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!

Shawl Quilt - Fabric selection

Today I'm sharing some additional tips on choosing fabrics for the Shawl quilt pattern!


In the Shawl pattern I give some tips on fabric selection, and also in the Color Hexa blog post there are tips on how to choose colour selection.  This extra blog post is not meant to overcomplicate the process, so if you're into a groove with the other resources available, then by all means, stay with what's working for you!  But, since colour selection matters to achieve the woven plaid look of the quilt, and since there are so many ways to choose colours successfully, I thought I'd mention some simple tips for any of you who would find this additional info helpful!

The Shawl quilt is a visual effect, where fabric can achieve the look of a woven plaid. There's a formula in the pattern that can help you choose the right colours, whether you're using prints or solids.

So far I've made this quilt three times, all in very different colour palettes; twice in prints, and once in solids.  So for the upcoming QAL, I thought I'd play with solids once again.  This quilt will be going on my youngest son's bed.  My goal is to re-do all my kids's bedding this year, and so I'm looking forward to knowing this first one will be checked off the list in a matter of weeks!

Here's my in-progress fabric palette.  I'll share my thoughts as I narrow it down to the final palette.

Unlike other times I've chosen a  Shawl palette, I started with a plaid that I liked the colours of.  These two Robert Kaufman plaids were my inspiration.  I didn't have the actual Robert Kaufman Mammoth Flannels on hand though, so my aim was to find a similar:
Black or charcoal,
Red,
White, and
Dark blue,
then put these plaids aside and work with the four colours to find the right interacting colours.

This time I didn't use Color Hexa, or any other digital colour blending tool, just my imagination as I auditioned different bolts of fabric in the fabric store.

Link to the RK website

I've actually ordered this one to use as a backing for either a quilt or a duvet in my boys' room, so I'm excited to have a Shawl quilt that will be inspired by these colours.

At the quilt shop I wrote the letters on a scraps of paper to mark the bolts as I chose, and one by one selected my colours.  In what felt like 45 minutes later walked out with all the fabrics I needed.  I am the slowest decision maker I've ever met, so if I can do it, so can you!

I couldn't decide between two prints for AD and BD, so I settled to just buy both since this quilt shop was 40 minutes from home, and planned to make the final decision later.

Also, AB should be lighter than AC, since B is lighter than C, so I popped into a store today and found the right blue for AC.  (Also I could have switched AB and AC and that could have done the trick, too!

Here are some recommendations for how to simplify the colour selection process:

1.  Search for a plaid that you already like the colours of, and refer to that when selecting your fabric.

2.  Usually we find it pretty easy to imagine what any given colour would look like mixed with black or white, so consider using white or black (or nearly white or black) as one or two of your first four colours.   For this quilt I chose a "nearly-white" pale grey blue for A, and a "nearly black" charcoal for C.  This made choosing blended colours easy!

3.  As mentioned in the pattern: A, B, and AB will be the most used fabrics in your quilt, so find colours for these three that you really love!

4.  Don't overcomplicate the process!  Somehow this perception of a woven plaid still works in prints, even.  Our brains are amazing at perceiving pattern and organization.  For example, don't blue and red make purple?  Yes, but I opted for burgundy/maroon in my palette for the red/blue blended colours.  Though my boys both really like purple, I didn't want to introduce yet another colour into their bedroom, so I was happy to find some burgundies that still fit.

For this blog post, I plunked some similar colours into Electric Quilt, and came up with this image to get an idea of how the colours I chose would look.  If I didn't have EQ, I would have used the colouring page from the pattern.  I like it, and I think my little guy will, too!

We start our QAL on the 25th, kicking it off with a giveaway!  As has been mentioned before, if you have signed up for the QALI'm looking forward to telling you more about the giveaways, and getting acquainted with you and seeing your fabric palettes!  A QAL is a great opportunity to find and make quilty friends, so I'll be encouraging you to share pics of your process and use the hashtag #shawlquilt, and tagging me @briarhilldesigns so that I don't miss a post!

All the important info regarding the QAL is posted in this linked blog post, and signing up for the QAL is there as well!  

I can't wait to get started! 

What Share are You, Coral Shawl Quilt

Fun announcements coming at the end of this blog post!

I'll always love an opportunity to work with RJR's Cotton Supreme Solids.  Beautiful colours, beautiful hand, so many potential colourways to dream about!

In my last What Shade Are You feature in 2017 I played with cool blues, purples and greens, using my Botanica Quilt Pattern.  But this time the gorgeous warm tones were calling to me.

 This is my Shawl quilt Pattern.  I first designed it over a year ago!  I've since made it four times, in three different colourways, but this is the first time I've made it using solids.

Picking out fabrics for this quilt is a different approach than most other quilts I've designed:

First you decide on a handful of colours you want in the quilt.  These become (that were it an actual woven shawl) the yarn colours you would choose to weave the shawl.

I always stay stitch 1/8"from the edge around my quilt before it goes to the longarmer's.  It keeps seams from opening, bias from spreading, and keeps seam allowances the way they were pressed.  Do you stay stitch too?

Next, since on a shawl these different yarn colours cross each other and interact, we need to find a colour that represents an even mix of any two yarn colours.  I used an amazing tool to determine these interactions, The Color Hexa website.  I've just written a Blog post all about how I use it to select colours.

I considered a few different colourways before I decided on this one, and with the help of Electric Quilt, I was able to have a great idea of what these colour interactions would look like.

I really love the colourway I chose (top left), and was able to find the exact colours I needed to make this quilt come to life.  Here are the Cotton Supreme Solids I selected for the quilt top:

 • Ballerina • Rio • Lemon Chiffon • Raging Ruby • Bubblegum • Just Peachy • Elephantastic Pink  • Pink Sapphire • Rhododendron • Guava • Rose Coloured Glass •

Then, since I'll always jump on an opportunity to use low volume neutrals or bling, I chose these C+S Basics for binding and backing.

 • Sprinkles in Jelly Bracelet • Add it up in Party Hat • Netorious in Silver Metallic Cloud •

The end result is a fun play on corals, plum, yellow, and their interactions!

Sheri @violetquilts quilted a sweet crosshatch on the quilt.  I requested an asymmetric crosshatch, and when I dropped off the quilt, we laid it out on her cutting table and she laid a sheet of glass over the quilt.  I drew where I would like the quilting lines to be with a dry erase marker on the glass, then she took it from there.

Batting is Hobbs Tuscany Unbleached Cotton. Almost every quilt I've made uses Hobbs Tuscany Wool, but I wanted a flatter profile for this quilt, and achieved it with the soft and supple Unbleached Cotton.  I did a flanged binding following this tutorial, but I trimmed binding to 1 1/8" once pressed in half, to make my usual 2 1/4" binding.

I've made this pattern in prints as well!  First as a mini in June's Cottage (our first fabric line with RJR), and in Bequest (our second line).  Choosing fabrics to achieve the woven shawl effect can apply to prints and solids, and is all explained in the pattern.

A Stripology Ruler is a great companion while making this quilt!  Highly recommended!

So, four things I'd like to tell you about this quilt:

1.  We're having a giveaway, and we hope you'll enter!  We love when you participate!  For a chance to win these fabrics: 

• Follow @briarhilldesigns, and @rjrfabrics on Instagram, then...

• Tag a friend in the comments on the giveaway post.  Each comment counts as an entry.  There is no limit on how many times you can enter.

A winner will be chosen from both @briarhilldesigns and @rjrfabrics, so comment at both locations!

To sweeten the deal, the winners will also be receiving a digital copy of the Shawl pattern from me.

Giveaway closes Monday Feb 11th, 4pm PST.

2. This pattern is available now in print in quilt shops, and as of today, Shawl Quilt Pattern is available as digital pattern and on sale at 25% off until Tuesday Feb 12!

3. This pattern is kitted through Missouri Star in our Bequest fabrics!

4. I'm doing a quilt along with this pattern starting March 25th.  You can subscribe here, and follow #shawlquilt hashtag on Instagram to follow along.

 While you're here, and if you are on your home computer, you can subscribe to our Blog from the home page of the blog. We'd love to share our creative adventures with you! Thanks so much for dropping by our blog!  See you around!

Color Hexa and how it can help you find the colours you're looking for!

The hugely fun process of picking fabrics for a quilt is often driven by choosing colours that we like together, and finding complementary prints to play out our chosen colourway.

Some quilts will require a little more planning such as the trending modern movement of quilting;  a Transparency Quilt.  Here, your purpose in selecting a colour is finding the right colour to be an equal representation of two other colours, as if the two were blended to make a new colour.

As experienced as we quilters may be at choosing a beautiful palette, and pulling together intriguing colourways, choosing colours for a transparency/interaction effect might be stretching out of our colour choice comfort zone.

For example, I can imagine the colour that these two RJR solids Raging Ruby and Lemon Chiffon  would make when blended, but I can still be quite off-the-mark. 

When I designed my Shawl quilt, I could imagine the different colour threads used to make the plaid, and how these threads interact across a woven Shawl. Sometimes the same colour threads meet, and you have a full saturation of one colour, and sometimes different coloured threads weave into each other and make a new colour.

My goal was to make a process whereby anyone can have success choosing interacting prints or solids, and though this is all discussed in the pattern, I've referred those who have the pattern to this blog post for some additional tips, using the ColorHexa.com website.  Here, you can first select your main colours, then use the Colour Blender tool to find a colour that's an equal representation of those first two colours.

Here's the process:
Once you have selected the main colours in your quilt, and are only looking for the blending/interacting colours, it’s important to take some time and find the digital equivalent of your colour. This can be done by using the Search field on the Color Hexa homepage. With your fabrics beside you at the computer and with good lighting in the room, try to get just the right colour, and record the hexadecimal number for each colour.  

Here are the colours I was looking to match:

These are both RJR Cotton Solids that I used in one of my Shawl quilts. Now hop on over to ColorHexa.com. 

Click on the red dot, and a little colour selector will pop up.

Use your mouse to find the right colour.  First, use the bar on the right to select the general tint of the colour, then move the little dot (found in the top right corner of the square) to make your final selection.  Every little movement will produce a new colour hexadecimal code.

(In case you're curious, a hexadecimal code is one of three digital ways to determine a colour.  1: Colour Name, 2: Hexa, or 3: RGB.  A Hexa code is always a 6 digit code with the first two digits representing an amount of Red, second two digits representing an amount of Green, and the third two, Blue.  Since the amount of Red, Green or Blue could be any number between 0 and 256, letters have been incorporated into the formula to keep the Hexa codes tidy.)

Once you have found what seems like the right colour match to your fabric, click on the code in the search field and press Enter.  This will bring you to a page all about this colour!

Here you can look at some very close alternatives, and maybe one of these alternatives is more like your actual fabric colour.  Record the Hexa code, and start back at the home page to determine the code for your next colour.

So, my deep plummy magenta Raging Ruby code is #ae146b, and my pale buttery yellow Lemon Chiffon is #feea79.  Now to find what these two colours would make if equally blended!

Your next step will be to click on the Colour Blender tool from the home page. 

Follow the method as shown in the "Blend Colours Together" diagram, by adding your two colours together as an equation in the Search field at the top of the page, then press enter.

Next, will pop up your answer!

This colour is a great match to RJR's Rose Coloured Glass, so that was my choice.

A special note to those who are working with the Shawl pattern: Start by finding the Hexa codes for your main fabric choices, then through the colour blender, type in the equation of A+B to get your AB colour, and repeat with other colour interactions listed.

My recommendation is to take a screenshot of every blended colour generated, and bring these screenshots into a word document, list the equation that made this colour and any other important information. This can be saved as a file on your phone while you go shopping, or printed out so that you can properly select these colours. 

This process of finding colours "can" also being used to help select prints, in a general sense. For example, if you have a golden print that you want to mix with a navy, and have no idea what colour that would produce, you could find a colour that well represents the golden print and well represents the navy print, and see what colour is generated. Aim to find a print that is a good representation of the colour generated, and compliments the style and look of the two original prints.

In my experience the Shawl quilt and its plaid effect are very forgiving to loose interpretations of these interactions, so just have fun, and don't be concerned about hunting down the right print!

This Colour Hexa website is incredible!  I'm looking forward to learning more about it!  Have fun as you pick out your colours, and share your palettes with me online!  I love to see what other creatives are up to!