Kringle Trees - H2H Charity Quilt

Woo hoo! First finish in the new house, new sewing loft!  This quilt fulfills two obligations: Hands2Help at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and my May goal for OMG at Elm Street Quilts.

I won this fabric, the post is here, "Kringle Krossing" by Shelly Comiskey for Henry Glass Fabrics, in December, right before Christmas.  So far, I've made 3 projects using the fabric: Holly the Christmas Hound, Jingle, and this one, all three given or to be given away.  This one is one of two quilts I pledged to make for Sarah's Hands2Help charity quilt drive.  It will go to the Windsor Sexual Assault Centre, a quilt for a child who should not have to ever deal with such trauma.  Hopefully, holding onto and keeping this snuggly quilt will help comfort and heal.

Several times during the quilting of it, this first quilt that Avril, my HandiQuilter Avanté and I did in our new sewing loft space, these particular chocolate brown tree trunks would catch the corner of my eye, and I'd literally start to reach out to pick up the 'piece of chocolate' sitting on the quilt!! The trees pattern is one of the Honey Pot Bee Blocks, an Amy Smart block that is the same method as Karla Alexander's Stack the Deck free-cut blocks. I made my blocks for the bee (I've fallen way behind in it, and not sure I have plans to hop back in, but time will tell) and then, when I won the fabric, the idea for a charity quilt for Hands2Help was born.  It was fun using all of the fabrics to make these blocks.

Here it is hot off the frame:

I think we've had one of the coldest, least sunny Mays on record here, and so when the sun peeked out yesterday afternoon, right after another good rain shower, I threw it down in the front entry for a quick pic.

Again, early this morning the sun was out for a little bit, so I hopped into the back yard and took a few photos.  I did put a border on it to bring it up to a bit better of a child-size cuddle quilt.

I quilted one word on the quilt in one spot; do you see it?  'love'

To get the feel back after 6.5 months of being apart from poor Avril, who lived in her box all that time, frame all apart in pieces and carefully labelled by MacGyver, I did a fun, flowing meander over the quilt.  I absolutely LOVE this kind of quilting: it's flowing, it's relaxing, it's like watching goldfish, it's that mesmerizing for me. As I quilt, I think jigsaw pieces, sometimes mittens or ghost heads and arms.  The binding is the red striped reindeer fabric, and was machine-stitched to the back of the quilt this time, not my usual method, and then top-stitched down on the front. I wanted durability and speed, as the deadline approaches. I'm not a fan of the line of stitching you get on the back of the quilt, but it is what it is.

Here is the back, cobbled together pieces of fabrics left.

I love interesting quilt backs!

I still have the panel, and while adding the borders to this quilt, a plan formed, to make a second quilt for the Sexual Assault Centre, using the panel, and making blocks to go around it.  That one won't be done in time for Sarah's deadline, but it will get done asap.  I do have the Syrian refugees quilt to finish for H2H, which has so far been stitched only on my vintage Singer machines.  This one was stitched on the Bernina.

Here are all the projects I've made with this win:

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Amy Smart's Modern Christmas Tree Block
Size:  40.5 X 41.5"; after quilting and washing: 38.75 X 40.5"
Fabric:  Kringle Krossing by Shelly Comiskey for Henry Glass Fabrics
Batting: micro-fleece
Quilted: on Avril the Avanté
Threads:  pieced with Gütermann; quilted with Floriani Fufus rayon thread, Bottom Line in the bobbin

Updated to add a signature 'quilt in a tree' pic after it was washed and dried!

Sniff...almost all the blossoms are gone now.

And just a quick note to thank those of you who support my blog by purchasing through my links to either Craftsy or Connecting Threads.  Thank you SO MUCH.  Man, that was a great sale this past weekend; I bought a couple of items I will let you know about when they arrive. Do I have a Craftsy story for you.  And no, it won't be timed with one of their sales (at least that isn't the plan, ha).  And I have a quilt sale story for you too that will warm your heart!  And if that isn't enough to make you want to come back to read more, I also have Vintage Singer installment #1 on one of my machines coming this week, Wednesday is the plan.

How's that for foreshadowing, teasers, tantalizing gotta-come-back tidbits?!

Linking up with Cooking Up Quilts for

And also with Crazy Mom Quilts
Hilarious, typical airhead menopausal Sandra: only after linking up with Beth, did I realize, DUH! I forgot to sew my mmm!quilts label in the binding...AGAIN!! Sigh.  So before I throw it in the wash, guess I'm headed upstairs to remedy that oversight.