BOMs Away Monday - 31 Dec 12 - Sneaking In One More NewFO. . .And a cool retreat is coming up!

Welcome to my Link-Up for BOMs Away Mondays!

We'd love to see the BOM you're working on lately.
This week's link-up is at the bottom of this post.

Yeesh - running a half-day late here - I was trying so hard to get this one all fused before posting this week's link-up, but I'm about ready to vomit fusible stuff and my iron and I aren't on speaking terms at the moment.  ;D

In the spirit of Christmas/New Year's vacation, I took a break from my side-bar line-up of BOMs, and pulled a fresh winter one off the Creepy Room list. (Which is now called Bobbit's Room - but that's a whole other story.) That makes this NewFO #2 for December!! Which is a lot of fun. :D   So I'm linking this up to Barbara's party, too. 

(This one below was NewFO #1, blogged here.)

But that's about all the fun there was to be had. NewFO-2 is a full-BOM kit I purchased post-Christmas either two or three years ago. It is horrible!!!  I will never order from this store again, and of course, since I waited so long to start it, it's far too late to see if they would make things good. Normally I have no problem - I've purchased kits from many stores around the country, and everything's been great. This one, though - without any comment at all, the color scheme was entirely changed from the picture, in something I don't like at all, and with absolute disregard for values against each other. Furthermore, there were several fabric pieces missing entirely, and others had nowhere near enough. 

So I had to pull out a trusty scrap bin and raid yardages in my stash for some backgrounds and at least half the pieces. . . creating THIS nasty explosion all over the pool table. 

Poor hubby's off work for the week and can't even shoot right now. Working in a frenzy on this to get it all cleared for him. This is the state it was at this morning.

Don't you just "love" all the tracing, tracing, and tracing involved in this method?  :P

I got all the checkerboard rows pieced, and almost got all the cutting and fusing finished today - Just have that bottom row to do, then I can clean off the table.

Once I get those mittens fused onto the cobalt row on the bottom, this sucker is going boxed up, back in Bobbit's Room until next Holiday Season. This kit just disgusted me so much. But those snowmen do make me smile.  :)

~*~*~ But, Oh! ~*~*~

I did have a real blast the night before last. My sister came down from Idaho, and we stayed up sewing until 2am, working on some long-term UFO aprons she wanted to make for her girls. That was fun.  :D  And the first time I've ever sewn past 9pm *without* having to frog anything at all. Should give myself a medal for that!



~*~*~ And Another: Oh!! ~*~*~

Have you seen that Emily has a quilter's cabin retreat organized for 
February 21-23?

I'm super excited that for once I can participate. This ones a BYOP (bring your own project), so it's perfect for me. I'm on a strict UFO plan for 2013, so there will be no retreat/convention/store class projects added into the mix. 

And daily trunk shows from Natalia Bonner from Piece and Quilt, Amber Johnson of A Little Bit Biased, and Kati Spencer- From the Blue Chair are a humongous bonus!

I'm really looking forward to staying in this cabin with several other quilters and getting some serious work finished on older projects!

If you are finding yourself tempted, head on over to Emily's post and see if you can snag a spot before they're gone. :D  Sure would love to see you there!

And Now, back to BOMs Away:

~*~*~*~*~ 

 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.  

Whoopin' It Up - A New Christmas Flimsy: Laurel Burch Ornaments

Woohoo!  Since I finished my goals for the year in terms of completed quilts and assembled BOMs last Sunday, I pulled a fun Christmas kit out of my vast pool for a NewFO treat while I waited for Christmas Day to get here.

It was so easy, it went together very quickly. Even with the border cutting mistakes that I had to remedy.

The pattern calls for jumbo ricrac for the hanging strings, but I fell for this gimpy velvet stuff: 

I think it'll be pretty cool with the backing this quilt is getting.  (You have to use a pressing cloth with such things, or your iron will scorch them.)

I have yardage of this for the back:

But Scott is in *love* with fine-wale corduroy ever since I used some from my stash for those Scoot, Santa quilts. Wanted that over velvet or minky. Told him I'd have to order some, and that was fine by him. Being the 23rd, some Kaufman 21-wale black was on sale, with a bonus coupon on top of that AND free shipping. How could I pass that up?  :D

So, instead of being all pinned and half-way quilted by now, this flimsy is on hold while we wait for its back half to arrive.  It's gonna be pretty darn cool, I think.   

And now I need something to do with those fun reindeer in the trees. . . But first I'm playing with another NewFO from the storage pile - sneaking in some more Christmas fun before the New Year brings a return to the WIP lineup that I'm supposed to be focused on. ;D

~*~*~*~

I'm linking up at Whoop! Whoop! - thanks Sarah!

Christmas Snow :D

Thank you, Colorado - 

Christmas Snow our first year here.  :D

Our first icicles

back yard's a bit chilly for a Christmas picnic!

The birds love living under this tree

  

Snow Concert!

Whoa!  That's one morning's traffic at the basement patio feeder!
squirrels, birds, bunnies

Bun-Bun!

Sledding on our back hill! Best use of moving boxes ever.  :D

o/' Surfaris: Wipeout!

And, of course, the periodic chore work that comes with
the fun, gorgeous white stuff.

BOMs Away Monday - 24 Dec - Wild Rose flimsy & Mitering borders tutorial

Welcome to my Link-Up for BOMs Away Mondays!

We'd love to see the BOM you're working on lately.
This week's link-up is at the bottom of this post.

She's a flimsy! 

Wild Rose Cottage is off the BOM list, waiting patiently for her turn at the longarmer's.  

And did you notice she's also the "model" for the BOMs Away button?  ;D

I thought I would share how I measure out borders (and sew them) when I want them mitered. I've tried other "cheater" methods, but ended up with ripples and caved-in corners, so I stick to this method now:

After cutting 4 strips that are each longer than the quilt's finished measurements (the middle measurement plus 2x the border width), I put a pin at the point I want for the middle. If you want to fussy-place large prints, you'll need to make sure your strips are long enough to accommodate the placement you want.

Fold the border in half, lined up perfectly, and put a pin in there (this will stay in there until you pin the border to the quilt).  
Lay it on the grid with the long edge that will join the quilt positioned closest to you. 



Line that pin  up perfectly with the 0 edge of your mat. Keep the border aligned with the grid, and put another pin exactly on your last line. (My mat is 36", so with the fabric folded, this gives me 72" so far on my border.)

Now I can slide the border over on the grid so I can measure out the rest of my length. Don't forget you get twice as much measurement as each mark since the fabric's doubled over.

Making mitered corners is all about the finished ends of the seams, NOT the edges of the fabric. So, when you pin the final measurement, place the insertion point 1/4 inch away from the edge and exactly on the length measurement you need for the finished length of the quilt's center. I needed 79 1/2", so my end is at a 1/4" mark here.

Grab a ruler with a 45-degree line. Place that line on the top edge of the border so that the edge farther from you will be longer than the edge closer to you.

Keeping that 45-degree line perfectly lined up on top, slide the ruler sideways until the 1/4" line intersects the insertion point of your measuring pin. 

You DON'T want the edge of the ruler at that pin point! You need your seam allowance added in.

Carefully pull the pin out before you make your cut! Your blade won't like it if you forget.

You will have a perfectly-angled border piece ready to be attached. Find the center of your quilt and match the mid-pin on the border to that point.

Then move to one of the edges. When you pin these, do not match the side edges of the fabrics. That will make your mitered Y-seam yucky. 

You need to stick the pin first into that obtuse border corner so that it is 1/4" from the top edge and 1/4 from the diagonal edge - see that white V I drew there? That's where you measure your 1/4 inches.

Match up that finished point on the mitered piece to the 1/4" finish point on the quilt edge:

Then pin the in-between parts and do the other side the same way.

Can you see in the close-up below that the crossing of the fabric edges does not match up at 1/4 inch below your sewing edge? That's how it should be. Remember: You're matching the seam end point, NOT the fabric end edges. And yes, being lazy about this will affect your Y-seams.

When you sew the seam, you're only sewing between your end pins. Use backstitching to secure your seam, and make sure you don't go past the pins. Press the border away from the quilt.

Go ahead and attach two opposing borders. Doesn't matter if you go side & side or top & bottom.

Can you see how the stitching ends right at this pin below?  You can also see that I've added the other borders. If you've done things right, that second seam end butts up right against the seam beginning for the first side you put on.

When you have all your borders on the quilt, it's time to do the Y-seams that finish your corners. 

The key is to fold that inside section running straight away from your stitching line so that it lets you match up your raw edges smoothly. Below, the fold extends to the right.

Make sure the seam allowances are folded out of your way - in this case, the one on top and the hidden one on the bottom are both folded to the right, away from my stitching area. 

The pin was carefully inserted so that both seam ends come together in one spot. I stab straight down through both points exactly, pinch it securely, then remove the pin so that I can insert it carefully at the slant needed to finish the pinning. If you stab it straight in, then rotate it down to finish the pinning, it will slide your fabrics ever-so-slightly - but that slight bit is enough to mess up your Y-join sometimes.

Even though it's a pain to start sewing at triangle ends, I find it infinitely easier to start on the clean end of the seam (and this time from the very edge), then work my way toward the meeting point, stopping at that pin. I can just see so much better to get that perfect join where all 3 seams meet.

Another thing - that seam's on the bias, so it'll stretch and get messy if you let the quilt's weight hang down and pull on it - especially if it's a big ol' queen or king! So make sure you've got your quilt all up on the table next to the machine bed.

And Voila! You have a nice mitered border. :)   It's a real pain the first couple of times, but once you get practiced, these mitered borders and Y-seams won't intimidate you at all anymore.

~*~*~*~*~ 

 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

UFO Shot Down!! Wagon Wheels West 2 is finished at long, long last. :D

I can't believe this quilt is finally finished. Complete with label!

78" x 98"

It is a twin of one I made for my father, except that this one has the Hobbs Tuscany Wool for batting.

They are an execution of Charlotte O'Leary's "Wagon Wheels" in the same fabrics she used. They were both started late in 2008 after a serious Internet search for the fabrics from shops around the country. The line was already 2 or 3 years old at that time, so it was a little tough to find everything.

I made the quilts as a family heirloom tribute to a straight line-up on our family tree of remarkable people who made the Western pioner trek across the United States in wagon trains and handcart companies. The reproduction fabrics cover the range of those migrations, from 1846 to the 1890s. The flag fabric is easy to pin-point, as the US flag had 30 stars from 1848-1851.

Patty Butcher, my fantabulous local longarmer back in Niceville, did all the quilting except the names that I wanted to add myself in the triple inner borders. She was a real trooper, working with my covered wagon and handcart motifs that I wanted in the center of each wheel block.

To put in the names, I found a font I like, blew it up humongous, and traced them straight off my laptop onto Golden Threads paper. . .

. . . which I pinned around the border and free-motion quilted right through. Worked like a charm!

The names on mine are a bit different from the ones on my dad's, reflecting the branches from my mother's side.  All 16 of my great-great grandparents!

Every one of them made that journey.

Margaret Nebraska Imlay was even born en route on the plains of Nebraska. Can you imagine??? At least it was June, and not January!  I actually have 17 names on mine, because Margaret's mother, born Anna Eliza Coward, was no coward. That's for certain.

As I noted on the label: Here’s to the faith, the grit, the sheer determination these men and women proved themselves with as they went west to find their Zion.

P.S. - Linda made me remember part of these quilts' story, so I'm pasting in my reply:

 You know - I saw the quilt online and instantly got that idea for the names. Once I worked up the broken wheel blocks, though, I *hated* the project!  lol  They were not my colors or style and just made me feel bleh to work with. So they went boxed away for a year or so. Then I felt guilty, pulled them out, cut the sashing, and laid them all out on the floor. And magic happened, you know? They just looked so great together. I'm really glad I set them to marinate for a while rather than giving them away!

~*~*~*~*~

Thanks to these great hosts for superb inspirational link-ups! You should check these places out for more cool projects folks have finished. :D

* Link A Finish Friday at Richard's * *

.