BOMs Away 2020 Week #4: AQS Twilight Flurries

Joining in for another week of "BOMS Away" hosted by Lynette over a What A Hoot! Quilts.  This linkup will help me stay on track on working on a group of BOMs I'd like to get done this year!

This week I introduce the last of the four BOMs I plan to work on this year.  For the last BOM round for this month, I'm embarking on "Twilight Flurries", the 2020 Christmas Countdown Quilt Along hosted by the American Quilter's Society (AQS).

AQS has hosted Christmas samplers as a quilt along since 2015 (and you can see the ones from all the previous years here).  Traditionally they issue the blocks for the year every day in December until all the blocks are released.  I've never been organized enough to even attempt to make one although I did use one of the blocks from the 2018 Black, Red and White set in a mug rug gift (that year the blocks were offered in that colorway and in (just) Red and White).  

However back in December, AQS decided to offer the 2020 set in a different way:  in December 2019, they issued all the blocks daily for both the 2019 and the 2020 quilt along!  This way, this year's blocks can be worked on all year.  Added to the fact that the quilt is designed in a Blue and White color scheme, I just knew I wanted to do it!  You do have to have an AQS membership to access the 'Twilight Flurries" blocks now (and the link to them is on the page for the 2019 QAL) but all the prior years QALs are open to the public.  AQS will open the 2020 blocks to the public in December like they normally do.

One of my plans for this year is to decorate in a Blue and White color scheme for Christmas.  I purchased ornaments in those colors for the tree years ago but as a quilter, I know I want to have some quilty good stuff to also decorate with.  However, I have never gotten around to making anything up in that color scheme (well, finishing something -- there is an old B&W UFO around here somewhere).  I had already planned to make a new Christmas Tree skirt and stashed blue and white fabrics for it.  For the tree skirt, I decided to do a Spiderweb skirt like the one I saw on the Stitched In Color blog.  However, I'll be cutting my fabrics using the Accuquilt Spiderweb die.

I plan to use the same stash to make the AQS quilt.  The AQS quilt has twenty-five blocks so just like with the Christmas Figs BOM, I have to make at least two blocks each month to finish by the end of the year.  I looked through the blocks to see if there were any fairly simple ones to start myself off with.  Block #1 and #8 are now done!

There will be more complex ones as they go along so I will probably try to bunch them into sets that use common unit sizes (especially if those can be die cut), shortcut techniques or specialty rulers.  Fortunately, since I have all the patterns already, I'm not obligated to do them in order so each month I can pick and choose the design or techniques I want to tackle.  I was also able to cut pieces for and make up a few of the Spiderweb quarter-blocks as well.

I am thrilled to finally get to make one of these quilt along quilts!  I would still also like to make the 2015 quilt in the version with the embroidered sashings one day.  With these blocks completed, all the BOM work for January is done.  I hope I can keep the momentum going for the rest of the year!