Where did April go? (and a link party)

Very busy this week preparing things I cannot share... but some progress on few shareable things as well!

The Ongoing Project List:

1. Play with Me QAL - Ready to share May block on Monday!
2. WGACA projects (changed projects)
1. Charity Quilts for DC General Homeless Shelter project - no progress
2. SECRET quilt for exhibit - (FDJ) no progress
3. Minion QAL - Kevin (Minion block) done (see below)
3. Mirror Mirror Afghan - no progress
4. Hello Block Swap - partners' emails will be sent out today!
5. American Quilt (previous known as Americana QAL) - waiting to hear from the quilter
6. Splendid Sampler - 3 blocks done (see below)
7. Challenge quilt - I don't know... still thinking if joining or not...
8. Road Home Row-A-Long - no progress

The EverythingElse List:

1. 70273 Project - waiting to hear about the blocks sent before making more
2. Jane T - no progress
3. The SK project - no progress
4. the 31000 Xs project - no progress
5. Spirit cross stitch project - no progress
6. Alice in Wonderland quilt - no progress
7. As You Wish -  no progress
8. Crazy optical illusion - no progress
9. Memory quilt 2 - no progress
10. Gyleen's BCP Mystery QAL - no progress

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I am working on charity quilts to help the kids in the DC General Homeless Shelter. 
No progress this week... but I received a wonderful donation from Emily! A completed queen size (probably) quilt top! It is beautiful! Scrappy and colorful!
I will cut it up since the donations require smaller quilts, but basically it is another top (or two) that are pretty much ready to be assembled!!! :)

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I am participating to the fun Minion QAL over at Fandom in Stitches.

Each of these blocks takes me at least two weeks to complete: one week to cut the pieces and hunt in my stash for the perfect background fabric... 5 to 6 days to think "did I choose the right fabric? maybe I should try this other one, or may that other one"... and one day to put the block together :) they are extra fun!

Block 3, Henry (pattern by Jennifer Rowles, available at Fandom in Stitches)

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Have you heard about Ello? It is basically Instagram without ads, no weird algorithm to show you only what they want you to see, no selling data, and it is for creative artists! :)

I never joined IG because I felt the goal was more about "showing off" than focusing on creativity, so even if I know there is a good quilting community there (which is creative and inspiring) I never felt it was the right place for me. Ello sounds much more fun!

It is a relatively new platform, so it has some issues (not too fast because it is still in beta but it's getting better, the signup is easy but if you don't pay attention the default groups that you are "following" may not be the ones you want, etc). If you want to join, it is free and there is a fast-growing quilting community. For helpful tips and finding your quilting tribe, you can read what the coordinator of the account @elloquilt says!

My handle is @alida-tweloq and to bring the community together I decided to coordinate a Block Swap!

You don't need to have an Ello account to join! Just fill this form http://goo.gl/forms/upr4FSDW6x to leave me your contact if you are interested. I am still collecting general info to see who is interested in what. I highly recommend to have an account, as I plan to post reminders, pictures of blocks, etc over there!

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And last but not least...

I am back with some block for the Splendid Sampler!!

Block 11, 20, 21 

See all my blocks on My Splendid Journey page!

As usual, because of my use of two colors (black and selvages) I had to simplify a little bit the block.

Tracing embroidery designs on black fabric is a nightmare for me, and since I don't have fancy soluble things I used a very cheap method: tissue paper. Of course it is so fragile that it tears apart while I was stitching, but it holds up for the main part of the design, so I eyeballed all the other details!

I also simplified the framing around block 20 because it would have been too busy with the big triangle corners in the original design.

Last fun fact: by chance, the text in the candy on block 21 reads "Countdown to Christmas required"... is it a message from the universe? :) :)

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How about you? What are YOU up to?

Link it here and share it with me!!

An InLinkz Link-up