BOMs Away - Feathered Goose units

 

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)

It's official: my Down the Rabbit Hole is off my BOM list for the month of February. I'd written it in as #2 on my APQ Challenge list for UFO piecing, and that's the number that was drawn for the new month. 

Since I'll be working that one as my priority quilt Mon-Fri starting tomorrow, I didn't give it attention for this weekend's BOM time.  Instead, I finished up these 20 units for my Feathered Goose.

Their leader-ender action was burning rubber while I was sewing the last two quilt flimsies I've shared. After that, there was just one seam waiting for attention. 

Now they're finished and trimmed, and these cool units that look like giant bow-ties are prepped for leader-ender duty. 

Which won't actually move much while I'm doing the rest of the applique work on the rabbit borders. . .   

Speaking of rabbits, I also did the next 8 temperature dots for my 2021 quilt:

~*~*~*~

And how are things at your place? Have you done any BOM type work lately? We'd love to see it.  :)

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.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

~ Flimsy Alert! ~ Garden of Dreams

   I can't believe how many UFO quilt tops have reached flimsy stage this month!

This is my king-sized "Garden of Dreams," a huge 119 x 110 inches.

It's a Georgie Gerl design for Kona Bay Fabrics that I tweaked to upsize it. I didn't want to just add 26 inches of border, so I inserted space between the columns, broadened the final border, and added another border on the sides.

Fun story - when the plumber was working on replacing the water heater a couple of weekends ago, this quilt's center was in 3 large pieces, draped over the sofa on that floor. He asked me "Is that to be a quilt? Are you a quilt person? Because that's beautiful." It really is pretty fabric, with gold highlights here and there in the prints.

I first worked on this quilt top in April 2014. I don't know why it got boxed up. . . wait, I bet it was to turn the dining room into an actual dining room for Easter Sunday. Ha! But then, for whatever reason, it didn't get pulled back out? And it's one I've wanted for our bed.

But here it is a complete flimsy! It is no. 1 on my APQ-sponsored UFO challenge list for piecing, but I want this on my bed this year. As soon as I get my post-Covid stamina built back up to several hours a day on my longarm (and catch up my no. 7 and no. 2), I'll slip this one in for quilting!

Linking up at Tish's UFO Busting party and Sarah's Whoop! Whoop!

~ Flimsy Alert! ~ Winter Woodland

 I'm on a mission this year! Serious UFO mitigation going on.

I finished my #7 for the APQ January draw last week, so this week I grabbed an off-list project to hit. 

This one is Winter Woodland, a Deb Mosa design. It is 70 x 80 inches

I bought this kit some time before January 2012, but didn't touch it until January 2018, when I used it as a break from whatever my priority work was at that time. Washed the fabrics and cut everything out, then carefully boxed it for "whenever."

This week it got its Whenever, and is now all grown up into a complete top and has moved to my longarm closet, where it will wait for its next Whenever with a lot of good friends.

It was an easy one to construct - just two blocks: a simple framing of panels, and a log cabin with a large fussy-cut center. Throw on some borders, and: Bam!

 

I really love having my closetful of flimsies. Some are on my short list for attention, others are not. It's awesome to let someone go through it to pick out a quilt I can finish making just for them. I know it will suit their taste and be something they love instead of something that is just "meh" for them. I actually have someone in mind that this might be great for, so it may just end up on the frame before many months have gone by. . . depends on my continuing Covid recovery and how long it takes me to build up to my normal amount of daily time at my longarm. I chip away there, but two 40-minutes sessions a day makes for slow custom quilting work, you know? The end is finally in sight on the horizon for the quilt that's been loaded since the end of September. A couple more weeks ought to do it.

Linking up at Tish's UFO Busting party and Sarah's Whoop! Whoop!

Of Course :)

Ha! Finally a moment when I can sit and put up a post.

And I am eating chocolate cake, too! Life is good right now.  ;D

During the Inauguration last week, I broke my normal week-day work mode and set aside my priority quilting to fiddle with things I could do while watching everything. I was interested in the ceremonies themselves, but also somewhat leery that crazy stuff might break out, and so I was compelled to watch.

I did my temperature dots, and I finished the last of my Forever My Valentine blocks!

This lady was a Bad Girl!

For the last couple of months, every weekend I spent a good deal of time going through the various storage spots I have for BOMs and other projects. Each one is in its own box, and different areas (armoire, chest of drawers, shelves in the storage room. . . ) house particular types of projects. I can normally find something specific very quickly. 

But while I was originally working on this block in late 2019, we had unexpected visitors and I had to quickly clear everything. And the little baggie with the laser-cut applique pieces went someplace totally different from where I normally put it. I couldn't find it the next time I pulled that BOM out, so I skipped the block and went on to the others. 

The others got finished. No baggie had shown up. It wasn't in a single storage spot. I went through every. box. of. every. project. I went through the two places I squirrel non-quilting stuff away into when I have to lickety-split clean house for company. Not there. Or there. Hmm.  OK. Maybe I'd accidentally thrown it out? 

So last Monday or Tuesday I gave in and searched online and found some of the fabric I could buy to make the larger pieces with. I had only a smattering of small scraps from the pre-fused pieces of the other blocks to work with. I spent an hour or so working up an applique layout pattern from the photo and the background hearts of the started work. . . and got to thinking about something Rebecca Grace had shared about finding something with another project that had been out.

Hmmm. What priority work *had* I been working on at that time? Digging back through time, I found that it must have been the quilt I'd been binding to take to Scott's cousin, Don. I wonder. . . I said to the cat, and went to to the storage room to where my big bins of stash are kept. 

Lo, and behold! There was that renegade little baggie of prefused applique pieces, stuck between two of the purples I'd used in Don's quilt! I hadn't touched the purples bin since working on that quilt, so it hadn't been seen yet from work with stash. 

Do you know how many hours I'd spent searching through Every. Single. Area. And. Project. Box.??  (And I have a *lot* of them.)  Pretty crazy!  But I did a very nice cleaning-up of it all, so there's that. 

And now my BOM board has the full set to be pretty at my piecing station until its next weekend turn comes up.

Guess I can make coordinating pillows with the fabric I ordered.  It just arrived with today's mail. Heh!

Anyway. I'm finished blabbering, and 1/2 a piece was enough cake to make me happy - so I'm going to go back to wrestling with the king size borders that are my focus today.

Hope you're having a good afternoon!

BOMs Away - Getting a little "Harmony" going . . .

 

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)

Hello  :)

It's always so fun when I get to start sewing on a new BOM in my active rotation.

This one is really fun, too -

"Harmony," by Nancy Rink has a creative breakdown of the 9 months of work, all playing with the musical theme of the quilt's name:

So, I got my tempo established and made the first set of four blocks:

I usually use this stack of paper piecing units to my left as leader-enders while I'm sewing:

But this BOM has two checkerboard rows in the later Octave work, and I decided to use those squares, instead, as I'm working on this BOM.  I'm keeping them over on my right, so they don't get mixed up with the pieces from the blocks.

There are quite a lot of them, and I won't relish doing them all at once. This way, a lot of that work will be taken care of when I get to month 8.

I have a handful of pairs done up already.  :)

I hope you had a nice weekend.

~*~*~*~

Have you been able to do any BOM type work lately? We'd love to see it.  :)

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.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

~ Flimsy Alert!! ~ Let's Build a Snowman!

 Woohoo!!

Yesterday I finished my January #7-piecing UFO, which has been boxed and stuffed at the back of the shelves since Dec 31, 2013.

49" x 59" - pattern by Possibilities.

(These super fun snowmen will get their eyes and mouths after the quilting is finished, with hotfix "coal" rhinestones.)

I purchased this kit some time before we moved across country mid-2012. I pulled it out of storage in Dec 2013, and was enormously disappointed.

Unlike all the other times I had bought kits from small shops online, this one was not a good situation. The fabrics were not at all those shown in the kit photograph, and they didn't go well together in the least. Some were completely missing. Others had nowhere near enough.

(Let me re-iterate that I have purchased - and still do so - many kits from small shops online, and the vast majority are absolutely fine. The few problems that have popped up are quickly fixed if you communicate with them - assuming you haven't left it in storage so long that they no longer have the kit's materials.)

My finished top is very like the kit photo. I ended up using only one of the panel backgrounds the shop sent in the kit, and perhaps 1/4 of the applique fabrics. The rest came from my stash and scrap bins. I managed to fuse all the rows by month's end, and then put it all in a box in disgust at the experience.

So it went into back-shelf storage that looks something like this, only with closed boxes. It even fell back behind, and it took me 3 hours to find it when I purposefully went looking for it on January 1st.  haha!

I didn't touch it until now. Since January 1, this has been my priority project several hours a day Monday - Friday.

All that blanket stitching took FOREVER, but turned out really nice. I joined the rows, went to the shop in the city to replace the terrible border fabrics they'd put in the kit, and got the narrow borders put on so that I could finish the blanket stitching of the parts that overlap the borders. We didn't see Bernie when we were at the shop. ;D

Aren't the memes flying around so hilarious?!

Yesterday I attached the final border and prepped the binding. LOVE IT!! now it all goes into my longarming closet, and may or may not make it onto the frame before next January.

I'm picking up another long-term UFO for attention at my domestic machine during the work-week, and continue to build the amount of time that I can work at my longarm each day. I'm up to 1:10 before my body is too fatigued. I continue to be amazed at how long Covid can substantially affect you. It's been 3 months and two weeks.

So, while I'm not sure I'll finish my pre-#7-quilting UFO before month's end, I continue to chip away at it each day after lunch. One bit at a time, I'll get to where I can pull Sew Spooky off and give it some binding. I had loaded it up the day before we went to Scott's mom's funeral (and got Covid), and I just couldn't bear to take it off once again. It's had so many false starts at getting its quilting done up.

My First Word-of-the-Year: Temperature

Right at the beginning of the month, I discovered the world of temperature quilts, and really wanted to do one of those this year. So I got started, using the classic big dot of the day's high temp on a square of the low temp.

And then, yesterday this happened:

And this:

And this:

Of course Lady Gaga wore something over the top -
I *loved* the way she channeled a Betsy Ross imagery and wore the dove calling for peace.

And this:

And this remarkable Inaugural Speech:

The U.S. sorely needs a calming, yet aware, grandpa figure right now who can help us resolve a lot of our bickerings and justified angers. Hopefully he can combine that focus with effective leadership and fulfill a lot of what he's promising us. He appears to genuinely have devoted all of his soul for the good of our nation and we the people, and I will hear him out despite my deep mistrust of established politicians.

Regardless of my political thoughts, I was soothed and inspired by President Biden's speech. I am hopeful of the great diversity he has created in his cabinet choices. I am even more hopeful that most of our general public will answer his call to end this uncivil war we've been roiling in the past few years. 

These words struck me with great force, because while a great many of his comments resonated and inspired, this is something I can directly control on an every day basis:

"We can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbors. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can join forces, stop the shouting and lower the temperature. . . . Let's begin to listen to one another again, hear one another, see one another. Show respect to one another. "

I have been so frustrated and disgusted with president 45's divisiveness that I have indulged every so often in sharing satire memes with a few friends who also appreciated that route of blowing off steam. But now that we've started a new chapter in our country's political history, it's time to step away from the rancor. Let it go. I'm sure that family is not going to just disappear, and I'll be tempted to indulge in the satire again, but I want to be part of the solution instead of continuing the negative vibes. 

And so, "Temperature" is my word of the year for 2021, and working on my temperature quilt on a regular basis throughout the year will help me remember to be my better self when others try to roil me up one way or the other. 

Temperature dots I worked on during the Inauguration

And Oh. My. Gosh. !!!!   I would have loved dearly to see those Inaugural fireworks in person!!! They were STUPENDOUS

BOMs Away - Forever My Valentine

 

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)

Yahoo!

I finished all four of the Forever My Valentine blocks that I've been working on:

(Barring the 3D flowers, pearls, and other embellishments they get after quilting)

Just one block left - if I can only find where I put its little baggie of pieces when I had to quickly clear up for company so long ago . . . 

Oh, Yeah!  I also cut out the next 8-day batch of temperature blocks, but it took all my sewing time to finish the blocks above. 

~*~*~*~

Have you been able to do any BOM type work lately? We'd love to see it.  :)

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.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

BOMs Away - Down the Rabbit Hole, and a little Temperature play

 

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)

Hi! It's been a bit of a crazy week, for sure! I really love the way our quilting avocation gives us something creative and useful to channel our attention and energy into, rather than letting crazy happenings drown us longer than a few hours.

This was a Down the Rabbit Hole weekend for BOM work. 

I admit that I **detest** the work of this applique technique, but I also totally adore this quilt and like the result so much better than the fusible approach. 

I finished making all the pieces for the 4 standing bunnies, and I was able to get two of them stitched down!

This pic from earlier in the day shows the colors correctly.

Nope, the one guy is not upside down.  ;D

I stood there a very long time, mulling over the placement of the bunnies that will be at the top of the bed. Which would bother me more: upside down bunnies, or bunnies who were not standing on the ground?

Upside down bunnies on my pillows would drive me NUTS, most definitely!

So what we have is a bottom border where the bunnies are standing on the ground, and a top border where the bunnies are on an easter egg wrap! No more problem!  <snicker>

I got the third bunny set up and glued down (I even pinned him onto his stabilizing paper),

but I'm too exhausted to set the fourth one on.

All those pins in the empty spot show me where to put the bunny. Once I'd stitched the first bunny down, I carefully folded and lined up both borders, then poked pins through at key points and junctures so I could get all four bunnies put down symmetrically.

OH - and also: Temperature Quilt 2021. 

I got sucked into this intriguing concept, and today I threw together the first 8 days of this year's weather. I've got 24 fabrics that are assigned certain temperature spreads, and these blocks show the low of the day in the background, and the high of the day in the spot. 

I'm going to enjoy watching Mother Nature come up with the overall effect of the quilt.  :)

I was mesmerized by all the gorgeous temperature quilts people have made.

I hope you are well and that this will be a good week for you!

~*~*~*~

Have you been able to do any BOM type work lately? We'd love to see it.  :)

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.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

2021 - The Great UFO Roundup

I am using the Facebook group, American Patchwork & Quilting's UFO Challenge, to motivate my work on UFOs.

You fill in your list with the projects you most want to finish (or move to a new stage) during the year. They draw a number each month, and that's the UFO you focus on for that month.

I've filled in two lists - one is quilt tops that I want to get quilted and fully finished this year. The other is quilt projects that I want to finish the piecing on so that they reach the Flimsy stage.

How I work: 

Monday thru Friday, I restrict myself to the priority projects - 1 piecing, 1 longarming. This year, those will all come from my UFO lists. Typically I'll piece in the early morning and quilt in the afternoons. After dinner we like to watch 1 or 2 shows, and I'll do hand applique work during that time if I don't have a quilt binding to stitch down.

Saturdays, I let myself work on whatever project calls to me, to give myself a break from the priority work so I don't lose my MoJo.

Sundays, I always work on a BOM, which was often worked on the day before.

Thru all of this, I keep a leader-ender project to the side of my machine, so that one just kinda does a low simmer that one day magically appears as a bonus quilt top. 

This approach works extremely well for me.

Number 7 was drawn for January's UFO work.

Longarming List:  (accomplished 2/13 +5 extras  as of  June 30th)

* January!  ~*~ FINISHED  Feb 26! ~*~ 0. Sew Spooky - need to finish this before starting the 2021 number pulls. When will Covid let me begin longarming again?  (Jan 11th, able to sustain 15 minutes in a day. Feb 24 finishished this quilting! Up to 90 minutes three times a day!)  Finish Report Here

  

* May!   ~*~ FINISHED  May 24! ~*~ 1.=9 (switched for deadline) Marissa's UCCS Graduation Quilt

 

* February!  2. My King'd Dinner Plate Dahlia (on the longarm now)

3. Rainbow Jane

4. Set Sail

* June!  5. Plums in November

6. Thistlepods

* January!  7. Modernology 

8. Listen With Your Eyes

9.=1 (needed another when this number was drawn) From the Heart

10. Allietare

* March!  ~*~ Quilted Mar 26! Fancy puffed silk binding is taking a long time ~*~ 11. It's a Silky wool Flannel Kind of Day

 

12. Martha's Christmas Whirl

BACK-SIDE EXTRAS:

1. "Moose Lake" for Scott  ~*~ FINISHED  Mar 23! ~*~   Finish Report Here

2.  Bathroom Curtain 1  ~*~ FINISHED  Mar 18! ~*~ 

3.  "Morning Stroll" for Scott  ~*~ FINISHED  Mar 28! ~*~ 

4.  Bathroom Curtain 2  ~*~ FINISHED  June 4! ~*~ 

5.  Marissa's Home Quilt  ~*~ FINISHED  June 30! ~*~  (originally named Journey's End)

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Piecing List:  (accomplished 5/12 +5 extras  as of  July 5th) 

~*~ FLIMSY STATUS Jan 30! ~*~  1. King sized Garden of Dreams - Panels are partially made. (Flimsy finished right away, as I want this on my bed. 

 (I'm king-sizing this Kona pattern. Lots of math involved, since I didn't want to simply add large borders all around.)

* February!  2. Down the Rabbit Hole - Finished the sunflower round, need to do the rabbits border and the outer diamond border

 This one is on my BOM roll, but I wanted to dedicate a month of priority to it as well.

3. Whooo's Your Mama - needs the stitcheries

 * April!   ~*~ FLIMSY STATUS Apr 23! ~*~   4. Collection for a Cause: Heritage- At least some of the patches had been made. 

 
 I think I made the windmills? But maybe just the HSTs. I'll see when I pull out its box.  (Yep, thankfully, all the windmills are already put together.) 

* June! ~*~ FLIMSY STATUS June 16! ~*~  5. Stepping Stones - blocks are made

This was my first Judy Niemeyer pattern. It quickly got sidetracked by more intricate patterns of hers that called to me. 

6. Amaya - need to do the collage work

* January!  ~*~ FLIMSY STATUS Jan 23! ~*~  7. Let's Build a Snowman - applique has been fused for all the rows, needs stitching and piecing

  

8. Climbing Lanterns - I think it's ready for the 3D pieces to be done up?

* May! ~*~ FLIMSY STATUS July 5! ~*~  9. Chubby Chicks - I think the applique has been fused. Well, main bodies have been, looks like.

 

10. And to All a Good Night - applique panel is started. Will be king-sizing the pattern.

One of the many Sue Garman patterns on my bucket list.

* March!  11. Spanish Tiles - fabrics are boxed together  

 (The original in the quilt pattern book "Living Large")

**I cannot find this!!  Many days of searching have been fruitless, so I'm switching this out with another long-time UFO: Parasol.

12. Fanciful Flight - a kit. fabrics have been washed 

BACK-SIDE EXTRAS: 

~*~ FLIMSY STATUS Jan 3! ~*~  13. Water Reflections

~*~ FLIMSY STATUS  Jan 29! ~*~  14. Winter Woodland

~*~ FLIMSY STATUS  Feb 14! ~*~  15. Forever My Valentine

~*~ FLIMSY STATUS  March 30! ~*~  16. Parasol

~*~ FLIMSY STATUS  April 23! ~*~  17. Wind & Waves (The Lighthouse Quilt)

I actually printed empty lists on the backside of both of mine, for write-ins of extras as they occur, like my BOMs, leader-enders, or left-overs.

I'm currently working on the quilting of my Sew Spooky UFO that I'd loaded up before COVID hit me. I don't want to closet it yet again, so it has to get quilted before my #7 gets loaded for the January UFO call. I'm hoping that happens before January is over, but longhauler issues dictate how long I can work at the longarm each day (or even if I have to take a bye day still).

So!  My 2021 quilting work will be almost completely driven by these goals. Here's to accomplishing a lot of them!