Glowing Hearts - Winners!

Wow! Seventeen quilts made this year, and what absolute beauties. I am truly grateful that each of you took time out to make this quilt. I love seeing all the various spins you put on it as well. To me, a quilt pattern can be made as is, or can be a jumping-off point for your own personal touch.

I am also truly grateful that once again, I have generous sponsors who offer some pretty sweet prizes. Let's see who won!

I used Random which, I learned, is a true random number generator. Interesting. Also interesting is the fact that out of the 17 entries, the first 'draw' was one of mine, so it was obviously disregarded, and then after that the chips fell where they may, and I am absolutely tickled that two first-timers, both of them also my yoga students, as well as two others who have participated in just two past QALs, both (giggle) Canadians, are the other winners! At first I thought quilt goddesses aligned here! but then as I wrote this post, and emailed the winners, it hit me: I firmly believe my Dad had a hand in the way these winners happened. Like WHAT are the chances that all five were Canadians (even counting the first number drawn - 11 - my Summer Vibes, which incidentally just got bought by yet another yoga student for a great-niece of hers soon to be born). However, I am so thrilled and grateful that four countries: Canada, England, Australia and the US all had representation here.😍

Drum roll please! 🥁🥁🪘🪘

A $50 gift certificate to Mad About Patchwork goes to #4 Elaine! I think Elaine made the very first QAL quilt, Freefall was back in 2017, and I do believe that is the only one, but she can correct me in the comments if I am wrong.

Elaine took my design to a new level! I do think it's appropriate that her name was chosen first (well second after my own, ha) because she is the reason the Glowing Hearts version was born from the original Winter Blues

A 6-month subscription to Make Modern digital magazine goes to #14 Lisa! I'm pretty sure this is the third or maybe the fourth time Lisa has quilted along with me.

Lisa has hers layered and started quilting. I like how she did the same sashing as the border, and that she made wider borders that float the central hearts.

Two PDF quilt patterns of her choice from Devoted Quilter goes to #8 Sue.

This was Sue's first-ever QAL! I just love that this Pride-themed Canada-love quilt is going to hang in her daughter's classroom in Toronto. I like how Sue did the sashing and both borders in the same bright maple leaf red.

A $50 gift certificate from Sew Fresh Quilts goes to #17 Connie. I do believe this is Connie's first QAL as well! At least an online one, of that I am sure.

Connie followed the pattern exactly, but what I like about hers is the sharp contrast between her two backgrounds and borders. It really makes a statement, and provides a rich background for the beautiful rose-pink fabrics.

One more eye-candy/inspiration photo. I just have to show you what Elaine did with the cut-off HST parts for the lower section of the heart. She did it the regular way, with squares and made a rectangle instead of the graduated one in the pattern. However, she was not going to waste those cut-off HSTs! She also had a few extra flag triangles because of working with directional fabric for her background (lots of brainpower in her quilt).

Isn't this trio the absolute best?! She is sewing down the binding on the second runner, and she has four more coaster to finish up. The pillow finishes at 18" and is the regular 12" heart block as per the pattern. You can see another photo on her Flickr; just click her name near the beginning of this post.

The winners have all been emailed, and that's a wrap for another year!  Thank you for following along and/or for quilting along. It truly brings the vastness of our globe into a smaller, kinder, more connected place, doesn't it?

And now I'm having a bite of supper and then in a little while we are off to Windsor for the annual Windsor/Detroit fireworks that celebrate both Canada Day, July 1, and Independence Day, July 4. It's a spectacular, almost half-hour-long show over the Detroit River. Squeal! Yes, it's a week ahead of the two special days, (used to be between the 1 and 4) but they've found there's less, um, carrying on when people have to go to work the next day. They block off a large section in downtown Windsor and there are TONS of people. Windsor has a gorgeous waterfront park system that runs 9.5 km along the river, so a good seat is easy to find!