~*~*~ A Sew Spooky Halloween ~*~*~

I'm slowly getting back into my normal groove as this Lupus flare starts to resolve. One bummer is that I'd wanted to have this choice from my "17 for 2017" list finished for this year's season, but it was one of the casualties of the Black Belt gauntlet. So I'm settling with getting it moved forward a stage. But look! We got a bit of Halloween snow in the night.  :)

I did get a good eight hours of work done on it this week, though. It had been partially quilted at my domestic machine last year, but will go onto my longarm for the rest of the work. Before that can happen, I had to get all the hundreds of tails tied and tucked, trim back the excess batting on opposite sides, and square up the ends to be able to load it onto the frame. I'll be loading it sideways to minimize the number of times I need to roll it.

I also attached zippers on my frame's canvases, so I'll be able to take my own work off the frame to put on a customer's or a time-sensitive gift. I just loaded a back for the next-up quilt on those, and so far so good. I anticipate *loving* that system. It was actually enjoyable pinning the ends to the zipper sides while sitting in front of a good Halloween movie. :)

One day, those closet doors and trim will be painted white.
And the batting's not staying that way - I just got the top aligned
and still need to tuck it through the bars to hang down the front.

(The zippers separate completely, and you pin the top and bottom of the backing to the removable zip tape, exactly as you would have pinned it along the edge of the canvas.) I only had to undo what I'd done once on the first side and flip the backing around to repin it - my first pinning had the fabric oriented so it would lay wrong side out - not what we want!)

This being the 7th quilt on my longarm, I'm not completely decided on my most favorite way of controlling a quilt. It looks like it's going to be floating in the style of "Lori's way," with the quilt-top bar removed (but I need a brake adjuster to do that), and a slider measuring tape across the frame near the remaining front bar to control the placement of all the vertical lines. 

I think I'll like that particular floating technique best of all, since I will be able to easily lift the top with each advancement to check that the batting is laying nicely without over-stretched areas or little crumples, I can remove any rogue threads from the back of the top that may have appeared out of nowhere before they're quilted in to show through light colors on the front, and I'll have maximum control over easing the top into the best alignment as I go along. 

Huh. I really need to make a post about my longarm beginnings, as I'm now stitching down the binding on the queen size quilt that I finished there, which was quilt number six.

BOMs Away - Sapphire Stars starting to shine

Welcome to the link-up for BOMs Away Mondays!

Where we share what we're doing on a BOM-type project 

so they don't stall out in UFO-land!

(Linky at the bottom.)

Well, I had dreams of finishing my entire top today, but I always overestimate how much I can do during the frustrating lonnnnnng weeks that it takes to recover from a full Lupus flare. (It's really irritating, but I'm alive and kicking, so that's always good!)

I got the centers made and all the stars sewn together - so most of the finicky work is finished. :)

These are nice and BIG at 18 inches finished.

Oh! And I did get all the applique finished for one of the big corners on Block 6 of Fiesta Mexico:

~*~*~ 

How about your BOM-type projects? Have you done any work on them recently?

Kate over at Katie Mae Quilts has joined me in hosting this meet-up,

and linking up from either end puts you on the party at both sides.

BOMs Away - Sapphire Stars Clue 5

Welcome to the link-up for BOMs Away Mondays!

Where we share what we're doing on a BOM-type project 

so they don't stall out in UFO-land!

(Linky at the bottom.)

Yeehaw! I am slowly getting back to business in normal life routines, and today I got my Clue 5 finished for Kevin's Sapphire Stars Mystery quilt.

I just have his final post left to catch up for that quilt!

~*~*~ 

What's happening on your end? Have you done any BOM work recently?

Kate over at Katie Mae Quilts has joined me in hosting this meet-up,

and linking up from either end puts you on the party at both sides.

BOMs Away - Octopus Garden

Welcome to the link-up for BOMs Away Mondays!

Where we share what we're doing on a BOM-type project 

so they don't stall out in UFO-land!

(Linky at the bottom.)

Here's the finished applique work for Block 4 of my Octopus Garden BOM:

~*~*~ 

What's happening on your end? Have you done any BOM work recently?

Kate over at Katie Mae Quilts has joined me in hosting this meet-up,

and linking up from either end puts you on the party at both sides.

BOMs Away - the Black Belt edition

Welcome to the link-up for BOMs Away Mondays!

Where we share what we're doing on a BOM-type project 

so they don't stall out in UFO-land!

(Linky at the bottom.)

I survived! - Man, that was hard. Like really hard. 

But look what I have to show for it!

I wouldn't have made it through the test without the super-attentive help of my classmate, Linda Silveira, who kept bringing me water and icing my neck and head down. It was super close, making it through Black Belt testing with Lupus stuff flaring up. When I took my socks off for warm-ups, my feet were black, not just blue, and from the start I was struggling through phenomenal fatigue, sweating so much by ten minutes in that one of the two docs at the first aid station was seriously scared that I was having a heart attack. He just about not only pulled me from testing, but also almost called the ambulance. Fortunately for me, Linda was the other doc and is very familiar with what it's like for me when a flare is hitting, as is our school's Master. So she talked the other doc into relaxing and letting her help me through it. So far, haven't found anyone who caught a picture of her helping me out. I totally felt like a football player with personally-dedicated support staff - LOL.

We figured out that she refilled my water canteen four times, so during the 2.5 hour test, I drank at least 90 ounces of water! And zero talk from my bladder. That's how much sweat was just streaming through me! 

It wasn't pretty, but it got done!
Here we were starting to work Poomsaes after almost two hours
of sparring formulas and self-defense.

If Chanda is able to get the video file to me successfully that shows me doing my compulsory board breaks, I'll add it in here.

I did make it through the final test (yesterday was the culminating event of six weeks of the testing period) and managed to do my duty as the appointed class speaker. 

Even when the mic cut out and I had to project for
the whole City Auditorium on my own.

I was given the very special WooSong Award, and I hadn't expected that. It is the DaeSabumnim's award, who is a really big deal in the Taekwondo world both in Korea and the U.S., so I feel a deep sense of honor to receive it.

Three and a half years to get here! So thrilled to do it with both my youngest daughter, 

and my hubby!

As my cousin said: "The family that kicks together - sticks together!"  heh!

With our Sabumnim on the left, Master Jay Kuk Lee, and Pejo Sabumnim on the right, who is his senior. He heads a sister dojang but is always at every one of our belt tests, so we feel doubly honored to get our photo with both of them.

It all produces big smiles when your breath is caught up. 

And today while resting, I got most of a fishy put together. Still needs a fin and a spot and an eye, but already cute.

So, what have you got going on at your place? Thanks for putting up with a journaling page. You can see that quilting work was back seat this week, as you can probably imagine lots of extra practice went on all week before the big event. I hope all is well, and look forward to the sharings of BOMs projects happening out there!

~*~*~ 

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

Kate over at Katie Mae Quilts has joined me in hosting this meet-up,

and linking up from either end puts you on the party at both sides.

BOMs Away - Octopus Garden & Fiesta Mexico

Welcome to the link-up for BOMs Away Mondays!

Where we share what we're doing on a BOM-type project 

so they don't stall out in UFO-land!

(Linky at the bottom.)

So, in 6 days I will be an official Badass.  ;D 

Black Belt testing gets closer and closer, classes get longer and more intense, and somehow my system is still just hanging in there. The bed rest stuff along with specific and strict dietary strategies seems to be working well enough to get me through it all. And that makes me happy. I really didn't know if I'd make it this far!

We had to go through our old pictures so they could put together a class video. It's been a fun memory walk.

 Here I am at my first belt test, breaking my very first board:

Board breaking quickly became a favorite event for me, even when I was on crutches.

This was at the US Open Hanmadang when I was a Brown Senior. Being recently injured and not knowing what I could do since I had to start from a crooked, off-balance crouch instead of a full-height downstroke, I broke only one board in the Downward Power Knife Hand event. I ended up getting first place (snicker), because no other women in the 45-50 age bracket for upper color belts registered to do it. You can break your hand if you do it incorrectly, and many folks our age don't want to take that risk. But hey, without that actual break I would have just been thanked for competing.  :)

And this was at our Master's Challenge later that year when I was a Red Belt.

Check out that capture of the wood starting to break! 

(Yes, I broke all 3 inches):

 

All that down time that my body requires for the six-week testing gauntlet for Black Belt is great for my quilting hand work projects, though!

These are all needle-turn applique, using the back-basting technique.

I finished Block 3 for my Octopus Garden quilt. So many *skinny* legs for the lobsters!

These are 12" blocks:

And then I finished the next stage of Block 6 for my Fiesta Mexico quilt.

This block is like a Round Robin quilt in its own right, and is currently 22 inches square. It has one more round of substantially appliqued white corners to be added on:

Both of these quilts also have embroidery on each piece, but I'm doing that later when all the blocks are appliqued and I can keep some good consistency on the stitching.

~*~*~ 

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

Kate over at Katie Mae Quilts has joined me in hosting this meet-up,

and linking up from either end puts you on the party at both sides.