Friday Finish - Give it away now!

If you've been reading my WiP Wednesday posts, you know that I've been sewing up a storm. I'm super excited to be getting a number of projects finished - some have been hanging around for far too long!

That's definitely the case with this lovely...

It's my Cool Stash Strip quilt! I've blogged about it already here in my Confessions of a Stripper post. I'm proud to say that the entire quilt top came from my stash - much of it from my cool scrap bin!

For the quilting, I wanted to soften the hard lines of the pieced strips. I opted to quilt from side edge to side edge, wiggling the lines. This involves a lot of pushing and pulling, since I was fighting the inclinations of my built in walking foot. It occurs to me at this very moment that perhaps it would have been better to disengage it for this task. Oh well... there's always next time!

You can see it better on the back. Because I used my regular foot instead of FMQ, there are spots where the quilting is not as fluid as it could be. That said, I like the way it turned out. I'm also pretty proud of the steal of a deal that this backing was - in the 4.99$ flat fold section of my LQS AND 30% off! ☺

Even my binding is made of scraps! When I bind a quilt and there's a chunk of binding left, I save it. When it's time for something scrappy (or I'm searching for one last scrap of a particular fabric), there's a treasure trove waiting!

Though I really do like it, this quilt was always meant to be given away. It meets a few of my New Year's Resolutions for 2014. I resolved to make at least two large quits from my stash... I only purchased backing and batting for this one. It's also headed to the IWK - designated for their Adolescent Mental Health and Addictions Program, Choices. This stack made it's way to the IWK this week.

The total? Three baby quilts and three large quilts (one donated by a kind quilter from Mariner's Quilt Guild). The ladies in the Volunteer office are always super appreciative of these quilts. The little ones often head to the NICU to offer comfort and warmth to sick babies and their families. The bigger ones are in demand  all over the hospital. Whenever a child is transferred from the IWK to another hospital, they send a quilt with them, but I ask for mine to go to the teens of Choices. If you've got finished quilts or tops hanging out in your stash and you just don't know what to do with them, why not look into donating them? We're so lucky as quilters to have these comforting items in our lives  - sharing the comfort and warmth of a quilt is something we can offer our communities. I'll hop down off my soapbox now! ☺

One of the quilts I opted to donate was a little tough to part with - my first Thousand Pyramids quilt.

It was made AGES before blogging.  It's been in my life for a while now, but has never really been used properly. It was meant to be a quilt for my bed, but by some freak of quilt mathematics (and likely a beginner's inaccurate quarter inch seam allowance), it was never wide enough. The bed it resided on in my studio is soon to be replaced with a queen sized murphy bed. It really needed a new home. I hope it will find someone to love it at the IWK!

So that's my Friday Finish! If you were waiting on my Michael Miller MQG Challenge, you'll have to hang on for just a little longer. It deserves a better photo shoot than my backyard ☺I'm linking up today with TGIFF at Quokka Quilts.

Hope you had a great week and an even better week-end. I'm looking forward to a MMQG Sew In tomorrow!

J