Sweet Home Quilt Along - Week 1

Welcome to the first week of the Sweet Home Quilt along hosted by (me) Sharon Holland, Maureen Cracknell, and Jennifer Jones. Not only are we excited to be working together to bring you this quilt along, but we’re so happy that you’ll be sewing along with us and have this chance to connect!

Many of you have joined Maureen and I for past sew alongs and you’ve already an idea of our hosting style and what to expect during the next six weeks. For those of you that have never sewn along with us I’ll let you know what to expect so you can pace your sewing with us.

Our events are very casual. No sign up, but we encourage you to follow all the hosts because each host will bring their unique perspective to the sewing table and we’re all working with different Art Gallery Fabrics and collections so each of our quilts will looks completely different. Be sure to check out their blog post each week as well as follow along on Instagram!

Each quilt along week will begin with a Wednesday blog post (on each hosts’ site). See the schedule above to know what to expect each week and how we’ve broken this quilt down into manageable goals. By the end of six weeks you’ll have your top done and hopefully quilted, too!

The Friday right after the Wednesday blog post there’ll be a corresponding sponsored giveaway! We’ve coordinated with six fabulous sponsors who’ve donated prizes you’ll love to add to your stash, notions, materials, and equipment in your sewing room.

Be following along on Instagram as all the giveaways will be held on that platform and winners will be randomly drawn on Monday from the #SweetHomeQAL hashtag pool. The quilt along members that post their progress photos to public account on Instagram and use the hashtag #SweetHomeQAL will automatically be entered into every Sweet Home Quilt Along drawing! It’s that easy to enter, so enter often to up your chances!

If you haven’t already purchased the Sweet Home quilt pattern you’ll need to get it from my SHOP in the form of a PDF download or you can purchase it from Fat Quarter Shop as a PDF as well. Once you have your pattern it’s time to pick out your fabrics!

Week 1 - Fabric Selection

Selecting your fabrics can be a simple as digging through your stash and pulling out your favorite prints! You may already have an idea in mind for what you’d like your little neighborhood of houses to look like or have a special recipient in minds and are using their favorite colors.

When I first published this quilt pattern in May I made two quilts, one for my granddaughter and another for her baby brother. They share a room so it was fun to make quilts that fit their unique personalities but still worked together in the same space.

I finished each quilt with 5/8’’-wide Chenille-It Blooming Bias for the cherry on top of an already adorable quilt. You’ll find instructions for adding faux chenille binding to your quilt in the pattern as well as a video tutorial on my Tutorial page. But, we’ll get more into adding binding on Week 5 for finishing your quilt. Just something to think about if you want to order your materials early. You can also finish your quilt with traditional binding—it’s nice to have options!

Read more about the first quilt on the original quilt release post and about the second quilt HERE as well as take a look at a beautiful quilt kit made by Fabric Stork (sorry, this kit is sold out but can give you fabric selection ideas). Also, check out the fantastic Halloween quilt pieced by Fabric Stork for the AGF Sweet and Spooky Look Book.

All these quilts show you finished Sweet Home quilt examples made with beautiful Art Gallery Fabrics. I hope this little Sweet Home quilt show has helped to inspire and get your fabric selecting ideas flowing.

For the quilt along, I’ll be making a third Sweet Home quilt using Art Gallery Fabrics new Terra Kotta collection mixed with a couple Pure Solids and one print from my Spirited collection. This kit is available at Fat Quarter Shop if you’d like to sew a quilt like mine.

For additional kits with Art Gallery Fabrics, check out my August 31st blog post announcing this quilt along. We’ve teamed up with Lady Belle Fabric, Lamb and Loom, and Piper Autumn Designs to bring you Sweet Home quilt kits, making your fabric selection and buying easy. These shops have a limited number of kits still available—so grab yours now before they’re gone!

I love a pretty pile of quilt pieces, don’t you?

I’ve got all my pieces cut out for my Terra Kotta Sweet Home kit and next week we’ll dive into making the Log Cabin houses. This week you should be gathering your fabrics and getting all your pieces cut out. Remember to take lots of fabric pull photos and styled shots like this so you can post your progress to Instagram along with the #SweetHomeQAL hashtag and get your name in the pool for Friday’s drawing!

If you’re still looking for more fabric inspirations, check out Maureen’s blog —she’s going to be working on four quilts—yes, four quilts! She’s got a lovely post prepared with tips on how to streamline your cutting when there’s a lot of pieces (or multiple quilts). Pictured is the Cozy and Joyful kit from Lady Belle Fabric. Lady Belle also has a Sweet Home Halloween version!

Don’t forget to also visit Jennifer Jones over at Penelope Handmade. Jennifer is piecing the Starry Night kit from Lamb and Loom but this is her second Sweet Home quilt because she had stitched the Sweet Home Prairie Companion kit from Pipe Autumn Designs earlier this spring and fell in love with this quilt at first stitch.

And, if you’re still looking for inspiration, take a look at the #SweetHomeQAL hashtag on Instagram and see what the other QAL Makers are using in their quilts—it’s an amazing resource not only to see fabrics but to make new friends!

Meet you back here on Friday as we announce this weeks giveaway prize.

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