Time to get some Spring in your hop!

I just love Spring!  I love the way everything looks - colors, freshness, the way the light shines. While Spring comes to many of us at different times, it seems that many of us are glad to welcome the arrival of Spring.  As such, I wanted to share some insights with you about some opportunities I hope you'll want to participate in.

Spring Theme AccuQuilt Blog Hop
The week of April 11th several bloggers that love their AccuQuilt will be sharing items, all with a Spring Theme, which they've made using their AccuQuilt products.  They'll also be sharing many tips, some tutorials, and a few giveaways on their blogs too!  Here is the line up for this fun hop:

Mon., April 11th
SewCalGal
Andrea's Nest (Melissa)

Tues., April 12th
Bejeweled Quilts (Barb)
SewCindy (Cindy)

Wed., April 13th
Sunshower Quilts (Katrina)
Bits & Pieces (Terri)

Thu., April 14th
Just Plain Laine (Laine)
Rosebud Quilting (Michelle)

Fri., April 15th
Hollyhock Quilts (Glenna) 
A Quilting Life (Sherry)


AccuQuilt Barn Quilt Design Contest
If you haven't yet entered this contest, you still have time.  All you need to do is design a quilt block that you feel would be appropriate for display on a barn.  AccuQuilt will be painting the blocks of the winners on their offices and holding an unveiling on June 10th.  The winners will receive some wonderful prizes.  For more info and/or to submit your entry click on the AccuQuilt Barn Quilt Contest photos in the upper right hand column of this page.

And for those of you that love to design using Electric Quilt Software, EQ has also created free libraries of various AccuQuilt dies, that will help you design blocks too.  But your entry does not need to be a block that is designed for using AccuQuilt dies.


Charity Blocks
Planning is underway for a couple of different contests on SewCalGal that will require those that wish to enter and win prizes to make 12" quilt blocks that will go to a variety of charity programs.  If you have a particular charity program that you would like to be considered for receiving blocks from one, or more, of these contests, please email SewCalGal with the following information:
- Name of the program and website, if available
- short overview of the program (e.g. who are the charity quilts given to, how many quilts do they make each year, how many volunteers do they have, or any appropriate insight that you wish to share).
- contact person and contact info

Sometime in the future, we'll vote to see which charity block contest will go to which program.  But the first charity block contest will have a patriotic theme, and all the blocks will go to a QOV program.  More info on this particular contest will be announced later this month as I'm currently working on getting sponsors for these contests.  But, this is a great time for those that want to enter this contest to start making your block(s) with a patriotic theme.

To clarify blocks should be 12 1/2" (12" finished) with 100% cotton fabric, of high quality cotton and can be made of any design or technique. And, you can definitely make as many blocks as you wish and get an entry to the contest for every block you make and donate to the respective charity program.  They do not need to be made with an AccuQuilt product, but if you have an AccuQuilt product they'll certainly help make your block more accurate and faster to make.

ACCUQUILT DAILY DEALS
If you didn't see the daily deal that AccuQuilt posted on April lst, you may have fun checking it out.


Quilters with Tools:
If you are a blogger with an AccuQuilt product you may want to check out the page I have created that has a tab labeled "Quilters with Tools".   This index is intended to help network quilters using various modern quilting tools.  Badges are at the bottom, for some of the combinations of tools, but if you don't see a badge for the combination you have, let me know and I'll get it created ASAP.  The thought here is that these badges will also help identify you as a blogger that uses these tools and are part of this growing community. 

By May lst, I'll be eliminating the original list of "Team of Bloggers with AccuQuilt Products" and only maintaining the list of "Quilters with Tools" for those that want to be included on this new page.  

You may also want to get on my email list for periodic updates, by clicking the link in the upper right hand column labeled "email list".