BOMs Away - Blue Bear & Water Reflections

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 finished Blue Bear of High Hopes (from Dione's 2018 Beary Colourful BOM). 

It's very fun to see how much more adorableness pops out when you do the quilting, eh?

On these bears, I'm not stitching the fusible applique down separately from the quilting stage - I'm doing it with the quilting. Once in a while, I have a project (typical a kid's quilt) when I'll do this 2-in-1 approach. It's not for every project, as you'll have the satin or zig-zag stitching show on the back. But I'm fine with it for this quilt. I think kids actually love seeing the outlines on the back side, like a hide-and-seek feature. I messed with the photo editing so it would stand out a little more for you to see:

I have a hard time refraining from petting the belly and muzzle, done in Minky scraps!  (I have no problem using it for fusible applique - I just put it Minky side down on a terry towel on the ironing board, and melt the fusible from the back side. When stitching it down, greatly lowering the tension of the presser foot keeps it from shoving at the layers and prevents pulling the fusible apart.)

It was a great BOM week, because I also managed today to cut out the first 4 months on my Water Reflections BOM, taking my cutting table back from Scott before it turns into his "office" again for telecommuting tomorrow.

These months are all tucked neatly into baggies now to stay organized by my machine for the moments I can work on them.  :)

They will grow up to become this quilt one day:

AND I got all of the 24 color fabrics washed and ironed for my Jacqueline de Jonge "Fanciful Flight" kit that I bought two summers ago from Quilting by the Bay in Panama City, Florida, after they got wiped out by Hurricane Michael. It was a charity purchase! No guilt there, despite the myriad of kits awaiting my attention. . .  heh.  :)

I still have the white, the black, and the B/W striped yardages to wash and iron. It'll probably happen over the next two weeks, not right away.

I did also get some work done on Thistlepods, but there's nothing new to show you this week. 

~*~*~

So, what about you? Have you been able to work on a BOM? 

Sure would love to see!

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 - Hello to a fun old friend!

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.)

Hey! While I've been periodically searching-SEARCHING for Wherever-The-Heck I hid my Jacqueline de Jonge "Spring Fever" kit that I wanted to get washed and start prepping, I found this little guy!

Blue Bear of High Hopes

He is the second bear from Dione Gardner-Stephen's Beary Colourful BOM that she ran for 2018. Today I marked his background grid and pinned his layers for satin stitching and quilting. I'm doing those steps at the same time on this quilt, on my domestic machine, and when the bears are all made, I'll join the quilt-as-you-go sections with sashing strips of the Winnie-the-Pooh novelty fabric being used for the backing.

I had an extremely full plate that year, but I loved these guys, so I dug from my stash some scrappy gray backgrounds, a remnant of soft gray Minky, and some fun Winnie-the-Pooh yardage for backing and sashes out of my stash. Then I went to town with my scraps tubs to make the first, and then the second bear. I figured if I wasn't buying any new fabric, it was fine to add the project into my mix.... right?   lol! We are such excellent justifiers, we quilters!

Red Bear of New Beginnings

And then I had to clean up for company, and confounded myself with Where-The-Heck I hid Blue Bear. Red Bear has been cheering up the stairway from the main floor to the sewing/exercise floor all this time, poor lonely guy.

(Hmmm.... does that mean I should start another new project, hide that beginning from myself, wait a year or so, and then when I'm searching for that one, I'll find "Spring Fever" . . . ?) 

Ha!Ha!  

~~~

I'm feeling mighty lazy today, though, so I'm not going to do Blue's work just yet. He's waited two years - he won't mind one more week, now that he's back in action.  :) 

And now I'm feeling the gears of this project again, and looking forward to doing the rest of the bears in the upcoming months. I'm not ready to halt the momentum on my paper-piecing quilts - in fact, since I couldn't find "Spring Fever," I pulled out my long-ago purchased "Feathered Goose," and got that all cut out and ready to slip into the workbox for when my "Thistlepods" units are finished. 

By the way, this week I finished that quilt's serpentine flying geese border units:

Getting closer to a finished top! And, man, do I love the background fabric on these.

~*~*~

Have you been able to work on a BOM? Sure would love to see.  :)

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 - "Forever My Valentine" & Blue Bear

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 my block 1 of "Forever My Valentine", which arrived a couple of days ago - all stitched up, even. I am determined to keep this BOM quickly assembled. 

Apparently 2018 is the Year of the Pre-Fused Kits. I really wanted to do this BOM, but although I really don't prefer pre-fused kits (for several reasons), that is the route I chose so that I'd actually be able to do this. It cuts the time down tremendously. 

I'm using blanket stitching on this one, and doing that with 40wt threads. I know most people prefer the ease of invisible thread, but I didn't choose it for 3 reasons. 1) My machine is extremely fitful when I make it work with it. 2) I really don't like the way the holes look in fused pieces - colored threads fill the holes, but invisible thread lets them keep showing. 3) This is a flannel project, and the edges of most pieces are white. Colored thread greatly minimizes the white rims around them, so that only the tiniest bit still peeks out instead of remaining highly visible. The edge of white on the red was particularly noticeable against the underlying pink before I stitched it:

The blocks for this quilt will have 3D wool flowers and pearl beads added after the quilting has been done.

One of the reasons I don't like pre-fused projects is that the fusible spans the entire fabric piece, instead of being "gutted" on larger pieces. This not only adds the layers of fusible where you have many stacked pieces, but also prevents you from cutting the background away. There are 8 layers in some places, (which would actually be 16 with the fusible, thin as that is). 

So before I fused this block, I laid the largest pieces down and traced their outlines with chalk so I could cut away the underneath layers, using a 3/8 inch margin. That gave me these large pieces that I can do something with in the future:

That's 2 layers of flannel and 2 of plastic that are kept out of the block. HOWEVER, if you do this, you need to be aware that the fusible will be exposed on the back. Here you see the open space where the black and pale pink were cut away before assembling, and the shiny surface of fusible covering the entire back of the red spotted heart that I'm about to put in place:

You really have to ***make sure*** you lay that applique ironing sheet under the block at the ironing board so the exposed fusible sticks to the peelable sheet, not to your board!

Just let it cool a bit and peel off.

~*~*~*~

I also put together my February blue bear for Dione's 2018 Beary Colorful BOM. He's the bear of high hopes:

This project is being done applique-as-you-quilt style, so this is just fused, not stitched yet. I'm taking a breather for Feb and not doing as much as last month. I hope to do the stitching/quilting for this at the same time I do the March bear. 

~*~ Linking my blue bear up at Jen's February Color Linkup

How about you? Did you get any BOM work done 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 - Red Bear & Wind in the Whiskers

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 can't believe it's already time to post BOMs Away. I also can't believe how insane I am. My first "Ooo! Shiny!" for 2018 has popped up, and I've made the January red bear for Dione's 2018 Beary Colorful BOM, coordinated with Jen Shaffer's Monthly Color Challenge.

~*~ Linking my red bear up at Jen's January Color Linkup

I'm doing these quilt-as-you-go style. Everything came from my scraps, and yardage from stash for the backing. I'm using a light gray minky for the tummies and muzzles. Love it! I fused it the same way I do normal cotton, except for using a pressing cloth over it. Not sure exactly what size I want to cut these to, either (probably 12x15 in.), so this won't get trimmed until a few more are made.

I also worked a lot on Wind in the Whiskers this weekend. Got these three critters made. . .

. . .and a ton of blossoms, flowers, leaves, etc., traced and cut out. The rest of the remaining 24 little frilly center pieces can wait, though. I'm sick of tiny cutting right now!  :)

How about you? Did you get any BOM work done 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.