Giveaway Day!

This giveaway is now closed. See winner details here!

Lucky us! It's Giveaway Day at Sew, Mama, Sew!

I'm really glad you joined me here at A Quilter's Table! This is my first time participating in Giveaway Day, and I confess, it is pretty exciting! I am a long-time quilter, but this year, joining the online quilting community has expanded my quilting horizons by leaps and bounds!

For Giveaway Day, I made a Christmas mini quilt that could be used as a table topper or wall hanging.

Using my mini-x tutorial {here}, it measures 16" square, and is quilted with some organic swirly line stitching.

The backing is a festive reindeer print, and the mini is finished off with a hand-stitched binding

(Note that no fabric has been prewashed in the making of this project.)

Giveaway Day is actually Giveaway Week, lasting from today, December 12, through Friday, December 16 at 5PM PST! To enter, leave a comment on this post, and include the answer to this question: "What is your most unusual holiday tradition?"

I will choose a random winner within 48 hours of the close of the giveaway, and am happy to ship internationally. Please make sure I have an email for you, either from your blog profile, or included in your comment. If not, I will choose a new winner.

After you comment here, do go join in the fun and visit more giveaway posts linked at Sew, Mama, Sew!

Random

Well, you've seen them throughout the last few weeks, but here's a final glance at my blocks for the 4x5 modern Quilt Bee, Quarter 4, Hive 1.

It's really fun to make these blocks in each bee member's chosen palette. They went in the mail Saturday - and the crazy thing is where they all are headed: the closest is just a hop, skip, and jump to L.A., next Delaware, Alberta, Australia(!), AND MOROCCO! It's just amazing to me that quilters from all over the world can connect and help each other make some beautiful quilts. Cool.

And I have received one Q4 block already - from Wendy in Australia!

And more excitement in the A Quilter's Table flickr group - a mini by Katie of Unconventional Katie! Isn't it cute? And I'm hearing rumors of more Mini X quilts . . .

Mini X's

Another thing - I'm curious if any of you have signed The Process Pledge.

"The goal of the process pledge is to create a new sensibility in quilting blogs where we don’t just show finishes or occasionally confess about our moments of indecision, but chat openly and often about our works in progress, our inspirations, and our moments of decision."

Rossie of rossie blog, posted her pledge May 14, 2010, and I am #768 to sign it. Like there are alot of quilters out there who have made this commitment in the last 18 months! I feel like I have been living out this pledge, but let's just say I'm glad to have finally read Rossie's post and actually signed the pledge.

Lastly, I just read a post on asterisk blocks by Kate of needle and spatula, which I found very interesting. {here} If any of you have tried this block, I'd love to hear from you - it's definitely on my list for 2012!

Very Cool!

Very cool indeed! When I saw this in my Quilting with A Quilter's Table group on flickr last night, my mouth dropped open! I guess I was shocked at the discovery of something in my group besides my original mini 'x'! Isn't it the cutest?!

1. Mini 'X' Quilt

It was made by P. of The Way I Sew It, and I'm as pleased as can be that she made such a beauty using my tutorial! {see here}

And thanks, Susan, for bringing to my attention that there is a big bloggy giveaway event beginning December 12, sponsored by Sew, Mama, Sew!  There are six different categories, with both handmade items and supplies, and it sounds pretty cool. See all the details here.

Lastly, I noticed a new swap starting on flickr, if anyone is interested, swapping Japanese x and + blocks, such as this one I made:

Anyway, just fyi - the group is here. 

Enough coolness for one post, eh?

W.i.P. Wednesday

 W.i.P. Wednesday is here again and it's been a really fun week of quilting!

Completed projects

Ruby 'X' -  I entered this quilt in the mini quilt challenge hosted by amy lou who sews last Friday. See my original post {here} and a tutorial for the Mini 'X' Quilt Top {here}. (Confession time: It was pretty darn exciting posting my first tutorial!)

Ongoing projects
Scrappy Autumn Lap quilt - This baby is all quilted up (some organic straight-line way too close together!) and all it needs is its binding. Loving the palette of this one.

4x5 Quilt Bee blocks - Penny from sewtakeahike created a fun block called "Missing Your Kiss", and I'm using it for my 4th quarter bee block. It's really fun to put together. One down, four to go.

Wrenly HST quilt - no progress here . . . honest, I'll (try to) quilt this up next.

Flannel Christmas star quilt - I finally found the pattern I want to use . . . Snow-Kissed Star by Konda Luckau of Moose on the Porch Quilts. I have some fun Riley Blake Christmas fat-quarters that will make a great cuddly quilt for my granddaughter.

Upcoming projects  
* Hometown "Wild Thing" 

* Pattern for Mango
* Quilts for siblings #2 and #3

Be sure and check in at Freshly Pieced! 

Mini 'X' Quilt Top Tutorial

Here is my completed mini 'x' quilt, first posted here.

Considering I had difficulty finding a pattern for my mini 'x' quilt, I thought I'd share my process.

Supplies needed:
          block fabric - 12 charm squares (each 5" square)
          contrasting backing fabric - 1/4 yard
          border fabric - 1/8 yard

1. Place your charm squares in two stacks, each with six squares, and cut two 5 X 2" strips from each stack. Put one set of each stack aside for now.

2. Cut two strips of background fabric 2" wide by WOF.

3. String-piece ONE strip from each charm onto the background strips. (This is hard to see in this photo with the color of my charms and background. I had just finished stitching the blue piece onto the white background strip, and was beginning the gray.) 

4. Cut apart and press. Then cut two 2 X 3 1/2" pieces from each pieced strip. Discard the two little pieces to the left.

5. Lay out your pieces, including the charm strips you set aside in step 1, allowing for the gaps that need to be filled in.

6. Now, cut 27 2" squares of your background fabric and fill in the 'holes', plus add a background square to the end of each row that ends in a print. Note: not shown in the picture below - a square also needs to be added at each end (upper right and lower left corners). The photo in step 7 shows these squares added.

7. Now - stitch it all together, first in diagonal rows, then matching rows together as you stitch. As you stitch the rows together, it'll help if you press each seam before you add more rows.

8. Trim your pointey edges on all four sides, and add a border. For mine, I cut two strips 1 3/4" wide by WOF.

There! Now you have a 16 X 20" mini quilt top ready to be quilted and bound!

If you do make a quilt using this tutorial, I'd love to have you post a picture in my flickr group, Quilting with A Quilter's Table! 


Linking up to Crafti-licious!