Michael Miller BOM 2020

I stumbled onto a BOM from Michael Miller using the Accuquilt cutter and dies.  Delighted to fine this since I was a new beginner using the Accuquilt system of cutting fabric.  Teresa Down Under is also making videos using these instructions and I have found her information to be very helpful. 

Whenever I purchase a new device it takes me a few projects to begin feeling confident in making it a success.  This has been very true using the Accuquilt system.  I had to rethink everything I did in cutting and laying out fabric on the cutter.  Then I wanted to be as conservative as possible with my fabrics as we all know how expensive fabric is today.  There has been a learning curve. 

After I cut out my last project, I put all the scrapes aside.  Gradually I have gone through the scrapes and keeping every piece that can be used for other projects.  I find that I am looking at every scrape and contemplating how it can be used.  Circles are being considered for future projects.  Half square triangles will be used in a scrappy quilt, maybe.  Crumb quilts, my version, will definitely be considered.

https://blog.michaelmillerfabrics.com/ will have information regarding their BOM.

Here are the first five blocks of the BOM.  So glad to be making this quilt and learning so much information using the Accuquilt cutter and dies.

Apartment Living

Almost five years ago I made the decision to sell my house and move into a 55Plus apartment complex in the small town that I live in.  It was a difficult decision as my late husband and I had built our "forever retirement home" with the intentions that we would live there until the end of our lives. Unfortunately, life did not work out as we had planned and he died in 2012 from Alzheimer’s disease.

I stayed in our home for three years after his death and spent those three years trying to maintain a house and yard.  It was hard.  It was very, very hard.  I was not getting any younger and it just became more than I felt like I could physically or mentally continue with the upkeep of all that was involved with maintenance of house and yard.

I knew that I wanted to remain in our small town and the selection of apartments were minimal.  I did not want another house to maintain and certainly no yard.  Fortunately, I was able to get into a fairly new 55Plus apartment complex and I made the move almost five years ago.

It has been an adjustment but I know it was the best decision for me at this time of my life.  No yard work and no maintenance.  Is it perfect?  No, it is not.  There are problems.  Space is one of them.  In my house I had a very large sewing room upstairs in the bonus room.  I was spread out all over that room with more fabrics and sewing machines than any person deserved.  But I did enjoy it while I had it.  Also, I had a beautiful sunroom that was probably my favorite room in the house.  It looked out to my neighbor’s small farm with his cows, goats and horses.  I loved it.  And I had a nice sized garage.

Now I have two bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen and bathroom.  My apartment is larger than many two-bedroom apartments and I appreciate every inch I have.  The second bedroom I am using as my sewing room, but it is small.  During this pandemic I have overflowed into the dining room.  My ironing board and iron have been in use so much until I have left it up in the dining room area and the dining room table has been converted to a cutting table and any other use, I needed it for. 

I cut my fabrics on the dining room table.  I start out sewing the quilt blocks in my sewing room.  At some point the blocks are sewn together and the quilt construction outgrows the sewing room and I move to the dining room table.

So, if you ask me about my apartment today, I would tell you I have an apartment for creating and sewing quilts and it has a bed and bath for my personal use.  The apartment has become a quilt haven.