Giving and receiving

Hello, hello! It's been a while, hasn't it? I had a month-long quilting hiatus as I visited family in California and then caught one of those miserable colds after I returned. October was just kind of a lost month for me, stitching-wise.

But even though I didn't sew during that time, quilty things were still happening. Specifically: fabric. Lots and lots of fabric. And not just any fabric...FREE fabric! While Sean and the boat waited for me in Washington, DC, our snail mail finally caught up to us. And it was chock full of the generosity of other quilters.

I feel so lucky to receive all these goodies, that I'm having a "Thank you very much!" giveaway at the end of this post. (The giveaway is closed now.)

First up is this quilty orphan that I won from Erin of My Patchwork Life. She started a quilt long ago for her son Jason, using all the colors of the belts in karate. I really like the wonky stars! I'm not sure where the "JASON" will end up yet, possibly it will become the basis for an improv deconstruction project. Thanks, Erin! 

Next is this lovely batch of Benartex Free Motion Fantasy fat quarters that I won from Laura at Slice of Pi Quilts during a blog hop. Aren't they pretty? I just love all those bright colors, and the fabric is so soft to the touch. It's always fun to win! Thank you, Laura and Benartex.

This lovely pile of fabric was sent to me by my friend Anne. I helped her set up the new website for Wrap A Smile quilts, and she thanked me with a big, heavy box of goodies. This isn't the entire bunch, either. So many cute animals and bright colors! And plenty of big pieces to use as backings. Thank you so much, Anne!

A very, very heavy box arrived from my friend Rose of Something Rosemade. It contained so much yummy fabric! This pile is all from the Woodland line by Cinderberry Stitches and is very cute. Elves and flowers and tiny toadstools!

But wait, there's more! Rose also included an enormous batch of Blueberry Park, including a layer cake, fat quarters, half yards and a huge chunk of the gray yardage. I had never seen this line in person before, and was surprised to find out that each piece is actually a Kona solid with the pattern printed in white ink. Very interesting! I love the selection of colors, and you know this will end up in many, many kids' charity quilts. Thank you so much, Rose, for this generous gift!

And speaking of Blueberry Park, Kathleen McMusing gave away a batch of her scraps leftover from a fun project, and I was the lucky winner of that, too. Kathleen's scraps are from making the Playtime Plus pattern by Sandra of MMMQuilts, who had a hand in the giveaway below. Thank you, Kathleen! 

I'm so grateful to the generous bloggers who passed along all this fabric. (This giveaway is closed. Thank you to everyone who left a comment!) I'm going to thank them by playing is forward and having a little giveaway of my own. These four quilting books will be sent to one random commenter. They are used copies of:

Bright Quilts From Down Under 

Happy Quilts!

M'Liss Rae Hawley's Scrappy Quilts

Intuitive Color & Design by Jean Wells

Because books are heavy, I'll be sending them via Media Mail, which is slow and limited to addresses in the US. 

But be of good cheer, international friends! For you, I'm giving away one PDF pattern from Joanne's shop. She blogs as The Canuck Quilter and just released her newest pattern, called Fundy Skies. I was a pattern tester for her, and it's a super neat design! You can choose any one of her patterns if you win. Thank you to Sandra for reminding us to be internationally inclusive in our giveaways if we can. (See? I told you Sandra had a hand in all this.)

Please leave me a comment below and let me know if you have a US address to win the books, or a non-US address to win a pattern. (If you have a US address and want a pattern, I encourage you to purchase one!)  If you're a no-reply commenter, be sure to put your email address in your comment so I can reach you. The giveaway will be open until midnight Zulu (that's boating lingo for Greenwich Mean Time) on November 18, 2018. Good luck, and thanks for reading!

Linking up with Can I Get A Whoop Whoop!

Christmas in July in the Big Apple

Hello, hello! Since the flurry of finishes in my last post, I haven't had too much to blog about. We moved the boat all the way from Palm Beach to New York City in one long hop. The seas were very calm and I was able to sew a little bit each day. I also straightened things up in the studio and did some ironing with all the extra power the boat engine puts out while we're moving.

We arrived in New York in time for Independence Day, some nice fireworks, and the announcement of red as the RSC color of the month. Since then, I've been puttering away in the studio, doing little projects. I worked on my red blocks, made a couple secret project blocks, a whole bunch of miscellaneous crumb blocks, and some red, white and blue star blocks for Kat's latest Covered in Love drive. It's all felt rather patriotic.

We also had a major medical crisis with this little nubbin. After months of being away from any kind of veterinary care, she wisely waited until she was in The City That Never Sleeps to get sick. After two nights in an emergency animal hospital, she's recovering slowly from triaditis. Poor Angel, they shaved her belly for an ultrasound and she gets nasty medicines twice a day. But she hasn't used up all nine lives yet!

We are finally in a place where I can receive mail, so I had all our accumulated packages sent at once. I won a gift certificate to Stitch Stash Diva from Sandra's Playtime Plus QAL and bought these nice basics. At the top of the stack are two yards of black with subtle metallic polka dots, very fancy! Thank you so much to SSD and MMM for my PrizePrizePrize!

I also finally got to see my prize for participating in the Hands2Help charity challenge. This is a bundle of 30 super cute fat quarters from Moda. The fabric line is Hometown Christmas. Thank you so much, Sarah and Moda! All of Sarah's sponsors were so generous this year.

Karen of KaHolly sent me some orphan blocks, left behind after one of her friends passed away. They are about a half dozen machine appliqued flowers with beading details. Most of the charities I support ask that our quilts have no beads, buttons or other loose embellishments. So I'll remove the beads on these, clean them up a bit with some thread painting, and find a new home for them. They may end up with Quilts Beyond Borders. Thanks, Karen!

In addition to my freebies, two big boxes of fabric that I bought on eBay also arrived. This batch is all fun food themed pieces, including fruits, tea cups and silverware. Another box contained over 20 yards of bright blenders. After almost five months without fabric shopping, it was great to recharge the ol' stash. And it might be the season to celebrate the 4th of July, but it sure feels like Christmas here when all the boxes arrive!

Speaking of Christmas, Sarah is running her annual 12 Days of Christmas in July blog hop and quilt along. The quilt she designed for the QAL really spoke to me, so I decided to join in. She shows it in several colorways, including classic green and red, patriotic RWB, and frosty winter blues. My pile of red scraps were already sitting out for RSC, so I decided to do an all scrappy version.

The pattern uses the Tri-Recs rulers that I already own. Here are the side triangles cut for the scrappy neutral background.

I decided to make my third color turquoise/teal/aqua. I don't really need another Christmas quilt, and while I really like the patriotic/QOV look of red, white, and blue, something about aqua and red together is just so bright and fresh. This was last month's color for RSC, so all my scraps were already neatly pressed and organized. After a few happy hours of trimming, I'm all ready for the next steps of the QAL.

Postcards From Ikea finish

Ta da! Here is my finished quilt from Sandra's Quilt Along. I feel that I can post it guilt-free now that the QAL is ending. The truth is that I hung it on our bedroom wall on February 22nd. What can I say? I was really motivated to fill that dark wood wall with something bright and cheery.



I'm calling my version of the Postcards from Sweden pattern Postcards From Ikea: enough like Sweden for the average American. The original pattern uses Kona solid fabrics, but I chose similar colors from my stash. Most of them are blenders, so the look is a bit different. I also reduced the size of the blocks so the final quilt would fit the wall space.



The backing is this super fun, big dinosaur print. It was part of a very large and generous batch of fabrics given to me by DH's aunt. It's a bit thicker and stiffer than quilting cotton, so it works well for a wall hanging like this.

PFI is quilted in straight lines using my walking foot. I chose several places to start quilting a small square, then echoed out with a spacing of roughly an inch. When the echoes encountered each other, I veered out toward the edge. The result is nicely geometric, but not terribly rigid. Because the quilting lines cross all those 45 degree triangles, the lack of consistent spacing is lost in all the angles and colors. That's how I like my quilting: lookin' good without workin' hard.



Occasionally, a patch of sun comes in our small portlights and moves across the quilt. The texture is really yummy, even though the piece has not been washed and dried.



The binding is one of the darker colors from the piecing, a deep burgundy that I used as the pattern's color #23, Cerise. Did anyone get to the point where you just knew the colors based on their numbers? "Oh, another #10, my cross hatched peach. 31 is the pink with big polka dots..."



I like this outtake photo that shows our ensign blowing straight out in the wind. You can see why I use the strong clip on the left to hold the quilt onto the chair. Sean just took our long handled net back to the restaurant where we ate last night, to recover his sunglasses that blew off the table into the water. I really don't want to do that with a quilt! The water might be a gorgeous color, but it isn't very clean in the marina.

I really enjoyed making this quilt and love seeing it every day. A big thank you to Sandra for hosting the quilt along! She has forgiven me for turning it into a Quilt Ahead At Breakneck Speed, and I truly appreciate that. I've already started on her next one!

Groovy, Dude

This week I stitched up and finished a fun, easy quarter square triangle quilt I'm calling Groovy, Dude. The fabrics were a fat quarter bundle of batiks in deep, saturated autumnal colors. Even though they are classic batiks made with the wax method, they reminded me of tie dye fabrics from the '70s.

Here's a shot of the flimsy with the light behind it, like stained glass. I love these colors so much! After the fabric arrived, I spent a couple days thinking about what pattern I should use. Several much more elaborate designs swirled around my head, but the rich colors kept whispering, "Simpler, simpler."

Then I visited the historic Unitarian church in Charleston, and this beautiful stained glass window caught my eye. I don't think angels *actually* sang, but it felt a bit like a sign. OK, then, how about hour glass/quarter square triangle blocks?

I put the triangles together randomly and am happy with how the colors play together.

For the quilting, I kept it super duper simple as well. Stitch in the ditch along each seam combined with Quilters Dream wool batting made for poofy yummy goodness. This is the first time I've ever used wool batting and I LOVE it! It's a little fussy at the edges of the quilt sandwich, since the wool tends to get caught in the walking foot feed dogs, but other than that it stitched up so nicely.

The back used up the rest of the batik scraps, plus some linen yardage I had in more groovy colors. Avocado green, anyone? It's a bit hard to tell in these photos, but the binding is a nice tonal purple and the bobbin thread is a variegated red/green/yellow.

This quilt will be donated to Covered in Love. Which is only fair, because the fabrics were donated to Covered in Love! Kat, who coordinates the charity, was very happy to tell me that the organization is growing. I've committed to sewing up a number of quilts for CiL using some of the generously donated fabrics and batting. I'm excited to be able to help Kat out in this way. 

These donated butterflies are calling to be sewn next, I think. That muted blue on the bottom of the stack is gorgeous, and that's a true diagonal stripe in brown. Those are hard to find!

Another one of Kat's sponsors donated this line of coordinating cat fabrics. They are Henry Glass designs and so fun! Those are one third yard cuts plus a big panel. So generous! I'll add some Kona Snow from my stash and start racking my brain for the perfect pattern to use these soon.

Covered in Love has already provided over 220 quilts to grieving families, and it is lucky to have many hands to help keep it going. From a single block for the latest block drive (a fun, fall-themed Scrappy Susannah!) to finished quilts, there are many ways to get involved if you're interested. Learn more about the charity here.

I'm a big believer in doing the type of charity work that calls YOUR name. There are so many ways to give back to a world that needs our love and kindness: volunteer at the animal shelter, cook meals for seniors, lead a Girl Scout troop, pick up trash on the side of the road, plant a tree, knit caps for preemie babies, give blood, listen with compassion to a friend. Each small act adds up, and each act is important, so do what feels right for you. For me, that means making quilts. And for my husband, it means volunteering his time with the American Red Cross. He'll be traveling to the US Virgin Islands this week to work for most of October, helping to feed and shelter those who have suffered losses from the hurricanes. That's a great fit for his skills and interests, because, honestly, his quilting talents are minimal...

Linking up with Sew Some Love.

Happy mail!

I received a very sweet gift in the mail last week from Kat as a thank you. She traveled to New Mexico and was away from her blog and sewing machine this summer and I lent a hand. Aren't these great southwestern souvenirs?

The soap smells heavenly, and the arrowhead fabric coordinates really well with this Laurel Burch horse panel I bought last year. I also had the smaller horse print, which has really subtle touches of blue. The arrowheads bring that blue into focus, and I'm looking forward to using these pieces together soon. Thanks, Kat!

I also received a big batch of fabrics that I had ordered on eBay. All these fat quarters are either architectural motifs like bricks and wood grain, or natural themes like trees, sky and water. I think these come from the estate of a quilter who created landscape quilts. 

I also bought this fun woodsy panel to add to my stash of more masculine themed fabrics. Not that we gals don't love a good moose, too! I like how this print has both realistic animals, and sort of woodcut silhouettes.

I'm writing this post on the train from New York to Charleston, and scheduling it to publish on Sunday so I can link up with Molli Sparkles' Sunday Stash. By the time you read it, I should be home again on the boat and back to my sewing after a week away.

Christmas in July

This is the time of year when quilters start thinking about holiday projects. Lots of folks are posting tutorials and photos of Christmas themed quilts. But that's not what I'm talking about today. No, today I'm sharing the fantastic gift I received in the mail yesterday. Look at that giant, 15 pound box! Even though it has "6 cans rice brown/white" written on it...

It was full of FABRIC! And not just any fabric, FREE fabric! Lovely, high quality, brand name fabric, like Moda, Jinny Beyer, Andover, Timeless Treasures, Rowan/Westminster, RJR, and more. A sweet eBay seller named Lydia sent me a big chunk of her stash after she learned that I sew for Project Linus and other charities. Opening this treasure trove was like Christmas morning!

I pulled out each piece and refolded them, sorting into piles. This stack is all yardage of light colored blenders. At least half of these are two yard pieces. Look at all those soft colors! These will be great for background neutrals.

Here's a stack of stripes, always great for bindings. I love that wild color combo in the middle!

I think this wonky grid in pale green is fun and modern. That mottled green underneath is the softest cotton, ever. Such quality stuff. And I use greens all the time and always need more.

From the big batch of more patterned pieces, here are a few of my favorites. Love the bright saturated hot colors in this big, bold poppy print.

Yellow paisley, purple tendrils, and leafy garden goodness? Yes, please! 

Fat quarters of candy canes, butterflies, monkeys and musical instruments will work so well with my other novelty fabrics. Can you say, "I-Spy?"

And just look at this huge stack of rainbow blenders! Each one is at least a fat quarter, some are half yards. Yum!

Last but not least, this full yard of black with iridescent metallic stars has some serious "Wow!" factor. It shimmers and sparkles. I originally found Lydia's fabric listings because she was selling some of her other metallic fabrics. I bought a bunch from her, and that started our conversation about destashing and charity sewing. I never dreamed that she would end up sending me over 40 yards of free fabric!

I'm so touched and thrilled by Lydia's generosity, and want to pay it forward. If you've read this far, you can win a prize by leaving a comment below. Tell me either your favorite color, or a color that is missing from your stash, and I'll send you a couple fat quarters of that color plus a brand new Hera marker. I'll choose the winner by random drawing a week from today, Thursday, July 20th. And yes, I will ship internationally. Someone sent me ~$400 worth of fabric for free, the least I can do is pop a few FQs in the mail, even to Australia. Good luck!

On a Roll

Yesterday I finished this little toddler quilt for Project Linus. It's made of bigger rectangles of transportation-themed fabrics with smaller orange bars in between. Most of the bus, truck, scooter, and car fabrics came from Sue and were from the same collection of fabrics. However, I guess the same blue, orange, brown and green palette was used over the years by several fabric companies, because I had quite a bit of stuff that matched in my stash. Serendipity!

I actually pieced this quilt back in the summer, and basted the quilt sandwich in the fall. It's been folded up on a shelf since then. In preparation for the inevitable layer of dust that will end up everywhere after the boat painting, I'm trying to get as many WIPs finished and mailed out before they get dirty. Anything I don't finish will end up in big plastic garbage bags for protection.

 

For the backing, I had a single piece of this fun print with bright numbers and letters on an orange background. 

I think Sue's fabrics must have been either an Australian or British line of fabric. This "classified ads" print uses some non-American terms like "tip truck" instead of "dump truck," and the place names are unfamiliar to me. Any guesses on the origin?

My absolute favorite fabric in the whole batch is this fleet of tiny, multi-colored dump trucks. Aren't they adorable!? I used them for the outer border. You can see the bright striped fabric I used for the binding in this photo, too.

For the quilting, I used a medium orange thread and did SITD around the bright blue inner border, straight lines in the outer border, and big stipple in the main section. My stipples/meanders tend to be quite small and time-consuming, so it was good practice to open up the design. It should also make the quilt more floppy and soft for a little one to cuddle. Big stipple actually goes fairly quickly, so I thought to myself, "Woo! I'm on a roll!" and then, "Hey, that's a good name for this quilt!" On a Roll is is, then.

It's a special part of the process to sew in one of the nice labels that Project Linus provides. On a Roll will be winging its way to my California chapter early next week.