Tuesday Archives - The First BOM

It's Tuesday which means it's time to take a look back at early, or even pre-blogging projects by linking up with Val's Quilting Studio for:

This week's theme is Boys and BOM.  Other than My Guy, we don't have any boys in the house, though I guess at some point Drama Teen will start dragging home a few boyfriends.  Thankfully, she's decided that boys aren't worth all the drama at the moment and she's not all that interested in them.  I'm sure that will change at some point.  

So since Boys is out as a theme, it will have to be BOM.  Looking back through my blog posts I realized that there are no posts about my first completed BOM.  Sometimes I forget that I've been quilting a lot longer than I've been blogging.  

That first BOM was started not long after we moved back to Oklahoma.  A few months after we moved back someone at work told me about a quilt shop the next town over.  So I signed up for their 2007 BOM which required 1930's reproduction fabrics and used block patterns that had been published in the Kansas City Star.  To be honest, I'm not a fan of the pastels common in the 1930 reproduction fabrics, so I had a hard time picking out a color palette for the BOM blocks.  I finally decided on red and blue. Thus was born the 1930's Red, White and Blue quilt (such an original name I know).

Block patterns from the Kansas City Star
Setting self designed

After not being so thrilled with the 1930's reproduction fabrics, I was surprised at how much I liked the finished quilt.  This one resided on our bed for a few years, but it was never a favorite of My Guy.  Now it resides in the closet only to be pulled out for the sofa bed when we have company.  

That's it for my walk down memory lane this week.  Check out all the other archival postings over at Val's Quilting Studio.  

Let's Book It Challenge - April 2014

Progress in the sewing room has been slow this month, well really for the whole year.  But at least it hasn't come to a complete stand still. Back in February I started a project out of the December 2013 American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine, Poinsettias Allure.    

Poinsettias Allure designed by Judy Blok
from the December 2013 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting

I subscribe to a lot of quilting magazines, but rarely make a pattern from them.  So the Let's Book it Challenge hosted by Vrooman's Quilts was an obvious way to encourage me to make a few projects from all those magazines and books which are gathering dust just sitting on the book shelf.  Poinsettias has been my leaders and enders project for the last month.  Since I've not been sitting at the sewing machine much the last couple of months, there's not much progress.

Nineteen of the 76 half square triangle blocks are done.  At this rate, Poinsettias may end up being my only "book it" pattern this year.  Well, probably not, I've got a few other projects picked out that use patterns or books.  I just need to finish a few projects so there is room to start something new.  

Check out all the other challenge projects posted over at Vrooman's Quilts.  

Monday Design Wall - A Purple Butterfly

The weekend at home was much needed.  Most of Sunday was spent in the sewing room, not that you can tell it by the small changes in my design wall.  But not all the time was spent sewing, almost as much time was spent on cutting fabrics and pressing newly washed fabrics.  It was nice to just putter around for a bit.  

I'm way behind on the sampler blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I cut fabric for a couple of those, but didn't finish piecing them.  I did get this month's butterfly block completed. 

 Scrappy Butterflies
Block is available in EQ 7 Block Library

About half of the half square triangles needed for this month's Inverted Star block have been cut and stitched.  Hopefully by the weekend, I'll have more to show for my solo retreat.  

That's it for me this week.  Check out all the other design walls posted over at Patchwork Times.  

Stash Report - Weeks 16 and 17 of 2014

I'm enjoying the luxury of a complete weekend at home.  It seems like we've been running since mid March.  Between volleyball and other family obligations, there's not been a weekend to just play catch up.  I did that yesterday.  Laundry is in reasonable shape, the house is much cleaner than it was.  Today, My Guy is on his way to Montana and Drama Teen is heading out in a bit to go horseback riding with a friend (assuming the storms hold off long enough).  My plan is to spend the day getting reacquainted with my sewing room.  I've not spent much time there the last few weeks as my stash report demonstrates.  

Used last 2 weeks:  0.26 yards
Added last 2 weeks:  0 yards

Used in 2014:  7.07 yards
Added in 2014:  75.05 yards

Net stashed in 2014:  67.98 yards 

I've not been spending much time in the sewing room because it's been so pretty outside.  Plus Drama Teen has a wildflower project due in a couple of weeks so she and I have spent a number of evenings walking down country roads so she can collect her specimens.  Even when it rains, it's been nice to be outside listening to the raindrops.

All the rain has made everything pretty lush.  We are due more rain today, but those will be much stronger storms than we've had to date.  I've got one eye on the radar as tornadoes are in the forecast for late this afternoon.  Which reminds me, I should go check out the state of the storm shelter before I begin my solo sewing retreat.  

I'm going to go do that.  Then I'll grab another cup of coffee and check out all the stash reports over at Patchwork Times.  

Tuesday Archives - Borders and Birthdays

I've been having a problem with the "blahs" coupled with a bad case of "too much" (work, cold weather, teen drama, etc).  In an attempt to break that viscous cycle, I was looking for some new avenues to challenge my current status quo.  I've been seeing a few posts for the "Tuesday Archives" hosted by Val's Quilting Studio.  

So this week I'm going to play along and take a look at past posts for birthday's and borders.  

In looking the blog archives, the only birthday post I could find was one for My Guy from last year.  I had meant to blog about Drama Teen's birthday this year and didn't.  Now that she's a "mature" young woman, she doesn't want sleep overs or birthday parties.  Instead she's opted for a day of ice skating with a few friends.

I have action shots of the event, but they all ended up blurry. DT is in the blue jacket on the left.  This was birthday number 15.  How do they grow up so fast?  

Now for the border part.  When I discovered blogging, I didn't jump right into it my hosting my own blog.  I started out writing posts over at Connecting Thread's "Quilt With Us" community.  It seemed to be an easy way to dip my toe into the whole posting thing.  I wasn't sure that I had that much to say.  While I was part of that community, I participated in a BOM.  I don't normally do pieced borders, but it made such a dramatic setting, I really wanted to make this one.  

  

I've never blogged here about this quilt.  It's one of my favorites.  I love the blue and yellow color scheme and the border frames the blocks nicely.  The pattern is by Amy Heaton and is available at  Electric Quilt's My EQ Boutique.  If you look up the pattern, you'll see my version as one of the examples at the bottom of the page.

For more recycled posts, check out Val's Quilting Studio.  

Monday Design Wall - Rainbow Stars

We have snow in the forecast for this morning!  I checked out the radar just a few minutes ago and sure enough it's snowing off to the west. It's probably a couple hours away at the moment, so it's possible things will warm up enough so that we only get rain.  The weather is pretty variable in Oklahoma most of the time, but this seems pretty extreme even for here.  

Not a lot of sewing happened this weekend.  Between an out of state volleyball tournament and playing catch up with a few household chores, there just wasn't a lot of time.  But the teal Inverted Star block did get all sewn together and is up on the design wall with the first two blocks. 

Inverted Star
by Jessica Boschem of Common Threads
available from Craftsy as a free download

Hopefully there will be time to sort through the purple scraps and start cutting out the squares for April's block.  These blocks do use up lots of little scraps, so they were a good choice as this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  

Not much progress on the Rainbow Scrap Sampler or Jigsaw, the other two projects up on the design wall.  Hopefully that will change this week.  For more design wall pretties, check out Patchwork Times.  

Stash Report - Week 15 of 2014

It was gorgeous yesterday, with highs in the 80s.  But as this is Oklahoma it's not going to stay that way.  There are freeze warnings for tonight, plus a forecast of snow.  Even for Oklahoma, that's extreme weather for April.  Needless to say it should be an interesting evening as we'll see strong thunderstorms in front of the cold.  Guess it's time to gather a few supplies for the storm shelter, we may need it tonight.  

Unlike the weather, there's not much going on in the sewing room.  I did get a little bit of stitching in last weekend, but this weekend there wasn't much because of the out of town volleyball tournament yesterday.  I'm hoping for some quality sewing time this afternoon.

Used last week:  0.25 yards
Added last week:  24 yards

Used in 2014:  6.84 yards
Added in 2014:  75.05 yards

Net stashed for 2014:  68.24 yards

The incoming fabric was three 8 yard cuts to be used as backings. 

These three were on sale at the Fat Quarter Shop, it's hard to pass up sale fabric like these, especially since two of these pieces will be used as backings for projects I hope to finish this year.  I don't have a project in mind for the dark blue polka dot, but I'm sure it will get used at some point.  

That's it for my fabric fetish confessions this week.  For more stashy stuff, check out the links over at Patchwork Times.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Teal it's Purple

I've been enjoying the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year, though I always seem to be a week or so behind on making the switch to the new month's color.  All the teal blocks are cut, but a few are still lying in pieces by the sewing machine.  The teal scraps have been gathered up and put away, but there hasn't been time to dig out the purple scraps yet.  

The Rainbow sampler blocks have been such fun to make.  I completely forgot to take a shot of all the teal blocks that have been finished, but I did remember to take a photo of all the blocks completed so far. 

I'm looking forward to seeing the purple blocks worked in with the pink, blue and teal. 

That's it for me this week.  Check out all the pretty purples posted over at Soscrappy.  

Monday Design Wall - Puzzle Pieces

It was nice to have a breather this weekend.  Laundry is caught up and a few other household chores got done as well.  The nicest part was spending the whole of Sunday afternoon in the sewing room.  The only disappointment was that the NASCAR race was rained out.  

So what's up on the design wall?  The Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler blocks take up most of one design wall. 

 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler
By Angela Feldbush of Soscrappy

I'm still working on finishing up all the teal blocks from last month.  

Jigsaw is still up on the big design wall. 

Jigsaw
pattern by Alyssa Clancy for Lehmann Quilting

Only three blocks have been added since my last design wall post.  Just two more rows to finish up.  But I'm starting to wonder if some of the blocks are going to have to move.  I'm going to finish up all the blocks and then consult with Drama Teen.  It's her quilt, so it will be up to her if changes are made.  She's accused me several times of over thinking the color placement.  

That's if for me this week.  For more design wall posts, check out Patchwork Times.  

Stash Report - Week 14

It's been a stay at home weekend for a change.  No volleyball tournaments or family trips to take us elsewhere.  I'm catching up on laundry, My Guy is doing some baking for Easter and Drama Teen is studying for her end of instruction exams.  I did manage to make it back to the sewing room for a bit last night.  There's hope for more sewing time this afternoon.  

Since no report was posted last week, the reported stash number are for the last two weeks.  

Used last 2 weeks:  0.65 yards
Added last 2 weeks:  6 yards

Used in 2014:  6.56 yards
Added in 2014:  51.05 yards

Net stashed for 2014:  44.94 yards

The incoming yardage was purchased on our trip to Kansas.  

The stash is still light on teals, especially on the darker end of the spectrum, so 6 more teals came home from the trip. The two prints in different colorways came home because I liked them so much.  Then just a couple of purple batiks because I liked those too.   

I'm not doing too badly with stash additions this year.  Just a bit of refreshing and plugging a couple of holes.  There will be more incoming next week as I found some sale fabrics that would make great backs for some of the quilts that are close to being finished flimsies. 

That's it for me this week.  Check out all the other stash reports over at Patchwork Times.  

Catching Up

It's been a very long week.  Other than checking email via the I-phone, there's been no contact with the Internet since last Saturday.  So this weekend there will be a lot of blogs to catch up with as well as email responses to write.  Why no Internet the last week?  Let's just say I needed a break.  There was a point last Saturday where I hit overload.  Too much work, too much running around; just too much stuff!  Writing the blog became something that I "had" to do on top of everything else, not something I "wanted" to do.  So I took a vacation from the computer and the sewing room this week.  I spent the evenings with my family or reading some fun and frivolous books.  

Now that I've recovered from the overload, there's March's NewFO to show off.  

Plus fess up to my less than steller performance on March's Something Old/Something New goals. 

My Something Old goal for March was to get Jigsaw to a finished flimsy stage. 

Jigsaw didn't that far, but it did progress.  Just two more rows to complete.  Hopefully I can get at least that much done this month.  Drama Teen hasn't decided on borders yet, so I'm not sure I can get those added this month.  Jigsaw was my NewFO for October of 2013.  

My Something New/NewFO  goal for March was to not start something new.  I started 12 NewFOs last year and felt that a few finishes were needed before I started something new. But then I saw Kevin the Quilters QOV block drive.    

All Kevin asked for were 5 blocks of a very simple pattern.  Having just finished Mon Ami, I had some nice red and blue fabrics that would fit in with his fabric guidelines that just begged to be made into QOV blocks. 

So even though I had said no NewFO this month, how could I pass up the opportunity to use up some fabric scraps, make some fun blocks that I didn't have to make into a quilt, plus contribute to a really great cause.  If there is a reason to do something you said you weren't, I think that last one is a really good one.  

So though I didn't meet my March goals, it wasn't a bad month.  Since Jigsaw isn't done, it will be my Something Old for April.  At this point I'm not planning to start something new.  But maybe another block drive will pop up and inspire me.  One never knows.