Graduated! ~ Grand Illusion ~ Fiesta Mexico

Welcome to the Link-Up for BOMs Away Mondays! 

We'd love to see the BOM you're working on lately. 

This week's link-up is at the bottom of the post.

Did you see that I graduated?  heh! Most of our family went over to Nebraska for the ceremony so I could wear that fancy hood I earned. Plus, it was a perfect excuse to go visit Scott's folks for a few nights, who live 45 minutes away from the university.

Three other cohorts attended the ceremony. The other 15 lived too far away.

Dr. Biggs is always resplendent in his mustache! He was a good thesis advisor. I didn't even think about bringing my Phi Alpha Theta cords! Silly me. . . 

My family had fun putting up their "Lopers" - the university's mascot is the antelope.

You saw mine a couple days ago. Might as well flash it again.  ;D

The only bummer is that Heather and Kyle weren't on the trip because of work obligations. 

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We got back last night, and I was too tired to do the Garden Friends BOM work that would have been slated for this week.

I did look at the Clue 4 of Bonnie Hunter's 2014 Mystery Quilt this morning, and cut those pieces out. I sewed the HST's via my favorite method for scads at a time (although I cut the papers into smaller sections to maximize scrappiness).

I only put together 1 of each orientation for this week's patches,

And now Clue 4 is stacked on top of Clue 3 and Clue 2. Real work on those is waiting for my FMQ work on my 2 Christmas quilts to get finished. (They're safe like this for a couple more weeks, because they live in a part of the house where no pets go and there are no young kids who would be tempted to check things out!)

Clue 1 was finished the first week, and their tray actually serves to mask something that has to stay hidden.

(Linking this up at Bonnie's Mystery Monday Link-up)

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Been doing last bits of decorating with family, and now I plan to enjoy the rest of my Sunday with some slow stitching while we all watch the second Hobbit DVD in prep to go see the final release in the theater in a couple of days. 

I'll be working on my Fiesta Mexico block. I pushed the stemwork along a bit more on the car ride home yesterday and back-basted some pieces of color on. 

I love how it transforms from this messy stage to a clean, gorgeous stage when the applique is done! This far edge is finished until I trim up the block after all the other stitching is in place.

(Linking this up at Slow Sunday Stitching and Hexie Weekend) 

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How are things at your place? With Christmas getting closer, have you done any BOM work lately? Maybe you've snuck in some sanity time to put a block together, or maybe you've started assembling one you've worked on all year? Or maybe it's just too crazy a time to do sewing and you're enjoying the holiday and your family?  :D