BOMs Away - and ~Flimsy Alert!~ 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)

Woohoo! Look! My "Wind in the Whiskers" is a finished flimsy!

There is a clothesline and several cute elements (including another kitten, of course) that go over the central field area after the quilting has been done.

I'm super happy that this top is completed. I must say, this pattern gave me more headaches and got put into long time outs far more than any other I've dealt with. I've done other McKenna Ryan patterns without issue. Not sure why this one was so contorted to figure out. And I know I'm not the only one. But it's ready now!

I want to say something. Grief itself, AND the handling of it, is different for every person. Some of us hold it closer inside and do not make a public spectacle of it. Scott and I are private that way - once an initial "announcement" has been made, we keep it close and work through it. We don't post 50 Facebook or Instagram messages a day lionizing our pain. Apparently, some people think this means we don't care about the loss. That could not be further from the truth. If you need to make a spectacle of your loss, that is absolutely fine. Do what you need to do to get through the shock of loss. But it is cruel to mistake others' privacy for not caring, and to repeatedly preach at them in a public manner.

Also, if you (the one person remaining who should unconditionally love) have so much animosity for a person that you repeatedly call him a son-of-a-bitch and an idiot, in front of others (shocking them), to your face, and behind your back, if you wish his child dead, and if you hate me enough to maintain over 90 minutes of ranting about me being a bitch and a whore, you cannot be surprised that we maintain distance. Particularly since ALL of this is based on unfounded and manufactured ideas. I apologize to quilt friends for the nasty verbage - I am dumping garbage out of my heart so that I can let it go. "Allowances have to be made for grief," some tell us. . . but this has been going on for many years. 

I keep telling myself that the best path through these public preachings at us, and the poisonous attacks of bile, is to simply refuse to engage. But after a while, you need a place to vent, you know? Technically, this place is public, but I have an extremely small following, and you quilters understand me far better than most people do. Now I can let it go again and give my energy, instead, to the process of getting this Lupus flare to dissipate. 

I hope you are having a better time than we are. I have to admit, Bad Boy 2020 is the year to have to slog through this dysfunction. The entire year was already screwed up, anyway.  :(

~*~*~*~

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 - A Long-Ago Sunday for Norma and some BOM dabblings

 

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.)

Kinda just putzing through this week. The service for Scott's Mom will be on Tuesday. We've been scanning in lots of photos to put together a nice digital display for everyone to enjoy. I really like the happiness on her face in this one, as well as the super cute Easter Sunday outfit, circa 1958.

BOM stuff:

A couple of weeks ago, I fused the last block down for my Wind in the Whiskers. Cute little koi pond. Don't think I posted it yet, though.

(The kitten tail and lower bush edges are left loose, as they will straddle the border seam.)

Today, I made the four 3D butterflies and attached them for the Kitten Kaboodle block. 

Oh, and I also made pupils for these kittens. There weren't any in the pattern, and they all looked freaky without any.

So now, this project is ready to be fully assembled into a complete flimsy!  It only has 2 borders, and I would love to just throw it all together this week and have a nice accomplishment to carry me through the upcoming hard days. However, Scott's using my cutting table to finish up the photo tasking - spread all over it, and I'm not about to ask him to let me move him. Ah, well, it'll be a nice Feel-Good accomplishment next weekend.

Oh, also, through this week's TV time, I've done the applique stitching on two more of the Month 4 squares for the Water Reflections BOM. 1 block left to go.

I know I've only been sharing BOM stuff for months now, but that's not at all reflective of the bulk of my quilting work. There's always a priority quilt that gets 99% of my time each week. I need to do at least 4 write-ups on finishes.

The last 3 weeks, though, what you've seen is what has happened. I'll probably move through another week of numbness and seeing only to the basic tasks of daily living. I think I'll use the final assembly of Wind in the Whiskers as my marker for the time to return to normal quilting operations. And I'm dubbing it absolutely OK for that to happen when it happens.

~*~*~

How about you? Have you done any BOM work lately?

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 - Wind in the Whiskers & Beachwalk

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.)

It's a McKenna Ryan projects overload week! Hehe  :)

I traced onto fusible all the pieces for the last block of my "Wind in the Whiskers" quilt, and even got a good start on putting them onto their fabrics:

And on "Beachwalk," I got all the trapunto work finished for two more panels - 

The sandpipers and boat and pampas grass, 

and then the bicycle and lighthouse, 

and the beach chairs panel.

I've been working on the panels in order of hardest to easiest, in terms of how much work is needed and how many of its pieces are about to fall off. It's getting there! 

Next panel will be the one with the shrimp boat and a pelican and bunches of buoys on pier posts.  

1, maybe 2 more weeks of trapunto work, and then it'll be on to the final quilting stage!!  Woohoo!

This quilt is making me gain weight, though!

I'm on a timeline, so except for Sunday breaks with other BOM work, I can't set it aside and work on another quilt for a breather. So I have to task-drive myself, and the rewards I usually find most motivating are delicious treats like slices of cheesecake. . . .  

So.... it'll be a good thing when this is finished and I can go back to my usual mode of working that allows for fresh "scenery" when the Mojo needs it!

 

~*~*~

How about you? Has any BOM type work been happening there?

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 ~Flimsy Alert for Thistlepods ~ and 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.)

Hello! Wow, it's gorgeous here today - hope you've got pretty weather, too.

 Hey, look!  I got Thistlepods all put together the other day!!

And it looks quite happy about it.  Heh!  ;D

~and~ Some of you may remember this UFO BOM project of mine:

Today I worked on my Wind in the Whiskers quilt

(a McKenna Ryan design)

I got all the kittens and daffodils fused onto this 35" block, but my body has jitters today, so I didn't get the 3D pieces for the butterflies edge-stitched and cut out.

If you look carefully, you can see the wing pieces fused onto the back-side layers of fabrics in this baggie. I found it is FAR easier to edge stitch them like this, and then cut them out, than it is to fuse both sides together, cut the wing out, then try to do pretty edge stitching on those small pieces. There will be four 3D butterflies added to the block.

Other than those critters for the kitten line-up, there remains one final block to prep the pieces and fuse them on. Then I can finish assembling the quilt top for a Flimsy finish there, too!

~*~*~

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 - A Little Wind, a Gaggle of Balloons, a Tiny Bite

My Elm Street Quilts Postchard Exchange Hop Post preceeds this one, HERE.

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 BOM time was mostly spent helping Heather with the project below this, but I did manage to trace, fuse, and cut out all the non-kitten pieces for the left half of the lower row for Wind in the Whiskers. Just one more block to make pieces for, then I can get this BOM top fully assembled!

         

These 25 kaleidoscope blocks took up most of the time, though. We're making a baby quilt together for her preceptor. I had a few yards of hot air balloon fabric, so we thought we'd use this technique to make some blocks that should look like hot air balloons from the top. We couldn't find a background piece we liked in my stash, so I'll go shopping with these after the repair person comes and goes today, and the backing will be the fabric these were cut from. 

Don't they look great?! When I was cutting the wedges out, I remember thinking the fabric didn't seem to yield as much variety as it would be nice to see. But once you start sewing them, the differences really stand out! We'll only use part of these, so there will be others for fun in the future.

On the hand stitching front, I'm almost finished with the applique on the first nutcracker. He should be ready for a share next week. But first I need to make the teeth units. I made some units of lines I could print out and start the process of paper piecing strips that can be sliced and supplemented to get the 12 units for the whole set. I don't want to fuss with all this more than once. Each tooth is almost 1/8 inch, or about 1.5 mm. Except for the outer ones, I'm working with 1/2" strips. Yes, it's a little tricky.

How is BOM work going at your place?

~*~*~

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 - Kittens :)

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 got my February work done on "Wind in the Whiskers" - 5 fun little kittens for the bottom left panel. They make me smile.  :)  

I'm not sure why only one of them has pupils. I'll put all the others in when it gets pre-quilting stitchery work. The next batch of work includes making the 3D butterflies these cuties are all playing with.

~*~ Have you done any BOM work 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 - Tons and Tons of McKenna Ryan Progress :D

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.)

Monday morning edit:  As I needed my large work surfaces to make a backing and trim a queen quilt, I finished up this work now instead of waiting for my next BOM time.

All the leaves, little branches, birdies, blossoms, bee, and 3D butterfly are finished and fused on. It's all trimmed and squared up, ready for the addition of the lower row of adorable kittens at play. At this point, it is right around 40 x 55 inches. (That baggie has the clothing/kitten that will hang on the 3D clothesline that gets installed after quilting.)

Original post:

I  a-l-m-o-s-t  made it!  So very close to having this entire upper section of "Wind in the Whiskers" all put together (which is the lion's share of the work on this quilt)! This is all placed and fused:

There are only a handful of dogwood blossoms and leaves to add to the lower branches of the tree at the tops of the bottom 3 blocks.  (The open field in the bottom center block will have a 3D clothesline stretching across with an actual mini quilt and clothing pieces hanging from it - all made and carefully stored for now.)

So very close. But in the confusion of figuring this pattern out, there are three complex leaf pieces that I still have to trace and cut out. I'm just way too knackered to do anymore today. Oh, and I need to cut out the insect pieces for the daisies kitty.

Yeah, the last little bit of work isn't happening this weekend - The butterfly actually needs double placing and cutting and some careful topstitching, as it's a 3D piece like this one on the other side of the quilt. I forgot I hadn't done that prep work before I started assembly today.

But I am well pleased with this progress!  And aren't the birds just too stinkin' cute?  :)

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.

BOMs Away - Happy New Year!

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 we are with our first BOMs Away of the New Year. 

2018. Can you believe it?!

We're just having a casual day here at the house, so I actually did some BOM work while ticking off the final moments of the old year. 

Lots and lots of trunk parts and leafy pieces for four of the blocks on my Wind in the Whiskers:

Doesn't look like much when it's just pinned in a clump like that, but trust me - hours of work there! 

This was the first session working on this quilt since my start on it in October 2014 that I actually felt happy doing it - here's to hoping the bad ju-ju and pattern frustrations are completely in the past now, and it keeps moving forward freely.  :)   

I think that makes it supremely appropriate for the first-of-the-year link-up.  

Have you done any BOM-type work during the holidays?

~*~*~

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 - Wrestling with "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.)

Talking about stalled out projects. . . My Wind in the Whiskers BOM has been abandoned since March, when I did hardly anything on it. And it was August 2015 before that, that it was last touched.

(These two blocks were individually pinned on my design wall.)

There's a reason for that. This is the WORST pattern I've ever worked with. Which is horrid, actually, because her patterns are quite expensive. I've done several other McKenna Ryan projects, and while they were intricate, they were completely decipherable.

This one is not. Working on it is a huge drain, and you just don't get anywhere - not because there's so much work, but because you CANNOT figure the durn thing out.

Barbara at Cat Patches knows!

So today, I've vowed that this thing is going to move forward one way or another. It's a beautiful quilt, and I want it hanging in my longarm studio by the end of next summer. So I'm bagging the pattern, other than tracing out the pieces, and doing it my own way.

First of all, I assembled the entire upper portion of the backrounds. Blocks 1 and 2 already had everything but the tree fused down, so they got trimmed to perfect size and joined. The pattern has you do a ton of stuff first, but not some stuff - and it's impossible to figure out what is what, and there's no exact full-size layout, so you can't figure the exact place to put some of the ones you're supposed to do before sewing the blocks together. . .

You get the drift. 

The other three backgrounds got cut slightly oversized so that the little bits of shrinkage during fusing won't matter. I'll trim the other edges to perfect size later. (That's why you can see them hanging over at the outer edges)

And that's all pinned back up on my design wall above my domestic machine. Had to shift everything around to accommodate its growth. Next I'll assemble all the non-tree components for blocks 3-5. Then I'll figure out which pieces I actually need for the tree and branches/leaf-regions that overhang all the blocks. It's not the least bit clear in the patterns which pieces those actually are. [Each block has its own pattern packet, and I think the gobbledy-gook of it all comes from these being written as individual mini quilts first, and then she intended the replacement pieces and full-quilt instructions to bridge the difference when you're making the full quilt, but that just didn't pan out anywhere near as well as it was supposed to. Those full-quilt adjustments are supposed to be explained in Block 4's packet (btw - why isn't this up front in Block 1's??), but it's like only the first 1/5 of the necessary adjustment discussion is there. And you can't get sufficient clarification on the errata page online.]

Again: BARBARA KNOWS!!!

Block 1's fusible pieces, for example.

I'm not doing any of the tracing and placing of lots of little pieces today, though, to do anything more than this. Doing what I did today put me in a foul mood, and I would rather do something Christmasy. I have hopes that the next session with this BOM will be a much better experience.

Instead, I put the downstairs tree up, and that really cheered my mood. Bonus points: It sits right by my sewing nook.  :D

And I rewarded my intense, stress-inducing foray into "Whiskers" by finishing my easy 4-patch "Daisy Days" blocks which I'd half-way sewn three weeks ago. This quilt will now wait until after the holidays to be assembled. Everything's been cut, ready to fly through the machine. :)

And it's much more fun than deciphering this crazy pattern. 

~*~*~

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.