Charity Quilt Finish and Mystery Quilt-A-Long Announcement

As part of the Foothills Piecemakers Quilt Guild, we make philanthropy quilts with members making blocks, making quilt tops, and/or quilting the quilts for various charities.  I did not make this quilt top but offered to quilt and bind it.  I believe that the quilt top was made using some new Coats & Clark fabrics which were donated to the guild.

Charity quilts are wonderful quilts to practice new quilting and binding techniques.  It is a win for the quilter to practice a skill and a win for the guild to have some of the quilt tops finished into quilts.  (My previous charity quilt I used to learn a flower fmq pattern.)

For this quilt I quilted a simple meander because I was running out of time (I already had the sandwich prepared for 4 weeks), but for the first time, I used the backing to make the binding.  

I trimmed and squared the top and batting and then trimmed the backing to extend three quarters of an inch around the quilt top.  I folded in the backing once (so that the raw edge of the backing was adjacent the quilt top and then folded it over again onto the quilt top.  I was able to quickly machine quilt down the binding right on the folded edge.  I don't think that it looks too bad for a first attempt and it was very quick.

The only real hard part was making sure that when I was trimming the quilt top and batting that I did not accidentally cut the backing (I did cut the backing at one little spot but a quick zigzag fixed it).

My other news is that I was volunteered to be chair of the Mystery Quilt for the Foothills Piecemakers Quilt Guild 2014/2015.  I am going to post all of the quilt-a-long instructions and my progress pictures here so that you can join in too :)

The quilt-a-long is going to be at a very leisurely pace, starting this month with fabric selections with one post every month (posted the weekend after the first Thursday of the month) and ending with a reveal in April-ish.

This mystery quilt is an advanced beginner level containing half square triangles, square in a square, and some basic patchwork.  (No applique, Y-seams, or paper piecing).  The quilt construction instructions are different from typical patterns so that the design of the finished quilt remains a mystery as long as possible.

I hope that you decide to join in!  I will be posting the first set of instructions this Saturday or Sunday and I will be also posting my progress along the way. (I will even try to make a button for those participating as soon as I figure out how to make one.)

I am linking up to Link a Finish Friday, Whoop Whoop Friday, Thank Goodness Its Finished Friday, Finish It Up Friday, Off the Wall Fridays,Fabric Frenzy Friday,  Sewjo @ My Go Go Life, and Show Off Saturday @ Sew She Can.