Paying it forward for 2011 and all-day fun at a sewing marathon.

Who wants to pay it forward this year?   Think about it.  Ipromise to send something handmade to the first 3 people who leave a comment here. To be eligible, you must also post this in your blog, offering the same thing to 3 other people. The rules are that it must be handmade by you and it must be sent to your 3 people in 2011.  If you're game, leave a comment and sometime this year, I will surprise you with something handmade. 

 Sorry about the underlining up there, I can't seem to make it go away.  If you read this post, you might remember that I looked high and low last fall for some Christmas fat quarters that I had cut into rectangles for a garland.  Well, when I was packing stuff up for a sewing day with friends, I found them.  Figures, huh?

And guess what?  I do not feel like sewing anything Christmasy right now.  Hope I can find these next fall.  Actually I have been thinking about designating July as Xmas sewing month.  The point would be to take the pressure off in the fall.  It's something to think about.                                                 

I had a great day yesterday.  I got together with my Wild Thread friends AND some new friends from the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild.  We had a marathon sew-in day at a church near me.  12 hours of fun, food, friends, and fabric.  Yippee!  My friend, Annette, gave us a spontaneous demo of a quick folded fabric block.  As soon as I get a link from Annette, I will post the youtube video about it.  It was a cool technique and I'd like to try it soon.

We have such a great space to work in at this church.  Tons and tons of natural light, plenty of tables, a kitchen we can use.  I took my computer and speakers so we could have music. 

We also played a fun dice game called  Left, Right, Center.  Each of us brought 3 FQ's to play with and one person went home with ALL of them.  Here is Linda raking in the FQ's. 

And wouldn't you know, Linda owns a quilt shop!!  But the funniest thing is that she had forgotten to bring her fabric and projects.  So she got to work on something after all, lol.

We immediately had our Mug Rug swap so the losers in the dice game could soothe our hurt feeling.  We each brought a mug rug in a paper bag and took turns choosing a bag.  It was fun to see what everyone had made. Heather got to choose between two.  The idea is that one was for lefties and one for righties.  She chose the flower.                                                          

Jen lucked out with a cute birdhouse with a couple little birdies.  You know I felt a little envy over the birdies.                                                                     

Nichelle got some cool flying geese made by my friend Annette.

Oh that lucky Pat!!  Look at the cool fabrics in hers.  

Rebecca's rug was rockin some selvages!

And here we are,  all showing off our new treasures.  We were very amused that so many of us were color coordinated with our rugs, lol.                                     

So what did I get done when I wasn't eating or playing?  Well, I finally got this quilt quilted.  I gave it away as a Christmas gift when it wasn't finished.  I've become so desperate to get it off my plate that I did what I call  'cop-out quilting'.  PLEASE   don't judge me!  I had planned to quilt feathered circles in each of the big squares but I began to think I would never  finish.  So, instead, I just did some (ok, minimal) straight line quilting in the center then I meandered in the border.  As I type, all that I need to do is hand sew the binding.  It's for my brother's new girlfriend who is VERY nice.  We really like her and she really fit right in with this nutty family.  Most important is that she makes him happy.  Yay!

After I did that quilting,  I put some borders on this quilt.  Since I'm on a fabric diet, I had to rummage around the stash for fabrics to match.  I had several possibilities but no combos  that we all got excited about.  Then my friend, Janet, (my awesome friend Janet)  pulled out the solid lime green batik that you see for the inner border.  Yes!!  We have a winner.  Thank you Janet, thank you, thank you!

I know just what baby is going to get this quilt and luckily I have plenty of time to find the right backing and finish up.  Hopefully I won't be driven to any more  'cop-out quilting'  this year.

So a very fun and productive day.  We even had some late evening dancing and throwing of scraps into the air like confetti.  Kathy brought a bag of scraps to give away and we had some fun with them.  I worked a little on my scrappy blocks.  I now have a plan for them.  I need to do a little fabric shopping in my stash and then hopefully I'll have something to show.    Now don't forget to comment if you want to play along with the 'handmade pay it forward'.  G'nite all!