Journey's End Celebration Giveaway!

Think of it as a pot of gold at the end of a very long rainbow. Today I'm celebrating the binding of the Doors of Ireland with a giveaway. Actually, the giveaway would have happened anyway, but this seems like as good a reason as anything else I could think of. I'll get to the giveaway in a minute, because as I'm writing this, the giveaway is still formulating in my head.

This morning I machine sewed the binding to the Doors of Ireland.

Since I've been working on this quilt since July of 2012, it seems like a good reason to celebrate right there. Wouldn't you agree? I started it shortly after I returned home from my journey to Ireland in May/June of 2012. It was the first time I tried recreating photographs into quilt blocks, and I'll say I've learned quite a bit along the way. It's been an excellent primer for some other quilts from photographs I'd like to try. 

Among those on my to-do list are a quilt I'll call "Me and My Shadow" made from the selfies our shadow selves like to take when we journey in our RV. Here's one of them now. It was taken at an overnight stop in Heyburn, Idaho, some years back.

Another I've been collecting photos for is a quilt I'll call "Windows and Walls". While working on the door quilt, I started getting interested in windows as well. Here is just one image I'd like to recreate into a quilt block some day. It was taken on a Sunday driving journey in the little town of Carlton, Oregon.

Finally, the "Barns of America", but this one is a dream for the future. When Mike retires at the end of April, 2017, we're dreaming of a journey back east. Along the way, I hope to capture some barns for this quilt. Already, I have quite a collection, but I'm holding off on starting the quilt until after our big trip. Here's one I saw while driving through Iowa last year.

Now that the binding is sewn on the doors, I'm going to keep the rest of the day pretty low key. For one thing, I want to use some of the CSA pumpkin puree currently hanging out in the freezer. I happen to have a bag of fresh cranberries leftover from Thanksgiving that I need to use, and I can kill both birds with one stone by making this Pumpkin Spice Cranberry Bread. I made this up a few years ago. You can find the link to the recipe right here.

While I'm waiting for that to bake off, I need to do a little kitchen cleaning. Other than that, I'm just going to get to work hand sewing the binding on the doors. And since I'm feeling deeply philosophical today, I'll add that a journey of 304 inches begins with a single stitch. 

So just what am I giving away today, you ask. It's this seven fat quarter bundle of Ribbon Festive Forest by Tamara Kate for Michael Miller Fabrics.

Pretty, huh? It's a Christmas bundle, but at least a few of them are appropriate for other times of the year. So what do you have to do to win it? Let me count the ways:

1. Leave a comment...any comment will do. If you need an idea, however, tell me a place you'd like to journey to sometime in the future. The sky's the limit, not your budget. Even if you don't believe you'll ever get there, where would you go if time and money were no object?

2. Followers (new or well-seasoned) can get an extra chance to win by leaving a second comment letting me know how you follow. If you're not a follower, you can find several different ways right there in my left side bar. Just sign up and join the fun!

3. Make sure I have a way to contact you. Lately, I've received comments and questions from some of you who are set at no-reply. If you've written to me and received no response, that's a really good clue that I have no way to contact you. If you need help getting your settings right, please email me, and I'll try to help you out.

So that's it! Short and sweet. All residents of Planet Earth are welcome to enter. I'll leave this giveaway open until I take the last hand stitch on the binding. It usually takes me about 3-4 days to hand sew a quilt this large. Time's a wastin', so don't miss out.