Giveaway Winner and Braid Quilt in a Day QAL

Thank you to everyone who commented for a chance to win the Braid in a Day pattern.  It was fun to read about your experiences with EB's patterns and her television show.  My boys and I used to watch her show all the time when they were little.

My very first quilt was an Eleanor Burns "Log Cabin," made in 1976 when I was waiting for my soon-to-be-husband to come home from Air Force Technical Training School for our wedding.  My Mother had made many quilts using this pattern, so she was my coach through the process.

In the 1970s, 100% cotton was hard to find.  What was available was either brown, rust, dark green or dusty blue and mauve.  My quilt was shades of blue and pink calico.

That was years before rotary cutters, so we "nipped" the selvages and tore across the fabric to make strips.  Rather than pre-cut each strip to the correct length,  we sewed each onto the block and cut across the strip to make it fit the block -- more or less.  As you can imagine, with this technique, it was easy to get the blocks "out of square."  We tied the quilt using Red Heart acrylic yarn and a huge, puffy batting.

Both quilting and Eleanor Burns have come a long way, baby!  Eleanor has written more than 100 books and patterns since her Log Cabin book.  I would speculate that quilters have sewn more EB patterns than those of any other designer.

And now, 52 Quilts is hosting my first Quilt-a-Long, the Braid in a Day QAL. 

The giveaway winner, chosen by Random Number Generator.org is: 

who is: Mary

who said:



This:

 

will be in the mail to you as soon as you send me your postal address.   When I ordered the pattern, I asked if Eleanor would autograph it.  And she did!  Unfortunately, I wasn't clear that it was for a giveaway, so it says "To Martha," but still, it has her real autograph.

Congratulations, Mary!
 
I'm sorry not everyone could win, but everyone can Quilt-a-Long!  Here is a proposed schedule, not to put pressure on you to keep up, just to help us all move along.

• Week 1  9/25    Schedule and supplies, thoughts on choosing fabrics
• Week 2-3 10/9  How to use the braid template and cutting
• Week 4  10/16  Piecing braids
• Week 5  10/23  Measuring and cutting sashing, assembling rows
• Week 6  10/30  Measuring, cutting and attaching borders
• Week 7  11/6    Basting and quilting ideas
• Week 8  11/13  Binding and sharing Finished quilts
• Fabulous Finish:  December 1, QAL Giveaway!

I've set up a Flickr group so we can all share our progress: Braid in a Day QAL.

Come back tomorrow for fabric advice and where to order your pattern!



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