After Guild meeting on Saturday, a friend brought by a bag of donated fabric. I didn't get a chance to go through it until this morning, at which point I separated it all by color or genre and put it away with the other donated fabric that I use for classes. Some of it was Christmas fabric, so I stuffed it into the overflowing Christmas fabric bag that I have at the shop.
Then, at lunch time, I decided to visit some quilt blogs while I ate because I haven't been keeping up with blogs the way I'd like. Somehow, I came across a Christmas In July QAL at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. It got me to thinking about that overflowing bag of Christmas fabric, and when I read that an hour a day for 12 days would yield a 76" quilt, I thought, "why not?" The blocks are big, (which is not how I usually operate; most of my quilts are built from blocks anywhere from 1.5" to 3", and the smallest piece I cut for this QAL is 4.5") and I'm only using 3 fabrics (which is REALLY out of character for me, the consummate scrap quilter!). However, the fabric is cut, and I am all caught up with the first step - these fussy cut snowmen will be the centers of the four big blocks that make up the quilt.
Back to the quilt I am finishing up for the fair...I had seen a basting technique using boards that eliminated the need to crawl around on the floor while basting so I gave it a try on this quilt. OMG!!! I'll be doing this on EVERY QUILT from now on! I sat in a chair at my dining room table to baste and it was a breeze! And the backing is the smoothest I've ever achieved while basting any quilt. And the whole process was quick, to boot! I encourage you to give it a try! The link I used was for Color Me Quilty.
Well, gotta get some Zzzzs tonight. This week has been exhausting, teaching at Summer FAIR at 8 AM each day, and staying up past midnight quilting each night. This week I taught the kids how to weave circular rugs on hula hoops using old t-shirts. They did a fabulous job!
And I was thrilled that I had 6 boys and 3 girls in my class - how's that for thumbing our noses at traditional gender roles?
