Welcome to the first week of the 2021 Sweet Home Quilt Along! As I write this blog post on Monday night we have 864 members signed up to make Sweet Home Quilts and be eligible to win our weekly prizes by leaving comments on these weekly posts! Read more about the giveaways at the end of this post.

Many of you just joined this members areas and are discovering the previous QAL blog posts and Kit Directory page with the gorgeous kits available from your favorite shops. There’s still time to either order a kit or shop for your fabrics online or at your local quilt shop or your very own stash because this first week is about gathering your fabrics and cutting out the pieces. The Sweet Home quilt pattern can be purchased in my SHOP.

The fabric pull above is for the first of my two Sweet Home quilt makes and is the Holiday Mix, a non-holiday mix of Art Gallery Fabrics from several of my collections, Maureen’s Open Heart collection, and Amy Sinibaldi’s Velvet collection. This kit is available at Chenille-It and I’ll be finishing the binding with Jade Blooming Bias faux chenille.

I’ve already gotten this Holiday Mix version finished and will be working on my Bookish version (below) in real time during the quilt along. You can preorder the Bookish kit from Lady Belle Fabric.

My co-host Maureen Cracknell and I are so happy to have you sewing along with us as we make our Sweet Home Quilts. Maureen will be making a Sweet Home quilt using her new Art Gallery Fabrics Cozy and Magical collection for a winter village of pure delight! Kits for Maureen’s Cozy version are also available at Lady Belle Fabric.

But what if you’re doing your own thing and pulling fabrics from your stash or doing a little shopping for new fabrics and don’t know where to start??? You’re in luck because the Members Sweet Home QAL Tutorial page has a video all about how to select fabrics for your Sweet Home quilt.

I’ll be continuing to add new helpful videos as the weeks continue. Topics will follow the weekly prompts and include helpful, timesaving tips and patchwork piecing nuggets and tricks.

In the fabric selection video on the Sweet Home QAL Tutorial page I give a run down on how the material list is organized and give tips for how to select fabrics for the various parts of the Log Cabin and Bungalow blocks. The majority of the house pieces are made from 10 different fat quarters with Log Cabin roofs and windows being the first three fat quarters in the material list. The remaining 7 fat quarters are divided between the outer and middle Log Cabin rings and Bungalows. Think about how the prints look next to each other and how much contrast or blending you want the Log Cabin rings to have as well as how the houses stand out compared to your background choice. General rule is if the fabric pull looks beautiful in a stack, it will look good in the quilt.

I photograph everything and have learned that photographing your fabric pull or fabric auditions will help you to see if there’s any fabrics that don’t play well with the others or if the fabrics/prints are too closely matched that they all blend together. There’s something about seeing all those thumbnail images and your phone that allows you to view your selections with a new perspective and see things there you can’t always see right in front of you.

Our Sponsors

Giveaway

Each week as we cover a new Block or quilting technique on this QAL Members blog we’ll also be announcing the weekly giveaway prize! It seemed fitting to give away fabric on our Fabric Selection first week!

TODAY'S FEATURED SPONSOR IS THE FAT QUARTER SHOP!

The Fat Quarter Shop was founded in 2003 by Kimberly Jolly. An avid quilter, Kimberly began her shop as a side business while still working a corporate position, cutting, packing and shipping right out of her house during evenings and weekends. From the very beginning, she was committed to delivering top-notch service for every single order and customer. As the Fat Quarter Shop's reputation grew, Kimberly decided to make it a full-time operation. Her husband Kevin joined her not long after, and with his help, lots of hard work, and a tireless commitment, the store began to grow. Over the past few years a few more people have joined the staff! As a team, they continue to branch out with the best fabrics, exclusive kits, quilt clubs, BOMs, and more. And they will always be driven by the passion that Kimberly founded the store upon, which is always giving you the best products and service!

SHOP * PINTEREST * TWITTER * BLOG * FACEBOOK * YOUTUBE

We hope you enjoy visiting Fat Quarter Shop!

One lucky winner will receive this 16-pc fat quarter bundle of Maureen’s new Cozy and Magical collection for Art Gallery Fabrics from our friends and sponsor’s at the Fat Quarter Shop.

Giveaway now closed

Congratulations to Linsey Matus!

*Note: This giveaway is open to QAL Members. If you're a "no reply" or anonymous commenter, please remember to include your email address in your comment--you can't win if I can't contact you!

1. Simply leave a comment here under this post! (Counts as first comment entry.)

2. Leave a comment about yourself. Have you been quilting forever or brand new to quilt alongs and quilting? Are you a shop owner or fabric lover (hoarder, like me)? (Counts as a second entry).

3. Following me (Sharon), Maureen, and Fat Quarter Shop qualifies you to make a third entry and betters your chances to win this fantastic prize! Just let me know the social platform you’re following us on by making a separate comment on this post (counts as a third entry).

That’s THREE possible entries and up to three chances to win! Enter now through Sunday, August 29, 2021. I’ll be drawing one lucky winner from the comment pool on this post. The winning comment will be picked at random around 4 pm Eastern. I’ll post the name of the winner on this post once they've been notified and responded to my email.

Next week we’ll dive right in to piecing Log Cabin blocks and playing with those pretty fabrics! If you’re on Instagram, we’d love to see your fabric pulls for your Sweet Home quilt. Tag us @maureencracknell and @sharonhollanddesigns and use the #sweethomeqal2021 hashtag.

Thanks for joining us on this fun quilt along, we’re so happy you’re here!

Sharon & Maureen