Flimsy Alert! ~ "Heart & Home"

I just realized that I haven't recorded the finish of the top for the "Heart & Home" BOM.

This is probably my favorite spot.  :)

I got the final borders finished up a couple of weeks ago while I was using it as the masking project to hide my secret work. 

This was a pattern from The Quilt Company, and I received the BOM packets in 2009. It's happiness to have it sewn up after it sat untouched for so many years! 

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Linking up at:

Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!

 

Link-a-Finish Friday

 

TGIFF is at Simply Pieced this week
 (main site here)

BOMs Away Monday - Heart & Home

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.

 

I have to say - it was fantastic to get a couple of FMQ sessions in this week, and I actually got a full-on BOM day put in. So now "Heart & Home" is at this point:

 

 

 

And I put all the hearts together for the ribbon border. They took much longer than I thought they would!

 

 

 

 

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How about you? Did you get to work on any of your BOMs lately?

 

BOMs Away & Colorado Balloon Classic

Welcome to the Link-Up for BOMs Away Mondays!

 

We'd love to see the BOM you're working on lately.bo

This week's link-up is at the bottom of the post.

 

(BOM work in a sec - gotta journal some family fun first).

 

We had the best time yesterday! Scott and Marissa and I got up before the sun to drive down into Colorado Springs for the 38th Annual Colorado Balloon Classic. We wanted to catch this unique bit of fun in Memorial Park since it looks like it's the last time it'll be held here. Not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't an open free-for-all where crowds of people could literally walk right up inside the crush of densely-packed hot air balloon crews. Owners brought their balloons in pickup trucks and small trailers (sometimes just the trucks!), and they were literally being inflated within touching distance of each other. Some pilots didn't have enough crew members, so Scott and Marissa answered a call from the organizing staff to jump in. I would have been a superfluous helper, so I had fun catching snapshots of the process.

 

First you pull everything out - prep the basket, lay out the envelope, and then get to the big work.

 

Mr. Keller (owner and pilot) was very particular about the hoses being connected properly.

The entire envelope is in that canvas bag!

Hmm... not sure where the shot went of the top pulled out entirely -
it stretches out in a line maybe 20 yards long.

 Pilots "cold pack" the tops, which is blowing regular air into it first. As that is starting, folks up front hold the opening open, and folks in back attach the top to the top. (Don't know any more terms than "envelope.")  Somebody holds on to the tether line that is attached at the tip-top to keep the whole thing under control as the inflation process continues.

 

 

 

The fan behind Marissa is what fills the balloon in the first place.

 

Attaching the very top while the envelope fills

 

Once the balloon is full of cold air, the pilot oh-so-carefully sends jets into the opening to heat things up. It's amazing how fast the air in there responds, and very soon you control the tip of the basket as it all pulls itself upright.

 

 

 

 

Once the organizers remove the "hold" flag, the pilot gives a little boost to his hot air, and he's up - up - and away! 

 

 

Have a great flight, Mr. Keller!

 

 

What a great random adventure to be able to be a part of that process.  :D

 

Here are a few of my favorite shots after that. They had 80 balloons this year, and sent them off in two waves. Check out how the spectators are packed right in with the balloons once people really started arriving!  Also, you can see in some of the pics how the pilots love to come down and "kiss" the little lake in the park before re-ascending for the rest of their flight. Oh, and don't miss catching the crazy man sitting in a "Cloud Hopper." Two of those were there, and they just sit on a little aluminum chair instead of in a basket!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheshire has a tail, just out of sight -
hangs down almost to the basket!

 

 

It was a superb morning - definitely worth the too-early rise out of bed and the $10 parking we paid to get into the lot the Boy Scouts could use for fund-raising.

 

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So - for BOM stuff!  I didn't do much at all, cause the day at the Balloon Classic was too much fun and then I wanted a nap.  But I did do some hand work. 

The bottom of the first block for "Fiesta Mexico" is stitched now - that piece is over a yard long.

 

 

 

Navarre says to tell you it'll eventually have this design work stitched on it:

 

 

 And I hand basted the 48 berries onto the applique border for "Heart & Home."  But I didn't stitch them down yet - started to, but had to go take a nap!

 

 

 

Also, the second of my cousin Kelly's Joseph Smith quilts has been up to bat at the quilting machine for about 10 days. The stabilizing is finished and the stars are quilted.

 

 

 

The finish will be a lonnnng time coming, though - I only get two 20-minute quilting sessions per day as breaks in my thesis work, which is back at full-steam-ahead. Last semester!!

 

 

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Have you done any work on your BOMs recently? Hope my U.S. friends are enjoying their Labor Day weekend!

 

BOMs Away & Belt Boards

Welcome to the Link-Up for BOMs Away Mondays!

 

We'd love to see the BOM you're working on lately.bo

This week's link-up is at the bottom of the post.

 

Hey, how are you all?  If you're in California, I sure hope your property is OK. I don't miss the earthquakes of my teen years, that's for sure.

 

I pulled out Heart & Home again this week. Got all my sashing strips made, and did the bits of hand stitching that wanted doing before it was bulkier to hold:

 

 

Hearts floating from a chimney, rails on a rooftop. . .

 

But the buttons for the yo-yo tree and the panes of several windows were left for post-quilting finish work.

 

 

 

I would have made further progress in my assembly during the short sewing time I had today, were it not for this boo-boo:

 

(This picture has the best color representation of the fabrics.)

  

Got it ripped out and resewn, and now that project is at this point:

 

 

 

 

Before I insert this week's link-up for BOM work sharing, I wanted to journal this bit of family activity:

 

 

 August 2nd was belt-testing day again at the dojang. Everyone in the family now studies Taekwondo, and all but Marissa tested this cycle. Marissa didn't participate, because she'd just returned from her summer in Florida. Like: Literally! We pulled into the driveway from the airport with barely enough time to grab the uniforms and run to the school.

 

We've been doing up a fun scrap-boarding "thing" of our own to mark our journey through the belt ranks toward Black Belt. At each belt test, the last item is to break your 1" board doing the prescribed strike or kick of the cycle. (I hear there are multiple boards at higher levels.) You leave with your board pieces. 

 

Well, Devon and I somehow came up with the idea months ago to paint something meaningful on our initial boards, intending to hang the subsequent smaller sides on the bottom as we go. We finally got the last board sprayed a couple of days ago, and hook-n-eyes screwed in, ribbons tied, so that they could be hung as a group.

 

 

 

 

Devon painted a beautiful bonsai, because studying Taekwondo restored a sense of inner peace for her after a very difficult couple of years.

 

 

 

I researched Korean art and culture to find a way to symbolize that I study Taekwondo to battle for good health. Seriously, my main purpose of doing this sport is to keep my feet on my body despite severe circulation and peripheral neuropathy issues. In Korean classical art, a cat and butterfly together signify vitality and longevity. I can't remember how to pronounce the two words I painted in - seung something, but that's what they mean. 

 

 

 

Marissa chose a golden deer because it's a mythical creature in Korean culture that caught her fancy.

 

 

 

Heather went with a koi to represent perseverance in the face of adversity (they swim upstream) and academic success (she had just graduated from college). She fights a couple health issues of her own and has scoliosis that gets painful.

 

 

 

Scott wanted to do a dragon.  In fact, he went and bought wood-burning tools so he could do this the way he wanted after getting Heather to draw one out on paper for him. Well, I can relate to that as far as quilting tools go, so I just smiled.  :)   He was rather tickled that he broke his board into 3 pieces. The turtles represent the foundation of this new study for him.

 

 

 

This positioning should last us another year before we'll need to raise the nails for the rest of the belt levels. We'll be adding green, purple, blue, brown, brown-senior, red, red-senior, bodan 1, bodan 2, black belt eligible, and then our blacks. That's the full intention, and we'll see how much time it takes to get there!

 

 

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 So, with that out of the way - have you been able to work on your BOMs recently?

 

BOMs Away - the one around Family Time with Mike & Dawna & David

Welcome to the Link-Up for BOMs Away Mondays!

 

We'd love to see the BOM you're working on lately.bo

This week's link-up is at the bottom of the post.

 

Hey!  I am so sorry, you guys - Scott's brother, wife, and one of their sones have been here from out of state (who we haven't seen for years), so things have been busy and focused on them! The first part of today we all spent at Garden of the Gods, climbing around and enjoying the gorgeous scenery under a beautiful sky.  Then it started clouding up for an afternoon storm, so it was back here to the house for us all. (After a yummy stop at the smoothie shop!)

 

Marissa, David, & Heather

  

Scott & David

 

Me & Scott - goofy grins on the selfie feature of my phone  :)

 

Scott, Heather, Marissa, David, and Random Folks also enjoying the day

 

 

Other big news is that my Dragonfly Party quilts, quilted by Kay Bell and Judi Madsen (blogged about at this link) were in the "Quilt! Knit! Stitch!" special exhibit in Portland this weekend. Big thanks to Margaret Gunn for sending me a photo of them at the show!   I was so very disappointed that I couldn't find a way to get out there, but as it turned out, I'm glad I didn't miss our family visit.  :)

 

 

 

 

 

Now for BOM stuff. August is all "messed up" in regards to my normal BOM habits.  I stuck with the Heart & Home quilt instead of working on another one.  Since my last report I got all the stitching done on the applique work for the focal house blocks and half of the stitching done for the border applique blocks. I like a small blanket-stitch choice on my machine.

 

 

 

 

I also got the yo-yo's made and stitched on by hand for the one tree. Turned out cool!

 

 

 

 

When I do applique, I like to trim out the "guts" on the backside, which greatly increases the quilt's drapability - especially when you're working with fusibles. (Which is why I take the time to trim my fusible pieces to 1/4" outlines instead of solid shapes.)

 

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Have you been able to work on your BOMs recently? Since I missed posting the host spot last week, feel free to link up any extra posts you'd made previously as well.  :D