50!! Month 5! Eclipse!

Welcome to the link-up for BOMs Away Mondays!

Where we share what we're doing on a BOM-type project 

so they don't stall out in UFO-land!

(Linky at the bottom.)

Check it out! I'm really loving this project.  :D

And guess what?! I'm 50 years old today!!  I think that is the most awesome thing in the world. I am super jazzed to arrive at this superb age and hope to see another awesome age in a decade.

You'll notice that I'm focused solely on my "Down the Rabbit Hole" BOM for now. This point of work catches me up through the Month 5 set of instructions. Two more months to do (with a third coming out in a week and half). When I'm there, I'll go back to rotating through a different BOM for different weeks of the month.

How do you like those mushrooms for a perfect photo accompaniment? They're rather huge (this quilt top is now at 49" square).

Hey - as I was sewing borders on, I wondered if any of you also have "Betweeners" work that you keep alongside your machine? ("Leader-enders" in Bonnie-Hunter-speak)

My Betweeners project right now is making crumb blocks in a blue scheme. 
(Linking this project up at Ad Hoc Improv Quilter party)

Anything blue that is too small to cut a 2.5" square or a 1.5" strip from is kept in a shoebox to my left, and when I need to take my real sewing out of the machine to do the other side or the next stage, I grab a couple little scraps (or amalgamation of scraps like you see here) and whip them through so I never have tails to deal with in my "real" sewing unless I'm changing thread color. If a scrap is sewn to another color, I let that work its way into my blocks, like this cream here that was attached to a sparkly sky blue that was cut out from behind an old applique project.

So far I have about 35  4.5 inch blocks. I work my scraps up until I have a sheet maybe 10 x 18 inches, and then cut several blocks out and pin them on my working board. When they fill the upper area, I group them into 10s so I can keep track of how many there are. And the scraps that come from cutting the blocks out - those go right back in that shoebox for more "mud play." It's fun, it's mindless, it's fast, and in the long term it results in something cool from nothing.

I have a neat plan for them and some yardage in my stash when I have about 3 times that many blocks and enough to make a 2.5 inch all-around border. 

"Blueberry Crumb Cake"


(Never fear - crumb-size scraps in other colors aren't thrown out, but those live sorted into the other color bins in my storage until I'm finished with blues.)


Hopefully this post will go off the way it's supposed to. I've got it pre-made and auto-set, as we're taking off at 3am today to go to Scott's parents' to have a mini-reunion Eclipse Viewing Party. They live 6 hours away, smack dab in the middle of the path of totality. Another thing I'm really jazzed about right now.

~*~*~
So, if everything works out properly, it's you're turn! 

Did you get some BOM work done recently?

Kate over at Katie Mae Quilts has joined me in hosting this meet-up,

and linking up from either end puts you on the party at both sides.

"Birthday Bash"

What a fun spree!!!  Allowed to just shop my heart's content within needs and reason at the local quilt shop after a full year of new-fabric dieting. . .  Wow.  :D  Happiness!

And I hit the jackpot. Our shop gives a nice discount on your entire purchase (barring machines and previously-discounted fabrics) - including notions. So I shopped for my August NewFO Birthday Bash quilt and important quilts coming up that I can't supply from my stash.

Tools I've been waiting for - 60 degree triangle for a kit in storage I want to pull up. Jenny's ruler that I've been drooling over for a YEAR. Pattern for a quilt later referenced. Refills for my sewline marking pencil.

And Fabric - oh, fabric!!

Birthday Bash: 

I wanted something from my Pinterest yearnings, something bold and fun, and a circles concept won out. Some fun prints and mixers to go on a very pale blue background, along with some prints already in my stash. 

Found a nice gray mini-print for the backing, and I'll use the stripe for the binding as well as some circle work.  This is this month's NewFO, though I doubt I'll have time to get much more done than the fabrics washed/pressed and some templates created before month's end. Sofa size.

Backing for my Dear Jane:

 I wanted something perky and modern-ish, so I got this yardage. One of the women at the shop seemed mighty incredulous that I would buy good fabric for the backing, asking if I was going to do anything other than hang it on the wall. Even if it never gets used on my bed, SO MUCH work and heart went into this quilt top that I couldn't bear to put a cheap-o backing on it. Jane deserves the print. I probably won't use that smaller piece for the binding, but it's an option for the auditions. Generous queen size.

Important Gift for next year: 

Surprisingly, I did not have enough Christmas greens and reds for this design, and I've been hunting long and hard for a large-scale print for the border. This is not *perfectly* what I wanted, but it's super close and I'm out of time for more hunting. Plaid is for the backing. Queen size. September's NewFO. 

25th Wedding Anniversary!! 

Coming up next summer - gotta get cracking to make us a nice double wedding ring for an option on our bed. Clearly this is going to be incredibly feminine. I'll foundation-paper-piece the arcs. King size. 

And a nod to my man: 25th Anniversary Groom's Quilt. ;D  

He liked the idea. Asked about having a moose or elk somewhere on it. I have enough cream in stash and can pull cool plaids and such for the arcs. Using Jenny Pedido's Metro Rings pattern for this one. Just needed a gray and the red - lol'ing at camera changes - this is the same gray as in the sample above. Sofa size.

And *that* was more than enough shopping, for sure! I'm back on the stash-only diet until we have been able to buy a book case, window treatments, a breakfast table set and a deck table set. It will be a while!

oh! But I loved this modern sample hanging in the shop -  Hexagon Shuffle, it was called. 

Free pattern available online - 

Here's one as quilted by Natalia Bonner:

Fun way to dress up a plain back for display, too! 

Leaves cut from Bella solids and sewn into strands, tied onto a dowel. 

Birthday Shopping!

What a fun spree!!!  Allowed to just shop my heart's content within needs and reason at the local quilt shop after a full year of new-fabric dieting. . .  Wow.  :D  Happiness!

And I hit the jackpot. Our shop gives a nice discount on your entire purchase (barring machines and previously-discounted fabrics) - including notions. So I shopped for my August NewFO Birthday Bash quilt and important quilts coming up that I can't supply from my stash.

Tools I've been waiting for - 60 degree triangle for a kit in storage I want to pull up. Jenny's ruler that I've been drooling over for a YEAR. Pattern for a quilt later referenced. Refills for my sewline marking pencil.

And Fabric - oh, fabric!!

Birthday Bash: 

I wanted something from my Pinterest yearnings, something bold and fun, and a circles concept won out. Some fun prints and mixers to go on a very pale blue background, along with some prints already in my stash. 

Found a nice gray mini-print for the backing, and I'll use the stripe for the binding as well as some circle work.  This is this month's NewFO, though I doubt I'll have time to get much more done than the fabrics washed/pressed and some templates created before month's end. Sofa size.

Backing for my Dear Jane:

 I wanted something perky and modern-ish, so I got this yardage. One of the women at the shop seemed mighty incredulous that I would buy good fabric for the backing, asking if I was going to do anything other than hang it on the wall. Even if it never gets used on my bed, SO MUCH work and heart went into this quilt top that I couldn't bear to put a cheap-o backing on it. Jane deserves the print. I probably won't use that smaller piece for the binding, but it's an option for the auditions. Generous queen size.

Important Gift for next year: 

Surprisingly, I did not have enough Christmas greens and reds for this design, and I've been hunting long and hard for a large-scale print for the border. This is not *perfectly* what I wanted, but it's super close and I'm out of time for more hunting. Plaid is for the backing. Queen size. September's NewFO. 

25th Wedding Anniversary!! 

Coming up next summer - gotta get cracking to make us a nice double wedding ring for an option on our bed. Clearly this is going to be incredibly feminine. I'll foundation-paper-piece the arcs. King size. 

And a nod to my man: 25th Anniversary Groom's Quilt. ;D  

He liked the idea. Asked about having a moose or elk somewhere on it. I have enough cream in stash and can pull cool plaids and such for the arcs. Using Jenny Pedido's Metro Rings pattern for this one. Just needed a gray and the red - lol'ing at camera changes - this is the same gray as in the sample above. Sofa size.

And *that* was more than enough shopping, for sure! I'm back on the stash-only diet until we have been able to buy a book case, window treatments, a breakfast table set and a deck table set. It will be a while!

oh! But I loved this modern sample hanging in the shop -  Hexagon Shuffle, it was called. 

Free pattern available online - 

Here's one as quilted by Natalia Bonner:

Fun way to dress up a plain back for display, too! 

Leaves cut from Bella solids and sewn into strands, tied onto a dowel.