BOM progress

Life has been crazy busy. My daughter and her husband are in the process of a divorce, and it has been, to say the least, ugly. I have been helping with my little grandson, who turned a whole year old in January. I have been watching him on weekends when his mom works, and spending time transporting him back and forth between his parents' houses. Not fun at all, and really cuts into the quilting time.

I had a little time on Tuesday to work on some of my block of the month projects.

This is the first block of an Accuquilt block of the month I joined sort of spontaneously. It is being sold by a woman who is on one of my Facebook quilting groups and it is only $5 a month, shipping included. I am less than impressed with accuquilt's instructions. I had to redo this block. It is supposed to be 12" finished, but the first time it was only 11.5 inches unfinished. This time, it is 12 inches unfinished. Bah humbug.And it is not even squared up yet. I think I need to recalibrate my 1/4 inch seam on my new machine. Perhaps it is a tad off?

 

This is the second Accuquilt block. The pattern had multiple colors, while this interpretation only has three. The brown seems a bit dull compared to the sample....but I will reserve judgment!

 

This is the fourth block (third month) of the Celtic Crystals BOM. I promise to get outside sometime soon, assuming it is ever both daylight and sunny one day when I am home!  I am a bit irritated that I will lose some of my points in the seams. Again, I think I need to calibrate my 1.4 inch seam. Bother.

 

Celtic Crystals progress

My husband has been out of town for a week, and I thought I would get sooo much done. Sadly, between working full time and taking care of my grandson, and helping my daughter do some business, I got very little accomplished. I did work on my Celtic Crystals block of the month. We have been really overcast in our little corner of the world, so even outdoor pics are flat.

 

January, Block 1
Apatite

 

February, Block 2a
Blue Agate

 

Block 2b
Sugalite

I managed to sew the points on backwards. I like the block as is, but the blue triangles are supposed to be star points. I actually really like this diamond, but I need to figure out if I want to frog it and redo it. The orange rectangles are supposed to be on the outside edge. The placement in the overall quilt does not depend on the orange rectangles, so I have to decide what to do. The colors are a bit washed out. The blue star points are more of a rich royal blue than the turquoise that shows here.

 

I also made some progress on the Home Grown table runners for the MLA conference.  I chose five fruit/veggie prints for the jars, and decided on a black background. The lids are a metallic swirl fabric I like to use for jar lids. I only have about a fat eighth left. I pinned the runners on the fabric I plan to use for a border. It is from Kaufman's Kiss the Cook line. I only have a yard and a half, and I plan to do four runners altogether, so not sure I have enough. I auditionedthe brown batik as the "shelf" but decided against it. I need either a light brown/tan, or a grey. I would also like some red and white gingham for the binding, and maybe for a 3-D doily under a few of the jars. I chose green beans, strawberries, cucumber slices, tomatoes, peas, and cherries, all things that grow in our area.

 

Close up of two jars

 

 

Gratuitous pug picture. My Bella snuggling with my husband.