Shawl Quilt Along WEEK 6, April 29th

Week 6!

Congrats to Aurelei Callaghan, you've won the Week 5 prize!  I'll be in touch with your winnings!  Eek!

Week 6 Giveaway:

Next week's prize is a surprise from Aurifil!  I love their thread!  40wt is my fave!  I've had the privilege to work with Aurifil on a few different projects.  We have a thread box that has many favourite colours.  We designed our thread box to match our fabric collection June's Cottage, but also to have some pale neutrals that would blend in with piecing with a lot of different colours.  They've also supplied thread for our Bequest Lookbook for piecing and quilting!  We've blogged about these here.



This week we're doing Step 3 and part of Step 4 in the pattern.  We're cutting some blocks and cornerstones in half (step 3), and sewing some sashing together with blocks and cornerstones to make units (part of step 4).  Just do the first two paragraphs of Step 4.  If you have the printed pattern that's to the end of page 13.  If you have the download, stop before the 4th paragraph on page 9.  Assembling diagonal rows, and assemblong these rows into a quilt top are next week's prompts.



Cutting through finished blocks:
It's not often a comfortable feeling to take a block you've carefully made and cut it in half, but you can do it!

My first experience cutting a block in half was on my Glimmering quilt.  The blocks are made with 108 little paper pieced triangles, and I must have checked my directions nearly ten times before I cut them.  It was my baptism of fire of cutting through finished blocks, and now, everything else is easy!


You can do this! Keep the diagrams in the pattern close, and you'll be just fine!

Just to make the process a little easier, I've made a file with some labeled tags to help you keep these new pieces organized, you can download it here.



Sewing blocks, sashing and cornerstones into Units:
Sewing these units makes next week's quilt assembly all the easier!  Make sure that you're sewing sashing pieces to the correct side of the block. Press all seam allowances towards the sashing!


Psst! Next time you make a quilt with cornerstones and sashing, this trick works to make these seams nest.  Either press all seams toward the sashing, (or all seams away from the sashing) and you'll have seam nesting magic!

Isn't this so exciting, seeing these parts start to come together?  Eek!


A heads up for next week's work:
The instructions for assembling this quilt up look more complicated than they really are. Once you start assembling the quilt top into rows, everything will make a lot of sense.  

Some people are drawn to written instructions, some just want to understand the concepts and take it from there, and some people are drawn to an image.  Quilt Assembly includes instructions for all these different learning styles, so go with the instructions that feel most comfortable for you.

Two weeks from today we'll have finished quilt tops!  Can you believe it?!

Here's where mine's at!  My little guy is pretty happy with it!  I need to shop for a flannel backing  that's a good match (I'm hoping for a wideback), so far it's been tough finding the right blue.  I think I'll use the AD (the palest red) for the binding.



I didn't get ahead like I'd hoped, but I did completely catch up, so yay me!  And yay you!  I love to see your quilts come together.










We are here at: 
WEEK 6, Apr 29th
Step 3 and part of 4 in the pattern; cutting pieces for outer edges and assembling units. 


Next week is:
WEEK 7, May 6th (final week of the QAL)
Assemble quilt top and post your progress by midnight, Sunday May 12th to be entered in the last giveaway.


On May 13th, the final giveaway winner will be announced in a final newsletter.


Keep up your inspiring work!  We're getting so close to the finish!

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