Project QUILTING Season 11 - Challenge 11.5

Give It Away

Welcome to the 5th challenge of  Season 11 for Project QUILTING!!  I can't tell you how blown away I am by the timeliness of this prompt.

The back story...

Let's go back to last Sunday afternoon, shall we?

A few hours ago, I found out that a dear quilting friend recently passed away.  An hour ago, I was invited to participate in a Memorial Blog Hop in her honor.  A few moments ago, I finally visited Kim's blog to find out about this week's challenge.

Mind.  Blown!!

Why is that, Joyful???

The premise of the Blog Hop and the challenge prompt matched.  Identically.  How creepy amazing is that?!

The design...

It didn't take long to come up with a plan for what I wanted to do.  The block that I designed for my #bushfireblocks was just the ticket!  I'm planning on expanding this block into Rainbow Forest:

Let's see how that worked out...

I started by scrounging through my scrap bins (as usual.)  This time, I was looking for 3.5" strips of various colors.  Beginning with the TEAL basket in honor of the Color of the Month for March at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge:

Then I determined that THIS alternate block fabric, when located, called for a change in plans:

Next... Sorting through my green scraps was in order...

... And brown scraps, too, for tree trunks:

The moment of truth...

I had hoped to make quick work of the 5 blocks needed for my design and did limited quilting on the piece (to meet the deadline.)

That's NOT exactly what transpired, though. Thank goodness for Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict!  She talked me off the ledge and shared a tutorial for a FAST finish.

SEW...

I scaled back my design. Using some donation fabric from Quilt Diva Julie as a background along with appropriate green scraps:

I also had to rein in the brown scraps that I had chosen:

With the block components sewn...

I assembled ONE of my (expanded) Stand of Trees block:

I layered it up, but was too tired to continue (and a bit unsure as to whether this worked as a whole.)  With positive feedback from Needleb, I was ready for the next step:

I have to tell you, there was a fair amount of panic that set in at this point of the process.  There were only 28 hours remaining before the challenge deadline and I had a wedding to attend.  YIKES!!  

Can I seriously have a snowballs chance of getting this done???

I quilted right up until time to get ready for the wedding and  got that part done.  Whew!  Then, with just over 3 hours before the deadline, I found myself ready to prepare a half-mile of binding:

As the 2-hour mark approached, that binding was being attached:

It's happening!  I really DO have a chance at finishing on time.  And with an hour and 15 minutes to spare, it's post time:

Meet my Hidden Forest quilt, PQ 11.5 challenge entry:

42 x 44

The reason???

As with each of the PQ Challenges, I have a reason for participating.  I explained a bit at the top of the post, but here is the rest of the story.  Originally planned for Jack's Basket in memory of my blogging friend Paula at Paula B Quilts, I have decided to send this one off to Little Lou Quilts.  They are doing a program "kickstarter", if you will, and I had hoped to participate, but had NO IDEA how I would fit it in with the rest of my current projects.  This challenge was just the ticket!  Plus, I'm pretty sure that Paula would approve the change of recipient for my donation.  (After all, I was a preemie, myself.)

Thanks for coming along on this process post.  Only ONE challenge remains for Season 11 of Project QUILTING, but first, a much needed break.  Whew!  What a week!  If you recall, most of my challenge pieces have been MUCH smaller.

That original "alternate block" fabric got used up as the backing for this quilt.
Best of all, I remembered to add my label on this project!!!

Linking up with Alycia @ Alycia Quilts

for

Finished (Or NOT) Friday!

Until next time...
Quilt to GIVE!!!