BOMs Away - A Christmas Visit and a little Neptune's Gift

               

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  :)   I sure hope you had a nice Christmas. We made a quick trip out to Florida so we could visit with our two daughters and son-in-laws out there and see our grandbaby again. It was splendid! I just wish I'd been better focused on getting pictures of all of us. Still, here are a few gems:

Such a huge smile from him right off the bat!

I did actually let GrandPop have turns with him, too.  :)

Old Man Lupin loved him, even during crying bouts, and looked for Baby Oliver after they left. So funny! (the perspective of this photo makes Oliver look much smaller than he really is)

Oliver was absolutely mesmerized with this shirt!

A family walk around neighborhood walks - the lights enchanted him.

And a moment with Aunt Heather  :)

We even managed to get a wee bit of work done on the house the day after Christmas - gutters cleaned out, some old caulking torn out and replaced, a bit of trim painting, and some prep work to paint the second bathroom. Not super productive on this end of things, but Baby time and holiday closures cut into that capability.

We got back very late last night, but before we left, I managed to do the Month 9 work for Neptune's Gift, which was to insert the central compass in the background square (this is about 5 feet square):

No delivery of the Month 11 kit was awaiting our return, so as I start working on Month 10, I'm caught up with this BOM!  That makes me very happy. 

~*~*~*~

Did you work on a BOM type project this week? We'd love to see your progress!

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 - An Impressive Compass Rose

              

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)

Boom!!  The Month 8 work on Neptune's Gift (the red and orange N-S-W-E arms and assembly) yields this amazingly gorgeous compass rose:

It is something like 5 feet across.

I also got all the edges turned on the penultimate set of temperature dots - will get those glue-basted onto their backgrounds this week. No pic, though. The only dots left after these will be the final 5 weeks of the year, which I'll cut out on Jan 1st or 2nd. 

~*~*~*~

Have you worked on any BOM type projects recently? We'd love to see your progress!

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 - Neptune's Gift, Stitch-Off, Dots, and a Buck

             

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  :)

This week I picked up and finished the work for Month 7 on my Neptune's Gift block of the month:

These pieces are getting quite big! Now to catch up months 8 and 9, because 10 just arrived! That would be super if I can catch this up by the time 11 gets here.

While I was doing that, I prepped the next round of my Stitch-Off project, as I'd worked through the stack a while ago. These pieces are almost finished up! Just one more set of units, then this project will be ready for assembly.

(This is my Judy Niemeyer Feathered Goose quilt, from which I keep a stack of prepped units alongside my work area so I can grab one and put it through the machine after I've finished a round of work on my focus project. This lets me snip an entire set of chain piecing off the sewing machine, leaving the Stitch-Off piece on the thread. When I return with the next stage of chain piecing, I don't have to fiddle with holding the thread ends to start off fresh stitching - and over time it does save a significant amount of thread, for a bonus benefit.) 

I got the next batch of dots basted into turned-edge circles, and then glue-basted onto their background squares. This set brings me into October. Here are 4.5 weeks worth of temps, stacked by dot color:

Birds continue to get their finish-work attention during TV time. I have about 1/3 of them squared away now. No pic, though. 

But I do have a pic of this beautiful buck spending lunch time resting in our back yard a couple days ago. Isn't he gorgeous? He was here again last night with four sweet does. Guess they think he's gorgeous, too!  

~*~*~*~

Have you worked on any BOM type projects recently? We'd love to see your progress!

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 Monday - More Dots and Birds

            

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)

My catch-up work is going well with both Temperature quilts. Got this first set of dots stitched down and sewn together:

(Interesting how the camera warped the perfectly straight line - it was on normal setting, not panaramic, but the battery was super low, so maybe that had something to do with it?)

Still working on basting the circles of the second set. 

Got all the remaining bird wings stitched down:

Several sets are paper-cleared and tail-tucked:

And this giant pile remains to have that done - perfect TV-time work.  I'm sure I'm not the only one who can't just sit and watch TV without doing something with my hands.  :) 

Now that these two "BOMs" are moved forward significantly, I'm planning on hitting my Neptune's Gift next weekend to see how far I can catch it up. 

~*~*~*~

Have you worked on any BOM type projects recently? We'd love to see your progress!

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 - Birds and Dots

           

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!  This week I hit my Temperature Dots Quilt nice and heavy.  I basted all the dots I'd had cut out, and got them glue-basted onto their backgrounds (about 8 weeks' worth). Waiting to be stitched, though.

And I spent 3-1/2 hours today pulling temps and cutting out the past 7 weeks of dots . . .  So I got maybe a third of the work finished to catch this monthly project up to date. 

I have exactly 3 high-temps dots left of this color, and haven't had luck finding any more of it to buy - so I sure hope we don't have more than 3 more 51-54 degree highs this year. 

I got another temperature color stitched down on the bird wings, which released two more rows to the TV station for paper removal and tail tuckings . . . 

. . . where I get "help" from Isabeau . . .  (Yeah - all those little pieces stick to her fur and track all over the place, but apparently my lap-side trash bag is the greatest place in the whole house to sit in.)

And there hasn't been much TV this week, so I've only worked through two sets so far. 29 more to go. . . 

I won't start sewing them together until I finish stitching all the wings down. Too lazy to change out the machine back and forth.  Heh!

~*~*~*~

Have you worked on any BOM type projects recently? We'd love to see your progress!

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 - Ollie's quilt and Some Birds

          

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)

Goodness, it has been a while! Thanks to Sandra poking her head in the door, I'm revving back up. 

First: Look at this amazing Wee One!!!!

I haven't done a single stitch of piecing, quilting, or hand work since making Oliver's photo quilt for Devon. It was nice this weekend to sit back down at one of the machines. 

I worked through the next three colors of bird wings, which yielded 9 row-packs to take upstairs for their next step (tail-tucking and paper-removing at evening TV times). 24 rows still have temps higher than the colors I've stitched down so far. 

~*~*~*~

Have you worked on any BOM type projects recently? We'd love to see your progress!

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 - A side trip into the jungle for a ~ FINISH ~ report!

         

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 didn't do any BOM work this week. (again)   I wanted to finish up the baby photo op quilt that Devon asked me to make. 

She wanted a jungle theme to match her nursery, and green instead of white background. It so happened that I had the perfect fabric in my stash for that.  

It was super gratifying to find every single thing I needed for this in my stash and "scrap" bins. I even pulled those balloon colors from my Temperature Quilt stack!

Since this is not a quilt for normal kiddo use, I took the opportunity to use the bit of high-puff poly batting that has been lurking forever in my batting cupboard. I hate poly in quilts - it makes me sweat like crazy, even when it's thin and the temperature's very cold. Plus, it's not good to use it in baby/children's quilts, as it melts onto their skin in fire situations (and Dad is a firefighter!).  But this quilt is only going to be laid on once a month for a photo op.

I did use pin-basting quite a lot to control that high puff!

I was quite amazed that I didn't have a (big enough) green on hand that I liked for the backing. I mean, I have a huge bin of green yardage in my stash! The only one that was the right shade was strongly Christmas, so that was a no-go. I do have four large bins of fabric given to me last month by a person who knew she would not be quilting anymore. It includes five pieces of cotton chenille fabrics, and one of those was a pine green that played superbly with this. So I thought, what the heck? Let's see what happens if we use this.

It quilted just fine. I wondered if it would give me tensioning fits, but it didn't! I was able to whip along at my regular "scribble" speed to put all that leafy/curls fill. 

The chenille did make the machine's high-speed operation sound subtlely different - more thrumming-ish. Surprisingly, my husband even noticed that when he passed my workroom one time! 

It also makes the finished quilt, with that medium-dense fill and poly batting, feel like a bath mat! So I wouldn't use something like this on a quilt meant for bed use or snuggling. Although. . . it's nice and heavy feeling, and would work very nicely as a weighted quilt for a sensory person who likes those! (I would use cotton batting, though, so it flows better.)

I just cut single-fold binding strips from the backing overage, same as I would with minky on the binding. Cutting it 1-3/8 inch wide worked perfectly, and it wasn't hard to stitch the back side down. 

I made the changeable numbers by fusing black fabric onto black 80/20 batting. 

I printed out a font I liked in the size I wanted, glue-sticked the numbers onto the top of the fabric, and cut out around them (then popped off the paper). Worked like a charm. The intention is that the batting will grip the fabric in the sign so the numbers don't shift around for the photo, like a felt board. Of course, when Baby's moving around a lot later on, that could be tricky to capture. heh!  

Now we just need a baby! Any day now - perhaps even any hour!!!

~*~*~*~

Have you worked on any BOM type projects recently? We'd love to see your progress!

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 - Some Feathers to make room

        

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)

Sheesh! I am all out of whack these days! My brain is hyper focused on activities that normally get marginal attention, and so very "not into" my normal things. I'm sure it's because I'm in that La-La zone where you're waiting for a baby's imminent-but-unpredictable arrival any time in a month's span. My first grand-baby, half a continent away, during a pandemic, and I'm also in the middle of a concerted weight-loss and fitness-gaining effort. . . so. . . mental activity rides down a different track for now. 

I'm just going to embrace it. 

That being said, though, it was nice to tell myself that today being my day to post for BOMs Away, I really *must* get some quilting work done.

So I finished all the quilting on the ice blue areas of my king sized Dinner Plate Dahlia - consisting mostly of free-hand feathers. And that finishes that thread color.  :)

So now I've got that pretty monster unzipped from my frame to make way for this fun diversion to go on in the morning:

A green jungle-theme monthly photo quilt that Devon asked for. 

Gotta say, it's going to be so very fun to have a small, simple, fast quilt on the frame after getting half-way thru the mentally demanding king Dahlia. I love that quilt, but it taxes me to figure out how to quilt it to enhance all the things going on in it! 

~*~*~*~

Have you worked on any BOM type projects recently? We'd love to see your progress!

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