Hi everyone,
Guess what? The QAL is happening right now…even as we speak!
Jess has posted the tutorial for the first block…
HERE!
The block is called Susannah! Have fun!
Don’t forget if you have any questions feel free to ask, and maybe use the Flickr group as I think it could be a great place to get encouragement!
Hi everyone,
Are you ready? Do you know what I am on about? LOL
Our quilt along is kicking off on Friday!
We just wanted to let you know that is not to late to join in, in fact as the QAL is running for the next 6 months you will have time to catch up!
Don’t forget also the Fat Quarter Shop is giving away $250 worth of prizes! Can you believe it $250!
And you don’t need to complete the whole quilt to win something…For a run down of the prizes visit my post here!
For more information and links to all the posts and the Flickr group visit my page dedicated to the QAL.
We would love it if you could help spread the word by displaying the QAL button on your blogs, for the HTML code visit Jess’ blog and you will find it on her sidebar.
I am looking forward to getting started!
Hi everyone!
I don’t know about you but when I am putting a block together I like to lay out all the pieces before I join them together…to check colours and the balance (can’t thing of the right word!) of the block.
I wanted a way to get the fabric from my cutting table to my sewing machine with out messing them up…
Say hello to Orlando! Isn’t he cute?!
I bought this canvas from the cheapie shop and no, not because I have a thing for Orlando! Although….only kidding!
This is the canvas now. With wadding and a staple gun you can do marvellous things!
I simply wrapped the wadding over the edges of the canvas and stapled it down at the back…
The best thing is the fabric sticks so well, I can tip it upside down and swing it around too! Why you would want to do that I don’t know but it was a great test!
My board is 14” x 20” and I used cotton wadding with a layer of poly wadding underneath mainly so I couldn’t see Orlando peeking through!
The wadding came from my scrap wadding box so this was a really cheap project! And you have to love that!
Hi everyone,
There is a group on facebook called Quilt Club Australia, it is a virtual community of Aussie quilters that chat, share, encourage and do bees and swaps!
I am in Bee hive 2 and this my block for Tracey for June….
I tried fussy cutting and it looked perfect before I pieced it….anyway it looks great with the other blocks.
Recently the group had a Handmade Swap. And I made a sewing caddy for Tracey…
There was a pair of stork scissors that went in the caddy too.
I used some Ruby and some Make Life… I especially love the twill tape measure!
And I got this awesome package from Marieka…
She got me so well! My fav block, my fav colours and chocolates!!! There is a cushion cover and a zipper pouch, which I have already been using to keep some hand sewing together! Thank you Marieka, I love it!
And then there is the Novelty Fabric Swap…
We are swapping 5” squares of novelty fabric, I am hoping I might be able to make an I Spy quilt for the boys.
These are my fabrics – the Monkeys are an Ann Kellie print and the Trains are from my stash and I can’t remember the details.
Lastly, I think LOL! Is Sasha – The Travelling Stash!
This amazing amount of stashy goodness fits in a 3kg post satchel!
What I took out is on the left and what I put in is on the right….I had to put in a pack of of the Clover Quilting Clips, they are one of my fav stash items!
So, there you have some of the great things you can do on Facebook!
Hi everyone,
We promised you some more information on the prizes we'll have at the end of our QAL, didn't we?
If you missed it, the original post can be found here.
Well I can now reveal what we have on offer! We are very excited that the Fat Quarter Shop have offered to be our sponsor for the quilt along, and they're giving seven gift certificates to seven lucky people!
There are 3 of these -
And 4 of these -
Wow! That is awesome for you guys who are going to play along!
There will be three categories in which you can enter and prizes will be drawn at the completion of the QAL.
1. Full Twin Quilt (or Single Bed size to us Aussies) Category - 3 Prizes
The main category will be for those who complete the Full Twin Sized quilt (65" x 80"). There will be TWO prizes of a $50 gift certificate for the Fat Quarter Shop, and one prize of a $25 gift certificate.
2. Throw Quilt (45" x 50") - 2 Prizes
There will be one $50 voucher, and one $25 voucher in this category.
3. Mini Quilt or other quilted item - 2 Prizes
There will be two $25 vouchers in this category.
That is some major motivation! If I wasn’t hosting I would be in for sure!
Also, I have added a page up the top called How far will you go? QAL (can you see it up there?) I will link back to all the posts on that page, so if you have missed something that is where you can find it!
And we would really love it if you could help spread the word, you can use the QAL logo (above) as a blog button and link it back to either of our blogs or do a post on your blog (if you have one) to let all your friends know what we are doing!
Hi Everyone,
Just wanted to show you this cute ironing mat that folds up into a bag…
I have the cutest little tiny iron (it does steam too!) but I haven’t been able to use it because I didn’t have an ironing mat!
The idea with these is that you don’t have to get up and walk all the way over to the big ironing board every time you sew two pieces of fabric together…is that lazy or what?!
Mum has a mat that she made in a class and I could have copied that but where is the fun if we all have the same! I saw a picture for this one in a magazine ad and thought I would try to replicate it!
My mat has a layer of Thermoflec, Insulbright, cotton batting and then the fabric. The trick is how it folds up around the iron to turn it into a carry bag…I love the all in one idea!
This will be perfect to take to classes, retreats and sewing days! And I will be using it at home too!
Hi Everyone!
I am super excited to announce that myself and Jess of The Elven Garden will be co-hosting a Quilt Along together, starting on Friday 27th of July.
We would be stoked if anyone would like to join us - we're pretty proud of what we've come up with. Plus there will be prizes! The Fat Quarter Shop have very generously offered to be our sole sponsor for this - we'll be revealing prize details in the next week!
So what is the How Far Will You Go? QAL (maybe HFWYGQAL for short LOL )
Earlier this year Jess mentioned to me that she would like to do a QAL, and I said how about doing one together? So we started planning. I came up with a pretty nice layout for it, and we've been nailing the details over the last few months (getting confusing with the Jess's everwhere?)
It is a sampler style quilt with three different block sizes, and a total of 18 different blocks, so we're hoping it will be a bit of a skill builder as well. The quilt that we'll be making will look something like this, finishing at about 65" x 80":
But as you can see it would be open to mix and match blocks around - so you could do more of some and less of others as you choose! We are also giving the option of making a smaller quilt or quilted item. For example, a 30" mini quilt or a 45" x 50" throw quilt. There will be prizes for each of the three categories, so if you're time poor you can make something small and still enter to win!
So the nitty gritty stuff. This QAL will run over 24 weeks. Yep, nearly 6 months! We will be presenting one tutorial each week, alternating between the two of us who does the tutorial. Then there will be a few weeks for finishing up blocks, quilting and binding - so we're giving you (and us!!) time to get it all done.
TUTORIAL PLAN:
The order for tutorials will be as follows:
Week 1: Susannah (10”) – 2 blocks
Week 2: Weathervane (10”) – 1 block
Week 3: Pieced star (10”) – 3 blocks
Week 4: St Louis Star (10”) – 1 block
Week 5: Jack in the box (10”) – 2 blocks
Week 6: Windblown Square (10”) – 3 blocks
Week 7: Another star (10”) – 1 block
Week 8: See Saw (5”) – 4 blocks
Week 9: Dutch Rose (20”) – 1 block
Week 10: Clay’s choice (10”) – 2 blocks
Week 11: Tippencanoe (5”) – 4 blocks
Week 12: Tassel Flower (20”) – 1 block
Week 13: Crazy Ann (10”) – 2 blocks
Week 14: Farmer’s Daughter (10”) – 1 block
Week 15: Pinwheel skew (5”) – 2 blocks
Week 16: Wandering Foot (20”) – 1 block
Week 17: Rolling Pinwheel (20”) – 1 block
Week 18: Hayes Corner (10”) – 1 block
At the conclusion of the series of tutorials, we will have a two week break to allow participants to catch up on making all of the blocks.
Week 20: Piecing your quilt top together.
Week 21: Ideas for quilting (with two weeks given for finishing the quilting)
Week 23: Binding your quilt.
Week 24: Link up your finished quilt.
Week 25: Prize winners announced.
The prize winners will be randomly selected from all entries.
FABRIC REQUIREMENTS:
I have drawn up the quilt layout using Electric Quilt 7, so we have a fabric requirement guide for the largest quilt size.
Background fabric - 3 yards
Inner border fabric - 1/2 yard
Outer border fabric - 1 5/8 yards
Blocks - a total of about 5 yards of fabric (ie 20 fat quarters, or 10 half-yards or a combination)
Jess will be using her stash of Heirloom by Joel Dewberry for her version – I am using Ruby along with some FMF with Bella Feather for the background.
FLICKR GROUP:
We've started up a Flickr group for you all to share your fabric choices and progress as we make the blocks. We'll also update the Flickr discussions as new tutorials become available.
We are really hoping you'll join us for this QAL!
