BOMs Away Easter weekend

       

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 hope you had a nice Easter

Our friends had an Easter kid born this year! So very precious. 

It was a quiet holiday for Scott and I - alone this year, but we had a good day together and nice Portal and phone chats with family.

I did actually get some BOM work sewn on Saturday. It was time to open my Alaska Rainbow box! Month 1 was to sew four of Block 1, and that went lickety-split since they came cut out and ready to go.

And since I had more sewing time available, I put together Block 1 of the next BOM: The Road Home.

A few days ago I had finished Block 12 of Affairs of the Heart during TV time:

And that's all I have for you.  :) 

Although, very, very soon I'll have a Flimsy to share!

~*~*~*~

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.

~*~*~*~

I have an announcement to make regarding BOMs Away Mondays. 

Subscription prices keep going up everywhere, including the one for having linky parties on your blog. After April, BOMs Away will no longer be held in this format. Instead, it is moving to a Facebook group! 

Kate and I will continue posting linky parties here each week for one more month, but you can also already access the new location:

BOMs Away! - Quilters' block-of-the-month motivation

The group is set up as a private group, meaning only members will see your posts there, and we will be screening requests to join the group so that spammers won't get in and drive us all nuts. One great thing about this move is that we can post progress any time we want, and you won't be left hanging if we've gone on vacation and forgot to set up an auto post with a linky party for you.

We hope to see you over there. I know I would not get a tenth the amount of BOM work done that I do without having this little "association" to post to. 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

BOMs Away - Heather & Pat's documentation panels and some Affairs of the Heart

                    

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 got all the itty-bitty letters and hearts for the documentation panels cut out and fused down for Heather & Pat's temperature quilt:

Some of them have been stitched down - you can see the gradation of the temperature key colors better in this photo:

and then I was having trouble with vertigo at the machine, so I switched over to hand stitching.

I'd been working on my Affairs of the Heart blocks during evening TV time all week and gotten this far before I'd put them away for the weekend -

And then I finished this one up after I needed to leave the machine today:

~*~*~*~

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 - Vacation, Family, and some Affairs of the Heart work

                    

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)

We've been having an eventful couple of weeks! 

Scott and I met up with my folks and their friends to do a Nassau/Dominican Republic cruise. It was a very nice visit that I wasn't sure we'd be able to do, until the latest super-spike of Covid nose dived just in time for us to do this. 

Visited with a sea lion, meandered through a mountain-top botanical garden and fun town streets, saw a historic fort, and did a wee bit of BOM work on my Affairs of the Heart project.

And just 36 hours after getting home to Colorado, our daughter and hubby brought our grandbaby out for a visit! I'm in heaven.  :)

Oh!  Here are those BOM blocks I worked on during sea days - 

Block 9 is finished

blocks 10 - 13 in progress

(using the back-basting technique for needle turn hand applique)

This project was lost for many years, but was returned to me a little while ago. Nice to be able to work on it again. Other hand projects have priority, so it's put away again for now, but this is supremely portable, so it got to come out for vacation time.

~*~*~*~

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 - 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

 

 

 ~*~*~*~*~

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

March Reports

Here is my March wrap-up:

Something Old/Something New -

This category of my goals took a big hit this month.  I did not learn how to beautifully repair the tiny nip I made in my double wedding ring quilt, so I didn't gain any new skills. I'll need to do that this month!

 

My something old - quilting still more rings in that quilt - went well for the first week or so of the month until my quilting foot broke.  Still haven't been able to get to the store down in the city for a new one, so that's on a standstill at the moment. 

 

My April something old will be getting the quilting going again on this quilt, and making labels for both of my Dragonfly Party quilts before they need to go off for the various shows that they'll be in this year!   My something new - - - learning how to repair that snip in a gorgeous way. . .

 

Thanks to Lynne for coordinating this link-up!

 

 

NewFO Report for March

[here is the link to this party]

 

Whoa!!  My normal piecing machine is still broken and waiting to be taken to the shop, so the first half of the month I spent any non-DWR time washing/pressing stuff and cutting out the pieces from long-untouched kits in my storage. I got three of them processed!!

 

We have "Simply Fun," a batik set that's going to be a pretty queen size quilt one day, that I bought back in 2008:

 

 

 

I always - ALWAYS - have at least one young feline visitor when working at this table. Also, these are all kits from storage that get initial processing, then they are carefully boxed up with the pattern and notes to be re-stored for future sewing attention.

 

 

 

 

 

"Sunshine" was also cut out- another bed-sized quilt.  I loved working with the spring-like colors, and it came in a super cool fabric tote bag that makes for great continued storage:

 

 

 

 

 

"Anna's Mountains" will be a nice throw quilt some time - I do love toile prints:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And!!!  Something brand new - a couple of months ago I won Emily's "Boomerang" pattern from her blog giveaway away at Crazy Old Ladies Quilt, and I've been really wanting to work it up. I didn't have any fabric on hand for the background, so I had to get that, and bought several fat quarters to use with it. I filled out the requirements from my stash and got everything cut out despite all the "help" from the kittens.

 

 

 

Such sweeties "helping" with the cutting out of the background fabric. They made sure nothing blew away on me.  ;D

 

 

 

 

And then I found out my cousin's daughter is pregnant with a boy. I really wanted to make her a quilt, so I shopped my stash again to make another quilt from the same Boomerang pattern. I loved the idea of using some of my hot-air balloon fabric for the backing, and found a great blue for background fabric, then pulled several quarters and scraps that coordinated with the colors of the backing. I had broken down my quilting machine to piece one of my BOMs together, so I went ahead and pieced the Boomerang baby quilt.

 

 

 

 It made such a nice cheery quilt top, and I love the pattern in this dark background as well as the white that captured my fancy in the first place.  I got the top sandwiched, so this is ready to go as soon as I can quilt again.

 

 

 

Lots of NewFOs added to the list between the stale kits and the new pattern!! Thank you to Barbara for hosting this fun link-up every month. I love it.

 

 

 

 

 

Let's Book It!  Report - 
 

[Here is the link for this party]

 

Still deep in thesis work - two or three weeks left of intense archive digging - so my book attention remains limited to my Affairs of the Heart work. But I do love this project despite the trickiness sometimes of looking at fine hand-applique detail on the black background.  I made some decent progress on block 6. I have these 3 out of the 28 tricky little pieces left to stitch, then I can do the accent embroidery:

 

 

 

Thanks to Sharon for coordinating this link up! It keeps me forging ahead on this long term project that would otherwise be easily set aside indefinitely!

 

 

 

February Reports

Here is my end-of-month wrap-up for February:


Something Old/Something New -

For my something old, See my comments below in my NewFO report about a stack of fat quarters that I won at a shop drawing in 2010, I believe.

My something new: figuring out how to quilt the intricate designs on my "25th, Baby!" that I wanted it have. 

 

I am not a particularly creative person beyond adapting other people's ideas that I find, so I'm really pleased with how my DWR detail work has been turning out. I put personalized focus spots in the center 9 rings, showcasing our initials, wedding year, etc. Then I took a printout of the fancy-wancy quilting pattern I bought to put in the bulk of my rings and adapted a rope-like cablework edge to fence that section off from the rest of the quilt's detailing. Playing around with a plexiglass overlay, I decided that the fill I liked best for this center area was a simple diagonal lining. I wasn't even thinking when I started drawing in the lines with a water-erasable pen, and just decided I wanted the lines 3/8" apart. The funny thing is that this width turned out to be absolutely PERFECT for the ring sections! It matched up exactly from one center mid-point to the next - I drew the lines straight across the elements as if the rings weren't there. I haven't tucked hardly any of my tails yet from all the starts and stops of the fill quilting, but it's going to look super neat when that's all finished.

 

 

 

You can see in that photo above that I decided to use Golden Threads paper to "mark" the quilting designs. I didn't like the melon design that came with the set I bought for the centers, so I drew my own. I also drew out the motif for the connector diamonds because the set didn't even have one of those. I've only got one side quilted in around the center. I move along ring by ring, quilting the center and the surrounding melons (that takes me right about one hour and five minutes), and then I do the micro-stippling fill on the ring to the inside of the one I just quilted. I can't do the micro-stippling around the design work until I pull off the Golden Threads paper, so this quilt-one-band, stipple the former band, approach is working great.  You can see one half-block from the corner of the center field that shows how the micro-stippling looks.

 

 

 

Wow, I'm going to love it all!!  I sure hope I can finish this by mid-August!

For February, my something old will be still more ring work on this DWR. I've been working on this project straight through from August of last year, so I think it now qualifies for an old project!  Something new - learn how to beautifully repair the tiny little snip I accidentally made in one of my center motifs!

 

 

 

 

NewFO Report for February

This month was not as productive as last month in non-DWR work.  But I did get a nice start on something made out of a pack of pink fat quarters I won in 2010 at a shop drawing.  I got 27 FQs in a range of pink or pink-on-white prints. Played around with my EQ program, and one days those FQs, combined with leftovers in my stash, will grow up to be something like this:

 

"Raspberry Lemonade"

 

I may or may not applique lemons in the corners, and I may or may not applique vines and raspberries on the piano-key border. I managed to get all the inner squares made and the center put together in a web. There's more contrast between the yellow and pinks than shows here. It'll be pretty! And I'm not a pink person. I also sewed several strips into pairs as a beginning of that one border.

 

 

 

I boxed it all up today with the notes, so sometime in the future that'll be nice to come back to.  :)  This use of NewFOs from my NETY storage is providing the new-to-my-eyes variety that I need to be able to keep on working on my DWR. Until that project, I had NEVER, EVER maintained dedication for long than 3 weeks running on a single project. I've come a long way, Baby!  ;D

 

 

Oh!  I did get the fabrics washed for the old NETY kit "Simply Fun."  But that's all. It's in a giant pile waiting to be ironed.

 

 

 

 

Let's Book It!  Report - 
 

This project is very slow going! I did finish block 7 (of 36) last night during a Sherlock episode. Back-basting needle-turn applique is so soothing when you're not on a deadline with it.  :D
 

 

 

 

 

I'll probably have to stick with only this book for this linky party until June. My thesis final draft is due by the first of that month, so I'm hoping that'll open some time to pull another book from my shelf and start something new!

So, there are my February reports - go check the link-ups out for some great eye-candy, tips from other quilters, and very good support groups to help you get your work finished.  :D