Hi, I'm in a similar situation and have to make and FINISH this year's family reunion quilt (but we only have one every other year) July 4th in Crete, NE. I can't attend, so I need to ship it in about 4 weeks. My family sends fabric if they wish and I make the quilt, then it gets raffled off, so I can recoup the cost of fabric that I put into it (this year my niece sent the batting - big help). I have used triple Irish Chain, Album block, Sawtooth Star and this year I'm making Sister's Choice block in memory of my sister who passed away almost two years ago. I kept seeing the pattern and wanted to make the quilt in her memory as she was my only sister and my best friend. However, it's a 25 piece block with half-square triangles - not hard, but takes a little time. I would recommend the sawtooth star block, you can use the Mary Ellen Hopkins method of placing a square on the rectangle, then sewing it across making a triangle. It goes very fast and I make it a lot in other quilts. The other might be Jacob's Ladder, which goes fairly quickly. If I were you I would check the Quilter's Cache on the internet as they have hundreds of easy blocks with the directions and what the quilt will look like. I wish us both luck that we can finish our quilts in time. Happy quilting.