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