"Box Kites" - DONE

Today is a lovely warm day to celebrate the finish of my "Box Kites."  It ended up about 72" x 88" - I really didn't want it that large, but apparently I am not planning well enough.  This is a Bonnie Hunter inspiration, from one of her books. 

DH held it high, but almost not high enough.  We've had so much snow, mostly melted now, but the result is a lot of MUD!  I had to jump in and hold up the bottom to keep it off the ground.

I really LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the diagonal lines we see with all the  light "kites".  Each border is MQ'ed differently in light-hearted, happy motifs.

 

"Box Kites", WIP, and Boats on the Other Side of the Studio

I've been sloppering with envy over Bonnie Hunter's "Box Kite" quilt for a while, and finally got mine together!  Colors  are purple, green, turquoise, a few pinks and yellows.   All is stash.   Backgrounds are white, no beige or creams.  The design shows up as light strips diagonally across the quilt.  The diagonal pattern is not very apparent in these 2 photos, but I wanted to get something fresh on my blog - so here's a start!  I'm machine quilting on my DSM, my trusty Janome MC6500.  We are under a storm warning today, Presidents Day, and while bad weather doesn't seem to have actually happened, I planned time to make progress with the MQ'ing. 

Mine is 130 blocks - once again, larger than originally planned - I can't seem to stop at "nap size"!   It is finishing approx. 72" x 92".   Most of the fabrics are kinda sweet, clear, a lot of polka dots, and a few "cutsies".  The little stripe is one border.  This is an easy, 6 in. block.  If I had a design wall, I would have clustered like colors together but ... no design wall.

Other side of the studio:  

While I work on my quilts, DH works on his boats.  While it starts as a kit, he is building an entire boat, only on a smaller scale.  The wood is included, and instructions, but nothing is cut out, the instructions are frequently in several foreign languages with the expected problems of language errors, measurement conversions, pieces get broken under the stress of making straight wood curve, clamps won't stay clamped on curved surfaces.  We both use a small studio - he is in one corner and I am in the other corner.  He gets threads in his boats, I have sawdust in my quilt - we got over it. 

This morning at 3:45am one of those clamps went flying off, noisily clunking to the chair then the floor -- waking us in a panic - we were sure someone had broken into the house!