March Finishes and April Goal Posts

BOMs Away is here:  

My March Work is smile worthy.  :)

I kept up with my BOM work and even caught up a large number of Dear Jane blocks with my evening hand-stitching time, so that my chart moved from this:

to this:

As for my list of "regular" quilt work - well - take a look:

My Amaretto Cottage (UFO) is finished.

Run, Kitty, Run (Gift from stash) is basted and stabilized. I didn't get all the walking foot part of the quilting finished as I'd wanted (had to order the correct thread). But. . . see the next item.

Baby English 1.0 (Gift from stash)  is completely quilted, not just its walking foot portion. So that more than makes up for the above. Still need to make the coordinating book bag.

You Must Be Croaking (NETY - UFO family) is nicely started

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April Goal Post:  

Wild Rose Cottage (UFO) - bind it for the finish!!

Baby English 1.0 (Gift from stash) - bind it for the finish; make the book bag; mail to Katie

Run, Kitty, Run (Gift from stash) - get the walking foot quilting done and the blue portion of the FMQ done.

Hoot Twister (NETY - UFO family) - Get this pulled into the mix for the year for April's NewFO.

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Linking to:

    

 

BOMs Away - 31 Mar - Ruffled Roses & Dear Jane

Welcome to the 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.

A reminder: Good ol' Google Reader's going out on us all. Guess the most popular shift is to Bloglovin, so I'm doing that.

Here's the link they provide for folks to transfer the blogs they follow and me to get my blog claimed in their system:

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

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Now for the Block-of-the-Month business:

112. That's a lot of lattice pieces for just one portion of a BOM step!

I didn't make colored eggs this year - but these are perfect Easter colors, so I'm not feeling left out.

Enough hours put in just making these - I'll leave the lattice border assembly for next month. Still love this quilt, though.

And I somehow managed to get 12 Jane blocks finished this week.  

So, in the month of March I made 34 of these, which catches me up to "only" 37 behind the schedule I'd wanted to maintain. Maybe in May I'll be back on track.  :D

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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.  

Finish Report!!! Amaretto Cottage finally spotlighted :D

Amaretto Cottage

112" x 112"

pieced in Niceville, FL

quilted by Margaret Gunn of Mainely Quilts of Love

Hobbs Tuscany Wool batting

I am so excited about this quilt. I've been chomping at the bit to get it photo-op'ed - it's been finished for weeks - but it's far too large at 112" square to capture the whole quilt indoors, and it's been too dirty outside between melted snows and muddiness to get its photo. We had a heavy snowfall a few days ago, so my family helped me take it out in the clean blanketing so I could finally post this beauty.

This is a Marianne Elizabeth design in the RJR fabrics intended for a 2012 BOM program, in the honey colorway.

I have never sewn anything so gigantic, but we needed something for a king size bed after this move. 

No way on earth could I quilt this baby at my desk-top machine, so I sent it out for custom longarming even though it's intended for bed use. 

Margaret Gunn did not let me down. She's so talented at creating dynamic, stunning, breath-taking quilting designs with incredible cohesiveness.

Even the challenge of differing grids in sampler-style blocks doesn't keep her from creating amazing unity.

And I absolutely *adore* the organic play she brought into this previously-very-angular quilt. There is so much movement in the curved hatching and the feather trails.

It sits so nicely on the bed, too, with the on-point medallion section of the design sitting perfectly on a king bed. 

The quilting shows up so lovely on the lavender back - I'm sure I'll sometimes use that gorgeousness backside up! 

I am in love. 

Apparently this quilt makes Koko happy, too.  :D

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Linking up at

Quilt Story's Fab Tuesday

TGIFF

Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!

Link-a-Finish Friday

WIP: March NewFO - You Must Be Croaking! and baby binding

Sunday was March 24th - totally Spring, right?

Well, I woke up to this!!

Perfect Christmas flocking, don't ya think?

And opened the back door to this:

And it kept snowing All Day Long, giving us a good 10" overall of nice, heavier-than-usual snow, so that 3 times I had to go out and do this:

Shoveling snow is a terrific calorie burner when you're working on losing weight!

That was actually the left-overs on the 25th, and only about 1 1/2" that time. But our drive does not get direct sun and it ices over nastily if you don't just go out there and clear it off. Plus, nobody wanted to boot up on the snowing day just to take a pic for me of the real shoveling, and the one time Scott was out with me, we and a neighbor were far too busy clearing the uphill road into our cul-de-sac. Plows refuse to do our communal drive. Usually I use the broom for this much here, but I didn't have a pic with the shovel.  ;D



So, if you recall, I participate in Barbara's NewFO fun by pulling something from my staggering storage of NETYs (kits/sets from the Never Even Touched Yet case).  I'd planned on doing a twister project with my HOOT layer cake and yardage, but 10" of snow on the day I was going to pull the NewFO - March 24! - made me laugh out loud for real when I went to that shelf and saw the kit for 

You Must Be Croaking.

Definitely the ticket!  The name is oh-so-apropos and an added bonus: NOT BLUE!  So tired right now of looking at my favorite color.








The fabric colors even look like they're trying to bring spring into my world! Don't gardens need tulips right now? 

Hmm - need to turn the bunny bench around so the base bunnies are facing people instead of the landscape wall. Probably ought to do that before Easter. ;D  

There is actually a good 5" layer on the bench under the fabric, although the camera flattened that dimension out.


Toodlin' away on the frogs.

I am really, REALLY enjoying the bright colors (although they're by no means neon). There are 6 different belly batiks and 4 different background yellows. I'm really disappointed in the kit's border fabric choices - very bad value pairings, nothing at all like the pattern picture, and not even a nice play with each other - but the frog and background fabrics are delectable, so I'm happy for now. I'll get them all made, then box it all up until I've finished a few other projects. When I come back to this one later in the year, I'm pretty sure I'll find substitutes in my stash for the border options I'm not happy with.


Update 3/30/13:

I finished the frog blocks as far as I want them to go at this point.  When I pull them back out for their priority turn later in the year, I think I'll embroider flies on some of them, and I'm also thinking I'll make their eyes be looking toward the nearest fly. So I'm not putting those on just yet.  :)

That was a super fun diversion from the "have to" sewing of the month!

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When I finish the frog blocks, it'll be time to put on the walking foot and bind this baby quilt!!  WOOHOO  :D  

 I am sooooo thrilled with how the quilting played out. 

Looks as awesome on the back as it does on the front, and that minky is divine to snuggle with.

And Thank You, Scott! for changing the two burned-out bulbs so I can see better in the evenings when I'm stitching on the hand-work Dear Jane blocks.  :)

Not an easy task with those crazy-high ceilings!

Hope you're having a good week!

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Linking up at

Pat Sloan's Show and Tell

Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday

Lee's WIP

Esther's WOW

Barbara's NewFO

BOMs Away Monday - 24 Mar - Beachwalk, Dear Jane

Welcome to the 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.

A reminder: Good ol' Google Reader's going out on us all. Guess the most popular shift is to Bloglovin, so I'm doing that.

Here's the link they provide for folks to transfer the blogs they follow and me to get my blog claimed in their system:

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

~*~*~*~*~

Now for the Block-of-the-Month business:

Boy, these jellies are really pretty off-camera, with their opalescent tentacles. You can kinda see that here.  

"Water Ballet" from McKenna Ryan's Beachwalk

And that's the last of the Beachwalk blocks! Next month I'll assemble the top and strike the name off the BOM list.  :) 

I also got 8 Dear Jane blocks finished during evening TV-stitching this week. Linking these up at Angie's Applique Thursday.

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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.  

WIPs - Baby English, Run Kitty Run, Jane Babies

FMQ Station - 

Let's get these parties started!!

"Run, Kitty, Run!"

"Baby English 1.0"

These are gift quilts that have top billing for my limited sewing time these days. Since they're both white and blue, and both have the same minky backing, I'm quilting them in tandem for each stage. I'm about half-way through the walking-foot white portion. To be followed by walking-foot blue, then FMQ white and FMQ blue.  If Baby English doesn't come early, I'm pretty sure I can actually have his quilt and book tote finished before he gets here.  :)

Afternoon Update: The walking-foot work went super quickly, so I even got to start in on the FMQ today. Just a tad finished before my time was up, but it sure was fun putting in some beads to make the blue bands pop and some waves to go with the sailboat theme in the novelty print! :)  

Piecing Station - 

Supposed to be doing Ruffled Roses lattice pieces, but my poor machine went >kaput<.  Going to drop it off at a repair shop today. . . 

Hand-work Station - 

Jane Babies in a never-ending stream right now each evening while we watch the show-of-the-night.

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Linking up at

Pat's Show and Tell

Lee's WIP

Esther's WOW

Claim Staking at Bloglovin. . .

Good ol' Google Reader's going out on us all. Guess the most popular shift is to Bloglovin, so I'm doing that. 

Here's the link they provide for folks to transfer the blogs they follow and me to get my blog claimed in their system:

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

BOMs Away - March 18 - Baby Janes & Birds

Welcome to the 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.

I got 10 Dear Jane blocks finished during my hand stitch time this week.  :)

And I made a pair of birds.

~*~*~*~*~ 

 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.