerboard fabrics.

She giggled at one point after finishing a row and waiting for me to finish helping her advance the quilt on the farme: "What I like about this quilt is that it even looks like a little kid made the flowers."  This is her favorite "little-kid-looking flower."


I love this heart. Nope, it wasn't on purpose.  :)
















I like the binding she chose from my stash










I've talked about the minky being an inferior quality - not fun to work with, and disappointing in feel after working with high-quality minky. You can read about that and see her at the frame at the previous post.


Still, it's a cozy quilt and would be fabulous to cuddle under at the tv - in Colorado, maybe! In Florida, it's a bit much. Maybe it will be happiness in January for a couple of weeks.  ;D

BOMs Away Monday 13 - and a Family Blast

Welcome to my Link-Up for BOMs Away Mondays! 

(We'd love to see the BOM you're working on lately.)

(Sorry this will have a lot of scrolling before the linkup spot - our family had WAY too much fun today!)

First, I did actually get 2 BOMs done this week!

Wild Rose Cottage #8 - This one is so appropriate (the Rocky Mountain Range block) as we move Devon to Boulder, Colorado next weekend.

And a pretty blue & white log cabin for a swap.  :)

Now I just have to show you guys what our family did for the last day all together before the girls go off to their separate (and far-away) schools!

Sorry - It was just so much fun!!  We've lived here for 14 years, and this is the first time we've gone parasailing. Shame on us!!

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So, now show us the progress you've made lately on your BOMs and/or weeklies!

What interval project have you got going? Weeklies are welcome along with regular projects that you’ve broken into monthly units, and –of course- true BOMs.   Share your eye candy and show off your progress since the last time you linked up! There are some wonderful monthly and weekly projects going on out there. You guys amaze me. :D