BOMs Away - Heart & Home, and Around the House

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 the post.

 

It was a great morning for sewing - Scott had to work a 9-hour shift, so I spent my heart's content of time with my machine. Got the piecework finished on the last of the main houses, and put together the four cornerstone houses. That leaves the applique additions on the main houses and the 4 appliqued border blocks.

 

 

 

I had those blocks arranged nice and straight, but Navarre had a different idea, so the aesthetic tilts are courtesy of this cheeky boy sticking his tongue out at us.  ;D

 

 

 

 

I also used the window to trace the patterns onto the backs of block 2 and block 3 for Fiesta Mexico. It'll be a very long time before these get pulled out, but at least they're ready to go when I get there.

 

 

 

I'm hoping the clouds that are starting to build hold off long enough for Scott to get home soon and grill some steaks. We've had more rain this spring/early summer than last year. For some reason the peonies don't seem to like that. There are a lot fewer out this year than last year, but those that are showing up are nice and full.

 

 

 The Columbine around the house sure does love the extra water,

 

 

 

 and I don't remember seeing any of these irises at all last year, which have popped out beautifully in some of our shaded areas.

 

 

 

And speaking of popping, the poppies are also thriving this year. I want to try harvesting the seeds for baking.  :)

 

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How about you? Have you finished any BOM work recently?

Finish Report! Baby Claridge 1.0 - Boomerangs for Olivia and her Boy

Can you believe it? A finish report coming out of me this year?  ;D  They will be very few between my thesis work and my MONSTER "25th, Baby!" king-size double wedding ring quilting that I'm trying hard to finish in time for our anniversary in August. But I do have two posts that need to be put up.

 

 

This is "Baby Claridge 1.0"

It's made for my cousin's daughter, who just had a precious little boy. On Mother's Day. How awesome is that?

 

 

 

I used mostly stash with a couple of fat quarters (Sesame Street! and a yellow), using Emily Herrick's Crazy Old Ladies pattern, "Boomerang".  I just made fewer boomerangs, and after I had them assembled I trimmed the top and bottom straight across. Here's the original on the pattern:

 

 

 

 

I quilted this entirely on the walking foot. Wanting to highlight the boomerangs, I simply outline-stitched each one about 1/16" outside in a thread that matched the background, then I used a wavy stitch to sew two lines on the insides with whatever thread matched best, and using a couple different guide points on my foot for that. 

 

 

 

Wanting to minimize the seams between the boomerangs, I found a fun decorative stitch on the machine and put that between the sides. I was thinking they looked kinda-sorta like lines of baseballs - perfect for a little boy! 

 

 

 

 

And, yep - I went for the start-and-stop  approach with each one rather than sew them through the boomerangs above and below. It wasn't that big a deal to sit down in front of a movie to tie and tuck all my ends from each 'rang and divider line.

 

 I have tons of yardage of this fun hot air balloon fabric, which was perfect for the backing on this.

 

 

 

And that led to a fun idea for the label.  (Which I had to redo - thank you! - due to misspelling the little guy's name despite frequent checking on that.)

 

 

 

 

It has a lightweight poly batting, which makes a nice puffiness without being stiff that will be highly washable. 

 

LOVED working with this pattern. The design is perky and the instructions are easy to follow. In fact, I have another one in a different colorway for myself that I'd started back in April or so. I'll probably get back to it in August after the MONSTER's quilting is finished.

 

 

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Linking up at

Fabric Tuesday

TGIFF is at Quokka Quilts this week

(main site here)
   

Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!

Link-a-Finish Friday

BOMs Away - The one about Hanmadang

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 the post.

 

I have done no BOM work this week beyond washing fabric pieces for month 2 & 3 of Fiesta.

 

 

We've had the pleasure of hosting these three Korean youth Taekwondo experts who have been here for the U.S. Open Hanmadang.

 

Jong Hwa, Jung Gyo, and Eun Suk (family names omitted) *LOVE* the pool table in the few moments they get to relax at "home"!

 

 

 

A couple of days ago, we went down to Garden of Gods, where they could climb around on some of the rocks:

 

 

 

They are especially tickled this evening, enjoying ramen noodles on the roof of the garage, to which there is easy access from the room they're staying in. It totally cracked me up when I heard Scott call out to these 3rd-degree blackbelts: "Careful not to fall!"

 

 

 

I spent all day Friday and Saturday afternoon/evening working at the World Arena as scorekeeper at the Hanmadang. Here I am, tired but happy, and still in my work-out ponytails, leaving at 8pm last night:

 

 

 

My favorite moments were the single-person division for a multiple sclerosis young woman, to whom the judges awarded far higher marks than anyone else who entered the ring. I teared up so much from her courage (followed by that gesture from the judges) that I couldn't call out the scores for quite some seconds. The head ref just smiled and nodded at me, on the exact same page as I. The other favorite moment was working a division of 12 young adult men competing in the high kick, when the leaders of that group pushed the rack all the way to 103" before the winner finally couldn't break the board. Shortly after that, the next-older division in the ring next to me topped out at a break at 105", which broke the U.S. Open record.

 

I did my own humble best when I competed on Saturday morning in creative board breaking. I performed a routine of the maximum-allowed 10 boards, and the great deal of practice I've put in served me well. Muscle memory and determination kicked in so that I broke every board on time and worked through a spacing glitch without hesitating at all (placed my final-three holders too far from the previous set when I had to change a spinning roundhouse to a skipping roundhouse due to inner-ear dizziness). It was funny, because in a fraction of a second upon realizing the stride issue, my brain just went into "smash them all!" mode. I have zero memory of what I did for those last 3, but Devon was holding in that series and said it looked smooth and nobody could tell I changed it all up except those holders. Another holder said I got two kicks in and a hammer fist, so that's good. I broke every board on first strike, which thrilled me. It was a blast and I never even felt the rip on my finger that gave me my first official Taekwondo blooding. It was well-behaved and didn't hurt me for my later timing/scorekeeping duties once my own event was locked in to the permanent archives. :)

 

 

And all my work got me a silver placing even though I was the lowest belt level in the age/experience division!  

 

 

 

I'll be doing that fun event again next time I enter a competition.  ;D  

My favorite pic so far is this one of Devon with her boyfriend, Kyle:

Devon and Heather both competed also - they did the same event I did, and Devon added jumping high kick and traditional poomsae to her list, excelling in all three. We'll have to get a pic of us in our doboks with our medals and add it in here a couple of days from now.

 

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 Did you get any BOM work done recently, or have your days been as crazy as ours?  :D

BOMs Away - Heart & Home

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 the post.

 

It's Father's Day here in the States, so here's a shout-out to my Dad:

 

ca. 1961, around age 20

 

I can see why my mother fell for him.  :)

 

My Dad has done some pretty cool things. In 2008 he drove from a business trip in Ohio to go to my graduation in Maryland, he flew out to Florida in 2012 to help us load up the moving van and move all the cars across the country to Colorado, this past holiday season he took the entire extended family on a Christmas cruise in the Caribbean, and back in elementary school, when none of the moms wanted to do it, he took up the mantle of Girl Scout Leader. I'm pretty sure our Junior troop got to do more camping than the others. . Thanks, Dad!!

 

 

So - - - BOM business!  

 

 

 

I did my sewing for this Sunday's BOM work a couple days ago so I wouldn't be at the machine on my honey's Father's Day. Got block 3 pieced for Heart & Home. I can't believe how much faster these go when the pieces are already cut out! (I did that for all the blocks a few months ago.)  It still gets a 3-yo-yo flower tree appliqued onto it whenever I get to that stage for this quilt top.

 

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And how about you? Did you get any BOM work squared away recently?  :D

 

BOMs Away - Ruffled Roses, Kelly's Strolling the Block, Affairs of the Heart

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 the post.

 

OK, I am officially losing my mind!  I could've sworn I posted BOMs Away on Sunday evening. I can't believe I forgot that I hadn't, especially since I actually had a lot to share this time! First, second-Sundays are slated for Ruffled Roses work, so I got the baskets and swag blocks for Month 8 sewn:

 

 

 

Second, this week I was sick-to-death of Ruffled Roses cornerstones for hand-stitch moments, so I made up for the last two first-Sunday skip-outs on Kelly's Strolling the Block. July's block got fireworks in the sky (not sure what I think of my first bullion-knots for those swirly bursts, but the red burst shows up much better in reality and is really super). For those 3, I mixed a single strand of metallic with 3-strands of DMC floss and the effect is pretty cool. Had a hamburger button and a nifty blue star button to add in, and the dog got facial features.

 

 

 

I also sewed a bunch of buttons on the August block. Love the sand dollar for the eaves and the super-shiny brass button for the light bulb.  :)

 

 

 

And then these Affairs of the Heart blocks need sharing, although I actually finished them last month on the trip to St. Louis for Heather's graduation:

 

Block 6

Block 8

 

 

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I hope you got to work on your BOMs this week.  :D

BOMs Away Monday - Pat and Ruffled Roses

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 the post.

 

 

I didn't do today's half-day of BOM sewing - it's the last day of our guest's visit, and we took him out for some family shooting range fun. More out-and-about activities planned for this absolutely gorgeous day, so I just have the slowly-progressing evening handwork to share for now. For the moment, though, while they're outside doing this work, I can put this post up for the weekly link.  :)

 

 

 

This is one of the cornerstones for the baskets border on the Ruffled Roses BOM quilt that I work on each 2nd Sunday. (I do the machine-work that day - these handwork pieces get worked on about 5 evenings a week or at appointments.) This block still needs . . . (lemme count) . . . 12 more berries before it's ready for incorporation. Two additional berries go on over the seam lines after it's sewn to the other border pieces.

 

The other three cornerstones are at these stages. I only have 4 berry templates for this circle size, and I usually get 4 pre-made berries sewn on, 4 more basted onto the templates for the next time, and then maybe one element stitched on another square before that night's show is finished. Yesterday I "reloaded" each of these squares with their next layers. Back-basters will recognize the process, and you can see how I just use up scraps as I go along.  :) 

This is my absolute favorite method for beautiful needle-turn applique, and it lives in a sofa-side tote that travels exceedingly well to places I know I'll have to sit and wait. Maybe I'll even finish these four cornerstones by the time I have all the swag border blocks sewn up!

 

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Now it's your turn to share any BOM progress you have lately.  :)