Give away! Give Away!

In my last post, I shared that I'd virtually finished the "ingi makato" quilt and that I wanted to celebrate with a giveaway.  Here's the post if you want to take another look at it.

You may or may not know that I have a closet filled with pieced bed sized quilt tops that are waiting to be quilted up. One of them I made more than 10 years ago! I have the backings for many of them and I always have a huge roll of batting on hand, but the energy to take on the quilting of these big quilts is sadly in short supply.  Although I love the look of a professionally quilted piece, I prefer to do the quilting on my own domestic sewing machine.  And you probably know that it takes a lot of stamina to wrestle the thing under and around the needle.  So when I actually finish the entire quilt, I feel a grand sense of accomplishment.

That's how it was the other day when I machine stitched on the binding for this throw sized quilt:

I'm leaving tomorrow for a couple of days at a lake cabin and will do the hand stitching while I'm sitting on the porch and the others are in the boat catching fish--theoretically!

So I want to celebrate this finish with you and I decided that, from now on, I will have a give away every time I finish a throw sized or larger quilt.  I mean pieced, quilted and bound, even labeled!  Maybe that will be the incentive I need to get that 10 year old quilt finished and on a bed.

To celebrate this finish, I'm giving away this kit for a camping themed throw or wall hanging.

It's hard to see the completed piece but it's a center panel featuring camping pix such as S'mores, campfire, and so forth, with the plaid border/binding and a final camping themed fabric for the outer border. I'm adding a pine tree fabric for the backing.

All you have to do to join in my celebration of completing a quilt is to leave a comment at the end of the previous post, here.  I know people read this blog but I hardly ever hear from any of you.  I'd love to see your comments and even better, I'd love to send one of you this camping quilt kit.  So please leave a comment before I draw the name on the 24th.  

In other news, I've made progress in tracing the pattern for this Halloween table runner from Bird Brain Designs:

On the banner it says, "Ghosts, Goblins, Witches, Hooray . . .Halloween Parties Are On The Way" and the characters are so cute. I made one of these last year and it sold within a week in my Etsy Store, so I'll offer it again this year.  If it doesn't sell, I'll keep it for myself!  Win/Win!  When I'm finished with the binding on the ingi matako quilt, I'll begin on the embroidery piece.

My Etsy store, Jolly Ruby, has been sorely neglected for months now, and I intend to begin remedying that very soon.  I sold nearly all my goods when I had an after Christmas sale and haven't replenished anything at all in there.  Last winter I was working (Such a mistake!  It took way too much time away from quilting!) and as soon as I finished the job,I went under the knife and it was weeks before I could make it down the steps to my basement sewing room.  And now I'm preoccupied with my granddaughter's stay here in Wisconsin.  But as soon as September rolls around, I'll be working on some table quilts and so forth  and will be ready to reopen the store before Halloween.  At least, that's the plan!

Today, I'm finishing my work in the garden, paying my property taxes and picking out a countertop for the kitchen mini-remodel.  All fun things, right? What's on your plate for today?