BOMs Away Monday - Ruffled Roses, it's a Thesis, Di!!!, & a couple snaps

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.

So, yesterday my intention was to get the baskets for Ruffled Roses all assembled and added around the quilt center, but when I had the last connecting seam to sew on the 4 sides, my piecing machine's dogs quit working. ::razz::   I spent quite a bit of time online trying to resolve the issue, but it's just going to need the repair shop. I really didn't want to break down my other machine before I finish the FMQ on the quilt currently at that station, so this is as far as I got on my BOM work:

Oh, and this far on the very last of the swag border blocks, which I was using as a leader/ender with the baskets. These get sliced into 3 strips, each, that are then assembled for the swags.

So, while that was not so successful, my thesis was!! This was my defense committee - I've worked with two of them before, but the others were new to me. They really liked my work. In fact, I was a little taken aback at how they kept encouraging me to take it further and to publish portions of it in professional journals. It was nice to sit in there with the feeling that they were only offering suggestions to make it better rather than trying to trip me up or anything like that. Today I'm doing my final read-through for typos/etc. after the edits I made, and it'll all be FINISHED and in the hands of the binders by tonight!

Dr. Tallman, Dr. Koepp, me, Dr. Biggs, Dr. Wells

And when I said yesterday that I needed to snap some pics for my BOMs Away blog post, I got an "Oh, no!" comment from my daughter that she'd signed for a package from Australia for me while I was away for the thesis defense. Whaaa!!??  When??  Poor Di (of Snippets 'n' Scraps) - the package had been here for about a week without me even knowing it! She'd sent me a fun "Pay It Forward" gift!! 

 First I pulled out a great necklace made from balls of felted wool of various colors. I really love this, and it will be fun to wear with turtlenecks on cold days! The colors will work fantastic for Thanksgiving season as well as the later holiday times. 

Then, I pulled out my very first mug rug.  :D  This is the perfect little quilty smile to start breaking up the boredom of my side wall at my quilting corner. Adorable simplicity with a happy feeling in just the right colors!

That empty wall has been driving me nuts for the last few weeks, but I'm always too busy with other works to stop and make a mini or two to put up there. 

AAAAND!!!!  She sent a personal-size package of TimTams!  

Now, I've seen people talk of these, but never ever had one. They are most delicious! For my U.S. friends: imagine an Oreo-type construction with rectangular chocolate biscuits, but with a good fudge filling instead of the Oreo filling, all covered with yummy milk chocolate. Such a nice treat from Australia.  :D

Thank you SO MUCH, Di!!!!!
I'm excited about an idea to send back.  ;D

P.S. It's been too busy around here for me to make a separate post about significant family happenings - I just love these shots somebody caught of my girls at the Taekwondo Master's Challenge:

Marissa performing her traditional poomsae:

and Devon holding a board for Kaven's creative breaking routine:

We all five participated: Scott, Heather, and I did board breaking, and Devon and Marissa did the poomsae. I was busy as a volunteer all around my event, though, so no pictures from me.

And the last shot for this post: My funny boy, Navarre, keeps compulsively licking the condensation and frost off the windows when I raise the shades in the morning. (I get SADD, so keeping them closed to hold in the heat is not an option.) 

If you've seen the movie "How to Train Your Dragon," you can understand why one of his nicknames is "Toothless"!

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How about you? Have you worked on any of your BOMs?  :)

BOMs Away - (Thesis Defense)

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 am defending my thesis today! No BOM work to share. 

(Ruth Asawa's watercolor of a sumo tournament in Rohwer)

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Have you worked on any of your BOMs?  :)

BOMs Away Monday - Halloween Edition

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.

Hey, everyone! I hope you had a good weekend. Mine was quite satisfactory, thanks to my quilting hobby! We've had some academic drama, and one of the teens had to spend many MANY hours over the weekend doing make-up assignments, so I couldn't go anywhere due to supervision needs. 

Not a prob! BillieBee so very graciously gifted me with the "Sew Spooky" pattern a couple of weeks ago, and I gave in and ordered a few Halloween fabrics.  Thanks so much again, Billie!

Combine that with the fact that my thesis was turned in to my defense committee on Thursday, and I spent the entire weekend playing with that BOM pattern! What a treat, really, this "chore" weekend turned out to be for me. 

I spent Friday, around Mom duties, washing/ironing the fabrics I'd ordered and pulling things from my stash to mix and match with those. I also traced out all the fusibles I would need for the applique pieces.

Took a break in the afternoon to help Heather finish cutting and stuffing peppers that she made for her work pot luck - and graciously left the messiest ones home for us to eat. DELICIOUS! And CUTE!

She made her Jade costume completely from scratch, fashioning the pattern and everything. Even made the gloves!  And Marissa sure had that Wednesday glare down pat.  :D

Once all the teens/young adults were off and away for their various Halloween parties, I threw on my old witch costume and cut out all the pieces while I tended the door for Trick-or-Treaters. Scott came home during that time and caught a moment with Navarre, who coudn't figure out if he was more fascinated with my hat's feathers, or the fabrics I was moving around, or the kids who showed up at the door.

This pattern comes from the same company as my "Heart & Home" and "Garden Friends" BOMs. I do love piecing each panel - they're just like putting puzzles together!

I worked ALL day Saturday and quite a good bit of Sunday on this quilt - and the progress was great. [Too bad she had sooo much homework to catch up on!!] Most all of the work on the center panels is finished (just bits of the sashing and borders are laid out with them here) - I only have to do the blanket stitching on about 2/3 of the black fused pieces, and then I can put the center together. There will be some embroidery to throw on here and there before I put the borders on, as well.

Speaking of which, none of the border bats or cornerstones are stitched yet, but aren't these owls just too cute?

I love my sparkly ghosts - hooray for super finds in the stash scrap bin! I stitched them with gold metallic thread - look super cool in life.

I wish my orange sashing fabric wasn't quite so bright, but there you are. It'll be cheery on the wall next year. But I'm definitely changing out the gray fabric that I'd cut for the candy corn background. I really loved the idea of that swirly text print being in there, but it's just overwhelmingly dark in the general context of the quilt's center. Gonna go stash diving one more time, and if I can't find something better, I should be able to squeeze enough out of the gray web print that some of the bats were put on.

And one last Halloween share - fiber artist/teacher Liz Kettle lives next door, and her son is every bit as much a crafter as we are. Only, he specializes in chain-mail artistry. Look at this beautiful shirt he made~! I caught him outside a few days ago breaking into it so he could use it in an hours-long weekend event. Just amazing, really! I wish I'd taken a close-up shot of how expertly the links are webbed. Now I just need to catch him in full gear. . .

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So, how was your week? Did you get to work on any of your BOMs?