Some Rainbow BOM ideas for 2014

 Here are the two ideas I have so far for next year's Rainbow BOM.  The top one more labor intensive so I am thinking a block or two a month would be a good plan.  The bottom one would be fun to do a row of each month and after half a year I would have a quilt top.

I need to head on over the link ups and look through what others have been doing, because I know I have seen a few others that I really want to do!  So much to sew, and not enough time!
PS I CANNOT wait for Bonnie's Celtic Solstice clue to come out on Friday, the suspense is killing me!

Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2014

Every year Angela hosts the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and has Saturday link ups each week so we can see everyone's progress.  All you do is pick a block and then work on it in the color that Angela picks each month.  At the end of the year you have enough blocks for a quilt top or at the end of two years if you do a small block.  This past year and the year before that, I worked on my Jack in the Box blocks which will be coming together this month with any luck (and a little time).  I am excited to see this one done...I have enjoyed every block.  This pattern can be found in Quiltmaker Magazine...it was a Bonnie Hunter block, of course!

This year I added Talkin' Turkey (also a Bonnie Hunter pattern, found in the 100 Blocks magazine) in a rainbow of colors.  I may have to do this for another year, I haven't decided yet.

Talkin' Turkey



This next year I have a few blocks in mind that I might go with.  I love how the rainbow quilts come out and I love feeling like I have accomplished a goal each month when I get one done!  Are you joining in this year?  What block are you planning to do? 

Sewing on a Weeknight!

 Got in a little sunny sewing  tonight.  Talking turkey block number seven!  I can't wait to get this rainbow bom quilt together!

 Last Saturday Ros gifted Kathy and I with cute bundles of fabric from her trip.  Kathy got animals (a really adorable otter!) and I got flowers and blueberries.

 Sewed up my other two Learning Curve blocks and put the little top together.  This is for the PHXMQG's Drunkard's Path Quiltalong.  It is tabletopper size but cute.

Binding Marathon at My House!

 I made this giant pillow for my nephew Ben a few weeks ago and I finally hand sewed the opening closed today.  I also finished up several Tribbles that I had knitted the past week.  I have suddenly been making one every other day at work between calls!  Building up my Christmas stockpile.

 Kathy and I had a little binding marathon today.  We got six quilts back from Joanne and I bound Jordan's NYE Mystery quilt.

 Our Lil' Twister Christmas tree wallhanging got bound too.

 Also bound was this quilt for Aunt Jenny.  You may recall I got this with all of it cut and some of it sewn from a fabric thrift sale.  I also cut lots of the extra fabric into strips (leftover from the backings of the six I got back) and loaded them into the right colored drawers.

 Kathy bound her sister Kelly's quilt which was her Easy Street quilt as well as Jonathon's NYE Mystery quilt (which is the same pattern at his twin Jordan's) too.  We then made labels for all of them and my cousin Kai's quilt and ironed them on.  So far I have sewn two labels...tomorrow we will take pictures outside in the AZ sun and then they can be mailed off to their new homes!  Oh, I have the binding on the Halloween quilt (label too) but didn't finish attaching it yet.

I did get in a tiny bit of piecing too...sewed up the yellow spools so I can link up to Angela's Rainbow BOM!  Oh and I made my sister another Crown Royal tissue holder because she lost her purse and lost the last one!
Oh I almost forgot, lost 8 pounds in the first week of my 90 day challenge.  Seems like it has been way longer!

Sweet Sunday Sewing :)

 Kathy decided to add another Rainbow Block of the month to the other one she is doing (which she is doing two of each month) so at the end of the year she will have three rainbow quilts.  She is all caught up already which is amazing!
I finished sewing the rest of my green spools and they outnumber all the other colors now even with nine of them in a pillow!

 Today's spools above and previous ones below--that is alot of green!

 Here are all the stacks I have so far separated by color.  It is working well to try to get the rainbow bom color done each month..really pushes me to do them, not sure why I didn't think of that last year for the bow ties!

Kathy bought a GIGANTIC TV today and we did some TV shuffling.  Coleman also just inherited a huge (old heavy on wheels) TV for his room from my parents' move...put that all together and his old flat screen TV is in the sewing room (now with cable and dvr YIPEEE) and the flat screen living room TV is in our bedroom (though not hooked up yet--lol) and we now have two extra older not as huge TV's just hanging out.  To think my great grandparents just had one TV at their house and no cable, ha!  I did manage to bike five days this week too so I am getting back on the wagon and trying not to be a couch potato! The day just flew by and I didn't even start another Wild and Goosey block or watch Bonnie's last QuiltCam that I missed.  Maybe I can do that after work tomorrow :)

Succulent Garden for my Gnome and Emerald Challenge Fun!

 I finished up my green pinwheels to go with my green Jack in the Box blocks--so happy to be all caught up on that (a few more spools to go in green) before May gets here and another color!

 Today I planted a succulent garden!  I have wanted to do this for a long time and I hope the transplant went okay and it will grow and fill in the pot.  It is my gnome's new home and is on the new table and chairs my parents gifted to me when they moved.  Hoping this weekend we will grill out and eat in the backyard!

Tomorrow is the Phoenix Modern Quilt Guild meeting (after the 35th Ave. BOM and black bag day) and I really procrastinated making something for the emerald challenge.  I really had planned to make this cool star block in a block in a block in three shades of green but just wasn't motivated enough in the end.  Then I realized that I could pick out some of my green spools (from my Spoolin Around challenge) and make a pillow to match my future quilt.  I made a few more green spools, picked out the more modern or more emerald ones that I liked and just went for it.  I am happy with it and am glad to have something finished for the challenge!  Can't wait to see what others have made!

We also spent tonight (and really all week) watching CNN and seeing all the craziness in Boston and then the explosion in Texas then back to Watertown for an unprecedented manhunt.  So sad that so many people have died this week unexpectedly--my prayers go out to any and all affected.  Kathy is from Greenfield, Mass and ordered herself a Boston Strong shirt to add to her Red Sox shirt collection.   We both hope we never see something so crazy happen in our backyard.  Prayers going up for Boston and for West too.

Lazy Sunday Sewing! :)

 After yet another weekend of helping my parents move we spent a lazy Sunday at home sewing.  I carefully laid out my Lazy Sunday (Bonnie Hunter/Quiltmaker mystery) checking and doublechecking that my color substitutions were in the right place (ahem, they were not!) and started sewing away.  At some point I realized my parts were not going to add up the way I had things laid out!  So unsewing ensued.  And resewing too!

 So after I switched the four patchs around things were looking better!

 All twenty four blocks are complete and the other parts are cut out (thanks to Kathy!)  So part two of the mystery is on its way.

 I also finally trimmed up both my orange and green hst's for border pinwheels for Jack in the Box.  Sewed up the orange ones and stacked up the greens for the next sewing session.  Whew, will be nice to be all caught up on that before May hits!

 After helping me cut, Kathy cut some of her own.  She decided she wants to do another Rainbow BOM so she did the first one in green and started on one in purple too.  I forget the name of this block and am at work--we found it on threadbias.com Amanda posted it as her QuiltCon Challenge Block on threadbias.com.  There is a tutorial online but I am at work and I can't get to some of the websites to find the link! 

Edit**https://www.threadbias.com/blog_posts/crossroads-block-tutorial 

and in a few more sizes http://www.conniekresin.com/2013/01/crossroads-tutorial-in-3-sizes.html

Thanks Linda!

Teeny Weeny Bit of Sewing Tonight!

 Jacki needed a few more pink blocks to round out a project she is working on so I whipped up this churn dash tonight and BJ will be whipping up some more too!
So Kathy finished up her green blocks too.

Tomorrow we are off to help my parents move some more and will stay up north overnight and help more on Saturday before finding our way home.  I am crossing my fingers some more sewing will happen on Sunday!

Green Day :)

 Today I watched two and a half Quiltville QuiltCams that are achieved on youtube and sewed away and ALL things Bonnie and all things GREEN!  Jack in the Box done in green again (pinwheels yet to do).

 Added quite a few more green spools to my stack--have another dozen or so to go.  It is really working to do each color that Angela picks as it pushes me to make more than I would ordinarily!  Bonnie said her challenge is up for this is July (and we may be doing hourglasses for the next year) and I really do want to be done with this one when the next one gets going!  None of them are assembled into blocks yet because I haven't decided how I am setting them.

 Then I got going on Talkin Turkey--also green and also by Bonnie!

 And got it finished!

 Kathy worked on her green BOM--Scrap Jar Stars.

 And here is the rainbow so far (remember I did the red one first before I decided to do this as the Rainbow BOM and we haven't officially done red yet).  I LOVE THIS BLOCK!  I seriously think this is my favorite block ever--just so fun with the strings and the points!

Hitting the Green and So Much More--FINALLY!

We have not been on our regular schedule where we have lots of time to sew on the weekends lately.  One thing after another going on and it seems we are never here or if we are we are too tired to think about sewing!  I got into the TV show "The Tudors" on my AmazonPrime and in the last week or two watched four seasons worth while working on socks or handsewing.  Today we helped my parents move--AGAIN.  Yes this is about the 5th time they have moved since we moved to Arizona (4.5 years ago).  They are only moving about five minutes from the last house they were in.  Today we moved boxes and a few pieces of furniture.  Kathy and I washed a gazillion dishes (I should have taken photos--mom has wine glasses, champagne glasses, hurricane glasses, margarita glasses, Packer glasses, drink glasses, shot glasses, more wine glasses...you get the idea.)  

We arrived home so very tired from head to toe (and I got a massage yesterday which rocked, but I am so sore from that already!) but we persevered and sewed!  I had to get going on some GREEN for Angela's Rainbow BOM.  I made nine of these tonight and added them to my previous greens.

Meanwhile, Kathy caught up on her orange blocks from last month.  She got both done but I snapped this before the second one was done.  We also noticed that one of her purple blocks has the bottom star points turned around.  I think I blogged about it and no one said anything and we have looked admiringly at them for two months now, sheesh!  We both love the scrap jar star block in orange!

 In the car on the way to and from mom's I handtacked my hexies down.  I improved so much on these four pincushions.  You can see the stitches are not so good in the first two, but the second two look good!  We filled them with walnut shells (bought at the pet store cheap) and I whip stitched them closed.  One is for the exchange at the PHXMQG, one I may keep and two will be gifts and may count for my Christmas Through the Year item this month!

 These four blocks are the 35th Ave. BOM blocks for this month.  I am happy with how they came out (Kathy has hers done too) but I didn't care for the 2 7/8 x 3 inch of some of the blocks while others are 3 x 3.  It was WAY too easy to turn blocks and then be off on the seam allowance.  There was a bit of unsewing and a bit of reseaming happening with these.  So glad they are done and I hope next month is one easy block!

 Not the greatest photo, but here are all of my 35th Ave. BOM blocks so far :)

Tomorrow we are sleeping in and then we will sew and catch up on all the QuiltCam's we have missed lately.  I think there are two or three...that is how crazy life has been--Bonnie's number one fan hasn't even had time to catch QuiltCam!  :)

Slow Stitching Sunday and Orange :)

 It never fails..if I try to get a picture of a quilt one of the animals (or several of them!) lays down on it before I can even snap a photo!  So here are the updated hexi photos along with Princess Stitch Kitty.  I sewed another row or so today and I cut and prepped some more too.  Linking up with Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching!

 I did dusting and cleaning of my sewing room today (about every six months I do the shelves and window and WHEW is it dirty!) so more putzing around more than anything.  I did manage to sew up the Em block for the Skillbuilder BOM.  We could turn the blocks in whatever way suited us and I liked the X better than the other layout.  I had a heck of a time getting this block to come up to the right size.  Bias sewing is not my friend!

 I also added to the orange spools in keeping with the Rainbow BOM.  It is really helping me get some of these done now that I am focused on a certain color and not just doing one or two a month, lol.  When I get the color of the month done I try to do some blue because I seem to have the most of blue!

Linking up with Angela's Rainbow BOM for Scrappy Saturday-ORANGE you glad I did?

Crazy Busy Weekend!

 Friday I got a text from my brother's fiance informing me that they were finally going to tie the knot at 5 pm that night!  They are adopting a little guy (Colton) in about a month and realized that waiting til next year to officially marry wasn't practical.  They plan to have a "real" ceremony and reception next year.  They both have been working hard to paint the baby's room and redo flooring, etc. and literally jumped in the car and headed to the courthouse as is.  LOL so here they are along with the justice of the peace and Ben in the background (the ringbearer).

I spent the night up at my mom's and then Jacki picked me up and we headed to 35th Ave. for the COM and black bag day.  Then we went to the PHXMQG charity sew in for the afternoon.  Last night I had a crazy migraine and had a long night and bad morning with it.  It is the first one I have had in a bit...ugh!

Ben's mother is also pregnant (the boys will be a month or so apart so Ben will be a big brother in both of his homes!) and tonight I quilted and bound this little quilt for her little guy--Oliver last I heard is the name.

 Today I sewed up some purple (and other) spools too.  Sue and I are going to trade some sets of ten!

 I discovered I didn't sew last month's pink pinwheels up...so here they are!

 I had a special request for a pink block so I made another pink Talkin' Turkey block..these blocks are SO MUCH FUN to make!

 I made four more Scrappy Trip blocks two that look like each of these pictures.

 Meanwhile Kathy has been working on our UFO Twist of Fate!  She has quite a bit done and it is looking great!  She also cut the BOM for 35th Ave and has her first block done (we have to do four each this month) so she is ahead of me!  I was busy quilting away and it will have to wait another day!