Hey, everyone — happy Tuesday!

I’m in Michigan teaching this week, so my free time has been a bit limited. Busy or not, I still wanted to pop in with a quick reminder about where you should be with your Joyful Gatherings II Quilt-Along if you’re following along with the schedule. It’s the sixth and final week of this holiday quilting journey, and now that the main 25 tree blocks are done, it’s time to tackle the cornerstones and finish things up.

The cornerstones in this quilt are all identical square-in-a-square units, surrounded by four flying geese and four corner squares. While these particular cornerstones might be a bit tricky for an unseasoned quilter, they shouldn’t be considered a deal-breaker when deciding whether or not to do this quilt project. Flying geese can certainly be a challenge; however, they’re a common unit that every quilter needs to know, so consider this the perfect opportunity to work on improving your skills. Since you need over 30 of them for this project, you’ll practically be a Flying Geese expert by the time it’s all over!

Having trouble with these cornerstones? I don’t have a video tutorial for this portion of the quilt-along, but if enough of you run into trouble, let me know! I’ll consider making one. In the meantime, you can always call or email the shop, and the girls will be happy to help you work through whatever has you stumped.

It’s time to wrap up this day of teaching and quilting and blogging and so on, but before I do, there are just a couple more things I need to quickly touch on. Number one… it’s PRIZE TIME! The Joyful Gatherings II Quilt-Along prize winner for Week #3 is Linda Kramer – great work Linda! If you haven’t already, please send your mailing address to heidin@primitivegatherings.us and she’ll send you something nice!

Interested in winning a prize like Linda did? All you have to do is post photos of your Joyful Gatherings II Quilt-Along progress in my STITCH with Lisa Bongean Facebook group before my LIVE show on Thursdays. If you get lucky, Heidi might randomly see your photo while she’s scrolling and pick you — that’s it! That’s literally how it works… and if that happens, you’ll be the proud new owner of a Joyful Gatherings II Charm Pack and some other Primitive Gatherings goodies. Pretty good deal if you ask me!

Speaking of Primitive Gatherings good deals and goodies, let’s talk about my birthday deals for this week! We’re on day two of Week #5 of my Six Weeks for Sixty Years birthday bash, and there’s plenty more birthday shopping — and celebrating — to be done!

If you’ve been following along, you know the drill by now: each week for six weeks total, I’ve been pulling ten favorites from my quilting past and giving them a little birthday revival. Check out this week’s lineup!

Now, here’s the birthday math for this week: all ten featured patterns are 40% OFF through Sunday, October 18, and any available matching kits are 25% OFF. That’s a good excuse to revisit an old favorite or finally tackle a project that’s been sitting on your wishlist for far too long.

That’s it for today! Teaching is fun but exhausting, so I’m definitely ready to say no more work for me tonight. In fact, it’s dinner time in my world, so I’m going to say ta-ta for now, and I’ll see you all on Thursday at 1:00 p.m. CST for LIVE with Lisa and the gang! We’ll talk more about the Joyful Gatherings II Quilt-Along, Val’s latest quilt in the All About Quilts Fat Quarter Series, and of course, celebrate my birthday some more! You can tune in by hitting the STITCH button below. See ya there! ~Lisa