2009 BOM UFO FINISHED!!!!

I told you HERE about our guild UFO challenge for this year.  One of the UFO’s on my list is finally done!! Woo hoo!!

This quilt called “Calendar Kids”, was offered as a BOM quilt from a vendor at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show in 2009, that my dear friend Linda and I attended. 

We are now both retired, but at that time, we were still teaching in elementary schools, and being teachers, just fell in LOVE with this adorable quilt that shows the months of the year in order of the school year, starting with September and ending in August.

We also loved the vintage paper doll look of the kids and clothes in each block, as that was truly our own history having grown up in the 50’s and 60’s!  So, we both signed up for the BOM mailings!!

The fabric in the quilt is by American Jane… some of it is from her Snippets collection. (The house blocks above are a great example of how important value is in a block… the house fabric disappears into the sky fabric…ugh!)

So, we both made the blocks each month, for the first three months, as we received the fabric packets.  Then we both got bogged down with work and other projects and just put the fabric packets away in a drawer each month when we got them in the mail.

Well, it was always in my mind to get back to making this BOM quilt, so when the guild decided to run the UFO Challenge, I put it on my list…to encourage MAKE me get it done!

So, I pulled all the packets out and got to it!!  Of course, as always, I changed a few things… like some of the appliquéd children’s placement within the blocks, made an apple tree to put next to September block and fall leaves on tree next to October block… and substituted some of my own fabrics here or there.

Now, let me share some wisdom obtained by doing this BOM over FIVE YEARS after the BOM was run. 

First, if you were not given as much fabric as you needed for each month’s block(s), you probably can’t find it anywhere to buy now.

Next, if instructions are incomplete or incorrect, no one is now available to help or contact!!

So, make sure if you ever do a BOM, that you play the game and make the blocks each month as given!!

I still do LOVE this quilt design.  It truly does remind me of many of my own elementary school memories.

But it also reminds me of my 34 years teaching in elementary schools… all my fun classroom seasonal activities with all my different classes over the years!!

In fact, I had a self made classroom wall bulletin board thingy I created back in the 80’s using a fabric panel.  It hung in my classrooms in Florida and then in my classrooms in Virginia and eventually in my office as an assistive technology specialist for special ed kids and teachers.

When I retired in 2012, I brought it home and pulled it apart and saved the old fabric panel.

I cut part of it off to use for the label on this quilt.  On it is written the names of all the schools I taught at during those 34 years!

I am very pleased at how the quilt turned out and especially that it is finally DONE!! It’s a great feeling!!

So, Yogi want to know if you have lots of UFO’s in your sewing room?  It’s really keeping him up at night…

The Bees Knees

Back in 2004, when I had only been quilting a few years, I saw this gorgeous appliqué quilt by Pat Sloan in a magazine.

I had never done appliqué before and thought, I can do this!!  Sigh… I found out quickly, it was not my thing… so I put it away and went back to piecing.  (If I had a quilting friend or mentor back then, maybe it would have been different, but I didn’t! I am a self-taught quilter… learned from Simply Quilts episodes and books.)

When I packed up my sewing room to move to this house, I found it again.  I then unpacked it here and decided that although I do not love doing hand appliqué, it was still part of my quilting journey, so I stuck it in my bee bag and when I had no newly finished quilt to bind, I would work on it at bee.

Well, I finally finished the hand appliqué and quilted and bound it.  There is a whole lot more wrong with it than just the horrible stitches around all the appliquéd pieces… like poor fabric choices especially where values are too close to see the design elements…like the vine in the border that almost invisible.  UGH!

When I quilted it, I tried to darken some of the light flowers by using darker thread, to make them show up a bit more against the background.

And I added black details like antennae and funky knees on those bees… hence the name- “Bees Knees”!

And even though the fabric colors and values are terrible and the hand stitching deplorable, it is part of my quilting journey, so I have it hanging on my upstairs banister…

verrrry high and far away from quilting eyes…

Soooo, what are you up to this week?

January “Schnibble” Done!

This month’s project was a free online pattern/tutorial found HERE, by Julia at My Rainboots Are Red blog. 

I really love the design!

The optical illusion of curved pieces is created by the two block alternating placement.

I used a low intensity print fabric for the background…love the writing!

I quilted it simply- outlining only the light background pieces which emphasized the circular design.

I named it “Roundish”.

Now, I’m on to finishing up a BOM quilt I started back in 2009 called “Calendar Kids” by American Jane which uses her Snippets collection.

So, what are you up to this weekend?

So Excited!! Woo hoo!!

Guess whose design was number three this year at the Moda Bake Shop????

Yepadoodle!!  Moi!!  Woo hoo!!

If you haven’t looked it over yet, here’s the link!!  

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2014/04/sew-busy-organizer.html

I am so pleased! Yippee skippee!!

Yogi is just BEYOND himself with excitement…

Sooo?  Whatcha up to today?

Welcome 2015!!

Wishing you and yours…

a most wonderful and Blessed New Year!!!!