Sunday, February 3, 2019

Setting my OMG for February

It’s time to set my One Monthly Goal for February, and I am linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts. I find that the challenge to complete one particular project each month (even when I’m not successful in finishing) helps me to focus on something that has perhaps been languishing too long. I like moving everything along with no fabric left behind!


For this month, I’ve selected my Lattice Birds quilt. My goal is to finish the top during February. All 63 blocks are stitched and I’m beginning the assembly now. But this is not a slam dunk goal for several reasons.

First, there are some who may remember that while I was sewing these birds along with the Rainbow Scrap color of the month last year, I bought a pattern from The Pattern Basket and altered it to fit my needs. I wanted a 10” block to alternate with the Irish Chain blocks instead of the pattern’s 8” block. Also, as suggested by my friend Sally, I added a flip corner to the upper part of the front wing to round it. Also, I didn’t like all the tiny fiddly seams for sewing in a beak, so I made prairie points and inserted them in the seam instead. I also shortened the tail to accommodate the scale of the lattice.


So here is a typical bird with those changes made. What I had to before I began assembly  was to go back and stitch down the prairie point beaks with brown thread so that the quilt could eventually be machine quilted! That’s what I worked on today. Then I began the process of laying out the rows and figuring out who goes where. My design board isn’t large enough to accommodate all 9 rows, so the other four are in piles on the ironing board for now.

I also had a lot of quilty math to do to figure out if I had enough of the feature fabric (see the breast of the bird, above) to make a 6” border around the quilt AND do the back. I had to order two more yards. That will be a total of 10 yards that I’ve bought, but I love it so much that I should have just bought every.single.yard.still.available.

And finally, there is a lot of block trimming, seam spinning/pressing and thread cutting to do on these blocks as it will be critical to have flat seams and no dark showing through the white background.

So that’s my OMG - finish sewing the quilt top by the end of February. And did I mention that we’d be gone on vacation for a couple weeks? Yeah, it’s going to be a challenge!

10 comments:

  1. Oh, it's good to see the birds again - it will be wonderful

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  2. Prairie points for the beaks ...Oh I have got to remember that one!!!.
    Love the birds and the colors.

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  3. Your birds are wonderful! I love the colors.

    I have a friend that loves birds so many I should look into doing something like this, but in table runner size, for her.

    Looking forward to seeing the completed quilt top.

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  4. Awesome quilt top! Thanks for linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal and good luck with your project!

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  5. The good news is that if you don't finish exactly by Feb. 28th, it's really OK. I know you'll get 'er done pretty soon after that :)

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  6. Love those birds! Good luck on your goal!

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  7. I love that with the alterations you really make the quilt your own :) It may take a bit longer to put the top togehter but will be so worth it. Good luck with your goal!

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  8. I love you little birdies! So glad to see them assembling into their quilt! Good luck with your goal!

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  9. PRAIRIE POINTS for the beak??? You think I am screaming. You are right. You are also a genius. Love this idea. NOW, this pattern is absolutely doable. And the prairie point beak makes it 3-dimensional quilt block. Ooh how fun!!!

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  10. Can’t wait to see this quilt finished!

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