Plus Playtime QAL Parade of Finishes and Giveaway

It's here! It's HERE! How did it come up so fast? Seems to be a theme in my life of late. Nonetheless, I've been getting more and more excited as I see all the finished flimsies and quilts in QBL, from blogs to Instagram to Flickr.

Before we go any further, I'd like to thank my sponsors once more:

Plus Playtime Winner

The random number generator picked #5 out of the eleven linkups which is Louise of My Quilt Odyssey who made this beauty:

Isn't it just so vibrant? Five Alarm Chili is what she's called it. Congrats Louise; I can't wait to see what you buy, and I hope some will be for yourself! Louise gives the bulk of her quilting away to charitable causes.

Plus Playtime QAL Flimsy Parade & Giveaway

Here we go! Lots of you got your row 3, ha, maybe even your rows 2 AND 3, all done right away, so feel free to link up an older post, no need to write up a new one. Instagram and Flickr posts work too; just use the URL in the toolbar in the linkup widget.

This week for a finished top (save the finished quilt for the grand prize drawing) I am giving away the second $25 gift certificate to Stitch Stash Diva, done once again by random draw. I'm so pleased with the variety and number of participants in the QAL! If you don't have a blog or your Instagram is private, email me a photo and I'll link it for you using my own Instagram account. It's wonderful to see all the quilts out there!

A Bit of Everything

I was dark almost all weekend, meaning I stayed off-line. Didn't read blogs, didn't post on Instagram, except for my yoga challenge and one quilt photo, didn't even look at gmail. So my apologies if you're wondering why I haven't read your TBT post or responded to a comment. However, I was pretty productive, despite not sewing at all on Saturday because of IRL commitments.

The first item on the catch-up list is the Fireburst mystery that Tish of Tish N Wonderland is hosting. This is my fabric pull...

Plus Playtime QAL: Row 3 Construction

Well I am finding lots to smile about this past week, amid the tears that come upon me when not always expected. I am so very grateful to those of you who have written to me to tell me how much you like my quilt! I am so touched by the time dear friends have taken to write to me personally, sharing their thoughts, and told me sweet things about my blog...your words have meant so much to me, have raised my spirits, and I thank you so very very much. Yoga teaches ahimsa: do no harm. I also like to add: do good works. And so please know that I will be paying these small yet priceless kindnesses forward.

Plus Playtime QAL: Row 2 Construction

I'm wondering how many of you are already done part, or all, of row 2?! This second quilt I am making as part of the QAL was started as a leader/ender, and it wasn't long before it sort of took centre stage and I had several blocks together! The main page with links to all the steps is here.

Plus Playtime QAL: Row 1 Construction

My apologies for being late with this post. You can find the ezine issue with this pattern by going to Sew in Love With Fabric where you will find the newest issue, and can scroll back to January for the one that my quilt is in.

This week we are making the three blocks for row one. Follow the diagrams in the pattern in the ezine to make Block 1. Remember that you construct the blocks in columns. Below you see segments two and three using this method:

Plus Playtime QAL: Cutting Tips

I've seen a fair amount of fabric flying around on blogs and on Instagram posts, and one or two finished tops already! I think this is wonderful, so that others see what some quilters have done, and it can help with decision-making, or perhaps convince others sitting on the fence to jump in with the rest of us.

So last week we saw the dive-right-in-dolphin Louise's flimsy, and this week here is eager Canadian beaver Anja's of Anja Quilts:

I just love the two greens she used in her background, genius!

Alright, cutting. By now you have looked through the pattern and seen that the construction of this quilt is a bit different: the quilt is one giant 9-patch (not so different at all), but the blocks are constructed in columns (ahhh, different). You cut various sizes of rectangles and squares.

Major tip #1: background and large plus

• the background requires 8 strips @ 3.5" wide
• the large plus in the background, aka the shadow plus, requires 9 strips @ 3.5" wide

Major tip #2 - background:

• two strips will give you enough for your 3.5" squares for the background and two more for the 3.5X6.5" rectangles will give you 12; cut the 13th from the leftover strip from 3.5" squares
• three strips will yield the correct number of 3.5X9.5" rectangles
• one strips will yield the two 3.5X12.5" rectangles

Major tip #3 - large shadow plus:

• two strips will give you enough for your 3.5" squares
• four strips will give you your 3.5X6.5" rectangles
• three strips will give you twelve 3.5X9.5" rectangles; cut the 13th from the leftover strip from the 3.5X6.5" rectangles 

For organizing purposes, you can just stack or you could use baggies to keep the pieces together. Easy!

Small plus blocks:

• There are 28 in total.
• 25 are full pluses, meaning one 3.5X9.5" rectangle and two 3.5" squares.
•  Three are partial pluses, meaning one 3.5X9.5" rectangle and one 3.5" square.
• You will find these partial pluses at the end of rows 1 and 3, and at the beginning of row 2. See below.

Here is my adult Plus Playtime quilt at the 9-block stage on the design wall. 

I'm allowing two weeks to cut out all your pieces. It seems like a hefty chunk of time, but Mother's Day happens on May 13 in the US and Canada...I think it was a month or two ago in the UK, no? Yes, a quick Google and it was March 11, the fourth Sunday in Lent. And looks like you Aussies and Kiwis celebrate it the same as us, on the second Sunday in May! I love learning all this stuff, and feeling connected.😍🌏🌎🌍😍 

Anyhow, May is a busy month everywhere: here in Canada we have the May long weekend, celebrating Victoria Day on May 21. It was a Bank Holiday in England and Ireland, Scotland too, I presume, on May 7, and Labour Day in Australia, and it's Memorial Day the last weekend in May in the US, so a busy month everywhere. Let me know, Jean, if there is a Bank Holiday in NZ in May; couldn't see any public holiday in May according to Google.

No linkup today, but please remember to tag me on Instagram @mmmquilts and also hashtag is #plusplaytimeqal if you feel like showing an and all progress!

Any questions, please either ask in the comments, or shoot me an email: ephdra (at) gmail (dot) com

If you haven't checked out the new bloggers for week 3 go here where you will find links to Linda in my hive who is posting, as well as the other co-hosts' blogs, and of course be sure to enter the giveaway on the Rafflecopter!

Plus Playtime QAL Fabric Requirements and Tips

Here we go with the first post about the actual quilt for the Plus Playtime Quilt Along! You may want to hop over to the sponsors post, as three more have been added, two PDF patterns from Cindy at Stitchin' At Home, a 6-month subscription to Make Modern, and a beautiful handmade wooden bowl and frog pencil/tools holder by Jean's husband. Jean's blog is All Points of the Compass. I do hope you will take a little time to check all three out!

Now, let's talk fabric. This post will give some tips and advice when choosing your fabrics. If you didn't already know, you will find three kits available for the small pluses, one from Mad About Patchwork and two options from Clinton Modern Creative.

You will find the fabric requirements in the ezine on the Benartex blog, Sew in Love With Fabric. Note that there are 28 plus blocks, three of which are partial blocks. Here are a few things to consider:

• You can choose to go scrappy and use 28 fabrics from your stash for the plus blocks.
• Perhaps you choose to repeat some. Fourteen fat eighths will allow two pluses out of each fabric.
• You may like to consider cutting a plus or two from your binding fabric; the yardage allows for that.
• The large shadow plus requires one yard; you may choose to cut a small plus or a partial one, as I did, out of this fabric as well. If you do this, note that this plus block would have to float on the background, not the shadow plus.
• If your mind works like mine, several of you will notice on the quilt layout that there are places in the background (the yellow in the ezine) where you could use one 9.5" square instead of three 3.5X9.5" strips. Feel free to make that call, and alter the cutting directions accordingly. Your piecing for those blocks will differ from the column construction method that is given, however.

I may be getting a little ahead of the game plan for this week, cutting being next week, but once you've cut all the pieces, this quilt is best organized by laying it out in its entirety on a design wall before starting to sew. Both times I've made it, I've been too excited to see what a couple of blocks look like, and I've started the piecing. Then, when I do lay out the rest of the quilt, in both cases, I have gone back and ripped and switched placement of a few plus blocks. So, resist the temptation! 

The more adult version of the quilt, in progress on the design wall

Make sure there is good contrast between your background and large plus shadow, and be sure that all your small plus blocks will show up well on both. Sometimes, you may choose to have that little 'aha!' moment for the viewer when a plus block or two almost blend in. You can see the navy does that against the black in the top right corner block of mine. It's not as dark as in the photo though.

One eager beaver, or maybe I should say, dive-right-in dolphin, on a boat in the Turks and Caicos as I type, has completed her hot, hot, spicy top, so I have another example to show you. (Tish posted her EQ drawing of what she's thinking, for yet another example, think sexy and classy together.) I first referred to the one in the photo below as Red Hot Chili Peppers...

Just look at that pristine water; makes the red even more vibrant!

Right now Louise, of Quilt Odyssey, to whom it belongs, is calling it 'Five Alarm Chili' quilt. Love that! When I asked if I could use her photo, she sent me five more! Five... two with feet!

So much to love about this photo.

Isn't that name and the fabric, just SO à propos for having been pieced in the Caribbean? (I feel like I need to add a 'mon' after that.) Thank you Louise! Incidentally, if you're looking for a fabulous book, actually two, to read about a basically year-long sailing voyage a couple took to the Caribbean islands, and which I think Louise and Sean are pretty much living, you must read An Embarrassment of Mangoes by Ann Vanderhoof (that's the first one). My sister Linda recommended it to me, and it is such an excellent read. Louise made a red cross in honour of the Red Cross, which is the original name of my quilt which I designed in last year's 30 Quilt Designs Challenge...

When I designed it, I was just so impressed by the efforts of the Red Cross, how they just go in and help, unconditionally, and without a hidden agenda. Louise and her husband volunteered with the American Red Cross, so this is her nod to that...or perhaps something else as well, but you'll just have to head over to her blog to find out what! Isn't it marvellous that she didn't know the symbolism behind my design when she made her quilt! Ah, synchronicity, I know and love and appreciate you well.

Let's show off our fabric selection in the linky below! Instagram, Flickr, blog post, all acceptable. This is a good time to visit each other, and if you have questions, ask! It's usually 'protocol' to visit the link before and after your own; this helps keep Quilting BlogLand as rosy a place as always.😍💕

An InLinkz Link-up

Plus Playtime QAL Introductory Post and List of Sponsors

Woo hoo! It is here! As I said when I was emailing my lovely generous sponsors, it feels weird to write 'second annual QAL' when Freefall, the first one, doesn't seem to have happened that long ago!

Once more here is the quilt in its original fabrics as featured in Benartex's Modern By The Yard ezine! That link will take you to their blog where you can download your copy of the ezine which contains my pattern.

There's just something about seeing your own quilt professionally photographed...

And a straight-on shot on our fence:

Here is the schedule, which you can also find on the main landing page I've created. That main landing page has the links to all of the following steps to the QAL:

April 11: QAL Announcement Post
April 24: Introductory Post and List of Sponsors - you are here!
May 1: Step 1 - Fabric Requirements and Tips
May 8: Step 2 - Cutting
May 22: Step 3 - Row 1 Construction
May 29: Step 4 - Row 2 Construction
June 5: Step 5 - Row 3 Construction
July 5: Finished Quilt Parade Linky opens

If you are quilting along, please grab my button on my sidebar, which is coded thanks to my darling friend Tish. Shout-out to her if you aren't aware, because she is gearing up for her first Mystery Quilt! A long-time tester for Cheryl's mysteries at Meadow Mist Designs, she is now branching out to do her own. I've had a sneak peek, and I cannot WAIT to start this one, as it's a real beauty. Head to her blog (after you're done here of course) for details. Don't worry, you can handle this QAL and her mystery; mine is super-easy and hers is super-spread-out, what a combo. 😀 Like the two of us!

A note about the date of this post. I had it about half done when I ran out of steam last night. Started getting the coffee ready for the morning, and putting my yoga gear all together for the early morning class I attend in Windsor...bam! It hit me: today is April 24. This post was supposed to be published April 24.  Today (like last night) is/was Tuesday, April 24!! NOOOO.... One of the joys and oft-times annoyances of being retired and only working part-time, is that sometimes I get dates messed up. Days of the week? No. Easy, because of teaching yoga four times a week. Dates? Uh yeah, they go by too quickly, something my dad always used to comment about. 😔 So you aren't wrong when you read this and notice that, wait, the date is April 25; she said it's going to be posted the 24th... It's just my brain that short-circuited again...

Okay sponsors.

I am so very very grateful to my generous sponsors for this second annual QAL. I do hope you will check them out, and patronize their businesses when making either a pattern or fabric purchase for your next quilt. Two years ago there was a 'May is for Makers', where you do purchase something from a small business that you wish to support during the month of May. I wonder (hope) it happens again this year. There is such generosity in QBL, so once in awhile it is a good thing to show some of your faves a little $$ love to help them keep going. 😊

1. Benartex has a bundle of fat quarters of 'Wonderlust' by Paula Nadelstern going to one lucky winner who lives in the USA.

Wonderlust is what I am using for my adult rendition of Plus Playtime. Once again, here are the fabrics I am using:

Stitch Stash Diva

Stitch Stash Diva has been on Etsy since 2011. Tayva started the business as a way to gather all her 'fun and and bright fabrics in one location'. It is now a work-from-home business for both she and her husband, Joe! SSD is offering a $100 grand prize and two $25 part-way-through check-in points prizes!
You may recall that Tayva sponsored Helen's and my Postcard from Sweden QAL which ended last week. She found me, after a serious uptick in purchases for Postcard from Sweden kits, and I am so happy we have connected, so I hope you hop over and check out her store...there are some great deals with her moving shop, just sayin'...

Mad About Patchwork

Mad About Patchwork is located in Stittsville, Ontario. They are a bricks and mortar shop as well as as online shop. They also found me through the Postcard from Sweden QAL and I'm so happy they are back to sponsor this QAL of mine! They are offering a $50 grand prize for finished quilts. Great minds think alike: they, like SSD, suggested making up a kit!

You can find this colourful rainbow here.  Note that you will provide your own background fabrics (the large plus and the background).

Clinton Modern Creative 

Clinton Modern Creative, based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, has been an online store for about 9 months now. When Darla opened her store she felt there was "a need in the Canadian marketplace for more modern fabrics, patterns and supplies" and boy, has she delivered! She is curating two kits for this quilt! And here they are:

You can find this gorgeous bundle of 'Architectures' and 'Gleaned' here.

If you prefer this bright bundle of Alison Glass, check it out here!

Please note that I am not affiliated with any of these three quilt shops, just happy that they want to kit up a quilt that I designed. 😃

And this just in!! I don't know if you've been hopping along with The Great Canadian Shop Hop on Instagram, hosted by @handmade_habit, but wow, has it been both inspiring and eye-opening as to the wealth of shops we have here, both bricks and mortar and online. On their feature day, each shop has a percentage off coupon and many are hosting giveaways too. The two Canadian shops that have made kits for my QAL😍😍 have 10% off coupons which you can use when you order your kit! I'm not affiliated with either of them, just passing along savings to you, my readers, when I can!

**Clinton Modern Creative has 10% off your order from today through the end of Saturday with the code SHOPHOP. They are the shop with two kits to choose from.

**Mad About Patchwork is also offering 10% off orders from now until April 30 with the code GCHS10.


Canuck Quilter Designs

Joanne has been quilting since 2000, blogging since 2010 and designing most of that time!

Here are just two of her many wonderful designs. She is Canadian, but lives in Iowa and was in the direct path of the total eclipse last year. She created that incredible design to commemorate it. Starfall is her newest, just-released pattern. And, she may have a sale on it right now, just letting you know!
She is offering two PDF patterns of the winner's choice as a prize.

Cooking Up Quilts

Beth has been quilting for 15 years. She lives in West Virginia, where she is currently working, a lot more hours than she bargained for, at a quilt shop! She's been designing quilts since 2015 after pattern-testing for Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs. She started blogging in 2014, and is currently one of four hosts for the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop. She is offering one winner their choice of two PDF patterns.

Devoted Quilter

Leanne has been quilting for 21 years; a wedding gift for a friend was her first quilt, hand appliquéd and hand-quilted!!  She started designing in 2014, and had her first design published in Make Modern in 2015! She once said to me that she had NO idea she'd be designing and publishing her own patterns, and be published in several magazines, when she first started quilting all those years ago! She lives in Newfoundland. She is offering the winner's choice of two PDF pattern downloads.

Meadow Mist Designs

Cheryl is offering two prizes: two PDF pattern downloads to each winner! Cheryl's day job is 'an engineer and patent agent for a private textile and chemical company.' She lives in South Carolina, and started blogging in 2013, not long after she'd started quilting! Like me, there are no quilters in her family. She is probably best known for her wonderful mystery quilts, and most recently published her first book, Modern Plus Sign Quilts, with Paige of Quilted Blooms. You may notice Cheryl is and has been an inspiration and mentor to several of my sponsors here, including me. 😇

Quilting Jetgirl

Yvonne is offering one winner a choice of two PDF pattern downloads! Yvonne lives in California, and her pre-quilting career was as an aerospace engineer. She has quilters in her family, and recently wrote about enjoying time spent back at her parents' house, sleeping under one of her grandma's quilts! My own grandma made exactly one quilt, red and black wool squares, tied, very heavy, always on the couch. Yvonne has been quilting since her teens, blogging, hmm, consistently, since 2014, but posts go a ways back before then (1996!!). She is known for her transparency quilt designs, and she is the Aurifil designer of the month for April! Another really interesting post for you to check out once you're done here.

Sew Fresh Quilts

When I asked Lorna if she would consider sponsoring my QAL, she immediately replied with a resounding, yes! and then she asked to feature me on her Let's Bee Social Linky party! Wow! I'd like to think it was little ol' me posting about the Plus Playtime QAL, that started the uptick in downloads of the ezine off the Sew In Love With Fabric blog, and I'm sure I did a little bit, but they informed me that all last week they noticed a pretty decent increase in downloads! So thank you Lorna. 🙏 Lorna started blogging in 2012, shortly after she started quilting! She lives in Ontario, and is known for her adorable animal quilts, and fun QALs.  She is offering one winner a choice of two PDF pattern downloads!

Tish N Wonderland

Huh? You may be thinking; that's not Tish's logo! Well, it's a hint for you. You may know that both Tish and her husband, Dave, quilt. They live in West Virginia. Both work full-time jobs, but quilt all they can in their spare time, and both attend their local guild, though David not as regularly due to job and time constraints. Tish has been quilting for 13 years, and blogging since 2015. She taught David to quilt a couple of years ago! David is the main designer, Tish the EQ implementer and pattern-writer. Both come from quilting families, and both are being featured separately, Tish next week, on Melva Loves Scraps 'Quilters Through the Generations'. Tish has already drawn Plus Playtime in EQ to play with her colour choices, and has graciously given me a copy to share with you for colouring purposes. You can download it here in my Craftsy store. (That's an affiliate link, but the page and all but one of my patterns there are free.) In case you haven't noticed, Tish and I are pretty close, having met in the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop in 2015, and we've gotten together a few times (never enough!) IRL. We both are cohosts of this year's hop.

moi aka mmm! quilts
I've been quilting since 1995, and blogging since 2013, when I quit my teaching job, and made a major move across Canada. I wanted to keep in touch with my friends and family who lived far away, as well as document my quilts, and occasionally muse, as in share some thoughts of life after 50. I started designing seriously a few years ago with Pocketful of Sunshine, free on Craftsy (see sidebar), which has been unbelievably popular and was featured once on Craftsy's free pattern Friday. I have run a #30quiltdesignschallenge on Instagram for two years now, which has really helped spark the designer in me. I'm offering two winners a copy of Blue Skies & Sunny Days, my one and only 'for $$' pattern, but I hope to have at least one or two more (they just need EQ diagrams!!) uploaded by this summer, so I'll up it to two PDF copies of the winner's choice.

I have two more sponsors just in!

Stitchin At Home

Cindy and I met in the NQBBH 2015. We live relatively close by North American standards: I am at the south end of Lake Erie and she's two hours northeast of me not far from its shore! She has been quilting for 25 years, and blogging since 2014. She started designing her own quilts in 2014 and has designed three BOMs for her guild. Last year she did a BOM on her blog; the patterns for all the blocks are still there.  As well as two new patterns releasing in May, she has a couple of upcoming publications in magazines! She is offering one winner a choice of two PDF patterns from her Craftsy shop.


All Points of the Compass
Jean writes a wonderful blog. She lives in New Zealand, and took part in last year's Freefall QAL. This year she wants to sponsor my QAL! Hugh makes beautiful wooden bowls, and she is offering one of them as a prize, along with this adorable frog to hold pencils and markers, to anyone quilting along in New Zealand!

Jean started blogging in 2011, when she started"Bags for Japan from New Zealand" by asking for bags to be sewn to be sent to the earthquake region in Japan. Her 'man' Hugh has made wooden items for years, she says. Her blog name comes from a dear friend who was in HMS in WWII.

Make Modern

The ladies at this great ezine said it so well, so here is a little bit about them right off their website:
"Make Modern started in 2014 as a collaboration of three Aussie quilters who built a close friendship through the online quilting community. Our magazine is written by a small team of passionate modern quilters in Australia with a huge team of amazing quilters from all over the globe who contribute patterns and articles."

Issues come out bi-monthly and contain articles and modern quilt patterns. You can purchase a subscription or a single copy here. There's a brand new issue coming out May 4! Make Modern is offering a 6-month subscription to one lucky winner.

Okay that's finally it! Thank you for reading through all that, but I wanted to give a little background and shout-out to each very much appreciated sponsor. 😍😘😘 I will be back on Tuesday, May 1, (promise!) with fabric requirements and some tips which you won't find in the ezine, so hope to see you next week! Watch this space for kit updates too.

Linking this up
Sew Fresh Quilts
Quilt Fabrication

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