What's been happening in May?

You know, I began a challenge of posting every day last September and for the most part, I've held to that goal. May was a month of time off from posting--I had so many things occupying my mind that I didn't have the energy to post.

However, I need to write up this post as part of the Hand2Help project organized by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.  It's the final week of this project and time for finished (or nearly finished) quilts to be posted and linked to her blog.

I began my twin sized quilt for the International Institute St. Louis when I went on retreat with my guild on April 20, and yesterday, I pinned it together into a quilt sandwich. This afternoon, I begin the machine quilting, although I still don't have any design ideas. Here's the quilt, all pinned together:

As I said in an earlier post, I decided to use up the 4 charm packs 

and coordinating navy, wine, and cream yardage that I'd purchased on impulse several years ago.  I chose to make flying geese units out of the charm squares for one of the blocks and simple red-white-blue stripes out of yardage for the alternating blocks. Do you want to know how many FG units are in this quilt?  I did the math--480!   I don't even want to think about how many dog ears I clipped off these darn geese! Fortunately, I was able to make them using the "no waste" method so I don't have a bunch of trimmed off corners in the garbage. Eight FG units made a 6" block, finished. Next time I want to make FG, I think I'll work with a larger size!

I had 3/4 of the FG units made and ran out of the cream yardage that I was using for background of the geese. HELP!  Fortunately, Hingely Road Quilt Shop in Floodwood, MN had more of this fabric and shipped the additional yardage I needed for this quilt.  If you're ever in that area of MN, about 50 miles NW of Duluth MN, be sure to stop in. This shop is overflowing with precuts of all kinds!  My biggest problem is choosing which ones to take home. They also have a separate room devoted to Northwoodsy kinds of fabrics, so if you're needing any kind of cabin, fishing, hunting, or water sports kinds of fabrics, this is the place. The best thing is that they post all of their fabrics on their website, so you can shop on-line if you want to!  BTW, I don't have any financial interest in this shop, I just love it a lot!

But, I digress.  After I got all the FG and stripe blocks assembled, I decided to use the remaining blue yardage as the border, with a FG block in each corner.  I had barely enough fabric to make this border, and I have enough of the dark red to do the binding.  

So this is the quilt that's been occupying my time this month.  I'll link this to Sarah's post and with any kind of luck, I'll have this quilt in the mail by June 2 which is the deadline. I'm sure that if the quilt is a few days--or even a week!--late, the organization will still accept it.  

This project has been a triple win for me. First, I got to use up that fabric which had been languishing in my stash for way too long. Second, the quilt will be given to a refugee family as part of their new home in America. Thirdly, Sarah has organized the most amazing prizes for us quilt makers.  Giving this quilt to the new American family is reward enough for me, and if I should happen to win a prize, well, that's just icing on the cake!