Raspberry Desserts and Giveaways!

Well, here it is, the reveal date for the second Quiltmaker Scrap Squad project. I'm glad I was picked to be on this team, it's been lots of fun so far. For the last two months, we've been working on a pattern by Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts. This one is called Raspberry Desserts (she did it in pinks and creams) but if you'll click around the other scrap squad blogs, you can see that it looks great both color controlled and scrappy! She also has some wonderful patterns on her site that look great in scrappy, look around while you're there.

I decided to do mine with a dark background, rows of blocks with jewel tone colors bordering scrappy insides. Then I used the same fabrics in the scrappy braided border:

Mine's not quilted yet - and before I send it off to my longarmer, I may add another braided border all the way around. I used my Accuquilt GO! to cut the chisel shapes that became the braid, and it was SO easy to cut the right and left shapes. And addictive, almost hypnotic, to keep sewing the braid, chaining them through the machine.

I also changed the setting of the Julie's blocks - instead of putting them on point with setting triangles, I set them square. I think it would have been neat to do them with smaller strips too, really scrappy against white, maybe I'll try that someday.

Now for the Giveaways!

Julie has given the eight of us on the scrap squad each a pattern to give away FREE. So comment on my blog between now and April 4 (that gives you a week to comment) then I'll use a random number generator to pick one of you to receive the pattern. Make sure your response is set so I can reply to your comment if you win! Then go hop around the scrap squad blogs and comment on theirs too (links on my sidebar) for MORE chances to win a free pattern.

AND it doesn't stop there!

Quilty Pleasures blog, over at quiltmaker.com, is having a fabric giveaway. Yup, FABRIC! Run over there and follow the instructions to be entered for that too!

Feeding the Stash

First, a stashbuster report:

I haven't bought any fat quarters in over two years. What I HAVE been buying is yardage, and for the B's: borders, backing, background,and binding. Here's my latest acquisitions:


This blue batik with daisies will be for the backing of a king size quilt. There's 12 yards here, and if there's enough left, after I've cut the backing, I plan on making a couple of king size pillowcases to match.


Of course, while I was shopping on eBay for backings, I just had to pick up a few more batiks. These are all three yard pieces, from Phillyfabrics, one of my favorite sellers.

That top one has more lavender in it than you can see from the photo. I plan to use it as lining. The green with lizards and the aqua with leaves are even cuter in person. Most of all, I think I like the sherbet colored one on the bottom - I may have to make another fabric shopping bag with it, so it gets out of the house. :D

Batiks!

I fell off the fabric no-buy bandwagon, and fell hard. But it IS all three yard lengths, which falls under the borders, backings and binding rule, right? *rationalizing* It's mainly FQ's I don't need any more of.

Phillyfabrics, on eBay, sells Timeless Treasure batiks and other fabric for only $3.33 per yard, in three yard increments. She doesn't charge more than she has to for shipping, either. Not sure what I will do with the cat fabric on the bottom right, but fell in love with it. :) I have lots of browns and blues that will go great with it, plus it looks great with the dark brown that's on top of it.


And here's the two I've unfolded, ready to wash (yes, I wash all my fabric before I use it, even the batiks.) First a pink and purple with dragonflies and bugs, which goes great with the pinks above:


And an orange, yellow, and purple with blue curls, which also looks good with the yellow in the first picture:


And here's one of Toby, so you can get a kitty pix-fix in:


When I lay out my blocks to make photo instructions for the guild website block of the month page, I usually tilt the pressing board, putting the end of it up on my sewing machine. That helps me get a picture that's more evenly framed and not bigger at the top than at the bottom due to depth of field. I'd just finished taking pix for the row quilt bom for this month, and Toby insisted he had to sit there. He CAN'T be comfortable, his fuzzy little butt is about 4 inches higher than his head! :D

First 24 Blocks Used

Well, I pulled out twenty-four of the heartstrings blocks my guild made for Feb. block of the month. I was looking for the darker red center strings this time, to go with my darkish red sashings. I saw this layout on someone's blog, (my apologies for not remembering your name to give you credit) and it looked like just what I wanted for using less blocks and making not quite as big of a quilt:


With 1½ inch skinny sashing and 2½ inch borders and thicker sashings, this one measures 47 x 69 ish. It took less than a fat quarter for the cornerstones, and I have a bit left to make a border for a little label with.

It was really fascinating to see the variety of fabrics people used. You could almost tell something about their life and personality by their material choices. There's the people who just couldn't bring themselves to be completely scrappy and carefully picked strips that looked good next to each other, or kept a color scheme within their blocks. There's the Thimbleberries-loving person, whose blocks were full of moose prints, pine trees, burgundies, forest green and brown. The person with several grandbabies, whose blocks have kiddie brights and character prints. The one who uses mostly tiny florals and tone-on-tones.

It makes me wonder what the fabric I used in my blocks tells about me! :D