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

BOMs Away - Down the Rabbit Hole, 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)

Yay! I stitched down the two remaining large leaping rabbits:

They're each about as big as our cat, actually! And it still tripped me out how long it took to stitch them. Four and a half hours for both.

My big working table has been hijacked by my Amaya collage quilt project, pushed partially aside for the holiday weekend for Scott's work, so I couldn't get the four standing rabbits set onto the other borders or figure out which fabrics I want to use for the various flowers around all the rabbits. . . 

So, I got a head start on the Month 6 piecing work for next weekend's BOM, Water Reflections:

Time to make all the filler portions and put the blocks and center medallion all together!

I hope you had a decent Christmas. Ours was very quiet with just the two of us, but man, that ham was good! I ordered one from a local ranch and the reputation did not lie - that was the best ham I've ever had. Store hams will never be real to me after this.

~*~*~*~

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 - Reflections & Rabbits

 

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)

Wow! My work energy is SIGNIFICANTLY improved as compared to 3 weeks ago, when I last worked on the month 5 sewing for my Water Reflections BOM.  (At least for sit-down work. I still get ridiculously winded when I do anything standing, let alone involving stairs. . . )

First I made the remaining patches, 

Which, added to the ones made last time around, grew up to become these sets of blocks,

And with top/bottom rows of random squares, became the quilt center:

I had no idea I'd be able to finish that much work, so I'm a super happy BOM camper right now.

Also, during the work week I snuck in time to do more on the leaping rabbits from last weekend, because all those little pieces that took forever to sort out and organize were out on my table - not to be trusted as safe, with Navarre around! (Plus, I wanted that mess cleared away.)

So now, two leaping rabbits are completely stitched, and the other two are all glued on, ready for stitching when that BOM's turn comes up again. (The photo above shows correct colors. These guys below didn't stay true with night-time lighting.)

My work-week priority project is not a Christmas quilt, but the colors in these blocks sure are perfect for December attention, aren't they? 

They make me happy.  They'll grow up this week to become the Jinny Beyer "Kashmir" quilt top. I really need to start blogging all my work again, instead of just the weekend BOM times. . . 

~*~*~*~

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 - Pulling out an Oldie but Goodie

 

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)

Whoa! I knew it had been quite a while since I'd worked on my Down the Rabbit Hole BOM, but I looked it up just now, and that project has been stalled since MARCH 2018, when I had prepped the rabbit pieces for the next border work. 

As deeply in love as I am with needle-turn hand stitch applique, I detest machine applique work - which is largely why this got shelved for so long. Also, it makes my head explode, figuring out how to adjust this round and the last round to make the quilt a king size instead of a queen.

Four and half hours later today, The first leaping rabbit is finished! So cute! 

These rabbits are quite large - you can see better perpective in this pic I'd taken when I was prepping the pieces. I'm using the edge-turn on freezer paper method for these, with a tiny blanket stitch using 50wt aurifil thread to sew them down.

 

Looking at my finished guy, I think I'll draw up some eye pieces and add those in when I do the next rabbit, rather than embroidering them on.

This is a Sarah Fielke design, and was her 2017 BOM program. Here is her finished quilt:

 I was doing mine in Easter colors, and had this much finished when I putzed out on it:

Now I intend to keep it on my active BOM list until it is finished! That means I have Water Reflections, Forever My Valentine, and Down the Rabbit Hole on rotation for weekend work to give me breathers from my priority piecing and quilting. 

~*~*~*~

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 - Bunny Fiestas in Mexico by the Beehives are a little Nuts!

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.)

This weekend I got all the pieces for the standing bunnies prepped. Tbere are a lot more pieces in this photo than it appears to have!! Hours and hours here, folks. Have I said how much I hate this particular process? But I do greatly prefer a turned edge on my machine applique, so I suck it up and do it.

Next month I'll focus on getting the other components prepped so I can work out the placement on the extra-wide rabbit borders I'm doing for my "Down the Rabbit Hole." I think I'm just going to add birds, maybe a couple clouds, along with the flowers to fill in the extra space my king-sizing the project created with this round.

But I have other bits of BOM progress to report, too. At my hand sewing "station," I finished the fourth outer corner for "Fiesta Mexico" block 6! That sucker is a good square yard, so lots of applique work just for that one block. I didn't feel like trimming the triangles down and sewing them together yet, so it's all well-supported on the wall until the other blocks are appliqued.

And that left me able to whip up the first block for the new "From the Heart" BOM that I signed up for this year. Just in time, as the second one arrived a couple of days ago.

With that out of the stitching tote, I got out my scrap bins and pulled fabrics for the 4 "Classic Nutcrackers" that I had traced out onto their background a few weeks ago. I didn't have to turn to the stash "proper" very often.  :)

I actually got a wee bit of stitching done on the first one. These will be fun. They'll rotate with Fiesta Mexico and Octopus Garden for my long-term hand work. 

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 - More Rabbits

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.)

Another slow week for BOM work, between getting sick this weekend and having other things going. However, I got the other two giant running rabbits all press-prepped. This sit-down work was less taxing than sewing or even tracing out Wind in the Whisker pieces, so that's what I did. Plus, I'm super eager for my rabbits border to get stitched!

(These are a good two feet long, with lots of curves)

Let me just say that straight vodka in an applique brush and this aluminum fingertip stilleto are the best tools out there when you have to mess with a craft iron and applique prep!

Just get yourself the cheapest vodka out there - not being a drinker, my quilter's vodka has lasted 4 years so far, and probably will give me another 4.   :D   I did put a little lemon zest in mine, which made it smell lemony. Sometimes I use it diluted with water for spray starch if I'm pressing a ton of stuff, but usually it only comes out when I have this type of work to do. It's terrific at this job.

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 Monday - Rabbits!

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 get much BOM time at all this weekend, but I managed to do all the prep work for two of the running rabbits for my "Down the Rabbit Hole." 

And I just need to turn the edges on the big parts (and they *are* big) of the other two. 

I had hoped to also have the standing rabbits prepped, so I'm thinking I'll leave this BOM out until I do that. One of the others may have to take a hit this month.  :)  I'll try to double up later on, though.

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 Monday - "Down the Rabbit Hole" Goes BIG

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.)

A new month brought me back to my Rabbit Hole quilt top, where it was ready for the Month 9 work that starts all the applique on the big rabbit border. 

This is Lisa Palmer's pretty rabbit - I love it and want to start right in on making and finishing my rabbits.
But first I'll have to figure out what all extra applique "stuff" I'll add in to fill my extra-wide border.

I really want this quilt on my bed, not the guest bed, so that means I had to figure out how to increase it into a king size. I also really like the diamond border on the outer edge, like it is in Sarah Fielke's design. 

This is Jane Shaw's amazing top, so you can see the diamonds I'm talking about.
That is one big dog. This is a big quilt top, something like 96 inches.

That meant I needed to insert many inches at the applique border. Well, I only barely had enough fabric for the border as designed, so I had to make my border two-toned. Hey! Keep the blue and add some green - sky over grass! I'll have to flip the rabbits around from Sarah's orientation since the blue has to be on the inner side of this border. It'll work fine, though, since this border will hang over the sides and foot of the bed. Making this a two-tone border, though, threw another factor into the "Figure It All Out" mess since it would be better to do mitered corners.

So this morning I pulled out the directions for that diamond border and wrestled with the math to figure out how much to add in that border to get to where however-many added diamonds would match up in the measurements. 

I had it all figured out for my best-choice of finished quilt size. . . and then I was short about 6 inches of yardage for the green fabric.  Oh, pooh!

Back to the math again, but it wasn't so tricky this time around, as I already had the common denominators. So I found an acceptable smaller size and then set to work making my actual borders.

I forgot how long it takes to put large borders together! So this is all the sewing work I accomplished today. (All four are stacked here.)

Because of the mitering, my pretty powder blue (looking rather peakish in that photo) was a little shorter than the far reach of that color's corner. A little patching made it work fine, and applique stuff can help hide that seam a bit. I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but I used the blue erasable pen to mark the diagonal seamline. These borders have an extra 1/4" on each edge to accomodate the ocassional pull-in that can happen with applique. So that line gives me something to eyeball while placing elements on the background. 

I was super careful with all my calculations, and even more careful with my cutting and marking, so hopefully - cross our fingers - when I have these all worked up and do the final trimming, it'll actually fit together as it's supposed to!

~*~*~ Did you get any BOM type work done at your place 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 Monday - Down the Rabbit Hole

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.)

Seeing all the posts on Facebook from those who have finished their Down the Rabbit Hole tops has given me the kick in the pants I needed to get over my block on it and get this quilt going again. Also, this was a January goal to achieve.

And here it is! Twist border is cut out, assembled, and attached. I'm super happy and have high hopes of putting this one on my bed in April. Lots of work between here and there, so we'll see.

My problem last August was that I couldn't figure out what the heck color I wanted to use. Not being able to envision where I was going with colors on the next borders and how they would interplay with whatever I chose here froze me. Another factor was the fact that I want to augment this to a good king size, and didn't know where I would do that.

So I spent hours yesterday deciding where in the overall quilt I'll insert the necessary inches, and then laying out different color options to figure out what to do with this twist border. After discarding my first, second, third, and fourth choices, I landed on the pinks. 

Which was great! That meant I could use some of my backing fabric to fussy cut bunnies to include here and there. It's all about the bunnies, after all.  ;D


On the side, another BOM had progress recently. The next corner for the very complex Block 6 of Fiesta Mexico was finished during TV hand stitch time, so it's up on the wall with its companions. I'll have a pretty wall behind me while I'm quliting for another 12 - 18 months. Love it!

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 - Rabbits & Sapphires

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.)

Woohoo! My "Down the Rabbit Hole" is all up to date. I hadn't expected to catch up to Sarah's instruction sets until October's. I must say, it's very nice seeing my work station table top again after the three weeks of explosion there during this push. The colors are so pretty, I'm really looking forward to having this quilt available for use on my bed next spring.

Also, Kevin has Clue 3 out for his Sapphire Stars mystery today. I managed to get the navies and neutrals cut out. 

It'll have to wait until next weekend for the rest, though. I have to get myself back on task for my priority quilt and finish the quilting and binding of Fall All Around.

~*~*~ 

NOw it's your turn. Have you finished 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.