My Craziness Update

Last I checked in to chat, I had just said it was possible (maybe not probable or attainable, but POSSIBLE and DOABLE-if you really work at it) to complete 30 BOMS--working on one each day of the week.  Well, I technically, I still maintain that that is true.  However, how many of us really have the time to work on 1 BOM a day?  Oh and did I mention that there are BOW--blocks of the week--as well?  Now I must really be mad.  So here are the ones that I have currently decided that I might feasibly actually get finished starting with the ones started in 2019 that I was working on or planning on working on previously.
 From Fatcat Patterns:  Flakey Friends 2, Gnome Grown, Hen Party,  Penguin Cheer, Purr-tastic

 

Of all the FatCat Patterns, I believe this one is the one I have the most completed on (and it isn't the oldest pattern of the many that I own).  I have of the friends fused together waiting on an appropriate background.  I have 3 more I've traced and cut the pieces out --ready to be fused.  Now I F I could just get back to finishing the rest of them!

 I tried really hard to do both the Gnome Grown and Hen Party as the blocks arrived.  But I got myself bogged down in the lack of sufficient background fabric.  Not that I don't have plenty of fabric, I just didn't have anything I wanted to use for these two.  I finally got the chicken wire fabric I wanted for Hen Party--but never went back to it.  Shame on me.

 
From Adventurous Quilter:  Adventures in Science, African Advenutres, and  Australiana Adventures.

I'm not the Science nerd in my family, but I have a couple of grandsons that I do believe will be very involved with it in someway in their future. Plus, I really like the look of this quilt.  The first block, the microscope is already finished and it is now waiting on February to arrive for the next block to join it.

 

The first block was the vase with 4 of them to make.  That was my "assignment" for myself last Saturday and I'm pleased to say I completed all 4 of them.

 

This quilt is not a BOM, but one I started out helping to test stitch.  The grand children and I both have fallen in love with it so I've decided to try to finish up what I started with as my test stitching.  There were many of us that started this as just a test for Marianne Jeffrey, the designer.  But we have all decided to try to finish it as a full quilt I think.  I currently have one of the koala, kangaroo and bird finished--only 2 more of each of those to finish, then the other pieces of the "quilt puzzle".

And from Angie's Bit's n' Pieces Fairy Friends, Kitchen Sayings and Sue's Christmas Chores.

I have the first block, the Fairy House all done and ready to sit and wait for the remaining Fairy Friends to come visit the house.

 I have the first saying, My Kitchen, My Rules finished as of tonight.

Angie's sister site Applique Garden has a few I'm interested in and will at least collect the patterns for.  I don't know if I'll get around to doing them or not.

One I've been working on since August 2019 is Stitchin' Heaven's Celestial Stars.  I am so far behind on it, that it isn't funny.  But I am determined to keep these BOMs going with just a bit of work here and there on them to get them done.  After all, they weren't all created in their entirety in one day, why should I expect to just start one and continue on it until it is completed?

Of course, this doesn't include any of the sew-along(s) with Pat Sloan that I've either previously collected the blocks for or I'm currently collecting the blocks for.  Whether it is last year's BOW (I think) of Out of This World and Main Street (was it?) or  Our Neighborhood, or this year's Traffic Jam, Out West, or Childhood Games (or whatever else she may throw out there).  

I do like to try to continue to get better at my ability to piece quilts--not real crazy about sampler quilts, but if there is some theme to them that is workable, then I like to try to do them.  This is one reason I like doing Pat Sloan blocks-quilt ideas and have started with Patterns by Jen's 2020 Monthly Color Challenge BOM.

Of course of all the techniques in these different quilts, I do love to paper piece.  I won't say that I'm necessarily any better at it than I am at piecing or applique, but I do enjoy them all.  And there isn't anywhere I like much better than getting my paper piece ideas from than Fandom in Stitches.  And they have a brand new Quilt Along (QAL) beginning tomorrow that I'm definitely interested in.  Kingdom of Hearts QAL.  Now, it may be just like the Rankin Bass QAL, the many different Harry Potter based/themed QAL they have had, the Hocus Pocus, the Princesses, Lord of the Rings, etc, etc, etc that I seem to be really good at going to go get the blocks and save them but never seem to get around to making them.  But one day, when I have absolutely nothing else up my sleeve to do (hmmm I wonder when that will be), I will begin one of the MANY quilts that uses their wonderful patterns--or maybe I'll finally get around to finishing the super heroes and princess quilts I started for my grandchildren or maybe the Hogwarts quilt for my daughter, or the Incredibles quilt for the family.  Oh but those Works in Progress (WIP) as most quilters call them (I on the other hand renamed it out of a brain fart, CRS moment, to Projects in Progress-PIP( and those Unfinished objects, UFO's (I think I like how Jennifer of Sew Hooked thinks of them as they are still works in progress, not just unfinished) is a completely different story to deal with at a later time.

IF anyone happens to be reading these meanderings of mine, I'd love to find out what your plans for BOM's and which ones you'll be working on (who knows, maybe I'll join yet another one!).  Leave a comment below to let me know what you're doing!

30 BOMs = a Block a Day to Finish?

I don't know about anyone else, but I seem to be compelled to sign up for most any BOM I come across.  It doesn't matter if it is paper pieced, traditional piecing, I even signed on to a hand embroidered BOM.  Am I crazy?  I haven't done hand embroidery since I was 10 and that was way too many years ago for me to remember how to do it, let alone do it so it's pretty.  I sign up for mystery BOM's as well as those I know what the finished project will look like.

I've always had a theory that if you work on one block a day each day during the month, you can feasibly complete 30 BOMs.  Well it sounds like a good theory.  The problem has always been I get  1 or 2 blocks finished (if I ever actually start working on things) and then I stop.  I never get any further.  It's not that I don't like the patterns or the fabric I've chosen.  I just get lazy and stop.  Then life happens and I never get back to it.

Well this is a new decade and I figured I try something new.  I thought I'd give it a shot as to each of the BOM's I'm signed up for, I'd work on 1 each day.  Shouldn't take more than an hour or two at most for most of the blocks to be completed.  I surely can get 1 block a day from one of the BOMs.  But how was I going to insure that I did this?

Well, it seems like many of the online quilters that have either blogs, sponsor their own BOMs, or are you tubers (or all of the above) seem to be tooting the horn of the quilter's planning calendars or have made their own.  Well, I'm a cheapskate--and I know that what I start doing now is likely going to fall to the way side in the not too far future--even as good as my intentions now are to continue with this plight.  So I have NOT purchased a specific quilter's planner or organizer.  I've listened to you tube videos from some that use bullet journals (tried that last year--lasted 1 1/2 months).  I've looked at the different spread sheets and other organizational papers some bloggers have developed and are sharing.  And here is what I've gleaned and currently am thinking of doing--well have started doing.

First I've started a list of all my current Projects in Progress (I call it PIP for short).  Whoa that's a lot of PIPs!!  Holy Cow?  How do I add in my PIPs with the BOMs I've signed up for?  I don't think there are that many days in each month.  I guess I'll have to start doubling up at some point.

Second, I made a list of things I want to do, want to start--or that need to get out of my "dead" pile of things to be finished and get back into the PIP stage at the very least.  Hmmmm that list isn't exactly short either.  Oh MY!  I really need to get some serious mojo going and get some strong motivation and get moving on these things.

Third, I made a list of UFO's.  Many of these have been hanging in my closet for at least 2 years.  I know this because 2 years ago is when I just totally lost all interest in most everything, stopped sewing and embroidering, stopped quilting, stopped just about everything.  So I have a closet full of quilts in various stages of completion.  Some (most) need to be sandwiched and quilted and then bound.  Others just need to have the quilting finished and then bound.  Still others are still in the block stage or at least in rows and I have never been finished putting them together.  Well that batch of quilts has to be finished up so I'll have room for the new projects to hang until they are quilted and bound.

People say to make a goal for yourself of finishing 1 or 2 UFO's a month.  Can I really do that? It doesn't seem like something that would be a hard goal to accomplish--only looking at 1 UFO at a time instead of all of them at once. Seeing all of them at once seems like to daunting a challenge to ever get any of them completed.

Well maybe if I just do a little bit here and there I'll eventually get the PIPs to a finishable stage.  The UFO's (that I haven't even made out the list past #1 (because I can't bear going to look at each one and figure out why I never finished it and I don't want to see just how many are actually there!) should be a manageable thing to take on, however, I just don't have the mojo for that right now--maybe next week.

So this is what I've started out with.  I've done the January block from patternsbyJen.blogspot.com.  That one was fairly simple to accomplish--a simple pieced block all done in yellows. And all of the blocks in her BOM will be a different color based on birds--how fun.  I have the first block finished of the Scientific Adventures BOM from adventurousquilter.yolasite.com.  This one took a bit longer as it was paper pieced.  But so much fun! And tonight I dove into the process of applique blocks for 2 different BOMs from Angie's Bits and Pieces.  I have the house finished for the Fairy's  BOM and I have everything transposed from paper to the heat n bond (paper side) ready to press onto fabric and continue for the Kitchen Sayings BOM.

Since I have basically just started this idea of trying to do something on one of the BOMs each day--I'd say I haven't done too badly in the last 3 days.  I will have to return later to add photos of the different pieces I've completed--as my computer is acting really stupid tonight and is not letting me access any of my files--not to mention it is moving at the speed of a sloth tonight.

So how are you handling all the projects you have going?

Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Blog!

OK Now I am not the most computer efficient, computer literate person in town, but I generally can find my way around things.  So I came back to my blog here way back when thinking I would start trying to blog again.  And lo and behold, blogspot had changed to blogger and nothing I had could be found and it wouldn't allow me to post.  Instead of being persistent, I just started another blog--crazy right?  Same name, different host (?).  So for 2 or 3 writings (I doubt there were any more than that) I could be found at https://shellsspecialtyoftheday.blog.  Now if that isn't crazy enough, I just by chance happened onto this old blog.  So what to do?  Keep both?  Put the same post into both? I mean it really is a crazy idea of having 2 blogs by the same name. And I don't keep up with either one of them.  I could say I will do better this year, but we all know in actuality that probably won't happen.

Anyway, I've been fixing holes in the knees of my grandson's jeans.  Well, more specifically the oldest ones jeans that have now been handed down to cousins and brother.  But the oldest is the roughest thing on jeans I've ever seen.  Luckily, those coming behind him are not--so they get the now fancied up, Grandma designer jeans! 😂😂  Thanks to some really good stabilizer, a piece of fabric behind the hole and under the stabilizer, I have been able to machine embroider designs that cover these holes.

Yes, yes, I know that having holes in the jeans is supposed to be "in style" and they are the latest and greatest to buy with holes already in them.  And in all honesty, it was much more fun getting holes in your jean on your own instead of paying the big bucks for holes already put there!  But this grandma (although I am not OLD, just blessed with 10 grandchildren) just goes crazy when the boys wear these jeans with holes in them to school or heaven forbid try to get out the door to go to church in them!  But then again, that was how I was raised.  And thanks to great designer/digitizers like Dee Lamb, the Mad Crafter on Etsy; the Disney designs found on my machine already; designs I did myself; and I believe BFC Creations is the designer on one of them, my grand children have some great looking jeans to go to school in.
Here's what they look like:

Not too bad to wear are they?  Personally I think they are great!  Maybe I'll put some on my jeans even though they DON'T have holes in them!  Let people wonder if they are covering holes or if they are there for decoration.

Challenges!!--Some are small and Some are ART!!!

I've only been in one quilt guild--as I'm still a fairly new quilter.  But I love my quilt guild and have no plans of leaving it.  So don't get me wrong there.  And I know many quilters that belong to not just one but 2 or three guilds.  Some belong to more than one because each guild "fits" a different nitch for them.  But it seems that most all guilds have some sort of challenge that they propose to their members at one time or another.  Whether the guild/society is a local group, district, state, national or international group there is always a challenge that is involved.  It may be once a month, once a quarter, once a year.  I was looking at some of my favorite blogs this morning and Tweety Loves Quilting   Art with Fabric Blog Hop - Day 3

and was reminded of a very special challenge I saw this spring in Daytona.

For AQS, there was a Challenge that involved art and artists, the World Painters Challenge:
In 1995, a group of twelve patchwork lovers in various regions of Japan formed the Nihon Heritage Quilters Guild. This group participates in an annual quilt challenge, and every few years, the challenge is extended to include other nations. The World Painters Challenge began in 2013. A list of 30 world-famous painters was chosen, and that list was given to a group of quilters from Japan, France, and the U.S. One painter was assigned to each of 30 quilters in each nation, and each quilter was challenged to design and execute a piece of fiber art either representing a work of their painter or making a design of their choice in the style of that painter. This exhibit is designed to compare the techniques and styles between the nations in representing the work of each famous painter. This exhibit will be touring the AQS Quilt Week events in 2016. Linda Steller and her sister, Ginny Steller, became the US coordinators of the World Painters challenge in 2013.

       

I don't know what impresses me more, the fact that so many of these could pass as the artist's work that they represent or that they look like art or that the art is actually quilts!  And if you could have seen these pieces of art up close and personal it would have really blown you away!  The talent that was displayed in these art pieces was just mind blowing!  As the old saying goes, "I want to be able to quilt like this when I grow up!"

To see more art quilts, be sure to check out the Art With Fabric Blog Hop Hosted by Alida by tweloquilting.blogspot.com