Letting an old project go

(This is a giveaway post!)

Hi everyone! How was your week?  It has been a busy, busy time around here! There are big changes coming at the AQ household, none of which I'm prepared to share with the interwebs just yet, but all of which mean that there is a great deal to do and not enough hours to do it.

With all of the busy-ness around here this week, along with some of our obligations associated with Easter, I have barely sewn a single stitch. And I missed something important, too-- two weeks ago this blog turned five years old! Really, five years. Who knew? Apparently not me, because I just noticed it yesterday.  Later this year I'll have to do something to celebrate, don't you think?

For today, though, remember a few weeks ago I said that I always miss the quilty adoption event that Cynthia hosts twice a year at Quilting is more fun than Housework? Well, I decided not to wait any more and go ahead and give away the project I've been wanting to give away for at least three adoption cycles now.  (You know I'd miss the next one, too, don't you?) Here is the project:

The giveaway includes everything you see here: the book (in like-new condition), the already made 4-patches, the remaining 2-1/2 inch strips (some of which have been cut to make 4-patches), and about 1-1/3 yards of coordinating fabric that I think was supposed to be for an additional border and binding.  I can't remember exactly, but it's fabric from the same line.  That's a big giveaway!

I started to make the cover quilt from this book a couple of years ago, but never went beyond making some of the 4-patches. The quilt is really cute, but I just have no enthusiasm for making it any more.  The fabric here is a line called Victorian Modern by Andover Fabrics and has a 2012 date on the selvage. It's beyond time for this fabric to be used.  The strips do not have pinked edges and I think they were cut by the quilt shop, not by the manufacturer.

The book contains 18 patterns for different precuts, and the quilts finish in a variety of different sizes. I'm not sure that you can read all the pattern titles, but they represent a number of different styles, and the instructions are well written.

This project is getting zero love sitting in my closet, and I'm ready to let it go.  This entire project could be yours!  I really want it to go to someone who will make something with it and not just add it to the stash.  You don't have to make this project, but make something, and send me a picture when you do.  That's all!

I have no other pictures of the project, but here is a happy magnolia blossom!

So, if you would like to have this project and make something from it, and you agree to send me a picture when you do, just leave a comment on this post! I will send you this entire project at no cost (via parcel post because wow! postage has gotten really expensive).  I'm sorry to say that I can only send this in the US because shipping is remarkably expensive. I really am sorry.  Since Sunday is Easter Sunday and I doubt I'll be looking at the Internet at all, I will choose a winner using the random number generator Monday around lunchtime (between noon and 1pm on the East coast).  Please, please be sure that I can contact you!  If I can't get in touch with you, you can't win!

 This giveaway is now closed!  Thanks everyone!

I feel like this post is rambling, but you get the idea!  A blessed Easter to everyone who celebrates, and chag Pesach samech to everyone celebrating Passover this week, too.  And a happy spring weekend to all!

Jack and Jill

Hi everyone! Is it really the end of March? That must have happened when I wasn't looking. To be fair, this has been a hard month and I haven't been looking at a lot of things.  This week I finally wound up a very large, important project that has taken up a great deal of my time the past few months. I spent a day this week at another school out of state and gave *two* high stakes presentations on the same day.  It went well, and I am happy to have that behind me.  Maybe now I can focus on important things, like the best color to use with orange in a quilt.

I was so busy and then mentally used up this week that I didn't think I'd have a finish, but it turns out I have two! Here they are:

These are two baby quilts that I've been calling "Jack and Jill."  They are just about 35-1/2 inches square and are intended as donations to Jack's Basket through Sarah's Hands to Help challenge at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

These two little quilts are adapted from the infamous 'Quick Strippie" pattern at Mary Quilts. (You can find the free pattern HERE.)  I just made the pattern a bit smaller.  Mary is an absolute genius, because I cut these fabrics on Sunday before I got on the road, then stitched up one after I got back on Wednesday and one on Thursday.  I don't think it took even three hours to make up both of these.  Not difficult at all!

Both of these are made from about a half yard of some leftover fabrics.  The pink quilt uses up most of what I had left of some fabric I had originally purchased for a quilt backing.  I used it as a backing, but still had a couple yards left over and it's been here forever.  It's a hard print to use but works great here.

I still think the fabric is really pretty but I'm really happy to see it used up and in a happy little baby quilt.

The blue quilt uses a piece that I bought for a baby quilt, but never used because I made something else instead.  The fabric has all kinds of construction equipment, and the coordinating piece is nuts and bolts. Perfect for a baby boy.

I'm also glad to use up these two pieces!  The only real use for them is a baby quilt, don't you think?

I will quilt these up in a little bit.  Since they're strip quilts, I plan to just do straight line quilting on them.  I'm actually planning to quilt all of the donation quilts at once after I have them all finished.  I have one more to do and then that will be it for this year.

When I went out to take pictures of these little quilts, I found some happy little flowers poking through the dead leaves under the trees:

Those are some purple crocus, and I don't know if you can see these very well, but they are grape hyacinths:

I didn't plant any of these, but they make me happy!

For this weekend I'm planning to rest up and read some quilty blogs and then maybe buy a bunch of fabric.  I have some serious shelf space to fill!  Apparently I've been using fabric and not replacing it with more, so there are some gaps. Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Sharing at Finished or Not Friday, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, TGIFF, and Brag About Your Beauties.

Fall forest

Hi everyone!  How was your week?  Ours was very, very busy.  It was so busy that I was surprised that today is Friday.  If you know where all my time went, let me know, because I definitely need it back!

So this is my big finish for the week:

A "fall forest" table runner!

There is a semi-entertaining story behind this piece.  It was inspired by this post from Amanda at crazy mom quilts. I love the Bright Birch Trees pattern and have been intending to make one for a while.  I had these pieces left over from the bargello table runner I made for my sister-in-law:

These were big pieces!  At first I thought I'd make a pillow out of them, but then I decided to use them in a version of the bright birch trees.

These worked great!  Except for two things: 1) even though they were big pieces, there was only enough for 5 blocks, and 2) there is no pattern so simple that I can't mess it up.  And mess it up I did, friends.  I kept getting the pieces turned around and swapping parts of different blocks.  (This would not have happened if I had used different background colors, like the pattern.) It was a hot mess. At one point I gave up, but I hate to waste fabric, so the next day I picked up the seam ripper and went to town.

Yep, I'm going to have to cut that again!

Eventually I worked it out enough that I could have a long table runner.  The blocks are not trimmed the way they should be, but they were going to be a table runner, so I think that's okay.  I actually didn't measure almost anything and just eyeballed the blocks when I trimmed at the end.  I know this is wrong, but I just couldn't help myself!

Whirr!

At the end, I had one strip left over and I didn't want to let it go to waste, so I made a small block and just attached it like any other block.  I don't think anyone can tell, and I didn't waste that strip!  That always makes me feel like I've won.

Overall, I like how this turned out.  I think it looks like trees with the leaves just turning in the fall.  It was also a good learning experience for me.  Really, there is not a pattern I can't mess up, but I can usually make it turn out okay.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.  Once again, we will be busy as all get out.  Stitch a few seams for me, because I know I won't be able to!

Sharing at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finish it up Friday.