Mmmmm - cheesy!

I promised myself I wouldn't buy any more fabric this year.  My appetite for new quilt stuff had gotten admittedly a bit gluttonous, and the only thing to do was to stop cold turkey.  The local quilt shops were closed, so I wasn't being temped as much. 

But then, Bonnie Hunter posted this on her blog and bam!  There went my best laid plans!

I wasn't even a huge fan of the color called "cheddar", that golden yellow shade from the 19th century.  I bought a jelly roll of Civil War repro fabrics and didn't even use those strips.  And I seldom use solids for backgrounds, prefering the marbled/mottled/WOW fabrics for texture.  But when she posted a picture of those oh-so-cute bow tie blocks with the solid cheddar background, my heart melted.  I wanted it!

So I dug out my box of Civil War repro and those two strips of cheddar solid and started to work this morning early.  I had enough cheddar to cut out 24 blocks (I'm making mine 4" square rather than her 3", but they're still petite and cute.)  And now I'm in love.

Here is the progress so far:

I found more of the fabric online at Hancock's of Paducah and ordered 5 yards.  The only thing is, do you know how many of these bow tie blocks it will take to make a huge quilt like we like them, without borders (like her antique inspiration)?  529.  Ouch.  24 down, 505 to go.