Shawl Quilt Along, WEEK 5, EASY WEEK!

Week 5!  EASY WEEK!  (Yay!)  

I saw a quote this week that cracked me up, "Whoever wrote the Phrase 'Easy like Sunday Morning', obviously never had to get kids ready for church."  

So Easy Week can mean different things to us, too!  I was on a getaway with my hubby for five days last week, which probably chewed up 7+ days.  So I'm having a catching-up-then-getting-ahead type of week that will go much like my Sunday mornings;
"Let's go, let's go!"
"That's not done yet?  Yikes!"
"Oh man, we're gonna be late!"

But YOU might have a Lionel Richie type of Easy Week, and not do a thing!  

Last week I chat with Pat Sloan on her APQ podcast.  Have you listened?  What did you think of the conversation? Any thoughts? I'd love hear what you would have liked to add to the chat had we all been at a table together!

Can you believe it's time to start thinking about how to finish this quilt?  Here are some of my quilting ideas for Shawl.

First off are you quilting it yourself, or are you going to jump on Violet Quilts' discounted batting and longarm quilting, exclusive to this Quilt Along?  Any way you do it, I can't wait to see!

When I made Shawl in solids for the What Shade Are You, I wanted an asymmetric crosshatch,  but that proved to be very difficult for a handful of reasons.  Sheri did an amazing job, (really, she's amazing!) but it was hard to sew long diagonal lines on the quilt and make stitch lines match up and not have fabric puckered at crossing stitch lines.  She managed to do an amazing job, but it was not an easy job for her (or for me earlier when I tried it on my domestic machine) so I can't recommend it. 

But perhaps you know just how to do it, and it would turn out great for you!

When I made Shawl in our Bequest line, I chose Fancy Schmancy, an Edge to Edge by Karlee Porter.  I love how it turned out! 

This time I'm planning to use one of these two E2E, I can't choose between on point and straight, I'll be taking it to Sheri to be quilted:

Abacus E2E by Urban Elementz

Square fold by Urban Elementz

If you're thinking of quilting it yourself, here are some great free motion quilting you could consider.  I think this quilt design lends itself to an all over quilting look, so most of these are meander-like quilting that won't draw attention to themselves.

Straight lines, different distances apart:  Use your walking foot!  You'll be sewing across bias, so Spray Baste and starch would be your friends!

Organic Wavy Lines: Use your walking foot!  Consider how high from crest to valley, and how close you want lines to get to each other.

Crossing Organic Wavy Lines: Use your walking foot!  Consider how often you want them to cross over each other, and remember it's easy to get into a visible pattern with this technique, so plan to have ways to break the pattern.

Elongated Meander:  Use your free motion quilting foot! Consider pushing and pulling the quilt through to make the long lines, so you would be working from the side of the quilt if you want these lines to be horizontal.  The lines can be wavy.  Remember to add hooks, Cs, Ns, Es.  You can work your way across the quilt meandering, or pick up and end off on only one side of the quilt at times.

Wood Grain:  Some lines will get very close.  The few lines before or after a knot are very squished close together near the knot, so plan ahead where you would like to have a knot, and set it up a few lines before you get there.  The knot is an elongated swirl,  Some people like the knot to have pointy ends, and some like them soft and round.  
I put little "splinters" in my lines every once in awhile. I make some lines very close together, and some quite far apart, some are wiggly, but most are straight with a little wave.

Please note!  For the final giveaway there's no need to have an entirely quilted and bound quilt.  A  finished quilt top enters you in the final giveaway!

Here's a look at what's coming!

WEEK 5, Apr 22nd

Catch-up, get-ahead or take-it-easy week

WEEK 6, Apr 29th
Step 3 and 4 in the pattern; cutting pieces for outer edges and assembling units.

WEEK 7, May 6th
Assemble quilt top and post by midnight May 12th to be entered in the final giveaway.

May 13th
Final giveaway winner announced!

Congrats to Laurie Macdonald!  She has won the Week 4 prize, this bundle of Bonnie Christine goodness, donated by Beautifully Mended! (Yay!) Please reach out to me with your preferred email address, and I'll get this out to you.

This week’s sponsor is myself!  I'm offering three free digital patterns from the shop! 

Post your week's progress by midnight on Sunday. 

We're getting close to seeing these quilt tops come together.  Can you believe it?