COUNTRY VILLAGE QUILT-A-LONG! YAY!!! PART 1: Introduction, Schedule and Supply List ;-)

Hi peeps! 

For blocks and cornerstones

As promised in this post last Wednesday, today is the starting point for my Country Village Quilt-A-Long! Below is a hand-drawn example of the Country Village quilt block, designed by me(yay)! Sorry, I was not organized enough to have a sewn up a block for you beforehand…grr... 

So, please bear with me until next QAL post when there will be a real live block for you to see! I don't dare show you my own "test sample" block as it is made up with ancient, hideous, floral prints that I got in a scrap bag from Value Village!!!

I am working with the Maison de Provence fabric line(pictured above) by Connecting Threads. The photos don't do it justice at all, as the prints are so much more rich and vibrant. It is also economical-this line costs only $5.96 a yard!

Just so you know-Connecting Threads has generously provided me with the Maison De Provence fabric, a spool of Essentials thread and the Hobbs batting needed for this QAL, at my request.

Schedule(Wednesdays)...subject to change if I fall behind!!!

1. April 29- Introduction, schedule of posts and supply list.

2. May 6-Cutting fabrics for the Country Village blocks, cornerstones and sashing strips(we will cut the borders and binding strips in later posts).

3. May 13-Instructions for piecing the Country Village blocks.

***4 week break for piecing the 25 blocks***

4. June 17-Adding lattice strips, corner stones, laying out the blocks and sewing them all together. (I have a special way of doing this!)

5. July 1-Cutting and adding both borders.

6. July 7-Preparing the pieced backing and label.

7. July 14-Spray-basting the three-layer quilt sandwich.

**Break now till mid-September/October. It is just too hot to machine quilt!**

8. TBA-Machine Straight-Line and Free-Motion Quilting.

***2+ week break to allow for machine-quilting the entire quilt***

9. TBA-Cutting and sewing the binding to the quilt. 

10. TBA-View of the finished quilt after washing.

These are the three fat quarters that I removed from the 28-piece Maison De Province fat quarter bundle. The print on the left will be used for part of the Country Village block centres and the middle print is the "background" print. I might use the print on the right as corners on the outer border, but that will have to wait till the blocks are put together into a flimsy!

Fabric Requirements and Basic Supplies

*I have included the Connecting Threads fabric names and stock numbers so that you can make your quilt with Maison De Provence, exactly like mine…or you could choose another of their lovely fabric collections!

-25 dark or medium-dark value fat quarters(for blocks)*. I used 25 of the 28-piece Maison de Provence fat quarter bundle, #7213.(A fat quarter is a 18" x 21"-22" cut of fabric). * you could use a linear quarter yard cut(9" x 42") of fabric instead of a fat quarter. 

-0.75 yard of a contrasting medium to medium-light print(block centres).* French Medallion-Parchment, #7172, shown above on left. 
*you will have to piece one square from scraps if you have not also purchased the 28-piece fat quarter bundle…or you can always purchase 7/8ths yard of this fabric.

-4.5 yards of a light fabric(background)-can be a tone-on-tone like mine, above centre and below). Colette-Parchment, #7165.*
*I don't pre-wash my fabrics, so if you do, please purchase 4.75 yards of this fabric. The same goes if you are unsure or new to rotary cutting(buy 4.75 Yds).

-0.5 yard of a dark or medium-dark co-ordinating print(inner border), see burgundy print, second photo down. Feathered Sprigs-Rosewood, #7178.

-1.5 yards dark print,(outer border), see dk. green sprigged print in second photo below. Colette-Med. Mineral Green, #7163.

-1.25 yards dark co-ordinating stripe(bias binding). Cote d'Azur-Multi, #7157.

-2.5 yards wide backing. Amelie 104 Wide Backing-Lt. Mineral Green, #7191.

-100% Cotton or cotton/poly blend thread-Essentials brand in Sandstone, #20950. 

-Batting-queen-sized, must be at least 90" x 90". Hobbs Tuscany Cotton/ Wool Blend Batting, #21303. 

Also: Sewing machine in good working order, rotary cutter with new blade, various square and rectangular acrylic rulers, straight pins, new all-purpose needle in your machine, quilting needle, iron and ironing board.

PS: You can copy and paste these requirements(and the schedule as well) into a word document to make it easier to refer to.

**I will be putting all of the Quilt-A-Long posts under their own tab just under my title header. That way you can find a specific step with ease!

This is for the "pathways" or "background" of the blocks and lattice strips. It is difficult to see in my photo, but this is a tone-on-tone print.

From left: Centres, inner border, outer border and binding-to be cut on the bias.

Backing fabric and my thread choices for piecing and machine-quilting. For piecing, I always use two colours, one slightly darker than the other. For this project, I will be using my 5,000-yard cones of Sandstone, #20982, in the needle, and Taupe, #20980 in the bobbin. I find it easier to distinguish which thread is top and which is bottom this way. I got these two cones during a Connecting Threads sale and they last a super looong time!!!

Queen-sized cotton-wool blend batting. I am SOOO stoked to try this batting out! Has anyone used cotton/wool batting before? It is very light and soft and I think it would beautifully show off hand-quilting.

I hope that you are as excited as I am to get started on this Quilt-A-Long! 

Feel free to leave a comment or email me(my addy is on the "Drop me a line" page), if you need some assistance or even if you don't; I love hearing from you!

Sharing is caring!!! 
Don't forget that I am happy to share with your friends…feel free to pin to Pinterest, post on Google+ and Facebook, and Tweet away! Just please play fair and make sure your posts link back to this blog. 

*If you mouse/hover over the top right corner of my photos, a red "Pin-it" button will show up and all you have to do is click it to be taken to Pinterest. There is also another red button right beside it for posting to Facebook and Twitter. Or, you could always use the little square grey buttons at the end of this post. 

Thanks for reading and have a great day! 

Quilty Huggs, 

Jacqueline 

PLEASE NOTE: The writer of this blog accepts forms of compensation such as, but not limited to; fabric/notions/patterns/books in exchange for a posted review. All comments/critiques/opinions are completely my own and are not those of the provider. This post may also contain affiliate links and I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on one of my links. Thanks so much!

What's-Up Wednesday!: Happy Mail and a Quilt-A-Long Announcement!

Hi peeps! 

Did ya miss me??? 

As you can see above, I started free motion quilting the Citrus Batik Table topper. My Pfaff was also in the hospital, so I got out my old 1990's era Kenmore. It is a very basic machine, having only 14 different stitches, but it is a workhorse and can do the job. I decided to try the 12-weight Aurifil thread I have, in a yellow-gold colour and was going swimmingly when all of a sudden I started getting thread breaks and all sorts of bird's nests of thread on the back. Yeesh! I tried everything I could think of…rethreading the machine, changing the bobbin, changing the needle and cleaning out the dust and lint…but nothing seemed to work, so I put it aside. Then I got my Pfaff back and would you believe, I had the exact same problem. So I did all the same things to my Pfaff and still was having problems. Double-Yeesh!

I have come to the realization that neither of my machines like 12-weight thread. I have unpicked loads of nasty stitches, but even though I will have to change threads and thread colour, I will not unpick the parts that came out looking okay. If this was to be a gift, that would be another story, but as this is just for us, I will let it go. I just have to keep repeating to myself "let it go, let it go". My Virgo self really dislikes things that aren't just right. Ah well….

I got some great Happy Mail over the past couple of months. I bought a bunch of machine parts off of Ebay for my 1948 Singer 15-91 including a quarter-inch foot, Singer branded needles, a walking foot, lightbulbs, magnetic seam gauge, a bunch of bobbins and an springed open-toe foot for FMQing. When they arrived, I was please to see that these parts will also fit on my Kenmore…bonus! 

I also finally invested in a quarter-inch foot for my Pfaff. Both quarter-inch feet have a little metal guide thing on the right hand edge of them that prohibits you from pushing too much fabric to the right of the foot, thereby allowing you to achieve a perfect quarter-inch seam allowance. Yay!

These two purchases were from Massdrop. The fat quarter bundle is called "Enchanted", and even though the bundle didn't include the 'main' all-over design that ties the whole line together, I got such a good deal that I couldn't pass it up. Plus, I can always find that main print at Fat Quarter Shop or Pink Castle(2 of my favourite USA-based online shops).

The 100-count boxes of Schmetz needles were also a steal on Massdrop. I got one box of #14 needles-these are my go-to needles for all-purpose sewing. I also got a box of #16 needles, which are my favourite machine-quilting needles.

Massdrop has very reasonable shipping charges(even to Canada!) and I was really pleased to find out that they combine shipping on multiples of the same item!

I joined a Canadian De-stash group on Facebook and got these two 2-yard pieces for a bargain. I just love those happy purple flowers! I will be using the primary colours stripes for binding on kid quilts. I always cut my binding on the bias, as it is more sturdy. Stripes cut on the bias create a neat finish.

I got these two Mary Engelbreit charm packs for about $10 each from the same Facebook group. The top print doesn't do the whole pack justice…there are so many cute prints in there, in reds, blues, greens and black. I am planning to make one of the free Fat Quarter Shop patterns for charm packs with them.

I also joined a couple of Canada-only swap groups, again on Facebook and these are the fatties I have received so far! The red one at the top right is a Pat Sloan print and I was so excited when it came as I have never had any of her prints and always thought they were super-cute! 

I bought the Simplicity pattern print, bottom right(neat, eh?), and the multi lifesaver print-bottom left, from one of the swappers who was having a de-stash on the other group, and it came with my swap!

***********************

So…now I have an exciting announcement!!!

I will be starting a Quilt-A-Long next week, here on the blog! I contacted Connecting Threads to see if they would like to supply the fabric for me to host a Quilt-A-Long, using a block that I have designed…and they said yes!!! Yippee!!!

The first post will be a photo of the block and fabric requirements for a queen-sized quilt. The blocks are nice and big, at 15.5" square, including seam allowances(15" sewn in), and you will only need 25 of these easy blocks, plus 2 borders, to make a comfy queen-sized quilt! The posts will be about two weeks apart, to allow everyone(myself included!) enough time to complete each step.

You do not have to make a queen quilt, but it would be great if you could participate…three of these blocks sewn in a row would make a nice table runner and four blocks set 2 x 2 will make a nice square table topper.

I will be putting a Quilt-A-Long tab at the top of the blog, to make it easy to find each week's post, in case you don't have the time to make one now, and for easy reference too!

I will be using the Maison de Provence fabric line by Connecting Threads, check it out! Now that I have it in my hot little paws, the rich tones(so beautiful in person) kind of remind me of the spices brought back on the Silk Road by Marco Polo!

The "COUNTRY VILLAGE" Quilt-A-Long will start on Wednesday, April 29, 2015.

Come join us!

************************

It has been a long and stressful month with my Dad being in the hospital. He had 2 emergency surgeries and spent most of his stay in the Close Observation Ward, due to the nature of his medical situation. I am happy to report that he is now back home and enjoying a good night's sleep in his own bed! Thank you so very much for the comments and messages offering prayers…it really means a lot to me that you took the time to tell me you care. Big Huggs to you!

*************************

Sharing is caring!!!
Don't forget that I am happy to share…feel free to pin to Pinterest, post on Google+ and Facebook, and Tweet away! Just please make sure your posts link back to this blog. *If you mouse/hover over the top right corner of my photos, a red Pin-it button will show up and all you have to do is click it to be taken to Pinterest. There is also another red button right beside it for posting to Facebook and Twitter. Or, you could always use the little grey square buttons at the end of this post. 

Thanks for reading and have a great day! 

Quilty Huggs, 

Jacqueline 

PLEASE NOTE: The writer of this blog accepts forms of compensation such as, but not limited to; fabric/notions/patterns/books in exchange for a posted review. All comments/critiques/opinions are completely my own and are not those of the provider. This post may also contain affiliate links and I will receive a small commission if you make a purchase after clicking on my link. Thanks!

Just an update

Hi peeps! 

Just wanting to let everybody know why I've been silent here on the blog for the past 2 weeks.

My Dad had to have emergency surgery about 10 days ago. He was set to be discharged today or tomorrow, but has developed an infection at the incision site. He is to have a second surgery today, any time now. This, of course has pushed back his recovery time and discharge from the hospital.

My Dad lives over an hour drive from us and as I don't drive anymore, we have to rely on my Uncle for rides to the hospital and he lives even farther out than we do. This makes for a very long and nauseous ride for me as we can only visit my Dad for about 10 minutes and then we are right back in the car for the ride home.

I hope everyone has a very Happy Easter…and a prayer or two would be nice...

Thanks.

Quilty Huggs,
Jacqueline