Yonder Quilt Along Week 4, May 20th

Week 4!

It's Easy Week, Choose your Adventure week!

I LOVE seeing your posts!  Thanks for sharing, and keep it up!  There are still lots of prizes to be had.

Congrats to Crystal @crystal_quilts!  You've won the  $20 gift card to Stacked Fabrics!  Stacked fabrics can also be found on Instagram, give them a follow!  Send me an email with your preferred email address!

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This week's giveaway is an original painting by Caverly.  I love Caverly's art!  I have a lot of her pieces in my house; mostly oils and a couple watercolours.  Everything she paints or sketches is just so happy.  She has kindly offered an original watercolour painting to this week's winner.  She chose colours for this painting from the Wildwood collection by Rifle Paper Co used in the first Yonder quilt.

To enter this week's giveaway, post a pic of your Yonder whether you've worked on it this week or not, and you'll be entered!

This week's task:
Do as you please.

Easy week is a great opportunity to get ahead, or catch up, or do nothing at all!  How will you spend your week?

Thinking of how to quilt your Yonder?

It won’t be long before these quilt tops are done, and we will be thinking about how to quilt them.  I thought I would share some thoughts on quilting inspiration.

My experience with free motion quilting is very limited. It's not a talent of mine on a domestic machine. My quilts either get long arm service, or I free motion quilt a design on a long arm by using the rental service at Violet Quilts. Strangely, I'm happy with my FMQ work on a longarm, where I don't have the ability on my domestic. I find it so much easier to be successful quilting on the open space of a long arm frame.  Haven't tried it yet?  Maybe there's a local quilter that offers rental.  It's only a little cheaper than having it quilted, but I really enjoy the process and find it energizing to free motion quilt on a longarm.

I've added two files to the bonus files page.  There's a small Yonder block file for testing out a FMQ design, and a full scale Yonder block file to use for practicing FMQ full scale.  Practicing FMQ before you start can start to build muscle memory and get you into a groove before you start on the real quilt.

I'm dividing my go-to quilting favourites into 3 categories:

• Easy ideas for quilting on your domestic (designs I've felt confident doing on my machine, and I bet another beginner would too).
• Advanced free motion quilting on your domestic or a longarm.
• Longarm service pantographs or Edge to Edge (E2E) designs I love.

Easy ideas for quilting on your domestic machine:

The following are techniques I've felt confident doing on my home machine, and though they're basic, I'm really happy with how they turn out.  A walking foot can be very useful for these styles.

Straight lines, different distances apart:  Use your walking foot and guide bar.  You'll be sewing across bias, so starching your quilt top and spray baste while making your quilt sandwich will be your friends.  Since these lines are not all the same distance apart, it takes out the fussing of every line being just so.

Organic wavy lines:  Use your walking foot!  Consider the height from crest to valley, and how close you want lines to get to each other.  Pay attention that these wavy lines end parallel to where they began so that these lines don't start to tilt.

Advanced ways to quilt on your domestic or longarm:

These would be quilted out using any sort of free motion foot on your domestic machine or using a longarm. 

For the pattern's cover quilt I wanted a wood grain design, and after looking at the options, I wanted a greater variety in the design than the repeatable pattern of a pantograph was offering.  So I chose to rent time on Sheri's longarm and quilted it out myself.  I practiced on paper to get an idea of how I wanted it to look, then taped it up so could refer to it as I got started.  I was pretty happy with how it turned out, for my first time.

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.

Elongated Meander:  Although a basic stipple seems like it must be a very easy design to quilt out, it actually takes a lot of practice. I feel this is a good first step (I like the look better than stippling, so I may just stay here).  It looks like water to me!  I love quilting it out.  If you're using your domestic, 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 when the quilt is upright.  If you are doing it on a longarm, let your body sway left to right as quilt it horizontally. The lines can be wavy.  Remember to add hooks and on their sides Cs, Ns, Es.  You can work your way from one side to the other side or pick up and end off on only one side of the quilt at times.

Rainbow Cluster:  Start out with a little arc, then echo with a few more arcs.  Avoid points if possible.  Think in advance where you would like to build your next rainbow, so you know where you're going next.  You can even start your next rainbow in the middle of an arc.  Ideally you'll have rainbows in every orientation so that the design doesn't have a right side up or right side down.

Longarm service pantographs or Edge to Edge (E2E) designs I'm loving:

I've already mentioned how I quilted Yonder #1 for the pattern cover.  #2 and #3 were dropped off for longarm service over a week ago so that I could have them quilted and show you pics during the QAL.  Here are the pantos I used, and a few others I'm crushing on.

Yonder #2

I've chosen this Baptist Fan for my Yonder in Garden Club.  I wanted something curvy since the block is linear.  I felt it would help to meld the soft florals in the fabric and the bold block.  I chose a pistachio thread colour.  The blue floral in the corner is the backing.

Yonder #3

For the Yonder in Mazy, I've chosen a Chicken Wire Edge to Edge, which isn't really a suggestion. I chose it because of the fabric I used. I first fell for Mazy's Garden because I grew up on a little farm, and the colours and artwork reminded me so much of squash blossoms, fresh tomatoes and string beans from the garden. We used Chicken wire to hold up our sweet peas and house the chickens, so to me, it was a perfect fit to the fabric, not necessarily the design of the pattern.

Here are some other pantos I think would be a great fit for Yonder:

This is Boardwalk.  I've used it on my Starstrung quilt and it gave the quilt an amazing texture, especially since I used Hobbs' new Tuscany Supreme Cotton - a double thick cotton batting.  I love how this panto gives texture without drawing attention to itself.  It really shows off a quilt well!

Fancy Schmancy.  Karlee Porter has some amazing retro-tile-inspired pantos.  This has been a favourite.

Here's a Woodgrain that was a contender for Yonder #1, in case you're hoping for woodgrain too!

Cheerio! By Natalia Bonner.  This is on my list to try out sometime.  It looks so good quilted out on other quilts, I bet it would look great on Yonder.

Discounted Quilting Services exclusive to our QAL:

Two amazing Longarm quilters are welcoming your quilts for longarm service, and offering special discounts to you.

Sheri of Violet Quilts is located in Fall River NS, and is my local longarmer.  She has quilted over half my quilts!

Dara Tomasson is in Nanaimo BC, and is well known for her custom longarm quilting.  She's my go-to for custom quilting.

Both quilters are offering 25% off of batting and 10% off of longarm quilting services on all Yonder quilts.  It would be a great idea to be in touch and book with them in advance if you're interested.

Here's what's coming up:
Also remember: Every post sharing your progress enters you for giveaways, even if you haven't fully completed the week's task.  The only exception is the final giveaway, which will be drawn from the finished quilt top/flimsy posts shared.  So there's still prizes to be won as long as you're sharing your progress.  To enter the final giveaway, completed quilt top/flimsy will need to be posted by June 9th.

WEEK 5, May 27th
Sew remaining blocks
Bassinet:   2
Throw:      6
Twin:        9
King:       12

WEEK 6, June 3rd
Layout and assemble quilt top.  Post your finished quilt top/flimsy by midnight June 9th to be entered in the final giveaway, announced on June 10th.

Using Fat Quarters for the Yonder Quilt

Anticipating the question, "Can I use fat quarters for the Yonder pattern?"  I decided to prepare a blog post instructing how to do it.

In answering the question, I'd say, "Yyyyyessss, bbbbbut, it's tight!"

Quilt pattern designers often add 15% more to the yardage requirements to accommodate fabric cut crooked in the store, shrinkage if you prewash, a ruler that slipped, a rotary cutter that went rogue or a mis-cut.  So, yes it can all fit, but I recommend having a couple extra FQs on hand to allow for any additional fabric that might be needed.  This post and the diagrams assume that you will be able to get 17" x 20" of useable fabric from every fat quarter.  So, I was able to make Yonder using fat quarters, and you'll be able to, as well.

Get a printable file of this tutorial here, along with other Yonder bonus files.

This blog post is meant to be used hand in hand with the Yonder pattern, and I recommend you familiarize yourself with the foundational instructions in the pattern before proceeding with this tutorial, so that these instructions make sense.

The Yonder pattern requires 5/8 yard per block, so if you're making the Throw (16 blocks) according to the pattern, you need 16 x 5/8 yd.

Since YOU are using fat quarters, you will need 2 FQs per block.  So if you're making the Throw, (16 blocks), you need 16 blocks x 2 FQs each, totalling 32 fat quarters.

Here are the fat quarter needs for all sizes of the pattern:

Bassinet:  8 FQs 
In the pattern there's an exception for making the bassinet, and using 5/8 yds per block.  This is actually resolved because you are using FQs.  The bassinet has four blocks, but since there's 5 parts to the block you would need five 5/8 yards so you didn't have two sections of the block in the same fabric.  Since you're using fqs, and you need 2 fqs per block (and since you're adding variety to the palette by using 2 FQs per block), there's no exception and you need only 8 fat quarters.

Throw:  32 FQs

Twin:  50 FQs

King:  72 FQs

In the pattern the 5/8 yard allows you to cut all you need for one block out of every single fabric.  Then, that one fabric will part of five different blocks, it will be A - centre square in one block, B - star in another block, C - star echo in another block, etc.

Since YOU are using two fat quarters instead, one fat quarter will be used in sections A, B, D, and the other fat quarter will be used in sections C and E.

Divide your fat quarters into two piles (one that will become sections A, B, D, and the other will become sections C, E.  Follow Step 1 directions in the pattern, refer to the cutting chart in the pattern, and refer to these diagrams.

Note that ALL pieces with the same letter are cut from the same fabric.  This is essential because the Star needs to be made with one fabric to appear as a star, and same goes for other letters with multiple pieces.

An exception:
Beside the fact that you're cutting these pieces from two different fabrics instead of one, the only exception is how you cut B2.  This piece will be cut from the discarded triangle from D.  Stack these four triangles and follow the directions in the diagram.  This will give you the four triangles you need for B2.

Then proceed with Step 2 in the pattern.

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?

Shawl Quilt Along WEEK 4, April 15th

Week 4 of the quilt along, is all about sashing!  I've been impatiently waiting until I get the sashing made before I put some pieces up on my design wall and see how blocks cornerstones and sashing will look together.  I'm happy that we're almost to this point where we get to see all the parts come together, and make a plaid!

Today, I'm chatting with Pat Sloan on her APQ podcast.  I'm vacationing in Utah while we have our chat, so I'll be at a friend's house using their land line.  I'm excited about our talking points, and I'd love to have you listen in, and hear what you would have liked to add to the chat had we all been at a table together!

Some notes for the week!

Take a look at pressing instructions for sashing.  In a way, sashing pressing is opposite what we've done for blocks and cornerstones.  

All sashing will be assembled this week, then next week is Easy Week, where we get to catch-up, get-ahead or take-it-easy.  I think I'll work on getting ahead; how will you use Easy Week?

WEEK 4, Apr 15th
Cut, strip piece and assemble sashing
Crib 36
Throw 100
Queen 144

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 Sharon Marley!  She has won the Week 3 prize, donated by Caverly, my sister-in-law, and co-creator of Briar Hill.  Please reach out to me with your preferred email address, and I'll get this out to you once I'm back at my home computer.

This week’s sponsor is Beautifully Mended, an online fabric shop I adore!  Lacey has a gift for gathering fabrics for curated bundles.  Every time a Beautifully Mended bundle shows up in my Instagram feed I audibly gasp.  I was so thrilled when she contacted me offering to sponsor the QAL and supply one of her magically curated fabric bundles.

Just look at this!

So good!  This bundle of Bonnie Christine goodness will be sent to one lucky winner!

Post your sashing progress by midnight on Sunday for a chance to win.

Happy sewing this week.

Shawl Quilt Along WEEK 3, April 8th

Week 3 of the quilt along, and we are making cornerstones!

Some notes for the week!

Since there are nine identically sized squares in the cornerstone, it’s possible to think you’re sewing fabrics together right, but be mistaken.  Check that your fabrics are in order (1.) in the strip set, and also (2.) when you’re sewing the three strip sets together.

And just in case you have some unfortunate unpicking to do, here’s my trick:  I pick every 7th-9th stitch on one side of the seam.  Then I loosen a thread on the opposite of the seam and pull it away from the seam.

This thread often pulls entirely out without the thread breaking, and I have inch long threads on the other side to easily pull out.

Spice up your sewing!

There is often a huge contrast within this small cornerstone. Sometimes when I have made Shawl, I've changed my thread colour at different times to make sure the thread is a good match, and remains unseen.  (Also I find it spices up the process to use a different thread colour. It's a simple pleasure!)

This week is a light work week.  The cornerstones are small, and we’re making all you need for your quilt top this week.

WEEK 3, Apr 8th
Cut, strip piece and assemble cornerstones
Crib 18
Throw 50
Queen 72

Also here's a look at what's coming next!

WEEK 4, Apr 15th
Cut, strip piece and assemble sashing
Crib 36
Throw 100
Queen 144

WEEK 5, Apr 22nd

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

Congrats to Laurie MacDonald @harbourcolour!  She has won the Week 2 prize, donated by Soak Was Inc..  Please reach out to me with your mailing address, and I'll get that mailed out to you Laurie!

This week’s sponsor is my cohort in creativity, Caverly!  She’ll be sending this bundle of digital artwork/ . Print them and frame for your home, have one printed on fabric, or use one digitally as wallpaper for your phone and computer to brighten up your every day.  My house has several pieces by Cav, and I also have her artwork on my iphone screen.  I am in love with her style!  

Post your cornerstone progress by midnight on Sunday to win!

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!