April Report with NewFOs

How can it already be time to wrap up the next month?  Looking at my goal post for April, it went well. I had listed 4 goals for 4 UFOs and WIPs:

✓   My UFO of over two years, Wild Rose Cottage, is finished!

✓   Baby English 1.0 with a matching book bag, is finished and should arrive at my sister's today.

✓   Run, Kitty, Run got all its walking foot quilting and I did about 1/3 of the feather FMQ on the blue bands. I had to relinquish the machine that does FMQ to Marissa half-way through the month for her to do her community service quilt work (still not available to me), so I do need to finish the rest of the blue quilting. In that work place, though, I got many more Jane blocks caught up.

✓   Hoot Twister NETY (UFO family of Never-Even-Touched-Yet kits) pulled into action!


Now, before I go into the report on the "official" NewFO of the month, I have to mention that there was also the emergence of "Hello, Moon!" on my BOM rotation to learn a technique for other BOMs that are stalled for the next step. 

Except that these are all stitched now. Too late for photo update.

As well as my 15yo's community service quilt project for her Civics class. She needed enough tutoring and help that this was a collaboration project. Come back Friday for her story!

Now on to the "Real" NewFO news:

Back in January, I'd projected the NewFO intention to pull the It's A Hoot (by Momo) layer cake and yardages that I'd purchase back in - oh - 2011 to make a Twister quilt with. 

Well, the Twister idea is still on my list of wanna-do's, but it wasn't entirely floating my boat for this layer cake once I opened it up. So I hit my pattern stack and pulled out "Mod Medallions" by Amber Johnson of A Little Bit Biased.

While Marissa used my Sapphire this last week and a half to quilt her Civics community service project, I traced and prepped the blocks, and sewed on the sashes and cornerstones. 

Got all the field blocks finished so I could figure out a layout. 

I'll sew it together using the webbing strategy. (Linda talks about that here.) I really like how you don't have to keep laying rows out for that method, but this is a bit larger quilt and it will get quite heavy to manipulate about half-way through the center. So I'll do it in two separate webs and join them afterward. They're carefully stacked and labeled - A,B,C,D,E & A2,B2,C2,D2,E2.

But tomorrow's May, which means a return to the previous WIP priorities. So I wrote a detailed note to myself and meticulously stacked everything in a fancy project box (those Amazon boxes are the perfect size, I'm tellin' ya!). It'll sadly go on the "I'll get back to you as soon as I can" shelf. But at least it's out of Cold Storage and on the work line!

That quilt next to it?!!!!  Some of you have seen Kay of Borderline Quilter blog about it, and some have seen Judi of Green Fairy Quilts blog about its twin.  Exciting UFO finishes coming up for May!!!  But that's for tomorrow's Goal Post.  ;D

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Linking to:

    

http://apassionforapplique.blogspot.com/

BOMs Away - Apr 29 - Jane meets Spidey

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.

My husband smiled when he saw my Jane babies lining up this week

He gleefully snagged up the red, crowing: "It's Spiderman!"

I can see it

He cracks me up so much.  :D 

And now, instead of being something like 65 blocks behind the BOM schedule, I'm only 11 behind.

So far there are 3840 pieces in my Rainbow Jane quilt!

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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.
  

TGIFF is Here Today at the Wild Rose Cottage Celebration

Welcome to this week's landing spot for TGIFF!

It was a clever idea that Laura and M-R had to develop a weekly link-up where the hosting responsibilities are divvied up to lighten the load. And this week it's my turn! If you want to explore  further, here is its mother page: TGIFF.  

(Today's link-up is below my own finish report.)

I'm very excited to share with you a really terrific finish that I've been looking forward to for quite some time: Wild Rose Cottage.

79" x 79"

This quilt has been on my UFO list for a couple of years. It's my rendition of the 2010 Patchwork Party in the finishing kit from Suzanne's Quilt Shop. These are annual block parties (sometimes two per year) where 12 online shops each make a block from Marti Mitchell templates and one of her fabric collections, then each shop works up its individual finishing pattern. I love seeing the huge differences that come from the same 12 foundation blocks and same fabrics. You can check that effect out at the latest party - its Gallery is still up. 

Kathy's photo at Tamarack Shack

The sweet florals and breezy colors of this one snagged me, so I collected the blocks and kit to do up as a BOM. In fact, one of its blocks is the model for the BOMs Away button! 

I did tweak the medallion a bit. I wanted to go with applique instead of piecing, and I wanted to soften the overall effect. 

I also "tented" the fence posts instead of leaving them straight-topped. Boy, was that a task!  At least I embraced my affinity for modern approaches and did that as wonky as my heart desired. Kept things moving along much faster than if I'd tried to keep it all even. And it looks better this way.

Kathy's photo at Tamarack Shack

This is one of the quilts that I wanted to send out for longarming because of its large size, and because at the time that I placed it on a waiting list, I was still lacking confidence that my own FMQ skills would yield a happy result for me. I'm so glad Kathy took it on at Tamarack Shack!! 

She did the best quilting job, finding a really nice mid-line between decorative custom quilting and functional every-day scale (am I making sense?) This was to be a quilt that would be comfortable on a bed rather than close-quilted like a master show quilt. I love Kathy's style and knew she'd come up with some fantastic motifs.  Here is her blog post about doing the quilting on this: Wild Rose Cottage Quilt. She's let me use some of her shots in this write-up, as she got some great ones.

Kathy's photo

She  even put in the cutest dog on the front lawn for me. I'd asked if she could try that just to tickle my husband's fancy - which it does! (We don't have a dog, and he does love them).

Kathy's photo at Tamarack Shack

And I love the large studio tote that she sent the quilt home in:

So my fingers flew for several hours this morning to finish stitching the binding on this romantic gal in time to photo-op her before the afternoon thundershowers arrived. I was rather excited, because all our snow finally melted yesterday and things were actually dry enough to take her outside. 

And wouldn't you know!!  Just as I was looking around to see what other poses I could manage on my own, who comes driving around the corner but my very own super-cool Air Force Dude?!  My husband works such demanding hours at the clinic, that I am not exaggerating when I say this is probably only the third time since 1990 that he has been able to come home for lunch. 

And when I came running around the corner with Rose draped over my shoulders and the camera bouncing on my belly, he happily offered to hold her up for more shots. 

Isn't she a sweet quilt?!  Now I just need to get a hanging sleeve on her so we can put her up before she starts any bed duty. My usually rather blase 19yo got enthusiastic about this one and said "You need to hang that one up, Mom!" So I will. - -  I think I'll share her at a couple shows, too, before bed duty!

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BOMs Away - Apr 22 - Crazy Cat Says "Hello Moon!" and a Tip for Fusing

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.

Urgh!  I was going to assemble my full Beachwalk top for this week's BOM, but I can't find the sand castle anywhere! Casualty of the move - looked everywhere I could think of, but nothing yet. . . This is the block - It's something like 16" x 33". Please let me know if you see it around!!  ;D

So I moved down the BOM list and hit the stash. Got this fun Crazy Cat cut out and fused, ready for the stitching. The pattern's from the free BOM by Helena Brorhed. It's a fun block made per request with a purple background - something of a challenge!

And I started on "Hello, Moon!" a month earlier than planned. It's a free BOM by April Mae at Making Ends Meet:

Too bad none of the sparkles show up here on the couple of gray fabrics that have them.

Hey, do you know about this trick when you're fusing things? Look below and you can see how I kill two rats with one stone by trimming out the inside of larger shapes to 1/4" width of fusing inside the cutting line before I stick the stuff to the backside of the fabrics. 1) This saves a ton of fusible material, as you can trace smaller objects inside the larger objects - that star's fusing web shape was inside the moon's, for example. 2) It also takes away that nasty stiffness you get on fused blocks! Especially when you're layering things, like on the cat's stomach above. This works two-fold: A) the fusible layer is gone from all but the "seam allowance" area; B) After it's fused on, you can snip out the background fabric from behind - which also allows light-on-dark layers to look better!

Technically, I'm not supposed to be starting any new BOMs at all, as I still have 3 or 4 or 5 in deep storage, waiting to be pulled onto the active BOM list. But this one will let me learn and practice a particular style of stitching that will let me move forward on my McKenna Ryan BOMs. Between watching the amazing stitching works of Kit Lang and Monika Kinner-Whalen, and doing these Moon blocks, I ought to break past my fears of destroying all my hard trace-cut-and-fuse work on Beachwalk, Sea Breeze, and Once Upon a Star. Won't it be nice to develop those so they can be quilted!  

Oh!!  And I got 6 more Dear Jane blocks caught up this week:

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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.  

WIP - Marissa's Community Sewing

Hi there!  My own WIP work is moving very slowly - still the Dear Jane catch-up, and some binding stitching on an exciting upcoming finish. 

But the FMQ feathers on the blue fields in Run, Kitty, Run have been put on hold while I let my 15yo use the machine I normally do my quilting on. 

In her Civics class she has to do an approved community service project, and she's making a quilt for Restore Innocence, an organization that helps women and girls who have been rescued from human trafficking. Their Cinderella House in Colorado Springs is not too many miles from us here in the next town up the highway.

This is the teen version of playing with your quilt layout. :)    Note that you must lay out with it!

She's got the rows all sewn together and some of the sashes put in, too, but getting a shot of her at the machine last night got nixxed because she got ill around dinnertime and went to bed early. This is the plan she has, using some fat 16ths I got in a retreat swag bag and Kona snow from my stash:

It's fun to watch her working on her quilt!  It's going to be a hard one to let go of, too. We couldn't find anything in the stash that would be good for the backing, and were bummed, until Dad said "She has a sponsor!" and he's springing for her to shop with the latest JoAnn's coupon for a backing she loves. What a guy. :D  (He knows I'm on a shopping hold while things gets under better control.)

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Linking up at

Quilt Story's Fabric Tuesday

Lee's WIP

Pat's Show and Tell

Esther's WOW

BOMs Away - 14 April - Lattices for Ruffled Roses and some Baby Janes

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.

Well, I'd wanted to get this round of Ruffled Roses all assembled and attached to the medallion, but TAXES had to be done, which wiped out 3 whole days this week.  ::bleh::

I did get 3 sides put together. It's fun to see how much they shrink from the joining seams.

And for Dear Jane, this week I got 6 blocks finished.  That corner kite has 72 pieces in it!!  It's been at my piecing station for a good two weeks.

~*~*~*~*~ 

 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 :D Baby English 1.0 w/Book Set

Another finish that I'm so in love with.  :D

Baby English 1.0
40" x 40"

This quilt is for my youngest sister, who's about to have her first baby. It's one of this year's rare not-UFO/NETY projects. I knew I wanted to do a mix-and-white chevron or diamond HST layout so I could play with some cool Free-Motion Quilting in the white bands.I also needed to stick to stash during this UFO/stash-busting year. Plus, there is ZERO fabric budget for at least another 4 months of wallet tightness. Moving and then unexpected attorney costs will do that!

So, in my stash I found yards and yards of this fun Owl and the Pussycat fabric. Grabbed some blues to play with it, grabbed that shrinking Kona-snow bolt I'd bought on a super-sale a couple years ago, and went to work.

My inspiration was this chevron quilt made by Kathy at Tamarack Shack, who was totally cool with me mimicking the quilting.

But then I wanted to make my fmq coordinate with the novelty print, which has these bead-looking strands and the sailboat-on-the-sea thing going. (Mastering the spirals fill will have to wait.)  So I did rows of pearls against the blue bands to make those pop out more and put wave-evoking spirals down the centers. I free-hand marked those somewhat, because I couldn't stitch them out with consistent spacing otherwise. I did use cotton thread (that's the 50wt Aurifil there), which pulls minky fluff through from the back. You can see the blue pops in the stitches. But in this particular case, it had an enhancing effect, so I didn't use poly thread to get away from that. (I don't want this effect on the current FMQ work, which also has a minky back, so I'm using a poly thread there. More on that in a couple weeks.)

I just love the dimensionality created by the simple single-line quilting down the blues. You can kind of see here how they pop out so well:

The batting is a thin poly, but it's coupled with a minky back, which adds to the puff. It's about the same as the puff you'd get with a thick poly and a normal quilter's cotton back. I am always completely enchanted with the quilting on a minky back!

I had enough of the blue plaid left to use that for the binding. Turned out great!

As I was cutting the blues, I thought "I really need to try to use more of this print!" (There's this *crazy* yardage of it - something like 8 altogether. No clue what I was thinking. I must have picked it up at a yard sale or something.)  So I decided to make a tote to go with the quilt.  

And then, of course, I needed to get the book to go *in* the tote to go with the quilt. And I found a hard copy with cover art that goes with the fabric so perfectly!  

I used Poppyseed Fabric's tutorial here. Tweaked it a little to incorporate some of the left-over HST's, which I'd made using the 8-at-once method that Lynn describes here. So fast!!!

Now I'm just waiting for a name to do the label, and then this set will sail off to Texas.  :D

(Selma says: "Hi! Whatcha doin'?!"

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Linking up at

Michelle's "Let's Make Baby Quilts!"

Thearica's "It's a Saturday Sharing Day!"

TGIFF

Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!

Link-a-Finish Friday