Finish Report! ~~ Devon's Earth Monkeys

I *love* how this turned out!  

Finished stitching the binding on I-80 last Friday, just west of North Platte, as we drove to St. Louis to move Heather back for her senior year of college. That corn smelled SO TERRIFIC! I was fairly tempted to sneak some, but I didn't want to rob some unknown farmer. So we were good.  ;D

This is Devon's quilt top - her first, and very possibly her only. . . Oh, look! I have a photo of her on the computer from about that time, probably a year or so later.

And here she is last summer. She's gone short and dark-haired since then for fun - here's her current Facebook profile pic. I love this woman - she makes me smile!

So. . . back to her quilt. Didn't she do a delightful job of color placement? The pattern had stars that were all the same, but she wanted all 3 colors and decided herself how to do that. She was . . . 13?14 at the time. 

Way back in the summer of 2009, I decided I wanted the girls to have something to show for their summer, so I had them each piece a quilt top. Being inexperienced in teaching new quilters, I didn't know enough to limit their choices to very simple designs. This one wasn't too far of a stretch for Dev in itself, but what I *did* realize - but lost the battle in - was that she was not going to have fun at all working with the silk jacquards she insisted on buying for her quilt. Between her natural complete lack of patience and the frustrating job of working with that silk on her first project, it wouldn't surprise me if Devon never puts a quilt together again.

But aren't those silks so radiant?!  Beautiful. They made the most gorgeous quilt. She's had to wait a log time for this to get quilted, but back in 2009/10, I couldn't have done this justice. Backs are so fun to look at:

There were some minor issues with puffiness in the center - an on-point design isn't the best choice for a first quilt - so I chose dense meanders on the black spinners and dense bamboo leaves for the tan backgrounds. We wanted the silk stars to have great dimension, so I went with wool batting and did more open quilting on those. Worked like a charm for both objectives. Stars have perfect faux-trapunto dimension, and all the puffy spots successfully compressed without warping. I'm impressed with the wool's feel under the density of quilting - it's not super stiff.  :)

If you remember, I had trouble figuring out what to do for quilting the border area. The quilt seemed to hold a subtle Asian trait, so I ended up surfing Japanese motifs. The fans inside the black stop border and the pampas clamshells outside turned out to be the perfect pairing, don't you think? 

These little flowers kept popping up in sashiko surf sessions, so I used them in the corners where there was more meandering than I cared for. Love them there. (Too bad the photo flipped upside down. . .)

The monkeys seriously amuse me. This guy below is just on top of the world now that the quilt is finished, washed, and blocked.  :D

And this fella cares not a whit that he's got to carry the whole world. . . 

And check out this fun duo!

Haha!  I just realized - she can have monkeys jumping on her bed. . . 

(I think I need some sleep)

I'll be linking up at some finish parties, so grab a banana and a drink and have a great break surfing through the celebrations.  :D

~*~*~*~

Linking up at

TGIFF hosted by Pippa this week

Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!

Link-a-Finish Friday

Finish Report for August

August Report

I got more things done than I thought I would this month. Sure helps to have these goal lists.  :)   And Dramamine/caffeine to let me work in the car on long drives moving kids back to their colleges. . . 

Linking to:

    

UFOs - 

• ✓  Devon's Silk Earth Monkeys - figure out what to quilt on the outside and get this one finished!!  Time to do up a finish report, so real pics on this soon  :D

• ✓  Kelly's 1930s - Stabilize the free end and work on the hand quilting, hopefully finishing one of the corner wreaths.  I did get an entire corner wreath finished, one sashing feather strip, and about 8 inches of border quilted. 

• Medieval Illumination - Pull it out of deep storage, fix the center, piece one more stained glass panel.  -- No go on this one so far. The finished portions and the box of most of the fabrics are found and brought up into the light, but the packet with the plans, notes, and cut-out crosses, etc., is still hiding somewhere. . . 

WIPs/NewFOs -   

• ✓  Whoooo's Your Mama? - start working on the berries.  I didn't say I had to get any actually sewn on!  ;D

• ✓  BIRTHDAY TREAT - Go hop the local quilt shops after surfing Pinterest inspirations and buy a brand new modern quilt project to do.  :)  Wash the fabrics, cut it out.  My actual birthday treat quilt is ready to be cut and played with, but the fabrics I also got for our king-size anniversary DWR quilt are all cut out and a few arcs are sewn.

BOMs -  

• ✓  Stay on schedule with Hello Moon and Kelly's.
• ✓  Dear Jane - get the center assembled in two halves, triangle borders assembled separately.   No! The entire quilt is assembled!  WOOHOO!
• ✓  Ruffled Roses - get another border stitched.

Community Sewing - 

• Pin-baste the gentleman's wheelchair quilt - I'm sad that I didn't get this done. I do have the backing ready to go, and if I can get the house all cleaned for my dad and his wife to arrive tomorrow, I will pin this tonight during the evening TV show.

August NewFO's Report - "Flight Commander" & "25th, Baby!"

Love Barbara's NewFO parties each month, and they're really helping me get these kits pulled out of stone-cold status and on their way to becoming quilts before my youngest is out of high school.  ;D  Lots of other fun projects emerging, so take a fun breakfast stroll through the other links.

My poor husband was moved into the world's dreariest office a couple weeks ago (I just saw it last week), so I threw together this wall quilt top. 

Need to stitch down the propellers and then quilt this baby so it can cheer up one spot. I wanted to make a subtle nod to the flight orientation of the Air Force as well as include some understated patriotism, thus the borrowing of the popular steampunk block and the color selection from the scrap box. 

Going to have fun with some terrain patterning for the fmq.

~*~*~

But the BIG NewFO is one of the sets of fabric from my birthday shopping trip. My actual Birthday Bash set is only washed and pressed (and augmented from stash), ready for some circle play for next month. But I *really* want to completely finish the king size double wedding ring quilt to be on our bed for our 25th Anniversary next August, which means that project has to start moving now.

 Washed and pressed all the fabrics; worked up my color scheme in EQ so I could print it out to keep track as I work (numbered all 199 melons), and then arduously cut out the controlled-scrappy sets for what I called the "starbursts." 

I"m alternating greens and plummish ones, which each use about 5 different fabrics to make up those yardages. Some are the new, some were in stash. It was kinda fun to mix and match them so I'd have a good spread over the whole quilt.

Best use of a concert grand piano, eh?  ;D  This project is not getting boxed-and-shelved, but will run in the background for 2 or 3 months. So, to protect it from feline disturbances, I've covered the grid with my largest acryllic quilting scribble panel. 

But this organization by starbursts is not what is needed for the actual sewing of the arcs. So I raided the "This Paper Still Has One Good Side" printing pile and our over-abundant supply of staples and made 20 pouches to tuck pieces in by arc. They fit nicely in this basket with some stacks of the mix of creams that fill in the mid-arcs between the starbusts. At least *those* could be pure randomness! I'll fill the pouches from the piano 20 arcs at a time, and hopefully they'll all be cleared off by Thanksgiving.

Next I cut all the connector pieces. The green starbursts will have the satin-dotted whites; the others will have the slightly-sparkly blue. When I was all finished, it occurred to me that I should have cut the whites from my wedding dress - that would have been cool!  Oh well, back to my back-burner plan to do something wall-quilt out of the dress ala Cindy Needham.

Then there were all the centers and melons to be cut. This is Kona Primrose. I couldn't decide in the store whether I wanted a solid background or the pretty pink blender that was vying with it. I bought both. I needed about the same yardage for the background as I did for the backing, so I decided the pair would work out either way. When I got all the florals together at home for the arcs, I liked the group much better on the solids - especially with the satin dots and sparkles on the connector fabrics. It'll all look very nice with the blender on the back when it's turned down on the bed.  :)

So, altogether I template-cut some 3,200 pieces in stacks of 4. That took all week!!  And gobbled up all my sewing time, so no machine work happened at all.  

I would highly recommend buying a thick template set for double wedding rings if you are going to make one of these quilts, even in just a sofa size. The set that came in a book I'd picked up at a yard sale years ago was FABULOUS - complete with little clingy-felt sticky dots to keep the fabric from sliding at the corners. With all those curves, it would have been way nasty working with cardstock or thin plastic templates. That's one purchase worth its money. Especially for a KING size! I really can't imagine doing that cutting job without these.

Oh, I decided not to go with the quick-curve ruler or paper piecing on this king size because the extra fabric necessary would have been prohibitive at this size. Big difference between 9 yards of background and 14 yards, eh?!

So, anyway, these are my WIPs right now, along with more hand quilting on Kelly's 1930s quilt during any evening TV times. That is slow going, but I'm getting better as I continue. Let's just say it's a good thing the border is such a busy print that can hide all my wobbles, or there'd be a GLARING difference between her work and mine.  ;D

Did you have any NewFO's this month?  :D 

~*~*~*~*~

Linking up at

Barbara's NewFO

Lee's WIP

Esther's WOW

BOMs Away - 26 Aug - Hello, Moon update

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.

It works out perfect for me that April Mae hasn't posted the next Hello, Moon block yet. (Hope she's just a busy-busy mom taking care of her gang at a crazy time of year for young families.) We just did a 1902-mile moving trip in a 36-hour stretch after a busy week of getting Heather ready to move back to college for her senior year. Exciting and nerve-wracking times for her as she awaits news for med-school applications/interviews. I'm hoping and praying for the best match possible!  So this was a great time to just focus on catching up all my previous blocks:

March

April

May

June

July

And the whole gang so far:

Isn't it TOO FUN?!

What did you do on your BOMs this week?  :)

~*~*~*~*~ 

 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.

"Birthday Bash"

What a fun spree!!!  Allowed to just shop my heart's content within needs and reason at the local quilt shop after a full year of new-fabric dieting. . .  Wow.  :D  Happiness!

And I hit the jackpot. Our shop gives a nice discount on your entire purchase (barring machines and previously-discounted fabrics) - including notions. So I shopped for my August NewFO Birthday Bash quilt and important quilts coming up that I can't supply from my stash.

Tools I've been waiting for - 60 degree triangle for a kit in storage I want to pull up. Jenny's ruler that I've been drooling over for a YEAR. Pattern for a quilt later referenced. Refills for my sewline marking pencil.

And Fabric - oh, fabric!!

Birthday Bash: 

I wanted something from my Pinterest yearnings, something bold and fun, and a circles concept won out. Some fun prints and mixers to go on a very pale blue background, along with some prints already in my stash. 

Found a nice gray mini-print for the backing, and I'll use the stripe for the binding as well as some circle work.  This is this month's NewFO, though I doubt I'll have time to get much more done than the fabrics washed/pressed and some templates created before month's end. Sofa size.

Backing for my Dear Jane:

 I wanted something perky and modern-ish, so I got this yardage. One of the women at the shop seemed mighty incredulous that I would buy good fabric for the backing, asking if I was going to do anything other than hang it on the wall. Even if it never gets used on my bed, SO MUCH work and heart went into this quilt top that I couldn't bear to put a cheap-o backing on it. Jane deserves the print. I probably won't use that smaller piece for the binding, but it's an option for the auditions. Generous queen size.

Important Gift for next year: 

Surprisingly, I did not have enough Christmas greens and reds for this design, and I've been hunting long and hard for a large-scale print for the border. This is not *perfectly* what I wanted, but it's super close and I'm out of time for more hunting. Plaid is for the backing. Queen size. September's NewFO. 

25th Wedding Anniversary!! 

Coming up next summer - gotta get cracking to make us a nice double wedding ring for an option on our bed. Clearly this is going to be incredibly feminine. I'll foundation-paper-piece the arcs. King size. 

And a nod to my man: 25th Anniversary Groom's Quilt. ;D  

He liked the idea. Asked about having a moose or elk somewhere on it. I have enough cream in stash and can pull cool plaids and such for the arcs. Using Jenny Pedido's Metro Rings pattern for this one. Just needed a gray and the red - lol'ing at camera changes - this is the same gray as in the sample above. Sofa size.

And *that* was more than enough shopping, for sure! I'm back on the stash-only diet until we have been able to buy a book case, window treatments, a breakfast table set and a deck table set. It will be a while!

oh! But I loved this modern sample hanging in the shop -  Hexagon Shuffle, it was called. 

Free pattern available online - 

Here's one as quilted by Natalia Bonner:

Fun way to dress up a plain back for display, too! 

Leaves cut from Bella solids and sewn into strands, tied onto a dowel. 

Birthday Shopping!

What a fun spree!!!  Allowed to just shop my heart's content within needs and reason at the local quilt shop after a full year of new-fabric dieting. . .  Wow.  :D  Happiness!

And I hit the jackpot. Our shop gives a nice discount on your entire purchase (barring machines and previously-discounted fabrics) - including notions. So I shopped for my August NewFO Birthday Bash quilt and important quilts coming up that I can't supply from my stash.

Tools I've been waiting for - 60 degree triangle for a kit in storage I want to pull up. Jenny's ruler that I've been drooling over for a YEAR. Pattern for a quilt later referenced. Refills for my sewline marking pencil.

And Fabric - oh, fabric!!

Birthday Bash: 

I wanted something from my Pinterest yearnings, something bold and fun, and a circles concept won out. Some fun prints and mixers to go on a very pale blue background, along with some prints already in my stash. 

Found a nice gray mini-print for the backing, and I'll use the stripe for the binding as well as some circle work.  This is this month's NewFO, though I doubt I'll have time to get much more done than the fabrics washed/pressed and some templates created before month's end. Sofa size.

Backing for my Dear Jane:

 I wanted something perky and modern-ish, so I got this yardage. One of the women at the shop seemed mighty incredulous that I would buy good fabric for the backing, asking if I was going to do anything other than hang it on the wall. Even if it never gets used on my bed, SO MUCH work and heart went into this quilt top that I couldn't bear to put a cheap-o backing on it. Jane deserves the print. I probably won't use that smaller piece for the binding, but it's an option for the auditions. Generous queen size.

Important Gift for next year: 

Surprisingly, I did not have enough Christmas greens and reds for this design, and I've been hunting long and hard for a large-scale print for the border. This is not *perfectly* what I wanted, but it's super close and I'm out of time for more hunting. Plaid is for the backing. Queen size. September's NewFO. 

25th Wedding Anniversary!! 

Coming up next summer - gotta get cracking to make us a nice double wedding ring for an option on our bed. Clearly this is going to be incredibly feminine. I'll foundation-paper-piece the arcs. King size. 

And a nod to my man: 25th Anniversary Groom's Quilt. ;D  

He liked the idea. Asked about having a moose or elk somewhere on it. I have enough cream in stash and can pull cool plaids and such for the arcs. Using Jenny Pedido's Metro Rings pattern for this one. Just needed a gray and the red - lol'ing at camera changes - this is the same gray as in the sample above. Sofa size.

And *that* was more than enough shopping, for sure! I'm back on the stash-only diet until we have been able to buy a book case, window treatments, a breakfast table set and a deck table set. It will be a while!

oh! But I loved this modern sample hanging in the shop -  Hexagon Shuffle, it was called. 

Free pattern available online - 

Here's one as quilted by Natalia Bonner:

Fun way to dress up a plain back for display, too! 

Leaves cut from Bella solids and sewn into strands, tied onto a dowel.