Sweet Home Quilt Along Giveaway Week 5

Sweet Home Quilt Along Giveaway Week 5

Each Friday, throughout the Sweet Home Quilt Along, there’ll be a Giveaway. Your QAL hosts, Maureen Cracknell , Jennifer Jones, and myself have coordinated special giveaway prizes with our amazing participating sponsors for each and every week! If you've happened to miss the first Sweet Home QAL post, take a look back and read about it HERE then follow the posts in chronological order until you get caught up.

These Friday blog posts will highlight the Sponsor and awesome giveaway prize offered for this week’s QAL giveaway. The randomly drawn winners will be selected from the growing Instagram hashtag pool the following Monday around 4 pm Eastern with the winner(s) announced on Instagram.

Recent #SweetHomeQAL posts in the Instagram hashtag pool

Is your Instagram post featured in this #SweetHomeQAL hashtag pool snapshot for this week???

We’re using Instagram as a Sweet Home QAL community share spot where we can follow along and comment on each others quilt progress and share beautiful photos of our work.

Every time you share a post to your public instagram account and use the official #SweetHomeQAL hashtag in your post caption your post is automatically entered into the giveaway hashtag pool! That’s right—it’s as easy as that—just do what you’d do anyway! So, to up your chances, post a lot of of progress shots of your fabric pull, cut pieces, blocks, sashing, assembly, tops, and ultimately, finished quilts.

You may notice I keep saying you need a public Instagram account to be entered into the giveaway drawings. That’s because if you have your IG account set as a private account, Instagram does not add any hashtags to hashtag pools from private accounts—it’s just the way they roll. So, you may want to go into your IG settings and turn your account to public for the QAL or if not, and I totally get the need for privacy in this strange world we live in, just know that you won’t be eligible for the giveaways.

SWEET HOME QAL SPONSORS

TODAY'S FEATURED SWEET HOME QAL SPONSOR IS Oliso!

At Oliso, they believe in the human-centered design process. San-Francisco based team of inventors, engineers and researchers know that great ideas are best inspired by listening to people. See how their products can change your home and lifestyle for the better.

Oliso | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

Visit Oliso to see all their fine products.

Each Oliso Mini Project Iron™ comes with its solemate™, a silicone trivet that hugs the mini iron for travel and storage and functions as a safe place for the soleplate to rest while ironing.

For this week's Sweet Home QAL Giveaway, Oliso is offering one lucky winner their pink Oliso Mini Project Iron™ which brings you the power of a full size iron in an adorable compact design.

Don’t forget to share your Sweet Home quilt makes with your fellow quilt along makers over on Instagram and you’ll automatically be entered into this week’s drawing if you have a public IG account. One winner will be drawn from the growing hashtag pool on Monday, October 12th around 4 pm Eastern and the winner will be tagged and notified on Instagram on the original giveaway post.

Be sure to follow along on all three host’s blogs as well as our Instagram accounts: Me @sharonhollanddesigns , Maureen @maureencracknell , and Jennifer @penelopehandmade

I also want to let you know that during the QAL Jennifer and I plan to have impromptu IGTV live videos to give you tips and tricks for sewing your Sweet Home Quilt.

View my IGTV Sweet Home QAL series

View Jennifer’s IGTV story

Next Wednesday is week 6 and the final week of the Sweet Home Quilt Along. The grand finale will be a chance for all three hosts to show off their Sweet Home quilts and a grand finale needs a grand prize we can’t wait to reveal next Friday!

—Happy sewing

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post or related items I think you may enjoy.

Sweet Home Quilt Along - Week 2

Sweet Home Quilt Along - Week 2

Welcome to the second week of the Sweet Home Quilt along hosted by (me) Sharon Holland, Maureen Cracknell, and Jennifer Jones. We’re excited to be working together as hosts to bring you this quilt along and to have this chance to connect with the Sweet Home quilt makers on our Instagram community!

I hope you’ve been following along on all three hosts blogs and Instagram accounts as we’re each making different versions of this quilt and let me tell you I’m loving ALL OF THEM!! See what Maureen Cracknell and Jennifer Jones are stitching up.

If you’re just joining us you’ll probably want to pop over to the Sweet Home Quilt Along - Week 1 post to get caught up. Purchase the Sweet Home quilt pattern from my SHOP here.

If you’ve been following along since the start then you should already have your fabrics cut out and are now ready to begin piecing the Log Cabin blocks.

The quilt along will run six weeks and we’ll cover a different aspect of piecing or finishing for that week. Some of you are working ahead and that’s wonderful—it’ll give you more time for the quilting and finishing portion. This quilt along is very relaxed. If you feel like completing the top in a week, go for it! But, if you’re a beginner and want more instruction along the way—we have that too in the form of LIVE and recorded Instagram tutorials over on my IGTV channel on Instagram.

Today we talk about piecing the Log Cabin blocks. I’m using Art Gallery Fabrics Terra Kotta prints mixed with AGF Pure Solids Sandstone for the background and one of my Spirited prints for half of the Log Cabin block roofs. If you’ve purchased this kit from Fat Quarter shop and did NOT get a Pattern Supplement sheet like the one below, contact me via email or on Instagram and let me know—I’ll send you the sheet.

Sweet Home Terra Kotta kit from Fat Quarter Shop

I’ve recorded step by step tutorials for you to access on my @sharonhollanddesigns IGTV channel on Instagram and so far the Sweet Home Quilt series covers fabric selection and Log Cabin block construction.

Since all the tutorial stuff is covered on Instagram, this post is going to be more of a chance to show off pretty photos of my newly made blocks—I literally got them done and photographed just before writing this block post!

I love making Log Cabin Blocks and going round and round the center piece. I suggest making one block through from start to finish to become comfortable with the instructions and then once you have it figured out you can utilize chain piecing or chain stitching to save time on those repetitive sewing steps.

Please note that although some of your Sweet Home house pieces have been cut directionally (like the chimneys, the windows, and portions of the Bungalow base) the rest of your pieces have been cut to best maximize the material and reduce how much material you needed to use. So, that also means that the long sides of your Log Cabin blocks will have the print running side to side and the short piece will have the print running up and down.

You can however control your print direction on squares and the flippy corners on the rooflines/background. Read further down for more information on roof/background direction control.

Chain stitching photo courtesy of Jennifer Jones

In my tutorials I’ve broken down the Log Cabin block into Log Cabin base construction and roof construction. The tutorials stress chain piecing as a time saving technique and once you get into the swing of how a block is constructed it’ll be fun and relaxing way to construct your blocks.

When you get into chain piecing assembly-line mode, make all the bases first according to the pattern, kit, or your coloring sheet guide then move onto assembly-line piecing the roof tops.

If you’re going by the PDF pattern and using two different prints for the Log Cabin roofs the construction for these are the same no matter what fabrics you use. Just be sure to flip out the first corner before adding on the other side. Here I started with the chimney side before adding the simple square side but the results are the same, even if you reversed the order.

I’ve got a tutorial that was created for the Sewcial Bee Sampler that will be very helpful for these flippy corners if you’re looking to control the direction of a print. The tutorial talks a lot about half-square triangle (HST) construction but the principle of auditioning the fabric is the same that I’d use for auditioning a directional print on a flippy corner. I also show and cover this in my Instagram IGTV channel in the Log Cabin part 5 video.

I feel that one of the most important things you can do to improve your patchwork is to press every step of the way. Working with flat fabric keeps your seams crisp and block true to size. This Oliso mini iron is perfect to set up beside your work station for quick pressing.

All ten Log Cabin blocks are stitched and pressed. I’m really loving this Terra Kotta palette and am excited to see how it all looks up on my design wall—I’ve not even had a chance to lay them all out yet!

The three of us hosts have each done some styled flat lay photos of a block with flowers, evergreens, and props all inspired by Nuria Elkins Sweet Home Block picture as seen in this spring. These photos had to be the most fun all images to take—be sure to check what the other hosts photographed!

Next week we’ll be making Bungalow Blocks and I’ll have some new LIVE video to add to my IGTV channel. If you’re on Instagram when I go live, be sure to stop by and say hi!

Don’t forget that this Friday will be a new Friday Giveaway with fabulous prizes from our sponsors. Be following along on Instagram as all the giveaways will be held on that platform and winners will be randomly drawn the following Monday from the #SweetHomeQAL hashtag pool. The quilt along members that post their progress photos to public account on Instagram and use the hashtag #SweetHomeQAL will automatically be entered into every Sweet Home Quilt Along drawing! It’s that easy to enter, so enter often to up your chances!

And, while you’re on Instagram, take a look at the #SweetHomeQAL hashtag on Instagram and see what the other QAL Makers are using in their quilts—it’s an amazing resource not only to see fabrics but to make new friends!

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post or related items I think you may enjoy.

Heart Quilt Sew Along - Week 3

Heart Quilt Sew Along - Week 3

It’s the final week in the Heart Quilt sew along. This fast and fun sew along has been hosted by myself and Maureen Cracknell with special thanks to Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew for allowing us to use her Heart Block in our quilt layout.

If you’re just joining us, you’ll want to get up to speed by reading first weeks post announcing the sew along. If you’re already making heart block or at the point to start adding the sashing and borders—check out week 2 HERE.

This last post is dedicated to turning that top into a quilt plus I’ve added an extra bonus project for all those left over half square triangles from trimming the large flippy corners off the hearts!

Quilting

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I'm directing you to the blog post for Finishing that was originally posted during the Sewcial Bee Sampler sew along. You'll find all the tutorial information for spray basting, quilting, and binding your quilt. The sizes have changed but the concept for basting, quilting, and binding your quilt are the same. As stated in that post, there are many ways to finish a quilt and I am blogging about how I finish my quilts. If you have a preferred method, please do it the way you're comfortable with. If you intend to send your top off to be professionally quilted, discuss with your long-arm quilter how they'd like you to prepare your quilt top and backing for being quilted. 

I'm not a professional quilter by any means. I get by and call my quilting style "organic" because it's not perfect and lines are not straight. I love the human touch that non-perfect quilting adds to my quilts. I used my mid-arm Viking Platinum 16 for quilting my top. The quilting guide lines were marked out ahead of time and the quilting went really fast after that to just follow the diagonal lines as shown below in the quilting diagram.

Quilting diagram

I used my favorite Hobb’s Tuscany Silk batting inside my quilt and love how light and drapey it is—especially for handling and maneuvering when quilting.

The backing on my quilt is from my Everlasting fabric collection for Art Gallery Fabrics and is called Summer’s Dance. For the binding I used Woodblock Ballerina that was also used for hearts.

Here’s another look at the prints that went into my quilt. My Heart quilt’s stitched from a curated mix of fabrics from Art Gallery Fabrics Ballerina Fusion (a recolored mix of AGF designer prints), my Spirited, Everlasting, Signature, and Maureen’s Enchanted Voyage and Mystical Land collections.

My non-traditional Valentine colors remind me of sugared gum drops and candy. I’m crazy over this color palette and went with my heart when I did my fabric pull.

One of the biggest challenges of photographing quilts this time of year is the gloomy, cold weather. I had some grand plans for how to photograph this out doors but the wind didn’t cooperate. It started to rain shortly after we got these shots…

Be sure to check out Maureen’s blog to see her finished quilt top and bonus project from left over HSTs all made using a mix of Amy Sinabaldi’s MayFair and the new Foresta Fusion collection. Quilt kits for Maureen’s quilt are available at Lady Belle Fabric.

Photo and Heart quilt by Maureen Cracknell

Bonus Project

Since I finished my quilt by Sunday I could’ve easily stopped there, written this blog post and moved on to the other projects stacking up on my desk but no—that’s too easy!

Remember in my Instagram Stories videos where I told you to hold onto those large half square triangle (HST) waste pieces???

I turned mine into this fun pillow! As a bonus, I’ll share with you how to make one (or more) for yourself!

The beauty of this type of project is that it can be customized to any size you want. I happened to have an extra rectangular pillow I wasn’t using anywhere in the house so I used it as my pillow form. It measures around 14’’ x 26’’ and is probably not a standard size.

I trimmed 36 HSTs to 3-1/2’’ square using my Bloc_Loc Ruler then arranged them into a design. I would’ve loved if the design was symmetrical but no such luck in this improv piece using scraps. I don’t really notice it now that the pillow is done.

I added 2’’-wide strips to the top and bottom to get it all up to the size I needed.

I’ve done a few projects on this blog where I’ve incorporated Chenille-it Blooming Bias and I can’t tell you enough how much I love this added texture—especially to pillows!

After stitching quilting lines to outline the chevron shapes 1/4’’ inside the seam allowances I added the 3/8 inch-wide Chenille-it to my pillow top. Stitching the blooming bias down not only adheres the product but also works as quilting.

I added two echo rows of chenille to the background areas. To read about how to stitch and then bloom the chenille, read more on my Chenille Pillow with Hidden Zipper post/tutorial. Plus, to see the gorgeous decorator pillows I made more recently with my Spirited Trail Marker print and Chenille-it, read HERE.

For more Chenille-it projects, here’s a fun You Tube video!

Personally I love a zipper closure on a pillow. Especially in a case like this where I’m using an existing pillow as the pillow form and like to switch out or clean the pillow covers regularly. You’ll find my go-to method for adding a hidden zipper on a pillow HERE. It’s insanely easy to do!

Now, not only do I have a heart quilt to snuggle under this Valentine’s Day but I have a coordinating pillow to go along with it!

Maureen and I want to thank you for sewing along with us and sharing your progress of your blocks to Instagram. We love seeing your work and encourage you to follow along, share, and tag when you post. Use the sew along hashtag of #agfLOVEquilt and be sure to tag @sharonhollanddesigns @maureencracknell and @cluckclucksew so we can see your progress! If you’re sewing with Art Gallery Fabrics don’t forget to tag them too as they love to see what Makers are making with @artgalleryfabrics !

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post or related items I think you may enjoy.