Christmas BOM Finally Finished

Yup, it's official.  I'm finally finished the FQS Designer Mystery BOM from 2010.  I finished it at retreat last weekend. This made my third finished quilt top for retreat.  Granted I just needed to finish the border, which took a LOT longer than anticipated.

I struggled with the border for a while.  I have no idea why, but I had issues aligning the stars so that they lined  up.  I cut fabric the wrong length.  I had a hole burned in my fabric, so I had to piece on part of the border that didn't need to be pieced originally.  Needless to say, I loathed this quilt come the end. Especially when I laid it down and realized it didn't lay flat in one area (see that pucker in the border on the right). Seriously?  I haven't had this many issues with a quilt in probably 5-7 years, when I was still just a novice quilter.

Needless to say, I'm thrilled that this top is done, but I think I'll be putting it away for a while until I grow to love it again and want to quilt the top.

I do want to note that the issues I had were not with the pattern itself.  The FQS did a good job with the pattern, I just had so many issues with the border.

Christmas Quilt Border

Well, the bug that's been going around finally hit me last week.  I'm finally starting to feel better and have begun to get back into some sewing.  I spent several days in bed doing nothing, feeling so blah.  I'm glad to be back on my feet, although not 100% just yet.

To get back into the swing of things, I've begun working on the 10 stars for the Christmas Quilt border.

This required making 40 of each of the above rectangles for the 10 squares. I made all of them and am in the process of sewing all of these together to form the star tips.

Here you can see the stars starting to take shape.  I have about 2/3 of the star points finished. Once I finish those I can make the stars and assemble the border to FINISH the quilt top.  Whoo Hoo.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway for four fat quarters in my previous post.  The winner will be announced next Monday.

Christmas Quilt - After Christmas

Now that I have the Storm at Sea quilt finished I can begin working on other projects again.  Yay!

First up on my to-do list is to work on the Fat Quarter Shop's Designer Mystery BOM.  I had all 12 blocks made for a few months now, I just haven't gotten around to finishing the sashing and border. Well, this week I managed to finish the sashing, a step in the right direction.

Now to make 10 10.5" square blocks for the border...

FQS Designer Mystery BOM - Block 12

WHOO HOOO!!!! Did you here that from wherever you are? You must have because of how excited I am to finish these blocks.

The 12th and final block in the FQS Designer Mystery BOM (2010) is finished!  Now this one actually looks like an ornament, not a Chinese lantern.

Now to work on the sashing and pieced border...

FQS Designer Mystery BOM - Block 11

And block 11 is finished.  Just one more to go after this.

I love the uneven bow in this block.  I think it adds character.  I wouldn't really associate a basket with Christmas, more Easter, but it's still cute. 

One more to go (oh, wait, i already said that...)

FQS Designer Mystery BOM - Block 10

I finally got back to working on the FQS Designer Mystery BOM after a few weeks off and finished block 10.

I love this block.  I think the elves ice skating are so cute here, and the bow is adorable.

Now to finish block 11 and 12...

Designer Mystery BOM - Block 9

Whew, I'm on a roll.  I not only finished block 8 of the Fat Quarter Shop's designer mystery BOM, I finished block 9 too.  This one is supposed to be two matching ornaments, but i think it looks more like two Chinese lanterns.

Can I keep this momentum up?  I certainly hope so. 

Designer Mystery BOM - Block 8

Yet another BOM that I'm way behind on.  Okay, so I'm not AS far behind on this one as I am on the Radian Star BOM.  I made block 8 last weekend.  This one is a gingerbread house.  I think it turned out cute. 

I'm still totally in love with this fabric line and this quilt.  Well, I'm in love with every one of Kate Spain's fabric lines.  They're all so awesome. 

Designer Mystery BOM - Block 7

A finished up block 7 of the Fat Quarter Shop's Designer Mystery BOM recently.  I have blocks 8 and 9 that I need to make up.  Yes, I'm behind.  I'm actually behind on both of my BOMs.  Oh well, it is what it is.  Life has been crazy lately.  I'm not on a deadline or anything.  I find that when I put myself on a deadline that it just stresses me out and takes the fun away from quilting.  I want quilting to remain fun, so I will continue to do things on my terms and not stress out about being behind. 

I love this block.  Isn't it cute?  I think so.  Believe it or not, in my 8+ years of quilting, this is the first time I have ever made flying geese.  I don't know why.  I don't have an aversion to them, I just have never made them.  Now I can say that I have.

Here are the first 7 blocks all together.  Once finished the quilt will have some sashing in between all of the blocks.

Designer Mystery BOM - Block Six

Last weekend I finished block six of the FQS Designer Mystery BOM.  I love this block.  It's one of my favorites.

Here are the first six blocks.  I can't believe we're half way through already.

This is going to be such a great quilt.  I love it more and more as each block is made and added.  I can't wait for the next one (as always).

Designer Mystery BOM - Block Five

After a slight mishap with the mail I finally received the fifth block in the mail and was able to make it last weekend.

While I like this block, I think it doesn't quite fit in with the others.  I forgot to take a picture of all of them but will next time.  At this point, I think it's my least favorite.  I'm trying to think of a way to spice it up.  Hmm...

Designer Mystery BOM - Block Four

So a month after receiving the fourth block in the Fat Quarter Shop's Designer Mystery BOM, I finished it. Yet another block that I love.

And here are all four so far.

Hopefully I'll receive my fifth block any day now so that I can work on it next weekend.

Designer Mystery BOM - Block Three

I finished the third block in the Fat Quarter Shop Designer Mystery BOM.  This one was the easiest to piece together out of the three so far.

And here are the first three blocks all together.

I'm loving this quilt more and more.  Every block is just so cute.  I can't wait to see what comes next.

Designer Mystery BOM - Block Two

Well, I'm enjoying the last day of my vacation right now after a week off of work.  My in-laws came up from Georgia to stay with us for a week, so there hasn't been much sewing going on lately.  I did, however, manage to make the second block from the Fat Quarter Shop's Designer Mystery BOM today after they left to stay with more family this afternoon.

Isn't this santa hat cute?  I think it's adorable.  I'm really loving these blocks.  I can't wait for the next one.    This is going to be such a great quilt.

I've got a busy week ahead of me with work, but hopefully I'll be able to get some more sewing in soon.  I'd like to begin working on machine quilting one of my many unfinished tops soon. 

Designer Mystery BOM - Block One

I was excited when I saw that the Fat Quarter Shop was using Kate Spain's 12 Day's of Christmas fabric line for their new Designer Mystery BOM this year and immediately signed up.  Well, yesterday I got my first block and just had to make it the same day.  I had already seen some of the blocks popping up around the web, but was still excited.  Here it is:

I'm looking forward to the rest of the blocks.  This means that I have two BOMs in the works.  Fortunately, the Carol Doak one is usually posted around the first of the month and this one ships on the 10th of the month, so they're spaced out rather well.