Here in the Northern Hemisphere it's officially Fall! 

Quoting the Farmers Almanac:  "The autumnal equinox brings the fall season to the Northern Hemisphere on September 22 at 10:29 P.M. EDT. 

The word equinox comes from the Latin words for "equal night."   The fall and spring equinoxes are the only days of the year in which the Sun crosses the celestial equator.

From here on out, the temperatures begin to drop and the days start to get shorter than the nights."

I know what that means to me -- more sewing!  Does it mean the same to you?

Soon the backyard trees will be showing these beautiful colors...  I can't wait!
With some fall lectures and trunk shows at a few local guilds I've been busy getting some finishing touches on a few old quilts.

Here is my "Milkbone" quilt before it was bound....  It was quilted "McTavish" style using #Aurifil Mako Cotton 50Wt thread -- gosh that thread works wonderfully for dense machine quilting!  No breaks, little lint and the backtracks are almost invisible!! 
 
And here are a couple of "after" shots...
and
 
It sure makes a beautiful table mat.   You can read more about "Milkbone" by clicking here and here.

The other piece I finished is a WAY OLD work in Progress -- Family Estate.  Family Estate is a pattern in the Laundry Basket Quilts book "Friendship Strips and Scraps".  
 
This little quilt was appliqued and pieced months before I quilted it on my domestic machine.  I used Aurifil Mako Cotton 50 Wt Thread for the needle turn applique, the piecing, AND the quilting.  I love the way it turned out!

To finish it up, I needed to complete the window curtains, the door panels and the door knob.  I used wonderful #Aurifil Mako Cotton 12Wt thread to hand stitch the curtain ruffle (french knots) and the same weight Aurifil thread to machine stitch the panels around the door!   12Wt, 28Wt, 50Wt thread -- the Aurifil never lets me down! 
You can read more about my Family Estate quilt by clicking here.  Many thanks to my friend Debbie Wick for the awesome door knob button.  Isn't it sweet ?

One more thing to celebrate and then we'll get to the giveaway. 

It's been almost a year since my first recipe was published on the Moda Bake Shop -- Can you believe it ?  In October, 2013 I created my first design and tutorial for the "Family Tree Quilted Envelope Pillow".   You'll find the free tutorial and PDF download by clicking here.
It was one of the most fun and enlightening steps I've ever taken in my Quilting career.  Design, applique, piece, quilt, write the tutorial, and publish on the Moda Bake Shop.  It was truly an honor!

So what better way to celebrate this accomplishment than a giveaway of the Family Tree scraps that have been sitting around the sewing room for nearly a year!
One lucky reader will win this pile of scraps, mostly strips, of Family Tree by Deb Strain for Moda.  If you're interested in making the pillow - perfect -- these scraps will go a long way to get you there.  They would also be beautiful for a simple strip runner for Fall (which is why I kept 'em).  Whatever the case, it would be fantastic to see someone putting them to good use!

If an international winner is chosen, instead of shipping you scraps I'll email you a PDF copy of my Spring Basket pattern.

To enter the giveaway leave me a comment letting me know if you are a follower (old or new).

If you follow me on other social media outlets -- let me know that in a comment too!

Did you know I recently started using Instagram ?  You can find me there at RedbirdQuiltCo.   I think I only have two followers... my granddaughter and my niece... lol.  If you start following me on Instagram leave me a comment and let me know.

Get another entry if you share this giveaway with your friends (Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Blogger, Twitter).   Comment and let me know.

My giveaway will end this Sunday, September 28th at 9pm EST. 

One other thing... there is an awesome Quilt Giveaway going on until midnight Tuesday at my friend Angie's blog.  Click here before Tuesday at midnight to enter!

Have a fantastic week all - finishing up some more tutorials and fun projects -- will share soon!
Hugs,
Karen