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Sunday, August 20, 2017

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.


15 comments:

  1. I love what you're doing with your crumbs. It will look fantastic when it's done! Enjoy your eclipse viewing! Andrea

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  2. wow a great post - Happy birthday and solar eclipse day. The rabbit hole is wonderful and It is great idea to do crumb blocks as a leader/ender. I am using box kite blocks for mine.

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  3. Happy Happy milestone birthday -- enjoy your mini reunion, too.

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  4. Happy Birthday!!! Your quilt is stunning!

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  5. Woot-woot! Happy Big 5-O! We are having a darkened day with rain, not sure the sun is going to show, but the cool air is a treat even if I don't get to use my glasses.
    Blueberry Crumbs is a great idea! I have an unfinished L&E in green & purple, random blocks now that I really need to set someday.
    I hope you have a wonderful, memorable day!

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  6. Happy Birthday! I hope the eclipse happened for sure where you were. It was basically a non event here in northern Indiana. It did get hazy out and the temperature was cooler, which was nice because it was supposed to be HOT! Your Rabbit Hole quilt is very pretty. I've never tried making crumbs, it seems like I always have some other small project going that I can run through the machine. Blessings.

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  7. Happy birthday!!! How was the eclipse for you? We traveled to Missouri to see it. It did not disappoint! It was so amazing... I love your Down the Rabbit Hole quilt!!

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  8. Excellent planning on your mother's part to stage an eclipse for your 50th! Your rabbit hole is great (I wish I had started it). I do something similar to your crumbs which is somewhere on the internet called a scrap vortex. It really helped get my scraps under control, and then I made a low volume baby quilt with the pale scraps too (both unfinished, of course). Happy Birthday!

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  9. I really love that quilt! You are doing such a beautiful job with it. The Blueberry Crumb design will work perfectly for the crumb blocks. And Happy Birthday! Turning 50 is a privilege denied to many, so I'm glad you're happy about it!

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  10. I've long been fascinated by Bonnie's leaders/enders. I like how you expanded the idea to make sheets that you cut up. That Blueberry Crumb quilt will be gorgeous. I hope your eclipse experience was everything you hoped it would be. We were at about 80% totality, so the light was dim but strangely sharp, if that makes any sense. The thing that struck me most was how the crickets started chirping at the peak. Happy Belated Birthday!!

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  11. Happy birthday and happy eclipse. I hope you enjoyed both. What a clever ideas to keep moving your UFOs ahead by the week. I like your Leader/Ender project. It's a great way to use scraps - an even smaller stuff.Thanks for linking with AHIQ. It's great to see how others improvise.

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  12. All the best for a great year ahead Lyn. Getting older is a privilege and we need to be thankful for every birthday in spite of the aches and pains, lol.
    I am loving the Prodigy though as yet I do not have a quilt on it. I have too many irons in the fire and quilts in progress and in the works!
    Roslyn

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  13. First of all, a belated happy birthday! Fifty is quite young... I could have babysat you when you were a baby! :-) Still, it's a milestone birthday! And, I love your quilt! It's got some modern elements that really appeal to me. Those circles! And I love wedges too. Must experiment with my 10-degree ruler. Also, I hope you got to experience the eclipse as you wished. I was in Rock Hill, South Carolina, teaching FMQ workshops, so I got to view the eclipse at 99.1 percent. Pretty exciting! And must mention that our granddaughter is now in Colorado, attending CSU. I bet we'll be in Colorado sometime too! Happy sewing! Though I don't think I need to wish that for you because you're ALWAYS happily sewing and quilting, right?!

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  14. Love your "Down the Rabbit Hole". The colors are so pleasing and the center design just calls to me. Wish I could have joined this BOM but I was and am in the middle of making Roseville Album by Kim McLean and felt like I should stick to that project. It is really time consuming but I'm determined to finish. I like your idea for "leaders & Enders". I have numerous little pieces of the bright fabrics saved as I cut out for the R. A. appliqué that I've wanted to sew together just as you described.

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  15. A belated happy birthday. Thanks for linking up with AHIQ to share your crumb blocks - lovely colours and a good reminder for me to do the leader/ender thing more often.

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