BOMs Away - "Forever My Valentine" & Blue Bear

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.)

Here's my block 1 of "Forever My Valentine", which arrived a couple of days ago - all stitched up, even. I am determined to keep this BOM quickly assembled. 

Apparently 2018 is the Year of the Pre-Fused Kits. I really wanted to do this BOM, but although I really don't prefer pre-fused kits (for several reasons), that is the route I chose so that I'd actually be able to do this. It cuts the time down tremendously. 

I'm using blanket stitching on this one, and doing that with 40wt threads. I know most people prefer the ease of invisible thread, but I didn't choose it for 3 reasons. 1) My machine is extremely fitful when I make it work with it. 2) I really don't like the way the holes look in fused pieces - colored threads fill the holes, but invisible thread lets them keep showing. 3) This is a flannel project, and the edges of most pieces are white. Colored thread greatly minimizes the white rims around them, so that only the tiniest bit still peeks out instead of remaining highly visible. The edge of white on the red was particularly noticeable against the underlying pink before I stitched it:

The blocks for this quilt will have 3D wool flowers and pearl beads added after the quilting has been done.

One of the reasons I don't like pre-fused projects is that the fusible spans the entire fabric piece, instead of being "gutted" on larger pieces. This not only adds the layers of fusible where you have many stacked pieces, but also prevents you from cutting the background away. There are 8 layers in some places, (which would actually be 16 with the fusible, thin as that is). 

So before I fused this block, I laid the largest pieces down and traced their outlines with chalk so I could cut away the underneath layers, using a 3/8 inch margin. That gave me these large pieces that I can do something with in the future:

That's 2 layers of flannel and 2 of plastic that are kept out of the block. HOWEVER, if you do this, you need to be aware that the fusible will be exposed on the back. Here you see the open space where the black and pale pink were cut away before assembling, and the shiny surface of fusible covering the entire back of the red spotted heart that I'm about to put in place:

You really have to ***make sure*** you lay that applique ironing sheet under the block at the ironing board so the exposed fusible sticks to the peelable sheet, not to your board!

Just let it cool a bit and peel off.

~*~*~*~

I also put together my February blue bear for Dione's 2018 Beary Colorful BOM. He's the bear of high hopes:

This project is being done applique-as-you-quilt style, so this is just fused, not stitched yet. I'm taking a breather for Feb and not doing as much as last month. I hope to do the stitching/quilting for this at the same time I do the March bear. 

~*~ Linking my blue bear up at Jen's February Color Linkup

How about you? Did you get any 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.