Bohemian Wife Quilting

I've finally made a start on getting the Bohemian Wife quilt actually quilted. First I did the vertical lines. A lot of stopping and starting, but it worked out. Used the walking foot, it went very well. 

Then I switched over to quilting the quilt blocks. And it turns out, I really should have switched over the thread color I was using.  

The medium red/purple that I was using blended in pretty well with all those vertical prints and on a lot of the blocks. A lot of the blocks have straight lines, which are tough to do well with free motion quilting. 

So I got out my new ruler quilting foot and the ruler I bought to go with it. Definitely straightened up my lines a lot, (especially for my first time) but still not good enough especially with that dark thread. And a lot of the blocks use lighter colored fabrics as well which makes that situation even more apparent. The quilting ruler is on the quilt there, but it's quite see-through isn't it?

I pinned up the quilt on the design wall to see if it was even visible from a normal viewing distance. Nope, not really. 

But a couple steps away from the quilt and yikes on bikes! Just to me, it will always bug me. I'm not planning on entering this in any shows or competitions, so it truly doesn't matter. Except I'll know it looks bad and takes away from the look of the quilt I've spent so much time making. 

I will have to pick out a whole bunch of quilting and then switch over to a lighter color so every little but and squiggle shows up so plainly.. Sigh, still un-picking and trying not to just give up on this one when I'm so close to finishing.

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Helpful Quilt Basters

 

Time for some quilt basting, this time the Bohemian Wife quilt! This was last worked on when I finished making the backing in September 2025. I'm using a non-fusible Hobbs 80/20 batting. And one of the studio assistants was instantly on the job even though we were downstairs using our dining table.

She was very curious and helpful in initially holding things down.

She was soon replaced by her co-worker who just really wanted to have a nap in the layers of batting I was trying to separate. Honestly, not too helpful.

The derpiest of derp faces made up for the interruption.

Thankfully the somewhat more helpful studio assistant #1 came back on the job.

One last switcheroo occurred where studio assistant #2 checked the spacing on my safety pins.

I could tell he was satisfied with my work when he laid down. It was so nice to have help and company while I basted this kind of big one. I forgot how long this pin basting process takes, I haven't done one in a while. 

Okay, now onto the quilting. I'm not planning any exciting quilting as it will all get lost in the glorious mess of color and pattern. Probably just some walking foot straight lines.

12 UFO Challenge

 In order to be clear about the two UFO challenges I'm participating in this year, here's a post about the 12 projects I put on my list for the 2026 BAMQ UFO Challenge. This challenge came about when one of our members, Christine, was talking about another guild's challenge and how it had gotten her to work on projects that had fallen off her radar. It sounded like a new way to inspire people so I volunteered to help her organize it for our group.

  As I wrote yesterday there is overlap with the 2026 UFO Finishes Challenge, those four will be noted with this symbol🥏👽.

The way this challenge works is you turn in a list that is numbered, and every month at Sew Day we randomly pick one of the remaining numbers from 1-12 to be the project everyone works on and tries to finish before the next Sew Day. The first number chosen in January was #12, the second number chosen in February was #9. I worked on my #12 and finished it, the May You Ever Return quilt. And now I'm working on my #9 project, the Oxbow Tote. As we only have a month to work on and finish these things, I tried to structure my list so that I'd both be challenged and also have some easier finishes.

Here's my illustrated list of 12:

1. Clover Pillowcase - first started in a class in 2023, last worked on in 2023.
   
2. Kawandii - first started in a classs in 2021, last worked on in March 2025.
   
3. Bohemian Wife quilt-🥏👽 started in 2017, last worked on in 2025.
   
4. Snake in the Garden quilt - started in a class in 2007, last worked on February 2026.
   
5. Mini QCR Pumpkins - started in 2019, last worked on ?!who knows?!
   
6. Five by Five quilt - started in a 2022 class, last worked on in December 2022.
   
7. Dave Owen Hastings Class quilt -  🥏👽 started in a 2022 class, not worked on since then.
   
8. Body Pillow pillowcase - back when I put this on my list, it was intended for my older rectangular body pillow. I now have this new one which is twice as long and rather curvy. I'm thinking it would be nice to have a cotton jersey cover, nice and stretchy to bend with the curves, cozy feeling and easy to wash.
   
9. Oxbow Tote - started in 2024, last worked on December 2025.
   
10. Quilted Dog Jacket-pattern bought in 2024, not started yet.
    
11. Bending the Calendar quilt -🥏👽  started in 2012, last worked on?who knows?!
    
12. May You Ever Return quilt -🥏👽 started in a class in 2018, first one chosen and finished!
    

Here's to challenges that inspire and make me actually me spend the time to even go find the projects that I'm supposed to be working on! That's something of a start, right?

Bohemian Back Extension

The second project that I brought along to BAMQ's great Sew Day on Saturday, was to extend the length of the backing for my Bohemian Wife quilt. It was originally measuring just about exactly the same length as the quilt top, which won't work out well for me and getting the quilt layering and basting done well. I know myself and my process, and I've got to have a little bit more excess to work with. Not as much as a long-armer would require, but there has to be a little give in the measurements.

Honestly, the hardest part of this effort was adding the new fabric strip on to the correct side. 🤞🤞🤞 that I actually got it right. I'll find out when I actually layer and baste this quilt this week.

When I was working on this at Sew Day, there were a lot of comments that it should be a stand alone quilt top all on its own. Which is awfully nice of course, but I'm setting on keeping these together. And when I was explaining what the actual quilt top was and which pattern I'd used, I had to say the original pattern name out loud a couple of times. I found that it was hard for me to say out loud, so I definitely did the right thing for me to change the name to Bohemian Wife.

Many Bindings Day

 

Today at Sew Day, I spent my time making binding, lots and lots of binding. For the City Sampler and the Bohemian Wife quilts. Both soon to be going to a long-armer for quilting.

And then the binding for Metro Twist.

I only did the first step of sewing the binding on as I didn't have the matching blue thread to final stitch it down. So close to done with this one.  That was a lot of binding for one day's work, phew, glad it's made.

Retreat-Third Day

 

On the third day of the retreat I pieced together the rest of the backing for the Bohemian Wife quilt. I’m happy with how it looks and that I got to use up so many of the extra blocks and scraps left over from making the quilt top. Thanks to friend Jaye for taking the picture.

It’s just as loud and wild as the front of the quilt, which is what I wanted.

I also made a lot more of the hourglass blocks for the Old Town mystery quilt.

I got a start on my entry for this year’s challenge quilt for BAMQ.

As you can see it’s made with a lot of the fabrics from the Bohemian Wife quilt.

Here’s what it looks like all at once, hanging up on the post in the workroom of the workshop.

I started out at this end, specifically with that big flower. The challenge is to make a quilt without any 90 degree angles on the corners. We will see where I end up with this…

A Mostly Back

 

I was pretty productive at BAMQ Sew Day on Saturday. I got a very good start on the back for my Bohemian Wife quilt. This is what I got done which is 39"x45" completed so far out of the measurement of 64x70" that will be needed.

I managed to piece together all of the "orphan" or extra blocks that I had ended up with when I'd finished piecing the quilt top.

The majority of these fabrics are used on the front of the quilt. There are just a couple that aren't, but I'm not too fussed about that.  I'm glad that these floating blocks are no longer floating around separate. And I managed to stop myself from using the teeny HSTs. I think those will go into a pillow sham or something like that.

Back To Boho Back

 

There were still a lot of scraps left over from all the strips that made up the Bohemian Wife quilt top, so now I've gotten a lot of them sewn together into this piece.

Here's how the "made fabric" looks along with the other bordered blocks that will eventually make up the quilt back. It looks a mess doesn't it? The pattern for the quilt top really corrals all the print and pattern.

And then one more "made fabric" piece added at the bottom. Still not enough to make up a quilt back of course. All of those small blocks that I made from the teeny-tiny HSTs still need to be sewn into something useable. I'm thinking of setting them in solids or reads as solids chosen from the quilt top fabrics. That will translate into a lot of area to make up the quilt back.

Revenge of the Teeny-Tiny HSTs

As I mentioned a week ago, there are a lot of Teeny-Tiny HSTs leftover from working on making the Bohemian Wife quilt blocks.

Creating something out of these waste teeny-tiny HSTs is probably not the best use of my time, but I just want to see if I can do something interesting with them.

I had some very long strings of these as I sewed the pairs together. If I had stopped sewing then and there it would have made a very festive banner.

But I persevered and here they all are, ironed but very untidy and uneven.

All trimmed up! I think instead of sewing these all together in a big mish-mosh I'll include some more solid alternating squares to set them off. Or to keep the maximalist thing going from the front, piece them together and use these as the sashing for the bigger blocks.

Okay, the Teeny-Tiny HSTs are handled, so I'm moving on for now.

Strips Used And Not

 

The only progress I've made on the teeny tiny HSTs is to sort them into matching sets of four. Takes up a whole lot less room. I may or may not include this in the back of the Bohemian Wife quilt, giving myself permission to move along if necessary.

I was thinking of making a block of strips something like this to echo all the strips on the front of the quilt.

But I used a lot of them to border the last couple of blocks that I had made. There are still some strips left to help fit all of this together.