What can you do with 9 fat quarters? Dance, Ta Da! and a She Can Quilt Blogger's Bundle giveaway

Pam at Mad About Patchwork asked me if I would like to curate a blogger's bundle, and of course I said yes. After a lot of consideration, those fabrics above are the She Can Quilt Blogger Bundle which you can get here at Mad About Patchwork.

You can read about this bundle and a little bit about me on Pam's blog today too, go here.  Stick with me for this long post, and there is a giveaway at the end for a bundle too.



Just so you know that it was a challenge to take that photo at the top, my helper Sundance likes to assist.

I chose this bundle especially to make a baby quilt - a grand baby is arriving shortly in my family. I wanted a pretty, sweet set of fabrics that were not boring or that gender specific. I thought about the ocean and the sky, and there you go, a bundle was made.



Here is Dance. She is about 52" x 54" after trimming and washing. This is what I made with 9 fat quarters and some solid scraps - an easy and fun improv quilt. I made improv Shoo Fly blocks - which always remind me of dancing Snoopy from the Peanuts comics and added the background in.



For those of you unfamiliar with improv hsts, here is a little picture tutorial. For my blocks I used 3.5" background squares for the small blocks and 4.5" background squares for the larger blocks. You can make these any size, they are jut a nine patch.



This is generally what it looks like as I sew, a bit dark with that yellow toned light. I put the blocks on my wall and rearranged them until I liked what I saw. Truly there is no magic to this, just move them until they feel right and they will be right.  I kept making blocks until I ran out of useable pieces of my 9 fat quarters.



I got out my bin of light solid scraps. It is overflowing. I pinned bits onto the design wall and started sewing them in. When I do this, I aim to make pieces meet without too much fuss in the end, and shuffle the blocks a bit as I go.



There is the top before I added some borders. I pieced together different neutrals to make the border fit in with the scrappy quilt.



Yesterday I went on a marathon sewing day to finish it, and I did. I quilted it on my long arm with straight lines. People have asked me, so here is a photo to show how I float both the batting and the top. The back is rolled onto two bars to keep it taught. I then baste the top of the quilt down and although I was taught to baste the sides as I roll the quilt down, I never bother.



Here is Dance quilted and bound, late last night. This photo is before the wash.



Here she is after the wash. My assistants - Butch on the left, Sundance on the right - were fully engaged this morning so I had to get more photos at my office.



I used a light aqua Aurifil 50 wt cotton thread (#2835) to quilt this quilt. I am loving how a soft coloured thread adds just a hint of additional interest to the scrappy neutral background and then blends with the blocks.



For the back, I pieced together a few favourite prints. The binding is one of the Doe prints.



One last photo of Dance. You can make a pretty fun quilt with 9 fat quarters and some scraps.

Pam at Mad About Patchwork has generously set aside a She Can Quilt Blogger Bundle for me to give away too. Here is how to enter:

• For one entry, leave me a comment.
• For a second entry, visit Mad About Patchwork by clicking here and leave a second comment letting me know what you like on the shelves of this lovely shop.
• For a third entry, follow me somewhere (there are buttons at the top right of the blog) and in your comment let me know where you do

This giveaway is now closed.

Please, please leave me a trail to find you. You have no idea how many of the commenters on give aways are no reply. You can always put your email in the comment.

And don't forget to check out Pam's Mad About Patchwork blog too, go here.

I will draw the winner on Saturday morning using the random generator when I wake up, so you have until then.

Best,

Leanne