OMG, It's Groundhog Day (Again)! This Beast Is Pieced, But She Ain't Been Quilted

Finishing Tabby Mountain is My OMG -- Again!

So, remember that 1993 Bill Murray movie where his character is stuck in a time warp and is forced to relive the same day over and over again until he finally gets it right?  

Well, it's Groundhog Day again for me, because my March OMG (One Monthly Goal) is to relive my February OMG since I didn't get it finished.  My goal was to finish piecing AND quilting my Tabby Mountain quilt, and I didn't even finish assembling the quilt top by February 28th.  

Marking and Pinning These 30 Degree Triangles Slowed Down the Piecing Big Time

I came close -- I had all of the rows of triangles pieced by the evening of the 27th and I COULD have worked on joining all the rows into a completed quilt top on the 28th to at least get the quilt top finished by the end of the month.  But something inside of me rebelled.  There had been too much sewing for me on the 27th, too much pressure to have something to show for myself at the end of month linky party, and it was stressing me out.  So I opted to do no sewing at all on the last day of the month, and instead I finished assembling my quilt top on March 3rd.  

Joining Rows Together

If February had 31 days instead of 28, I would have finished the quilt top by the end of the month even with my day off!

Otto a.k.a. Mister Baby a.k.a. My Sweet Baboo, Supervising Quilt Construction

So anyway, looking forward to March: Apparently I erred on the side of overambition with my February OMG, so for March my OMG is just going to be QUILTING & BINDING TABBY MOUNTAIN.  That will involve:

1. Removing stray threads and pet fur from the quilt top with a tape roller and giving it a final pressing
2. Finding or purchasing batting
3. Pressing my backing fabric and cutting it to size

   

   Tabby Mountain backing: Free Fall in Orchid by Tula Pink

4. Loading the quilt on my longarm frame, most likely doing a full float
5. Selecting thread colors
6. Basting the horizontal seamlines and quilt edges to ensure they remain nice and straight
7. SID (Stitch In the Ditch) along all of those diagonal seam lines
8. Ruler work in the solid fabric patches

   

   My Quilting Plan for Tabby Mountain

9. Free motion quilting in the print fabric patches
10. Trimming the finished quilt
11. Making and attaching binding (and I haven't selected the binding fabric yet, either)

Of course, I'm really hoping to get a few other things accomplished in the sewing room this month as well.  Is it against the rules of this challenge to set Gold Star Bonus Goals in addition to the OMG?  Because I'd like to finish my Tabby Mountain quilt well before the end of March, and then I also hope to:

1. Finish the partially-completed pineapple log cabin block that I started last month.  17 strips have been sewn to the foundation paper, and 80 more strips need to be added to finish the block.
   
2. Get started and caught up with the new applique BOM project designed by Esther Aliu, Queen's Garden.  Although I've selected and prewashed my fabrics for this project, I have yet to begin Blocks 1 and 2, which were released in January and February, and Block 3 will be released in about a week.  

   

   My Fabrics for Queen's Garden

There, now -- that should be MORE than enough to keep me busy this month, don't you think?  

And so, despite being unsuccessful the first time I tried this One Monthly Goal thing, I'm linking up again for March.  Wish me luck!

I'm also linking up with:

• ·       Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com  
• ·       Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts http://www.cookingupquilts.com/
• ·       Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/
• ·       Moving it Forward at Em’s Scrap Bag: http://emsscrapbag.blogspot.com.au/
• ·       BOMs Away at Katie Mae Quilts: www.katiemaequilts.com

Travel Interlude: FrankenWhiggish Rose, Resurrected and Resumed

Hello and happy Friday!  I've been out of town and away from my sewing machine, but air travel gave me a great opportunity to catch up on my neglected hand stitched applique project, the FrankenWhiggish Rose blocks that have been sitting untouched since last September.  The day before I left for New Jersey, I spent hours prepping my reverse applique tulips (freezer paper and starch pressed edges, glue basted to the block) as well as the little rosebuds that go around the center of the block (using Jeanne Sullivan's Patch Back product with fabric glue stick to turn the edges).

Prepared Edge Tulips Get Glue Basted In Place for Stitching on the Plane

While I was doing this, my husband was making incredulous comments like "When are you planning to pack your clothes?" and "Do you know how early we need to leave in the morning to get you to the airport?!"

I had previously needle-turned the reverse applique centers of these tulips off-block, but I made double-layer freezer paper templates to preturn the outer edges with starch before glue basting them to the block background so I wouldn't have to fuss with those deep V-curves on the plane.  I was able to pop the spotted reverse applique fabric through the diamond shaped hole in the center of each freezer paper template to hold the fabric in place while I pressed the seam allowances over the edges of the freezer paper.  

Using My iPad As a Light Box

Then for those tiny rosebuds, I downloaded a new Light Box app for my iPad and traced the rosebuds onto Patch Back (similar to Floriani Stitch 'N' Wash), cut a tiny turning allowance all the way around, and turned those edges with fabric glue stick before glue basting the buds to my block.  Now I had four tulips and four little rose buds to stitch down on my way to New Jersey.

Travel Interlude

Here are the highlights from my trip:

My Canine Nephew and My Sister, and My Dresden Plate Quilt

Meet Cooper, the most lovable pit bull mix on earth.  This is a dog who snuggles and cuddles, climbs up in your lap and licks your face, brings toys to tug and fetch, and has the softest, silkiest fur you can imagine.  If I thought I could have smuggled him onto the plane, I would have tried to bring him home with me (over my sister's dead body!).  

Princess Petunia In the Theatre, Following the Show

The main purpose of this trip was to drive into NYC with my sister and my soon-to-be-ten-year-old niece to see Sara Bareilles starring in the musical Waitress on Broadway.  We did a girls' day out in the city, starting out at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (where Petunia was scandalized by the naked statues with "man bits" right at her eye level!), ate hot pretzels from a street vendor, and then stood in line for an hour to get into the Stardust Diner for dinner, where the wait staff consists of aspiring Broadway stars who serenade you while you eat very expensive hamburgers.

Giant Sara Bareilles, Aunt Becca (Moi), and Princess Petunia

It was FREEZING COLD in the city, but we had a great time anyway.  I even managed to push my niece through the crowd gathered at the stage door after the performance, so Petunia got to meet Sara Bareilles and got her autograph.  I swear her smile was bigger than her whole face!

Back to my stitchery:

By the time I was ready to fly back to Charlotte, I had already stitched down all of the applique pieces that I had prepped before the trip.  Fortunately, though, I'd had the foresight to pack the green fabric, leaf template, and chalk pencils for my leaves.  I traced my templates onto my fabric with regular pencil this time, hoping it would smudge less during finger pressing than the chalk pencils do, but it ended up being really difficult to see so I won't be doing that again on this fabric.

My Pencil Lines Are Too Hard to See

There may be an impending Fabric Crisis with this project, by the way.  I bought this green fabric back in 2012(?!) when I first started this project, and I only bought a quarter of a yard of it.  I know, right?  Since there are sixteen leaves on each block and I have seven more blocks to make after this one, that means I need to get 112 more leaves out of that piece of fabric.  I highly doubt I can find any more of this fabric and I don't even remember where I bought it.

Sixteen Leaves Pinned for Needle Turned Stitching

Having stitched the prepared edge applique on my flight up to New Jersey and switching back to needle turned applique on my flight home, I must say that I really prefer the prepared edge stitching.  Yes, it's a pain in the butt to do all that prep work, but it's easier to place the pieces on the background accurately when the edges are already turned, and I like not having those little pins to keep track of when I'm stitching on the go.  I don't like my thread snagging on the pins, either!  

I'm out of practice and my first two needle turned leaves came out kind of lumpy.  I'm not even going to show them to you, so there!  Seriously -- I know that each one will get better.  I didn't finish stitching all of these leaves on the plane, so I'll be working on them while watching television with my husband in the evenings.  And I'm seriously considering switching to prepared edge applique for all of the remaining blocks.

But in the meantime -- I'm HOME AT LAST, and my sewing machines have MISSED me!  I have two different solos to prepare for this Sunday, so for the next few days I'll be alternating between working on music and piecing my Tabby Mountain quilt top.  Finishing that quilt was my goal for February, and here it is the 22nd already and it's only halfway pieced!  Perhaps I was overambitious in thinking I could piece AND quilt it in one month, but I'd like to at least finish the top and get it loaded onto my quilting frame before the end of the month.

So if you don't hear from me, I'm either busy SINGING or SEWING!

I'm linking up with:

• ·       Whoop Whoop Fridays at www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com
• ·       Finished Or Not Friday at http://busyhandsquilts.blogspot.com/