Hands2Help Check In #1: Fern

Once again this year, I committed to making two quilts for H2H at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I'm happy to announce that one is complete and that I've made a third commitment! This completed quilt is on my Q2FAL List. Oh! I actually am ecstatic that I won a prize in Q1! I've been part of the FAL since January 2015, and have never won anything, so when I found out I won a $50 gift certificate to Mad About Patchwork, I might've said 'Oh YAY!!' aloud. Too funny: last year this great little shop curated a beautiful kit for the Plus Playtime QAL, as well as offered a prize, both unsolicited, so kind of them, and this year they are once again offering a prize! I love small quilt shops, and try to support them as much as I can. This Wednesday the cutting instructions come out for this year's QAL, Beothuk Star. 😊
Anyhow, back to the subject of the post:

Sorry for not the greatest photo, but it has poured all day.

Q2 FAL List

It feels rather small, or dumb that I am posting this little list today, on another dark day regarding the erosion of freedom of speech, when my heart is so heavy. I love to write. Love it. Always have. I have a deep need to express myself, work out my thoughts, be creative, not just in writing, as you know. Add positivity and beauty to my world. To be restricted in doing this would quite possibly break my spirit. To see and hear this morning that another journalist, Julian Assange, another whistleblower, (I'm thinking of Khashoggi) has been silenced is deeply upsetting (that's putting it mildly). I taught English, along with French, my entire 30-year career, and one of the novels I did with my grade 12s was Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, which he wrote in 1953. He foresaw this control of the masses, by keeping them in the dark, keeping them fearful, filling their heads with meaningless TV and entertainment (he actually wrote about earbuds "seashells" before they were invented, wrote about reality TV, told of the masses being 'plugged in' 24/7!). Books were banned.

So I've cut and sewed my heart out today (hmmm), working on one of the Q2FAL goals, a quilt for a child who's been sexually assaulted. My hope is that a quilt can bring comfort in some way to an innocent victim. Who will speak up for innocents who are abused, beaten, killed (civilians), tortured (prisoners), if we capture, imprison, or worse, murder those brave people who do speak up?

I realize, as so many of us do, that quilts help to heal not only the person I am sewing for, but also my heart, to some degree. I think it is important that I mark this day, and each time when I link back to this post when I finish a project on my list, I will remember.

Beothuk Star QAL Fabric Requirements

Let me just say I am so glad you've joined me! Whether this is the first time or the third time quilting along with one of my designs, I am truly grateful for your presence, for taking the time out of your already-busy quilting life, not to mention personal life, to make something pretty!

This week you will be getting the fabric requirements. There are three ways you can make this quilt, and I guess a fourth: going off entirely in your own direction!

Postcard Cushion

Sneaking in another finish that was on my Q1FAL List. This cushion cover is made from leftover HSTs from my Postcard from Sweden quilt. Cool: that finish post is April 20, almost exactly a year ago! I've had this top pieced for a couple months...

TBT #16 The Farm Quilt

If you are looking for the Throwback Thursday linkup today, it is at my friend Andrée's blog, Quilting & Learning - What a Combo! She is co-hosting TBT this year with me. For all the TBT dates, click the tab at the top of this page, Quilt Alongs & TBT, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click Throwback Thursday. Clicking here will also take you to the schedule. Basically, starting with April, we will be alternating months.

My post today will do double-duty, it's a Throwback quilt, and also fits the criteria for a fun event on all week at Needle & Foot:

Beothuk Star QAL Introductory Post and List of Sponsors

Welcome! Let the games, I mean quilting begin! This is the official kick-off to my third annual QAL, Beothuk Star. It's a very simple quilt, much like last year's, with colour placement a key feature.

You will find all the instructions needed to make this quilt here on the blog as we progress. At the end of the QAL I will have a PDF pattern which I will give free to those who complete the quilt, as in fully finished useable quilt. The final Linky party will be for all who finish, either a flimsy or a finished quilt.

Cheerio! Finished!

A few hours past the end of March, but worth it in my humble opinion. This is the March challenge for Island Batik, who provided all the INTENSE, incredible, delicious (I want to sing loudly all of that) fabrics for this project. Aurifil provided some of the threads, some are my own purchases, and Hobbs Batting supplied the batting. We were to reimagine a vintage block or quilt in a modern way.

This is one of the projects on my Q1FAL List which you can find here. I named it "Cheerio!" because it's an English expression of greeting, and this quilt is so warm and bright, I immediately think that; in fact, I can hear it in my head, with an English accent of course! Also the block is sort of a round 'o', and makes me think of the American cereal, Cheerios! So a double entendre, which I love.