BOMs Away! 29 Oct 2012 - Holy Mackerel

Welcome to my Link-Up for BOMs Away Mondays!

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

Apologies to our Eastern Hemisphere friends. I usually post these on my Sundays so that those on the front end of the globe have it up for Monday. I wanted to leave the TGIFF hosting post at top billing for our whole weekend here. 

But now let's get a move on with our BOM/interval projects! It's a difficult time of year to keep those going. Have you done any work this last week on yours?  

I did get Holy Mackerel completed for Once Upon a Star. Love its 3-D stocking and silver fishies.  :D

We also took a road trip to St. Louis (13 driving hours - yeesh!) so we could visit our oldest daughter at her college for Parent Weekend. Had a blast watching her symphony concert and playing like little kids at City Museum.  :D

That place is  F - U - N, FUN!!

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What have you guys done on BOMs or interval projects lately? 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. :D

TGIFF is Here Today!! Catch OctoberQuest before it's spirited away!

Today is the final weekly posting for TGIFF's OctoberQuest celebration of its one-year anniversary.  Pretty exciting stuff with gift certificates for 2 lucky finishers from this month's 4 TGIFF linky parties and 10% off at Mad About Patchwork for all participants. You'll see the "rules" below my finish report, and this linky will be open through Halloween.  :D

At LONG LAST I have a finish to post! I can't adequately communicate how disruptive to quilting this year has been with a cross-country move involving a stint in an interim apartment, moving 3 children to separate distant locations (and then one back again), and doing my history masters work. Quilts that should have been placed at the front of the storage unit got shuffled to the back amongst the madness of a wild-fire gone out of control, Dear Jane pieces went AWOL (still looking for those suckers), and sewing equipment refused to surface. 

Let me take you on a step back in time while I show you 
Patriots in Petticoats

98" x 98"
Thanks to the Masonic Lodge for letting me photograph this at their wonderful stone wall.
I thought the setting was rather apropos.  

This quilt is a reproduction of one made in 1840 by Hanna Wallis, a Quaker whose father, quite ironically, turns out to have been a spy for Benedict Arnold.

These are not my colors or favorite style, by I really dig historical projects that provide a tangible connection to particular points in humanity's past. Patriots in Petticoats has a double appeal for me: Being an American, I enjoy the Revolutionary period, and being a woman, I *love* celebrating gals who had pluck! 

Margaret Gunn of Quilts of Love did the quilting for me, and it's a LOVELY job!

I love the inner grid work that she designed around the medallion

The cross-work on the log cabins makes them
pop out wonderfully.

Fabulous ribbon work

Swags on the outer borders as a nod to the era
celebrated by the quilt.

LOVE the back view of the quilting

This photo is tilted -
that strip goes straight across the middle.

I adore the little stories that go with the women represented by the blocks in this quilt. You can read those snippets in these old posts:

• Deborah Samson, Anne Hennis Trotter Bailey, Margaret Cochran Corbin, Elizabeth Gilmore
• Sarah Bralee, Mary Pickersgill, Hannah Hendee, Nancy Hart, Anna Marie Lane, Lydia Darragh
• Elizabeth Freeman, Polly Cooper
• Phillis Wheatley, Betty Zane
• Marcy Otis Warren, Hannah Arnette, Martha Washington, Mary Lindley Murray
• Margaret Vliet Warren 

So happy this very neat historical quilt is finished.  Next week I'll be able to link up with a couple of more modern quilts, so come back and party with me!  :D

Now let's get you in the scoop for OctoberQuest!!

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Your OctoberQuest , should you choose to accept it, is to finish up those quilty projects, whether it’s for the upcoming Bloggers Quilt Festival, the 100 Day Hustle, Finish-A-Long, Halloween, Thanksgiving or even, gasp, Christmas (just think how Super Quilter-ish you’d feel if you were done some of your Christmas gifts before November even started). Or finish up those WIPs, UFOs, charity quilts, or um, overdue gifts — you decide!

Did I mention the prizes?  Yes there are prizes!  Pam from Mad About Patchwork is giving a $50 gift certificate to two lucky participants! Oh, what quilty goodness I you could get with that! There’s something for everyone too – Pam’s offering a 10% off purchases for the month of October to all OctoberQuest participants — just use TGIFF10 at checkout.

So here’s how OctoberQuest will work:

1. Your quilty project must be completely finished (As much as we love celebrating quilt tops or completed blocks, they will not be eligible for the prizes).
2. You may enter one or more finishes each week.  Just add a link for each finish to one of the linky parties. The linky parties will stay open from their start date until the end of the month.
3. Your post/photo on Flickr/Picasa must have a link back to the TGIFF! site and the particular party you are participating in.
4. Link up your quilty finish in any of the TGIFF! linky parties this month:
   • October 5 -  Janice @ Better Off Thread
   • October 12 – M-R @ Quilt Matters
   • October 19 - Jenelle @ Echinops and Aster
   • October 26 – Lynette @ What a Hoot
5. OctoberQuest will be open until October 31st at 11:59 p.m. EST. A winner will be picked via Ms. Random Number Generator on November 1st and notified via email. Please make sure we can contact you via email or we will blow the gift certificates on ourselves need to run Ms. Random again.

So ramp up your “Let’s Get ‘Er Done!” attitude and see what you can finish up by Halloween!

Happy OctoberQuest, and let the linking begin!

Welcome to my Link-Up for BOMs Away Mondays!

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

Here we are again! Did you get any work done on your BOM-type project(s)?

Just a tad here, since Life exploded for our family and some urgent travels/moving were necessary. All's settled for now, so I did get the stocking quilted and stitched up, and the fishies stitched:

Tomorrow I'll fuse the "Holy Mackerel!" block. 

BOMs Away Monday - 15 Oct 2012 - Land of the Midnight Fun

Welcome to my Link-Up for BOMs Away Mondays!

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

I just love these fun fellows on the "Land of the Midnight Fun" block. 
Scott walked in a said, "Hey! They're cool. But he needs a Coke bottle."  (Pointing at the one on the left -lol!)

this is something like 12" x 30"

Love the boxes that Batiks Plus sends these McKenna Ryan kits out in. 

(But you gotta shop these on sales, for sure.)

Got all the pieces traced and onto fabrics for the next "Once Upon a Star" block, "Holy Mackerel!"

Having fun playing with Angelina Fibers for the first time. Soooo easy to work with. Definitely going to look into adding this medium to my stash.  ;D

 Made the little 3D fishies for the puffin's stocking. They sure are SHINY!

  

Now to FMQ the stocking so I can sew it together to add it in with the main block when I fuse that up. At least I thought ahead enough to not cut the batting out around it until after I do that.  It'll be a lot easier to handle this way.

This is the fussiest block of the project, but it sure is fun.

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So how 'bout you? Did you get any work done on your BOMs or interval projects? Link up here and show it off!

BOMs Away Monday - 8 Oct 2012

Welcome to my Link-Up for BOMs Away Mondays!

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

I'm creeping along, slowly getting more sewing time back into my week.  :)

 Right now I'm focusing my BOM work on the Once Upon a Star project. Got all my fusible pieces for the "Land of the Midnight Fun" block meticulously placed on the fabrics, and a few cut out.

You know, while putting on the labels for the post, I realized I've never shown this project. It's been in the works for 3 years now, because I only work on it seasonally. Here's what it'll look like when it's all finished. 

Once Upon a Star by McKenna Ryan

We're about to head out to do an early dinner on the Royal Gorge Railroad train. Hope the trees are still glorious in the mountains. We sure are loving Colorado! :)  

P.S.  It was a nice half-day trip.  :)  

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So how 'bout you? Did you get any work done on your BOMs or interval projects? Link up here and show it off!