Come join our Quiltalong!!!

Hip hip hooray! It's my one year blogging anniversary today. I can't quite believe it - a whole year has flown by and blogging has become such a big part of my life! I'll share my "blogiversary" thoughts more with you tomorrow (along with a Love-ly giveaway!) but I think it's totally appropriate that I am celebrating today by kicking off a great new Quilt Along which I am hosting jointly with my good friend Jennifer of Ellison Lane Quilts.

I “met” Jennifer a few months ago through commenting on each others blogs and we quickly developed a great friendship, chatting frequently over email, despite never having met, or spoken to each other! We began to generate ideas for a joint project - and here it is!! Jennifer and I have lots in common despite the fact that she is living in Charlotte, North Carolina and I am in Cork, Ireland - both with young families, both relatively new to quilting and both drawn to colour and clean, modern design. I love Jennifer’s quilting style - check out her beautiful quilts and how she uses colour and beautiful modern fabrics. I am a bit of a fabric addict myself and only wish I had the funds to match my taste :-) I also love working with fab modern fabrics and love simple, elegant designs. If you want to have a look at some of my quilts, you'll find them here.

I’m so excited to be jointly hosting my first Quiltalong with Jennifer! And we would just be totally thrilled if you would join us.

Why Join In?

This is really a great quiltalong for beginners or peeps who are quite new to quilting, with a simple but striking block design which is a great introduction to patchwork and quilting. If you've never participated in a quiltalong before and have been nervous about getting involved - well then, this is definitely the one for you! Both Jennifer and I remember feeling that feeling really well - and we have done our best to make this a fun and achievable quiltalong, with step by step tutorials and links to other resources. We are happy to answer lots of questions and help out if we can.

But, if you're a more experienced quilter, we think you will really enjoy it - it will be a fun, low stress pattern allowing you to focus on the fabrics, colours and design layout - and most importantly the fun!! Plus, you'll end up with a gorgeous quilt.

I’m looking forward to double the fun, with a quilt designed by two friends and made with friends Across the Sea! So please, come join us for the next 8 weeks while we have some fun and make something beautiful....

Let's get down to the detail, will we?

Quilt Size and Design:

This quiltalong is inspired by the Greek cross block and we'll be posting instructions for two sizes - a lap quilt and a baby quilt size. The front is designed by Jennifer and will look like this, with a scrappy border framing the cross blocks:

And I have designed a pieced back incorporating "floating" cross blocks to make it extra special. It will look pretty much like this, although there may be some variations. Some of the cross blocks will have scrappy borders echoing the border on the front:

We will be posting instructions in 2 generous sizes:

• Lap Size -58" x 70" approx (as layouts above) which Jennifer will be making.
• Baby Size - 46" x 54" approx which I will be making.
  
  

The baby size layouts will look like this:



TimeLine:

This is an 8 week quiltalong - we're aiming to finish up on 3rd October. We'll be posting the full schedule on Thursday, but will kick off cutting fabric next week.

Fabric Requirements:

Lap Size -

Cross Fabric - 1 layer cake OR 26 FQs (for no repeats ) / 13 FQs (incl 1 repeat) OR scraps (should be at least 10x10")

Breakdown:-

• Front - 22 layer cake squares/20FQs (no repeats)/10FQs (1 repeat)/scraps
• Scrappy Border - will come from leftovers of all layer cake squares
• Back - 8 squares of layer cake/6 FQs (no repeats)/3 FQs (1 repeat)/scraps
  
  

Background Fabric -

Breakdown:-

• 4 yards for the front (Blocks & Borders)
• 4.5 yds for back (generous sizing to allow for seam alignment)
  
  

Batting - 64 x 76

Binding - 0.5 yards

Baby Size -

Cross Fabric- 1 layer cake OR 16 FQs (for no repeat) 8 FQs (incl 1 repeat) OR scraps (should be at least 10x10")

Breakdown:-

• Front - 12 layer cake squares/12FQs (no repeats)/6 FQs (1 repeat)/scraps

• Scrappy Border - will come from leftovers of all layer cake squares
• Back - 6 squares of layer cake/4 FQs (no repeats)/2 FQs (1 repeat)/scraps

Background Fabric -

Breakdown:-

• 1.5 yards for the front (Blocks & Borders)
• 3.25 yds for back (generous sizing to allow for seam alignment)
  

Batting - 52" x 60"
Binding - 0.5 yards

Fabric Shopping!

Need fabric inspiration? Get yourself over to our QAL sponsors Sew Fresh Fabrics and pick out something lovely for your quilt. They have FQ bundles, layer cakes, solids - you name it! - all sorts of beautiful fabric for your quilt. They have super quick delivery too, my orders from them usually arrive in less than a week here in Ireland. Even better, Peg and Becca have kindly agreed to discount the shipping costs - with free domestic/ half off International Shipping on orders totaling $35.00 or more. Just enter the code FAIRYLANE in Notes to Seller upon checkout and they will refund the shipping via paypal upon shipment.

Alternatively, get shopping in your stash - you could even make this from scraps!

This is what I am using - my FQ bundle of Just Wing It by Moda. I'll be making the baby size quilt for my brand new, 3 day old niece R.

Flickr Group:

We have set up a Flickr group for everyone participating in the QAL - we hope that you'll join us over there to post up your fabric choices, layout decisions, piecing and quilting progress and eventually your finished quilts. Flickr groups are where a huge amount of QAL fun takes place so please make sure you get involved! Its a great source of info and help too.

Giveaway Incentive:

Finally - if you still need an incentive - our QAL sponsors Sew Fresh Fabrics are offering two prizes of $20 gift certificates to be drawn from peeps who finish up their quilts and post them in the Flickr group by the end of the day Monday 3rd October. A great way to increase your stash :-)

Ok, so have you got all that? If you have questions please email Jennifer or I or just leave a comment and we'll do our best to answer! I have a button for your blog too!!

<a href="http://fairyfacedesigns.blogspot.com/p/across-sea-qal.html" target="_blank"><img alt="Across the Sea Quilt-Along" src="http://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l623/ellisonlanequilts/QAL%20Across%20the%20Sea/QALAcrosstheSeaSquarebutton.jpg"/></a>

Well, are you in??