BOM's AWAY Monday #8

Welcome to my Link-Up for BOMs Away Mondays! 

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

Wow. June’s portion of Glacier Star (which is really a Technique of the Month, not a true BOM) sure was huge~!  But I prevailed! My insane list of BOMs is ALL CAUGHT UP TO DATE! First time since February.  :D

It's a good thing two of those will fall off the list soon - with going back to work on my master's in fall, I'll just fall behind again. 

24 arcs and 48 arches.  664 pieces. That means 48 glues followed by 616 folds-cuts-pins-stitches-pressings. (Thank goodness for cutting templates and blades that will cleave through 8 layers at once.) Too much work for one month of BOM time. I put these away Thursday night, not wanting to touch another monthly project for eight years!  Eh, but I'll be good to go on Tuesday with a simple one again.

When sewing this many paper pieces, I highly recommend working factory-style to cut down on the time involved. Don’t do all the prep work for each piece as you come to it. Instead, do each stage for all of them, then go to the next stage. For example, pop all the overhanging seam lines. Then do all the fold-and-cuts (leave them folded as you stack them). 

Then pin the next piece to all of them. Then go to the machine and chain stitch.  :D  It does make the process move more quickly and cuts back on mistakes. Just pay attention as you start each new stage to make sure you’re oriented correctly.  (No clue what I’m talking about? Here’s my old tutorial for paper foundation piecing: Paper Foundation Piecing Tute.)

I just love the transformation when you trim the edges off.

And now my BOM list on the side bar is all cleared of check marks, waiting for my footprints for July's work each week. . .  ::sigh::

~*~*~*~*~*~

So – what interval project have you got going? Weeklies are welcome along with regular projects that you’ve broken into monthly units, and –of course- true BOMs.   Share your eye candy and show off your progress since the last time you linked up! There are some wonderful monthly and weekly projects going on out there. You guys amaze me. :D

Howling at the Moon!

HowooooooooOOOO!

Howling at the Moon
17.75" x 22.5"
pieced by Marissa, quilted by Lynette
100% cotton fabrics, Warm and Natural 100% cotton batting

Marissa had to get in on some of the fusible fun while she watched her older sister making dragons, so she drew out her own design and combed through the stash to put together this fun wall-hanging.

She didn't have any desire whatsoever to do the quilting, and I need practice, anyway, so with her permission, I figured Sapphira and I would do the Em & Roxy thing!  ;D  Well, as much as Marissa would let us. She didn't want the whole picture to be heavily quilted.

I had permission to design quilting that would visualize the sound of the howl, so I made vivid gold swirls that reach up from the wolf to caress the moon.

I took the liberty of putting snowflakes on the slopes. I didn't even ask - - - Well, I was having fun!

I just *love* how the moon is GLOWING in this shot!

She requested that I make the tree look all needle-y with them pointing up. So I did that with a lot of green thread-painting-quilting, and put some bark lines and knots on the trunk. After all that was done, Marissa said it looked like the tree needed snow on it, and I agreed.





So, out came the white again and another round of needle-y stitching, only this time I quilted it over the trunk also.  If you look closely, you can still see the knots showing under the snowlines. . .




I didn't have any trouble quilting over the fusibles on this piece. Perhaps because the batting was Warm & Natural 100% cotton instead of the poly that was on Hugs and Kisses (had some issues with needles getting gunky and stitches skipping on that one).

Still, I need more practice with motion control (see the bobbles when I needed to move my hands over during the howl swirls?) and stitch lengths. Those issues show up great in this shot.

Only had a little spot of tension freak-out on the white. Not sure why that happened - it was the same thread top and bottom, and it fixed itself.

Just need to hand stitch the lower seam of the hanging sleeve down tonight when we watch a show. This is finish #19 for 2011!


We had intended to put a bead on for the wolf's eye, but when we auditioned a couple, it just wasn't right. The markings on the gray fabric happened to fall in such a perfect way for his face, that we left the bead off.  I do think that perhaps the next time we're over the bridge, we'll step into Michael's and see about picking up some of those heat-glue-on crystals so she can put stars up in the top of the night sky. Don't you think that would be just perfect?

How-ooooooOOOOOOoooo!!

FINISH LINE - Hugs and Kisses from Above for "Zelda"

This is a very special project, and I'm pretty sure it's what is referred to as a concept quilt.

Hugs and Kisses from Above for "Zelda"
56" x 61"
All-cotton top, micro-fiber poly minky back, poly batting

You see, a very beloved cousin died just over a year ago, and her very first grandchild is due to be born in September. Kelly was an avid quilter, and she and I were long-distance quilt buddies. There is no way I could not make a quilt in her honor for her first grandbaby! 

Now, modern was not her style - she was a Thimbleberries-type gal through and through - but I know she would have been delighted that I was branching out and augmenting my skills with free-motion quilting. And I think Paige is the type of young mother who can appreciate modern. So I went with my hankering to do something mod after all the UFO work I've been grinding away at.


Hacking away at that insane UFO list is the Prime Directive of 2011, so I took advantage of a challenge workshop at the local guild to do this project. I just knew Kelly (a different one!) would have modern fabric for us, and she didn't let me down. She'd put together charm packs of Sugarpop and paired them with a 1/2 yard of a pretty mint green solid. I'd brought some white with me, and when I saw the mint green, I started morphing the idea I'd had for a sofa quilt for my cousin (involving the idea of ski slopes) with the idea of Kelly (my cousin) raining hugs and kisses down from Heaven to her little grandbaby.

Thus, this design emerged - some charms patched together at the bottom to represent solid Earth and some green strips swooshing down from above, with X's and O's dropping down the field of the quilt. The quilting extends the idea - vertical waves in the mint swathes, straight verticals in the white to differentiate - with some hearts thrown in for good measure. It's supposed to sort of call up the idea of hugs and kisses raining down on one of those really cool sunshiny rainy days. You know - the kind of sunny sprinkle that prompts folks to say "A widow's getting married!"  


I haven't made a label yet (which I normally require to be installed before I work up a Finish Line post for the quilt). I'm waiting until I know Baby "Zelda's" real name to put on it with a photo of Grandma Kelly.  (Sure do love her prenatal nickname!! hehe)


I used minky on the back for optimal silky softness for a baby - and I just love the way the quilting looks on it:

Speaking of which - I did the binding completely by machine. I normally do the final stitching by hand. When I  machine bind a quilt, I sew it onto the back and pull it around to the front so that I can get a perfect topstitch around the quilt on the binding's edge. When I went to iron the binding after setting it, I thought it would be prudent to use a press cloth on top of the minky. Worked like a charm!

I can't wait to give it to Paige and Tyrie. I know Kelly will appreciate that somebody did for her what she can't do herself.  Here's to those we love who have gone on ahead of us. . .