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Friday, May 31, 2013

May Report

Well, May went a little off-track with the final arrival of gorgeous spring weather and social mayhem. Let's see what happened with the plans for the month:

UFO Finishes:

Dragonfly Party 2 is finished as of yesterday morning!! 




This is the one that was quilted by Kay in Scotland, and it will get a comprehensive finish post when its twin - Dragonfly Party 1, quilted by Judi in Utah - has its binding all stitched down as well. Give me a couple of weeks to get that done; I started it last night. It's amazing how much slower hand-stitching a binding is for quilts that have glorious dense quilting. But it's well worth it! I'm getting super antsy for the photo op of the two.  :D

Kelly's 1930's -  I did not even start with that one. I hadn't dreamed that I wouldn't get both of the Dragonfly bindings finished in May.

Mermaid Fantasy for Heather - another one on my May goal post that I did not begin to get to.  

NETY of the Month - Full flimsy status! "Daisy, Daisy" was posted yesterday on my May NewFO report.   It's gorgeous :D





WIPS: Same Focii


Run, Kitty, Run advanced hardly at all due to my FMQ machine being away for 2 weeks and greatly diminished sewing time.

BOMs are the same 4, which you've seen moving along in my Monday BOMs Away link-up posts.

Dear Jane is now fully caught up with the original 2-year shop schedule! It's still moving along, but at a much slower pace. Its chart moved from this stage:



to this stage:



I was hoping for two UFO completions and one WIP pretty darn close to being finished. I got one UFO off the list, but that priority WIP didn't move much. There was a good amount of distraction progress in NETY work, though, which helps the overall UFO situation, and the standard BOM progress happened. So overall I'm very happy for the forward motion of a month that became far more hectic than I'd realized it would be.


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Linking to:


My Button  Never Too Hot To Stitch!  

Thursday, May 30, 2013

NewFO Report for May - It's a Hoot - Daisy, Daisy - fabric for Mother's Day


2013NewFO
I really have been getting bits of sewing in beyond the weekly BOM time. We've just been busy with gorgeous weather activities, college kids home again, visitors, and friends' children's graduations - so my blogging time has been shoved to the back burners. But I wanted to get my monthly NewFO report up, especially since that sewing has thoroughly enchanted me this month.  

First of all, when May 1 rolled around and I was supposed to put April's away in the stage it was at, I just couldn't. I loved it too much and kept feeling the pull to finish it to flimsy stage. And Barbara was a superb enabler.  ;D



So - my Momo "It's a Hoot" layer cake and yardage became this gorgeous quilt top using  Amber Johnson of A Little Bit Biased's Mod Medallions pattern.  I already have some ideas of how I want to quilt it, but that stage is definitely tabled until I accomplish some priority finishes.

I really liked how this pattern worked with the layer cake. The medallions are just a wee bit smaller than the pre-cuts, so you have a little wiggle room to fussy-cut things like this one when they're not centered on the cake layer:




Once I finished that top, it was time to pull a new kit from storage for May's NewFO. (An easy diversion from the priority quilting finish to justify since my Sapphire was in shop for annual maintenance and the project helps with lowering the UFO/NETY load.)




This is another one that enchanted me too much to get to the blocks-made stage and then put away again, so "Daisy, Daisy" is also a complete flimsy. Both are carefully folded and in clip hangers, adding more beauty to my "Waiting-to-be-quilted" closet. I'm glad I pushed through with it, as it thoroughly charmed my husband, too.  :D

My brain has been spinning about next month's NewFO, which will create something from one of the three pieces of quilting fabrics that my 19yo gave me for Mother's Day.  I got 2 yards of blue with a nice large-scale butterfly/floral print, 2 yards of funny owls, and a yard of small-scale border print. When your daughter does that for you on a shopping-diet year, how can you not ignore the storage closet of untouched kits and do something brand new?   But I'm being good. I'm only going to pull from stash to coordinate in whatever design I come up with for the really fun Opal Owls piece. Come back in 2 or 3 weeks to see that flimsy.  ;D

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

BOMs Away - 27 May - Hello Moon, Dear Jane, and Spruce Mountain

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib6FEw-InTZOIaLrsh7raXFspj2e1T12kCO8l-1fE90gdy6n4l1MW2uvunLaRnasRzTevZmJGQUxFSneppP1tAy6D3038PFUnZoe3kZkA6pv4O9beBUFKk-l_8VIx2zK7QOjm3Pv7Ki7I/s1600/BOM+Button.jpg

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.



Hello! A bit late here - I hope you had a good weekend. We enjoyed a nice hike around Spruce Mountain.


The trail head starts in meadowland with a nice view of Eagle Mountain.



Loved that perfect cloud play behind rock formations on the east end of Spruce!



Scott and I - Pike's Peak still snowcapped right behind us and 
beyond the Rampart Range.



On the trail looking back toward home.
Marissa, Devon, Me, and Heather



That view toward home - 
Palmer Divide on the right, Baldy in the middle, and True on the left.





BOM work this week - 

I got the rest of the revealed "Hello, Moon!" blocks fused. 



Did I ever show the first two in their finished state?



And five more Baby Janes - leaving only 11 to make. I really can't believe my Dear Jane blocks are almost all finished! 




So far this quilt has exactly 4500 pieces of fabric stitched together. . .

~*~*~*~*~ 

 So - what have you 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.


Sunday, May 19, 2013

BOMs Away Monday - 20 May - Swap, Janes, Scott's USAFA Surgeon Command Coin


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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.



Crazy busy here. This week for BOM sewing I did my swap partner's block, so just a peek:



and 5 Jane babies leaves me at only 1 behind schedule:



I've also been wanting to share the latest Air Force coin that my husband was awarded a couple of weeks ago. Being active duty Air Force since 1990, he's got quite a large collection by now, but what I find so special about this one is that the way Scott handled the emergent situation, the Commander awarded the coin not only to him, but also to everyone under Scott's command. In my book, that's pretty stinkin' cool.  :D





~*~*~*~*~ 

 So - what have you 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.




Sunday, May 12, 2013

BOMs Away - Mother's Day, Ruffled Roses, and Jane


https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib6FEw-InTZOIaLrsh7raXFspj2e1T12kCO8l-1fE90gdy6n4l1MW2uvunLaRnasRzTevZmJGQUxFSneppP1tAy6D3038PFUnZoe3kZkA6pv4O9beBUFKk-l_8VIx2zK7QOjm3Pv7Ki7I/s1600/BOM+Button.jpg

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 have had the best time for Mother's Day - this is the first time in 11 years that I've had all three of the girls with me for the day. It was gorgeous outside, so we spent some time hiking around on the trails near the Air Force Academy. 








I just love these ladies.  :)  



Even when they're photo-bombing. . .   lol~!

 


We also got what has apparently become a regular Sunday visit from the nursery herd of mule deer in our area. They are a group of 9 mothers and juveniles that roam together. I think they are 3 mature mothers, 3 "babies", and 3 "teens".





Today the mothers and a teen settled down for rests under the ponderosas while the young ones lapped happily at the various bird feeders around the yard. Can you find all 5 deer in the shot below?




So - second week of the month is for Ruffled Roses. Got its trellis border finished and attached, along with the next stop-border to protect all those seam ends. 




And somehow I got 7 more Jane babies caught up despite a gruelling 1750-mile-in-two-days trip to St. Louis to move our oldest home from college for the summer. Got a nice little walk in with her on the Greenland trail by Palmer Lake on Friday morning. 







I hope you guys have had a nice week as well!


~*~*~*~*~ 

 What have you 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.
  




Sunday, May 5, 2013

BOMs Away - 5 May 2013


https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib6FEw-InTZOIaLrsh7raXFspj2e1T12kCO8l-1fE90gdy6n4l1MW2uvunLaRnasRzTevZmJGQUxFSneppP1tAy6D3038PFUnZoe3kZkA6pv4O9beBUFKk-l_8VIx2zK7QOjm3Pv7Ki7I/s1600/BOM+Button.jpg

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.


First of all, 




to my Mexican friends!!


This week's BOM focus was Kelly's project, and the work load was so much nicer than the last two months' directions!

First, make a Tree of Life (in duplicate)

And spin it around if you are Blogger.   ;D

Then add the smaller stars to get this unit:


It's getting there!


And, the weekly Dear Jane catch-up pile:



Hard to believe, but it won't be too terribly long until this project is off my BOM list!


[Side grumble: Clearly, my camera is no longer functioning properly! Sorry for all the blurriness.]


~*~*~*~*~ 

 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.
  

Friday, May 3, 2013

Finish Report - Marissa's Restore Innocence Civics Project

In our school district, Civics is a required class for graduation, and to pass that class, you must do a minimal number of hours of an approved community service. Marissa got permission to make a quilt under the auspices of the Front Range Modern Quilt Guild, and her targeted organization was Restore Innocence. Before moving out here to Colorado and coming into contact with people who work with rescued girls and women, I had no clue about the extent of human trafficking in the United States. It's truly appalling.

The best way for us to journal this for me to insert her report, so I'm just going to do that.  :)  Hope you enjoy, and may you be inspired to include a little community service sewing each month in your lives - be that making quilts for Restore Innocence, Quilts of Valor, firehouses or police stations, or battered women and children's center, Christmas stockings for children's centers, bibs for Alzheimer's patients, fetal demise pouches for stillborns, wheel chair lap quilts for nursing homes, or individual blocks for any variety of gifts of love to people near and far. 

Here are Marissa's words:

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For my Civics project, I made a quilt for Restore Innocence. This included piecing the top, basting all the layers together, and quilting it. The quilt I made used a rainbow of colors on a white background. The entire quilt is 165 separate pieces. This part took about six and a half hours.


Finding a layout I like

I went to the April meeting of my mom’s quilt guild to show them the top. It took my mom and I about an hour and a half to pin-baste the layers. I quilted it in a grid-work style that’s popular with modern quilting. My mom did about a third of the quilting to get it finished on time, and it took us each about four hours to quilt the entire thing. Once the quilt was finished it was washed, so it would be clean and ready for its future owner. On the third Saturday of May, I will show the guild the finished quilt, and then turn it in to Restore Innocence.


Sewing rows together

At the guild meeting I learned that my work making a quilt helps them at the same time that it helps the charity I chose. This is because the guild is a non-profit organization and keeps track of its community service hours to help determine its tax-free status. But the real beneficiary will be a girl, probably very close to my age, at the Cinderella House in Colorado Springs. “Restore Innocence is a faith-based, 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to helping victims of child trafficking. Because of the lack of aftercare facilities specific to victims of domestic minor sex trafficking in the United States, Restore Innocence operates The Cinderella House, a safe house where victims can find true restoration.”


Showing the top at the guild meeting

What new skills did I learn? I learned more about color theory, such as how the traditional R-B-Y color wheel is all wrong. I learned how to use an advanced sewing machine, and also how to pin-baste a quilt. You need to tape the layers down on a flat surface. You can’t let the pins be too far apart, or else the quilt will have ugly creases in the back.


Pin-basting the layers

I would say it was a positive experience because nothing really happened that was negative. I scraped up my finger pulling pins when the quilt was done, but overall, it went well.

Learning to use the safety-pin tool

I have grown personally working on this project, because I learned that there’s so much more to community service than volunteering. The guild my mom goes to now does things like fetal demise bags, so mothers who have stillbirths don’t need to take their baby home in a brown paper bag. They also do firehouse quilts, so that if a child’s home burns down, the fire station can give the child a quilt. The Flying Needles quilt guild focuses on quilts of valor for military people who are injured on deployment, wheelchair lap quilts for nursing homes, quilted bibs for Alzheimer’s patients, and quilted stockings for children’s centers. And my mother told me about opportunities for community sewing that are organized in the blog world; for example, in the past year, she has answered calls for cheerful pillowcases for the surviving elementary students at Sandy Hook, quilt blocks for a woman whose husband died of a brain tumor, quilt blocks for a young bride whose husband was killed in Afghanistan, and most recently, blocks for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing.

Showing the finished quilt to Mrs. Richie, my Guild supervisor

I never realized how much community service you can do from your own home. It’d be great for someone who’s very introverted, or has just moved to somewhere new and doesn't know anyone.


Here you can see the back

When I took the finished quilt to Mrs. Richie’s house, she told me how I probably won’t be able to give my quilt directly to a girl because after the FBI bring them in, their identities and locations are kept secret for their protection. I’m glad I made a quilt though, because for a lot of them, this will be their first personal item, as they don’t even have the clothes off their back because they’ve been taken for evidence.



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I just love the giant smile on her face when she was showing her quilt to Melissa.  This quilt is 65" x 72", has a scrumptious batiste backing with a very thin poly batt, which made for a super-scrunchable feel that just begs you to squish it in a hug. 


You gotta love the rainbow ice cream fabric that called to her!


The feature squares are the Mirror Ball Dot Michael Miller fabric. I let Marissa use up the set of 18 colors in fat-sixteenths that I got in my swag bag at the Crazy Old Ladies retreat in February, along with a bunch of my Kona snow yardage. Scott sponsored her for buying backing fabric since we couldn't find anything in my stash that looked really great for it, and it was going out as a special gift from the heart. 




I did put the binding on for her since she was out of time, way over the required hours, and had never done that before. Whenever her next quilt-making time is, I'll teach her that skill, too.  



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Linking up at