BOMs Away 2020 Week 2 - #1: Christmas Figs

This year I PLAN to work on at least four BOMs.  Two are fairly new to me and two are projects I had been gathering fabric for for awhile.  One of them isn't actually a BOM but I figure that working it like a BOM would be a great way to get it started.

Although I've made BOMs before, I've never done any of them the way they are intended:  one block (or a set of blocks) a month for the duration of the BOM period (usually twelve months but I've done one that was shorter and have seen some that are longer).  I usually have started them late and then wound up having to make multiple blocks at a time to catch up or making the blocks winds up stretching over years!  This time around, I'd like to work on them the "old fashioned way" -- one block a month for each BOM so one block for one of them each week .  Of course, since I'm already a week behind in my plans for that for the year, this week I'll have to make two!

The first BOM worked on is the Fig Tree Quilts "Christmas Figs".  I first discovered this great quilt design on Pat Sloan's blog all the way back in August of 2018.

When Pat announced that she was embarking on a quilt along using the book "Christmas Figs" by Joanna Figuora of Fig Tree Quilts (and published by "It's Sew Emma", the publishing arm of the Fat Quarter Shop),  I immediately got excited.  Later on I saw that Diane Harris (formerly of Quiltmaker magazine and now blogging independently over at Stash Bandit) was also sewing this one up.

Joanna's lovely sampler is based on an antique quilt in her collection.  Of course not long before seeing it I had said that I had done my fair share of samplers and didn't plan to make any more in the near future --- NOT!!   When will I ever learn that you NEVER say never when it comes to quilting!!

Pat actually made the quilt twice -- once in the Fig Tree "Christmas Figs" fabrics and again in Blue and White using Edyta Sitar's "Something Blue" fabric line which can be seen here.   I didn't particularly have an interest in approaching it in either of those two color ways --- I already have a number of Christmas quilts made and a couple more already WIPs, kitted or planned.  I have a Blue and White Drunkard's Path UFO project that I haven't worked on in years (and am not sure I even know where that is!).  So if I wanted to make this, I needed to figure out how to make it interesting for me.  Well that was easy:  I've always wanted to stash Fig Tree fabrics but hadn't had a project to sufficiently nudge me into doing so --- until now!

It should be noted that in Joanna's version of the quilt, she uses the same solid background throughout all the blocks and sashing so the blocks seemed to float across the top.  I liked that look and although I originally wanted to work scrappy on the backgrounds, I also wanted to try to achieve a somewhat floated look.  I was helped with that when shopping for wide back fabric for my MIL's Kringle gift for Christmas in 2018 (she is also a quilter so I gave her, what else? A quilt kit!).  I came across some Moda Bella Solid fabric in "Fig Tree Cream" on sale and stocked up.  So now two years later, I have a fairly healthy stash of an assortment of Fig Tree fabrics from some of the older lines!

So this becomes the first big "NewFo"  (to coin the term for a new project Barbara Stanbro over at Cat Patches used for a weekly link up) for 2020.  First up is:

Block # 1: Puzzle Star

While the sewing didn't go quite as fast as I expected, the cutting did.  All those HSTs meant this was a job for the Accuquilt Go!

Bonus:  I was also able to leader/ender the combo block sets I need to make for the Quiltville "Old Tobacco Road" mystery I am also working on so can keep that moving along too!

So one down for this week and this BOM!

I'm glad to be able to link up at Lynette's over at What A Hoot! for BOMS Away Mondays.

Back in 2012 I had linked up with Sinta Borland at the Pink Pincushion blog when she used to host BOM Rehab.  That one helped me get this one to a top....

Civil War Chronicles BOM

....and got this one started --- although it didn't get to a top until three years after Rehab ended!

Heart and Home BOM

Needless to say both of those are still just tops!  Really hoping I'll be able to keep the BOM momentum going this year and even take some to a full finish!  The other block I need to make this week is pre-cut so hopefully I can get it made up fairly quick.

1/14/20 Edited to Add:
Ooops!  It looks like I'm not finished with this block and this BOM for this month yet!  When I was packing everything away, I took another look at the book and I see I overlooked instructions to add a narrow sashing strip around the whole block.  Also, it turns out this BOM is a "Two Blocks Per Month" BOM so I've still got another Month 1 Block to make! I will get to that right after I get the block for the other BOM done for this week.