Free Motion QAL - Kicking off next week!

Life has thrown a few major curve balls at my family in the last few weeks, and has not left a lot of room for thinking about anything much quilt related - and I actually forgot I was supposed to write the first post for the Free Motion QAL last Monday. So we will be starting a wee bit late, and will be kicking off next week with a bit of a chat about fabric choices.

I've also lined up some fabulous guest posts for next week. I have asked three amazing quilters to share some advice on how they quilt - and even better they all said yes! As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my machine has BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator) on my free motion foot, which means the needle automatically moves up and down in response to me moving the quilt, and regulates the stitch length. So Jen (Quilter in the Closet), Renee (aka Quilts of a Feather) and Pat (Colour Me Quilty) will all be sharing their way of coordinating needle speed using your foot pedal, with moving the quilt - along with other tips. I really admire the skills of these three ladies, and I'm really excited to see what they share.

So apologies for the delay, but we will definitely start next week! The pattern is still on sale (until next Tuesday) - a huge thanks to everyone who has already bought a copy :o)

xx Jess

A Free Motion QAL and a Giveaway!

After writing my post on FMQ tips yesterday, I started thinking that perhaps it would be fun to run a QAL, with a big focus on the quilting part of making a quilt. And thinking further, my Giant Chevron quilt pattern is a really good candidate - the lap size is perfect for learning how to handle a quilt in your machine, without contending with something too massive. It is a really simple quilt to put together, so we can spend lots of time learning how to quilt a few of my favorite motifs. There is a bit of negative space to play with, but nothing too massive, so it will be a good quilt to try some fun stuff like continuing the chevron design, or creating some ghost shapes, without having so much negative space that it's overwhelming.

I will be lining up some sponsors along the way (stay tuned for more information on that, but there will be a large box of Aurifil up for grabs), and my pattern will be half price from now until the QAL begins, in the middle of July. It will be a fairly relaxed QAL, so you'll have plenty of time to practice your FMQ and quilt each of the stripes in the quilt. I'm planning on doing some video tutorials for the quilting part of the QAL (which is why we won't start for a while.)

Choosing colours for this quilt is fun. A great option would be having a look through Design Seeds, choosing a palette that you like, and then heading over to Playcraft's Palette builder.

I'll be making mine using this Design Seeds palette, with cotton couture fabric from PolkaDotTea fabrics.

If you're going to be doing lots of FMQ, solids are a brilliant way to show off your quilting, and it is much easier to see what you're doing than quilting on print fabric. This pattern is designed for a layer cake, that's a great option too. Keep reading, there is a layer cake giveaway from the Fat Quarter Shop at the end of the post :o)

SCHEDULE:

Tuesday 1st July - Fabric options
Tuesday 15th July - Cutting and Construction
Tuesday 29th July - Basting
Tuesday 5th August - 2nd September, weekly FMQ tutorials
Tuesday 9th September - Quilting the negative space
Tuesday 23rd September - Binding
Tuesday 30th September - Final Linky Party

I'd like to do a linky party as part of each post, so everyone can share their progress.

So what do you think? Will you play along with me?

To whet your appetite, the Fat Quarter Shop is offering up three layer cakes to three winners (winner's choice of layer cake) and I'll add a copy of my pattern for each of the winners as well - so you'll just have to organise the background fabric and you'll be set!

To enter, just leave a comment on this post, maybe letting me know what layer cake you'd choose if you win. For an extra entry, help me spread the word about the QAL - and leave an extra comment letting me know how you shared it (blog, IG, Facebook etc). I'll choose the winners using Mr Random at the end of next week. The giveaway is open to everyone.

xx Jess