BOMs Away - QOVF October

We would never break the chain…well, actually, it was strip-pieced and broken cut many times over…but hooray - all the chain blocks are made for the Quilts of Valor version of Magnificent Mystery for this month’s QOVF/Block of the Month session!

MEADOW MIST MAGNIFICENT MYSTERY

The blocks didn’t take very long - I sewed most of the strips as leader/enders, stacked and cut them with my ShapeCut ruler, and finished half the blocks before my guild meeting last week. (As the Block of the Month chair, I figured I should show at least some of the blocks!)

I finished the other half on Sunday morning via chain piecing (sorry not sorry!), and had to take a picture with the blue! You still can’t see that pale blue…I think it’ll work when the whole thing is done, so stay tuned. Since we’re only two months into the whole piecing, I’m giving myself the benefit of the doubt.

I didn’t get any work done on Eventide this weekend - I ran out of time while prepping other things. Christmas longarming is already going, and of course, there’s t-shirt quilts. Not to mention, I’m trying to label a Quilt of Valor from my stash every night so that I’m ready for Veteran’s Day/week/month. So there’s plenty going on - just not the pretty “look at my quilts” stuff!

BOMS AWAY FOR EVERYONE

BOMs Away Monday is currently being hosted on Facebook - please join and post your block of the months in the group!

BOMs Away - QOVF

There were two Quilts of Valor finishes this month - one of which was a block of the month quilt! And good progress on two other QOVF block of the months. (In other words, I did the monthly assignment for once!) So a very successful Quilts of Valor weekend. (If you ignore the QOVF paperwork…which I definitely did.)

ALSO - I’ve got a jelly roll and pattern giveaway going here!

THE FINISHES

First up, the finishes! I finished the Marble Mystery from Meadow Mist Designs, which was a BOM that ended…last March. (HEY! It’s still this year!) It was nice to get it off my plate, considering I just started the next Meadow Mist mystery as well.

The second finish was a jelly roll log cabin in Connecting Threads fabric, just in time for Sew A Jelly Roll Day. (It’s the third Saturday in September, in case you need to mark your calendar for next year.)

MAGNIFICIENT MYSTERY

And then, with my Meadow Mist mystery finished, I was free to start the next one! My fabric pull is all Connecting Threads, pulling bits and pieces from several different fabric lines to show I can do Quilts of Valor without it being the Americana lines. (I mean, they are easier - but it’s possible to do without!)

This month was dark blue/light blue/dark blue/background hourglasses…and I even trimmed all of them! I’m determined to keep up with the mystery this time. Even if it means a lot of trimming time. (Okay, I need to clip the dog ears still…)

EVENTIDE BOM

My second QOVF BOM is also Connecting Threads fabric and a CT BOM pattern! I’m making the Eventide block of the month in my scraps from the various CT/QOVF kits I’ve sewn this year. The actual BOM is in the blues and creams of Blueberry Parfait, but I’ll be adding some pops of red wherever I see fit. Not in this block, though. Pretty much all blue and white/cream sewing for QOVF this weekend!

BOMS AWAY FOR EVERYONE

BOMs Away Monday is currently being hosted on Facebook - please join and post your block of the months in the group!

Marble Mystery - A Finished Quilt of Valor

Long after the actual quilt along wrapped up - in fact, after the next one has started - I finally finished my Magnolia Mystery quilt! To be fair, I only made a vague effort at keeping up with the quilt along, and only really pushed toward a finish this summer, so… At least I’ll be forced to keep up with the next mystery quilt along! (More on that in a minute, look at this pretty quilt first.)

This picture is as straight as my college crush…

THE PATTERN

Oh, what a pretty quilt!

This is the Marble Mystery, by Meadow Mist Designs. It was her mystery from last year (July-January), and my second of her mysteries. (Magnolia was my first.) I love her designs, and she breaks down each step nicely into doable chunks each month.

Also, it took me to this year to realize they all have M-names.

I did the sneak peek that she always offers, because a) I hate a mystery; and b) I wanted to know where to change the colors to make it a Quilt of Valor. It was pretty easy to mock it up in a bright and dark red, and light and darker blue.

The only thing I changed from the design was using one of my blues in the outer edges, because I knew I wanted to add a red border after that to bring it to QOVF size. (Her pattern uses the dark red squares to finish out the uneven nine patches, which is a way better coloring if you’re not adding another border.)

THE FABRICS

I was still in the middle of cleaning out someone’s mother’s massive stash last summer when the quilt along portion started, so I pulled some seriously in-between good vintage and new fabrics.

Like, here’s this delightful print from Hobby Lobby in 2003. It’s not old or special enough to be cool vintage fabric, so…well, it doesn’t matter once it’s in a quilt, I suppose. (But note to all of us fabric hoarders: selling all of the in between stuff is hard. Just use it. Please.)

So, yes. older calicos and blenders and all that fun stuff. I pulled the bright red specifically because it has hints of gold, a color I’m trying to incorporate in more QOVFs as a small accent.

Even the backing is from the early 2000s (Marcus Fabrics still exists, but Marcus Brothers Textiles doesn’t), and the binding is that same blue from 2003. It made a lovely quilt, but it’s not exactly a combination I can tell you to go off and buy at your local store. (I have some leftover, do you want it??)

THE QUILTING

Okay, so the quilting is actually fun! I used a ribbon star triangle design, and I used skills! I set the edge-to-edge function to layout the rows pointing up, with the triangle nice and big. (Seriously, it’s like 17” tall.) Then after those were quilted, I went back through and flipped the design over, then offset it so that the downward facing triangles nestled between the already quilted upward ones.

It’s way easier to make the computer show you what I did, since despite all that fun work, you can’t really see the design on the quilt. (Isn’t that always the way?)

I’d say you could at least see it better on the backing, but… No. No, you can’t.

At least I know it’s there!

72x72”

Even though I was super late on this one, I’m already prepped for the next mystery, Magnificent! (And I might even learn to spell Magnificent without my computer correcting me by the end of it.) I bought my fabrics from Connecting Threads, and I’m catching up on cutting now, because… I got my whole guild into it! The plan is that we all have ours finished for a group display by QuiltFest, in June 2026 - so I have to actually keep up with the work. Eek!

PUT A PIN IN IT

BOMs Away - Quilts of Valor

There was a lot of Quilts of Valor-ing in the last couple of weeks - and one more to go this week - and then really, it’s time to start planning the Veterans’ Day stuff. (One of my local guilds have already picked their date!) So a lot of RWB rotating in and out of the sewing room until Thanksgiving - let’s take a look at them!

TRANQUIL RIPPLES

Last month’s Connecting Threads finish was Tranquil Ripples in Chesapeake Summer! The pattern got a full revamp, including the addition of a Quilt of Valor appropriate size. And a clearer explanation on how to trim those half rectangle triangles to make the flying geese portion easy peasy!

MARBLE MYSTERY

The Marble Mystery is so close to a finish! And really, if I wasn’t out doing a QOVF presentation on Sunday afternoon, it would have been done. But presenting is just as more important than making!

But obviously, I got the blocks together, then I sewed them into the center portion. Cheryl’s instructions have the doublet/triplet units added before sewing together, but since the mystery is well over and I know that they make another border, I chose to wait on that. It’s easier for me to sew them as a border than as part of the center.

HOMETOWN AMERICANA LOG CABIN

While I was sewing the Marble Mystery, I put my husband in charge of the next Connecting Threads/QOVF project. An Instagram friend sent me a huge stack of log cabin blocks, so I showed him some of the log cabin layout options.

He picked Fields and Furrows (probably the easiest for a non-quilter!) and put them up on the design wall. There’s a few that need to be shifted around because of same fabrics touching, but that’s simple enough. And I still have leftover blocks and cut strips - probably enough for another whole quilt!

MAGNIFICENT MYSTERY

And lastly (because I didn’t have time to work on the Eventide BOM), my starting fabric pull for Meadow Mist’s next mystery! I used the True Color guide to pick my dark red, cheddar, and indigo (A, B, and E) from various Connecting Threads fabric collections, with a white-on-white background and striped binding (obvi.)

I don’t have my bright red (C) and light blue (D) because we got a sneak peek of the new lines, and I knew immediately I wanted a red from Somerset Afternoon and blue from Pattern Play. So that’s coming in this month’s order!

BOMS AWAY FOR EVERYONE

BOMs Away Monday is currently being hosted on Facebook - please join and post your block of the months in the group!