Shawl Quilt Along WEEK 2, April 1st

It’s Week Two of the Shawl Quilt Along! I am looking forward to finishing up blocks this week. It was so nice to sit down at my sewing machine last week and just do some easy sewing.

Here are some things I wanted to make note of this week! 

First off, Seam Allowance:

In most quilts it is important to have an exact quarter inch seam allowance to make all the pieces fit. In case you're still working on excelling at your quarter inch seam allowance, you can breathe easy in this quilt. As long as your seam allowance is consistent, your blocks, sashing and cornerstones will all end up that little bit bigger or smaller.  It works out this way because all three sections of the quilt (block, sashing, and cornerstone) have the same number of horizontal and vertical seams.  They will all turn out being a little big if you have a scant quarter inch and being a little small if you have a generous quarter-inch. Either way doesn’t matter. You don’t have to worry about the finished size of the blocks.

As long as your seam allowance is consistent, the three sections will all end up fitting together.

This weekend my guild is going on retreat.  I’ll be there for a day and a half, and I’m looking forward to just sewing.  I'll finish up my blocks, cut out my cornerstones for Week 3, and work on a few other projects.

Second:

Take a moment this week and place a little swatch all of your fabrics into this chart in your pattern.  This will be a great reference as you sew parts of cornerstones and sashing together. 

So far we have only worked with three colours, but in the next weeks will be working with many more colours.  It could be an easy mistake to sew two of the wrong colours together, or sew strip sets upside down in the cornerstones.  Having this chart as a reference is a great idea.  You know what they say, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of stitch ripping!"

In case you hadn't seen this announcement:

Congrats to Melanie from @abitofscrapstuff.  She's won a big bundle of Missouri Star rulers and templates!  Thanks Missouri Star!  Also, thanks to you for following along.  This Quilt Along is full of amazing prizes, so keep those pictures coming of your progress, and perhaps you'll win this week's prize...

...which is sponsored by Soak Wash.  I contacted them asking if they might like to be sponsors especially because I love to tell others about products I enjoy.  Soakwash has three different products in a variety of scents (and unscented). 

Their first product is Soak, which is a liquid soap that cleans your handknits and delicates just by letting them soak.  No agitation required!  

Their second product is Flatter.  It's a spray which releases wrinkles with or without ironing.  It allows the fabric to rest, so it's also great for pressing seams flat.  You know that pesky crease right in the middle of a width of fabric?  Once I've sewn my strip set together, I spritz a little on those creases, then the fabric rests and lays flat! 

Their third product is Handmaid, a soothing hand lotion!

Soakwash is giving one of us a bundle of all three products in their Celebration scent.

Winner will be drawn from posts sharing your progress for this week.  Post by midnight on Sunday to enter!

Happy sewing this week, guys!