March Projects

 – UFO’s / NewFO’s / BOM’s

Yay!  March finally arrived!!!  And it feels like a beautiful spring day here in beautiful Music City USA.  The MarchCalendar quilt is happily hung in its spot on the wall, and I could swear the birds are chirping merrily in the sunshine!  I think they like their new home.  I know I love seeing them there every time I come down the staircase from a hard work session in the sweatshop sewing room!  I forgot to put the little beads on for their eyes though….. oops!!!  It will have to wait until I take it down at the end of the month.  Poor little things…

Judy pulled #8 for the UFOChallenge this month, and for me that means Moonglow!  This is a Block of the Month by Jinny Beyer that my husband gave me for Christmas in 2009.  

I saw this quilt in a magazine and fell immediately in love.  Then I saw that it could be had for a song (not really!) as a BOM, and I begged until the poor dear took pity sake on me and put a note under the tree telling me my gift would arrive each month in 2010.  The gift that keeps on giving!  I love it!  Jinny uses 27 different fabrics in this quilt!  And all of them are just saturated with color – yummy!

At the time I was thinking this quilt would really challenge me on my piecing - it has! And I thought it would help me refine my skills with templates & hand piecing - it has!  This project is definitely not for the beginner or the timid quilter!  It is a real challenge, but I think definitely worth it!

When I put it on the UFO list in January, I had six medallion blocks done and that was all.  I was a smart girl and did one of these blocks in January when I finished that month’s UFO early.  And that’s a good thing, because this UFO still needs a LOT of work!  This is what I have done so far …. seven medallion blocks.  There are 13 of these total.

And these are the medallion blocks I still need to do.  Block #10 has to be done twice, so even though there are only five pictures, I still have six medallion blocks to do. =^..^=  No way around it - six!  And of course, each medallion gets more intricate as you go along.

Then there will be the Irish Chain alternate blocks – 12 of those.  Personally I think this will be the most fun part of the project.

Then for the borders – looks like 7 borders!  SEVEN!!!  Yikes!!!!  And guess what I reeeaaaaally hate doing – BORDERS!!!!  And these are mitered too.  Am I in for some fun this month or what???  I gotta tell you, I just LOVE this quilt, but I am stressing a little about whether I can finish this top up in March.  It'll be a race to the finish for sure!  My one saving grace is that I have a four-day retreat the last week in March, so I can go on a Moonglow marathon if needed! =^..^=

On a brighter (and hopefully easier!) note, I am really looking forward to beginning my April Calendar quilt, which will be my NewFO for March.  I will keep you in a little suspense on this one because it is SO cute and I think you will enjoy the reveal when I have it done.  However, I’ll give you a clue:  “April showers bring May flowers…..”  For the next clue I'll show you a peek at the fabrics I plan to use.... Fun!!!

SoScrappy says the color this month for the RainbowChallenge is PINK.  Yay!  I love the way Pink adds light and sparkle to quilts and I’m very much looking forward to adding 2 bright and happy Pink Pineapples to my growing pile of mini-pineapples.  I’ll keep you posted on those when I get them started.

Jenny has not yet released the Promises and Borders stitchery BOM for March, but I’ll share a picture as soon as she does.

And as if that wasn't enough (!!!!), I've joined a group at my local LQS doing a BOM called Women of the Bible.  We only meet once a month and we do two fairly simple blocks each month, so that should not be too difficult.  I'll show you those as I go along also.

So that's about all I have going on in March - how about you?  Hehehehe!

Hugs & Blessings,

Teresa

=^..^=