Introducing the 2020 BOM

Growing older is not for the faint of heart.  I have had to make some lifestyle changes this past month which includes denying myself some of the pleasures I have always enjoyed.  Thankfully sewing and quilting are not among them.  But God is good and I am seeing some good as a result of being diligent to do what is necessary for my health.  
We can fill our lives with so much busyness that we do not make time for rest.  That is one of the things I am having to change.  So as I look at the illustration for this years BOM it reminds me to slow down and savor the moments.  It also reminds me to look up at the stars and just be filled with wonder at the vastness and beauty of the universe.
That is where we are going with this years BOM.  To the stars.  This will be a nine month BOM.  As always this will be a mystery quilt and one block will be released on the first day of each month.  I am trying something a little different this year by providing a chart that allows you to choose which size quilt you want to make.  Now I have not made this quilt yet, so the fabric requirements are only my best estimate for the amount you will need.  I have tried to be generous and overestimate as I would rather have left over material than not enough.  Even so I almost always get a a little more than patterns call for.  That also gives me some fudge room if there are any cutting errors or something just does not come out as I envisioned.  

I will be making two versions of this quilt, one a lap size and one a baby quilt.  I am also sticking with my stash busting goals for this year so all of my fabrics for the tops are from my stash.  I have dug into my fat quarters a good bit for this one.  In my instructions you will notice that I have listed the fabrics as Light, Medium, and Dark rather than as colors.  Choose whichever colors you like just be sure you have a variety of shades for that color.  I pulled out more than my instructions call for because I was having trouble limiting myself to the minimum fabric requirements.

For my darks I am using some reds, blues and a purple.  They all have some green in them and that color will pop into a few blocks as a medium color.

My selection of mediums: purples, green, reds and blues.

My light selections. Most of these are a cream background with some color accents in blue, plus a couple of very pale reds.

I also have a couple of tone on tone cream prints which will serve as my background fabric.  Though I do not have them pictured for you.

For my baby quilt I am using a cute fat quarter collection I picked up a couple of years ago that is from Clothworks: Guess How Much I Love You.  I am adding a white tone-on-tone to this collection for my background fabric, and it has stars in it.

You have a whole month to pick out your fabric.  I have chosen small to medium scale prints for my fabrics.  A larger scale print could also be used, but those can be harder to focus in on the main color you are after but could work very well in the border on one of the larger quilt sizes.  A fat quarter bundle will work with this quilt as long as it has a good selection of dark, medium and light shades.  (The larger size quilts would not be good choices for fat quarter bundles however.  You would be better off buying yardage.)  In looking at the one I chose for my baby quilt, those dark blues are going to play to the darks,  with the other colors mainly being in the medium shade range and the creams acting as my lights -perhaps- I have not decided for sure and will just play with them as I make each block.  The prints on some of those creams may end up not actually working as lights if there is too much of darker color showing in the piece.

Whether you shop from your stash or from your local fabric store, have fun choosing your fabrics.  I often think this is the hardest part of making a quilt: fabric selection.  I think it would be great to share how you choose your fabrics.  So in the comments section let us know how you approach this aspect of making your quilts.  Maybe you don't even know where to begin so ask away and let's see if we can help each other out.  I will be encouraging this discussion on my Facebook page as well since we can actually share photos easily there.

All instructions for this quilt will be available through the end of the year on my Free Patterns Page.  That is where you will find the fabric requirements too.  
I have so much fun quilting with all of you and appreciate that with all of the choices out there in the world you have chosen to sew with me.  Thank you and...

Happy Quilting!