Another BOM Catch-up

I completed the December Scenic BOM on Friday.  We had my father-in-law over yesterday for his birthday, so I didn't get a chance to post this earlier.  I think it came out cute.  I really debated on the setting triangles for a few days.  I continued to go back to this red poinsettia fabric but I was considering a few other new Christmas fabric choices that I recently bought at an after-Christmas sale.  The deciding factor was the fact that this Poinsettia fabric was a scrap and the other fabric would have required me to make the first cut.  I decided to leave the other fabric alone for another project and to use what I already had in my scraps.  I think it came out cute.

Now it's onto the November BOM and I'll be all caught up.  I've been putting the November one off because I'm trying to figure out how to make it appear more fall-like.  It's of a house with a flag for the election.  I'm going to try and pick my fabric carefully for this one.

I've also got the mystery quilt on my machine right now working on the machine quilting to it.  I'm hoping to be finished with it by the end of the week.

BOM catch-up

So in my 2009 goals I said that I was going to do all of the Carol Doak Scenic BOMs even though I was starting several months into it.  I finished the current January block (previous post) already and moved on to the first block, October.  It was yet another quick and easy block.  I really like this block.  I think it came out really well.  Much better than the January one.  I love the way the colors work in this block.

Now it's on to the December BOM.  I'm stumped on the fabric for this one.  I just can't seem to find the right combination.  I've been playing with all sorts of combinations and different fabrics for the past couple of hours (interrupted by an hour+ phone call with my college room mate).  It shouldn't be this hard.  It's a cute house block and I just can't find the right fabric for the actual house and also tie in with the Christmas feel to the block.  I think I'm leaning towards using a bright lime green Christmas fabric but I'm still not sure.  I think this one is going to have to sit out for a little while as I think about it.  Hopefully it will just come to me soon.

2009 Quilting Goals and Scenic BOM Series

I really didn't get to quilt as much as I would have liked to in 2008 because most of my free time was spent planning and doing a lot of DIY projects for our wedding last year.  Now that the wedding is behind us I can go back to my quilting.  I have set several goals for myself for 2009.  Here they are:

1. Machine quilt and finish all my unfinished quilt tops
2. Do all the Carol Doak Yahoo Group Scenic Block of the Months (more about this below)
3. Make a quilt for my mom (she's been asking for one for a while)
4. Teach my mom to quilt (she's been wanting to join us for a little while now and it's about time we get her going...)
5. Use as many fabrics and patterns from my stash as possible
6. Spend more attention to color tones and values and how I use them in my quilts
7. Finish our wedding guest book (we had people sign quilt squares instead of the traditional guest book)
8. Name and Label all of my quilts (I know, I know... this is something I should be doing anyway)

Anyways, I started working on the scenic BOM series today. I've never done a block of the month series before and I thought it would be fun to participate in one.  I've decided to do the Scenic BOM series being done in the Carol Doak Yahoo group.  It was started in October, but I'll catch up with it.  I did the January block in about 20 minutes, so I'm sure I'll be able to do the others relatively quickly.  I really enjoy paper piecing.  It's super easy and helps you get an accurate block. The most difficult part was actually choosing the fabric.  Here's a picture of it.  It's a snow covered mountain with a brook babbling through it if you couldn't tell!

I also finished piecing all the blocks of the bright quilt I was making in the previous quilts.  I really think it's a little too fat and could use a little more length.  I think I'm going to add an inner border of the swirl fabric and then add some of the four-patches in a row on the top and bottom to add more length.  I think it will look nice and will be something different that I haven't done before.  Here's the completed, pieced top.   

Moving Along on the Bright Quilt

So I decided to shorten the quilt that I blogged about last time instead of making the cross in the center of the quilt.  I'm happy with my decision.  What I'm probably going to do is take some of the extra four-patches and incorporate them into the border somehow, possibly floating around the side.  

Here are a few pictures of my progress.  The first picture is of all of my four patches that will be going into the quilt.  The second one is a picture of the solid square and stripe strips.  The third is about 2/3 of the top pieced together.  I still have a few more rows to stitch together.  

  

Once I finish this top I'm really going to start focusing on machine quilting some of the tops that I've accumulated. Last year was the first time that I began machine quilting my quilt tops.  I'm still somewhat new to it, but I'm getting the hang of it.  I've been holding off quilting several tops until I'm much better at it.  I think I'm going to tackle the "One Block Wonder" quilt that I made a while back.  If you haven't tried it, I'd highly recommend it.  It was super easy and you'll never look at fabric the same way.  The best thing about it is that you can piece it together in rows. Below are a couple of pictures of that quilt.  It was originally a tropical piece of fabric that has been transformed into this quilt.  As I'm piecing the quilt shown above I've been thinking of how I want to quilt this quilt.  I'm thinking it's suited for some meandering or swirls... basically an all over pattern.

 

It's back to work tomorrow.  :(  I've enjoyed being able to spend so much time quilting during my vacation.  I probably won't be posting quite as much since I'm starting a new role tomorrow and don't quite know what to expect.    

Yet another Quilt

I've just been knocking them out lately.  I guess that's what happens when you're on vacation and your husband is working.  

This quilt, which I still have to piece the top together, is from M'liss Rae Hawley's Phenomenal Fat Quarter Quilts.  

I encountered one issue while piecing together the pieces of the top, I didn't have as much fabric as the pattern called for.  It wanted 15 strips of one particular fabric but I only had enough fabric to cut 13 strips. 

 

In the end, I needed 157 squares of the 3 stripe block (see below) and ended up with 156 squares.  I tried a few different arrangements of the pattern including reducing the size or changing the center pattern.  I'm still unsure what I'm going to do.  I might try a few other options because I'm not quite satisfied with either option.

The first one below is just a smaller version of what is called for.  I'm not sure if the proportions work.  The second one I tried putting the blocks into a cross shape.  Right now I'm leaning towards the first option.  We'll see how I feel after a few days.  Opinions Welcomed!