Sweet Home Quilt Along Grand Finale Giveaway

Sweet Home Quilt Along Grand Finale Giveaway

This is our grand finale giveaway for the Sweet Home Quilt Along. Your QAL hosts, Maureen Cracknell , Jennifer Jones, and myself have coordinated special giveaway prizes with our amazing participating sponsors for each week during the event and a big finish deserves a big prize! A winner will be randomly selected from the growing Instagram hashtag pool Monday, October 19th around 4 pm Eastern with the winner announced on the giveaway post on Instagram.

Just Getting Started Sewing?

If you’re just finding out about the quilt along you can still work on your own and take advantage of the quilt along tutorials. Take a look at the Week 6 review post which contains all the links from the beginning.

Recent #SweetHomeQAL posts in the Instagram hashtag pool

Is your Instagram post featured in this #SweetHomeQAL hashtag pool snapshot for this week???

We’re using Instagram as a Sweet Home QAL community share spot where we can follow along and comment on each others quilt progress and share beautiful photos of our work.

Every time you share a post to your public instagram account and use the official #SweetHomeQAL hashtag in your post caption your post is automatically entered into the giveaway hashtag pool! That’s right—it’s as easy as that—just do what you’d do anyway! So, to up your chances, post a lot of of progress shots of your fabric pull, cut pieces, blocks, sashing, assembly, tops, and ultimately, finished quilts.

You may notice I keep saying you need a public Instagram account to be entered into the giveaway drawings. That’s because if you have your IG account set as a private account, Instagram does not add any hashtags to hashtag pools from private accounts—it’s just the way they roll. So, you may want to go into your IG settings and turn your account to public for the QAL or if not, and I totally get the need for privacy in this strange world we live in, just know that you won’t be eligible for the giveaways.

After this week, there’ll no longer be giveaways but please, keep adding your progress and finish quilt photos to the hashtag pool as our growing community would love to see your finished work.

SWEET HOME QAL SPONSORS

TODAY'S FEATURED SWEET HOME QAL SPONSOR IS Lady Belle Fabric!

Lady Belle Fabric is run by husband and wife team, Rob and Brooke. In their shop you'll find kits, both bundles and single cuts of hand-picked fabrics that are fresh, modern, and fun! Designer fabrics include many of our favorites -- Art Gallery Fabrics, Cotton + Steel, Figo, Robert Kaufman, Moda, and more! Lady Belle Fabrics goal is to offer the most gorgeous fabric as quickly as they can. Visit them today for an online, one-stop shop for all your fabric and edge to edge quilting needs! 

Right now, all Sweet Home quilts sent to Lady Belle Fabric by December 31, 2020 will get 15% off their long arm order!
   
Shop  *  Instagram  *  Facebook  *  Pinterest  

Our grand finale prize is an amazing package from Lady Belle Fabric in which the randomly drawn winner will receive free long arm quilting, batting, and return shipping for their Sweet Home quilt! Incredible, right!!??

I’ve gotten several quilts edge to edge stitched by Brooke and she’s really the best! She works with you to pick out the right quilting pattern for your quilt, advices on thread color, and does the most professional job! But, rather than me just tell you about it, let me show you her work from quilts done this year.

Above is the original Sweet Home quilt in the Daisy Chain pattern. My second Sweet Home quilt (in blue) was also quilting by Brooke.

Prairie Flower by Sharon Holland

The exquisite Abstract Rose pattern was used on my Prairie Flower quilt.

We went all out on my Vista quilt and selected the all-over Feathered Spiral design to fill the large open spaces on this quilt. I think it looks like tooled leather and so perfect for this quilt.

Trapeze quilt by Sharon Holland

Here’s a sneak peak at Trapeze, a new quilt release for next week that’s also quilted by Lady Belle Fabric. I mixed things up a bit and had Brooke quilt this quilt with a design called Triangle Loops and am so happy with it—I can’t wait to show it off.

These are just a few examples but you will want to check out all the beautiful quilting designs Brooke has to select from yourself, HERE.

Sweet Home quilts by Sharon Holland

Don’t forget to share your Sweet Home quilt makes with your fellow quilt along makers over on Instagram and you’ll automatically be entered into this week’s drawing if you have a public IG account. One winner will be drawn from the growing hashtag pool on Monday, October 19th around 4 pm Eastern and the winner will be tagged and notified on Instagram on the original giveaway post.

I want to thank everyone who joined in on our quilt along and made a Sweet Home quilt. I’m so honored you selected my pattern to put all your love and time into and wish you years of good health and snuggles under those colorful roofs.

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post or related items I think you may enjoy.

Sweet Home Quilt Along - Week 5

Sweet Home Quilt Along - Week 5

Welcome to the fifth week of the Sweet Home Quilt along hosted by (me) Sharon Holland, Maureen Cracknell, and Jennifer Jones. It’s been fun to connect with the Sweet Home quilt makers on our Instagram community and here on our blogs. The quilts being made are so adorable—see what I mean when you search the #SweetHomeQAL hashtag on Instagram.

If you’re just joining us you’ll probably want to pop over to the Sweet Home Quilt Along - Week 1 post to get caught up. You can purchase the Sweet Home quilt pattern from my SHOP here.

The quilt along will run six weeks total and we’ll cover a different aspect of piecing or finishing for that week. Some of you are working ahead and that’s wonderful—it’ll give you more time for the quilting and finishing portion. This quilt along is very relaxed. If you feel like completing the top in a week—go for it! But, if you’re a beginner and want more instruction along the way—we have that too in the form of LIVE and recorded Instagram tutorials over on my IGTV channel on Instagram. I’ve recorded step by step tutorials for you to access on my @sharonhollanddesigns IGTV channel on Instagram and so far the Sweet Home Quilt series covers fabric selection, Log Cabin block, and Bungalow block construction.

Assembly and Finishing

We’ve got a lot to cover this week as we assembly our quilt sandwich, quilt, and bind our Sweet Home quilts. Luckily, I’ve covered different aspects of how to quilt a quilt on my other Sew Alongs and Tutorials so as you continue reading, be watching for the highlighted links to take you to those previous posts and tutorials.

Basting

If you’re planning to do your own quilting for this quilt I recommend spray basting. I’ve tried a few different brand and hands down I love Odif 505 brand the best. See the step-by-step instructions for how I sandwich my quilt layers and apply the spray baste in the Basting tutorial as part of my Sewcial Bee Sampler Quilt Finishing post.

For all the quilts shown in this post I used Hobbs Tuscany Silk batting inside and love working with it if I’m the one quilting but since I’ve sent my quilts to Lady Belle Fabric with Tuscany Silk batting to use she now carries it as a batting option in her shop because she also loves working with it too!

Quilting

Even if you’re not planning to do your own quilting you’ll still need some inspiration for just how to quilt your quilt. A good long armer will help you decide what may look best.

I personally love an overall design that may not have anything to do with the quilt design at all but that it adds another layer of goodness to the entire finished piece.

It’s certainly not my best work ever but I have my quilt finished and did the quilting myself this time around. I went with one of my favorite quilt designs, the Fan or Baptist Fan design. I’ve a tutorial for how to mark out a quilt and stitch in a continuous line. Read more HERE.

For more information on how I quilt using a mid arm machine and some easy looping stitches read more HERE.

The two Sweet Home Quilts I made in the spring I sent off to Brooke Becker of Lady Belle Fabric to be long arm quilted. The blue quilt above has an overall geometric pattern called Abacus.

This quilt was made for my grandson who love stripes so the diagonal lines of the quilting were just perfect to highlight all the lines already happening in the quilt. I also bound the quilt with light blue Chenille-it Blooming Bias.

For my granddaughter who loves pink and flowers I had Brooke use the Daisy Chain design for the quilting.

Chenille-it Blooming Bias was also used to edge this pretty Sweet Home quilt and I used the natural color for this one. It’s really the perfect finish for this fun quilt.

Binding

The Sweet Home quilt pattern includes information for traditional strip binding as well as how to attach Chenille-it Blooming Bias tape for the binding. I’ve tutorials for both!

Regular Double-fold binding is the most common type of binding and done by cutting width of fabric strips. The Sweet Home quilt pattern includes my method for attaching traditional binding and you’ll also find step-by-step instructions for traditional and bias binding HERE and even more instructions and step-out photos HERE.

Attaching Chenille-it Blooming Bias tape to your quilt for binding is a little different and possibly easier than traditional binding. Faux chenille binding does not fully encase the raw edge of the quilt like traditional binding does so the first thing you’ll want to do it to zig zag or serger the edges of your quilt.

I’ve made a YouTube video that shows you exactly how to apply this fun product to your Sweet Home Quilt.

For my quilt along Sweet Home make I used the Cinnamon colored faux chenille for my binding. Binding is applied in double layers to both the front and the back of the quilt. Below is how the Blooming Bias looks stitched to the edges and before 'blooming' in the laundry.

To “bloom” the bias tape you can run your quilt through a gentle cycle wash in the laundry. Blooming can be done by hand but is more successful if the quilt is laundered.

Toss the quilt into the dryer on a low, gentle tumble. I have dryer balls I use in the dryer that also help to fluff the quilt and dry it faster. I prefer to leave my quilt just a touch damp for reshaping and a light press but you may love a dryer-crinkled quilt so wash and dry like you would normally with your quilts.

Next week it’s all about the big reveals! I’ll show off my lovely Sweet Home quilt with it’s Art Gallery Fabrics Terra Kotta prints and my co-hosts will have their quilts to show off!! I’m excited to see your quilts.

I’m enjoying seeing your postings to Instagram and following along on your progress—you’re all are doing amazing and beautiful work on your Sweet Home quilts—there’s even some finished quilts showing up already!

Don’t forget that this Friday will be a new Friday Giveaway with fabulous prizes from our sponsors. Be following along on Instagram as all the giveaways will be held on that platform and winners will be randomly drawn the following 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!

And, while you’re on Instagram, 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!

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post or related items I think you may enjoy.

Sweet Home & Faux Chenille

Sweet Home & Faux Chenille

Sweet Home quilt by Sharon Holland

Last week I released my newest quilt pattern called Sweet Home and shared images of one of the two Sweet Home quilts I’ve made from this pattern.

This week I’ll be showing the second quilt in a completely different fabric pull and color palette plus I’ve an awesome Chenille-It Blooming Bias giveaway to tell you about at the end of this post.

I love these quilts so much that I knew my two grandkids would love them too and have fun snuggling and playing on them. The first quilt with the Boho-Chic vibe of pinks, blush, and aqua was made for my granddaughter and her baby brother needed an All-American boy version. At two years old, he’s already showing preferences and one of them is his love for stripes!

Art Gallery Fabrics Sweet Home quilt fabric pull

Since this pattern is made for digging into your stash and using lots of prints that’s exactly what I did! I pulled a mix of Art Gallery Fabrics from lines I’ve designed and added in AGF prints from other lines and designers to come up with this American Summer palette.

With all the fabric shortages right now I’m not sure all these prints will be easy to find but, if you’d like to duplicate the American Summer version I’ve made the pattern supplement into a PDF download. Simply click on the graphic above and print it out for your reference when using the Sweet Home pattern.

The print used as the backing on both my Sweet Homes quilt is Lillium from my very first Art Gallery Fabrics collection. I used each of the color ways and in the fabric pull photo, I’ve listed the sku info for the color way used in this American Summer version.

The geometric quilting design on this quilt was long arm quilted by Brooke Becker of Lady Belle Fabric. Brooke did the quilting on both of my Sweet Home quilts and has a large selection of quilting designs and styles to choose from. I highly recommend her long arm services and as a fabric shop. Brooke’s quilting is perfection and the service incredible!

Sweet Home quilt kits available at Lady Belle Fabric

Find Sweet Home quilt kits at Lady Belle Fabric in a beautiful Art Gallery Fabrics fabrics curated by Brooke. Don’t delay, she sold out of kits last week but has reordered and restocked—they’re sure to go fast!

How to Apply Faux Chenille

The number one comment or question I’ve had about this quilt is about the chenille binding. So, this week it’s all about adding faux chenille to a quilt! I’ve put together a You Tube video to show you just how easy it is to attach Chenille-It Blooming Bias to a quilt to get this amazing faux chenille finish to the edges. Click video below to watch!

Easy-peasy, right!??! I’ve already ordered more Chenille-It 5/8’’-wide binding for my next new quilt pattern! Visit the Chenille-It Faux Chenille website and check out all the beautiful colors and project ideas! Keep reading till the end for a chance to win Blooming Bias tape for you and a friend!

I no longer have the Sweet Home quilts here and as soon as I took as many photos as I thought I’d need, I shipped both quilts out to my grandkids. This little guy set right to work servicing the town!

The quilts couldn’t have been made at a better time because my daughter and her family just this week closed on their new house and can get out of the rental they’ve been in since the beginning of the year. The kids have been sharing this room in a janky little turn-of-the-century house. My daughter painted the room and although it’s not got one straight wall, it was still a fun room to get these “in use” photos of the quilts. They’ll all be happier once settled into a house they can call their own.

Enter for a chance to win some Chenille-It Blooming Bias!

This week’s giveaway will be held over on Instagram. Visit my Instagram feed @sharonhollanddesigns for a chance for you and a tagged friend to win faux chenille Blooming Bias from Chenille-It. Follow the easy entry steps given in my Friday, May 22, 2020 Instagram post. Thanks to my sponsor, Chenille-It there’ll be 3 winning comments chosen! The randomly selected comments (with a tagged friend) will be picked at random around 4pm Eastern on Monday, May 25th. Winners IG handles will be posted on the IG giveaway post.

Heart Quilt Sew Along - Week 3

Heart Quilt Sew Along - Week 3

It’s the final week in the Heart Quilt sew along. This fast and fun sew along has been hosted by myself and Maureen Cracknell with special thanks to Allison Harris of Cluck Cluck Sew for allowing us to use her Heart Block in our quilt layout.

If you’re just joining us, you’ll want to get up to speed by reading first weeks post announcing the sew along. If you’re already making heart block or at the point to start adding the sashing and borders—check out week 2 HERE.

This last post is dedicated to turning that top into a quilt plus I’ve added an extra bonus project for all those left over half square triangles from trimming the large flippy corners off the hearts!

Quilting

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I'm directing you to the blog post for Finishing that was originally posted during the Sewcial Bee Sampler sew along. You'll find all the tutorial information for spray basting, quilting, and binding your quilt. The sizes have changed but the concept for basting, quilting, and binding your quilt are the same. As stated in that post, there are many ways to finish a quilt and I am blogging about how I finish my quilts. If you have a preferred method, please do it the way you're comfortable with. If you intend to send your top off to be professionally quilted, discuss with your long-arm quilter how they'd like you to prepare your quilt top and backing for being quilted. 

I'm not a professional quilter by any means. I get by and call my quilting style "organic" because it's not perfect and lines are not straight. I love the human touch that non-perfect quilting adds to my quilts. I used my mid-arm Viking Platinum 16 for quilting my top. The quilting guide lines were marked out ahead of time and the quilting went really fast after that to just follow the diagonal lines as shown below in the quilting diagram.

Quilting diagram

I used my favorite Hobb’s Tuscany Silk batting inside my quilt and love how light and drapey it is—especially for handling and maneuvering when quilting.

The backing on my quilt is from my Everlasting fabric collection for Art Gallery Fabrics and is called Summer’s Dance. For the binding I used Woodblock Ballerina that was also used for hearts.

Here’s another look at the prints that went into my quilt. My Heart quilt’s stitched from a curated mix of fabrics from Art Gallery Fabrics Ballerina Fusion (a recolored mix of AGF designer prints), my Spirited, Everlasting, Signature, and Maureen’s Enchanted Voyage and Mystical Land collections.

My non-traditional Valentine colors remind me of sugared gum drops and candy. I’m crazy over this color palette and went with my heart when I did my fabric pull.

One of the biggest challenges of photographing quilts this time of year is the gloomy, cold weather. I had some grand plans for how to photograph this out doors but the wind didn’t cooperate. It started to rain shortly after we got these shots…

Be sure to check out Maureen’s blog to see her finished quilt top and bonus project from left over HSTs all made using a mix of Amy Sinabaldi’s MayFair and the new Foresta Fusion collection. Quilt kits for Maureen’s quilt are available at Lady Belle Fabric.

Photo and Heart quilt by Maureen Cracknell

Bonus Project

Since I finished my quilt by Sunday I could’ve easily stopped there, written this blog post and moved on to the other projects stacking up on my desk but no—that’s too easy!

Remember in my Instagram Stories videos where I told you to hold onto those large half square triangle (HST) waste pieces???

I turned mine into this fun pillow! As a bonus, I’ll share with you how to make one (or more) for yourself!

The beauty of this type of project is that it can be customized to any size you want. I happened to have an extra rectangular pillow I wasn’t using anywhere in the house so I used it as my pillow form. It measures around 14’’ x 26’’ and is probably not a standard size.

I trimmed 36 HSTs to 3-1/2’’ square using my Bloc_Loc Ruler then arranged them into a design. I would’ve loved if the design was symmetrical but no such luck in this improv piece using scraps. I don’t really notice it now that the pillow is done.

I added 2’’-wide strips to the top and bottom to get it all up to the size I needed.

I’ve done a few projects on this blog where I’ve incorporated Chenille-it Blooming Bias and I can’t tell you enough how much I love this added texture—especially to pillows!

After stitching quilting lines to outline the chevron shapes 1/4’’ inside the seam allowances I added the 3/8 inch-wide Chenille-it to my pillow top. Stitching the blooming bias down not only adheres the product but also works as quilting.

I added two echo rows of chenille to the background areas. To read about how to stitch and then bloom the chenille, read more on my Chenille Pillow with Hidden Zipper post/tutorial. Plus, to see the gorgeous decorator pillows I made more recently with my Spirited Trail Marker print and Chenille-it, read HERE.

For more Chenille-it projects, here’s a fun You Tube video!

Personally I love a zipper closure on a pillow. Especially in a case like this where I’m using an existing pillow as the pillow form and like to switch out or clean the pillow covers regularly. You’ll find my go-to method for adding a hidden zipper on a pillow HERE. It’s insanely easy to do!

Now, not only do I have a heart quilt to snuggle under this Valentine’s Day but I have a coordinating pillow to go along with it!

Maureen and I want to thank you for sewing along with us and sharing your progress of your blocks to Instagram. We love seeing your work and encourage you to follow along, share, and tag when you post. Use the sew along hashtag of #agfLOVEquilt and be sure to tag @sharonhollanddesigns @maureencracknell and @cluckclucksew so we can see your progress! If you’re sewing with Art Gallery Fabrics don’t forget to tag them too as they love to see what Makers are making with @artgalleryfabrics !

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I am an Amazon Associate site and earn from qualifying purchases on the products I’ve linked below. The helpful products selected are the same or similar to materials used to make the project(s) in this blog post or related items I think you may enjoy.