Needlework Tuesday - Winners and Cutting Time

Welcome to my regular weekly Needlework Tuesday post where I share whatever I have been stitching during the past week.  I find this a great source of encouragement as I always want to have some sort of progress to share with you.  Feel free to grab the cute little mouse and add him to your needlework post, then leave a comment with a link.  I'll be sure to drop by and visit.

 

Last week was the wildly successful "Beat the Winter Blues Blog Hop".  It took some serious dedication to visit every blog, but I did and I left comments at most.  Wow, there sure is some terrific stitching happening out there.  As a result I have already made one block that I found a pattern for (more on that later) and cut most of the fabric for a quilt that I had wanted to do but had forgotten.  When I saw it, I started cutting the next day.  Now on to the winners.  Since I had such a large number of new followers, I added two extra prizes of two fat quarters each. Seventy-six of the hoppers signed up to follow using Google Friends Connect. More of you might have decided to follow by another method.  Thank-you to each and every one of you. I lost track of how many additional blogs I decided to follow as a result of the hop.  Winners were selected by the RaffleCopter program. All winners have been contacted and have replied.

 

Winner of the 4 springy fq's - Marie

 

 Winner of the two butterfly fq's - Richard. Winner of the two green fq's - Joyce

During the hop, almost 200 comments were left after my post and most of them told me of your favourite quilt blocks.    There was so much information that I have compiled it in a second post : "Favourite Quilt Blocks".  For quick reference, the top 5 blocks are: Log Cabin, Stars (no specific pattern), Pinwheel, Paper Piecing and  9 Patch.

 

During the hop I visited designer Debby Kratovil's site.  She was giving away a free pattern to make the quilt block 'Gretchen' in a new and easy method.  I am all for easy methods, so I followed the link to Craftsy and downloaded.  I made the block up right away.  Next time, and they will be next time, I'll use fabrics with more contrast. This single block will be made into a mug mat for a friend who loves sunflowers.

 

My local guild meets at a Mennonite Church.  They don't charge us for use of the hall, though they do ask that in return, we do something for the community.  One project this year, is to make items for the MCC Quilt Auction and Sale in New Hamburg.  A group of industrious women at the guild assembled a bunch of mini kits to make various projects.  I brought home one to make a tote bag.  It used two panels and not much more.  I quilted it by machine. It measured 16 inches square before I decided to box the corners.  I think it looks better this way.

 

Somewhere along the way of the hop, the quilter showed a quilt made from the "Fabric Fusion" pattern in the February 2012 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.  I loved that pattern first time I saw it.  I knew I had to make at least one, but with all the activity surrounding my dad's illness and subsequent passing at that time, I forgot about it.  After being reminder about it, I found my copy of the magazine and started cutting.  I am not a fan of floral fabrics, but I seemed to have an over abundance of them.  I dug out about 20 fq's and started cutting and cutting.  I had a few projects in mind.  I cut all the pieces for the "Floral Fusion".  i am going to use this green for the sashings, border and binding.

Next I cut for a scrappy block, half of which is made of 2 1/2 inch squares.  I need 15 florals for each block and there will be 30 blocks. I'm over half way there.  Next I cut 5inch squares. I have about 32 of those with almost as many for a friend who is new to quilting.  There were lots of strip,s at least 2 1/2 inches wide, leftover.  Arg, not more florals, I didn't want to keep them as my goal was to get the florals out of my stash.  I gave them to my mom.  She'll find a project for them as she really likes to work with strips.  Last year I put together an online quilt show of her work. Quilts by Elaine Tucker

As you were hopping along last week, were you inspired to start any new projects?  Tell me about it in the comments.