Snowflake QAL: Week Ten

Kelly Levant's quilt pictured here (her photo) called Summer Stars was recently accepted into Quilt Canada 2018! Congratulations, Kelly!

WEEK TEN!

Inspiration time! Kelly participated in the first Feathered Star QAL this summer. Just this week it was accepted into a juried show–her first! Well deserved, Kelly! We will be rooting for you this May!

Snowflake Sampler: assemble quilt top, p.62

Star Flurries: assemble quilt top, p. 39

Feathered Star Blizzard: assemble quilt top, p. 44

If you haven't removed your papers, I would highly suggest you do that before you sew any applicable sashing strips to your blocks before assembly. I think it is soooooo much easier to pick out papers block by block instead of having a whole lap of work to get through.

Refer to the pages of your pattern given above and complete the rest of the pattern!

OHMYGOSH, I'M GETTING SO EXCITED TO SEE YOUR TOPS!

Nagging reminder time! To get great results, go slow, take one step at a time, check and re-check your sewing in relation to the diagrams, PIN CAREFULLY AND FREQUENTLY, sew and press with care. 

You've got this!!

Snowflake QAL: Week Three

12" No Y Seam Feathered Stars

Here we are! Week Three is already here! Your challenge this week:

Snowflake Sampler: two 12" No Y Seam Feathered Stars

Star Flurries: two 12" No Y Seam Feathered Stars

Feathered Star Blizzard: four 12" No Y Seam Feathered Stars

Let's talk totals for each quilt. The Sampler & Blizzard folks will be tackling all of their 12" blocks this week. The Flurries people will do two 12" blocks this week and two 12" blocks next week. If you are printing templates and cutting fabric this week, you might want to do all that prep at once.

By now, you are a PRO at constructing the No Y Seam Feathered Star blocks! The 12" blocks go together in the same way as the 16" or 20" NYSFS blocks (depending on what you completed in the previous weeks). 

Remember to remove papers as you complete your blocks! I got into the habit of sewing by day and then removing papers by night in front of the tv. It makes the job more bearable, I think. Paper removal is not my favorite part of the process! ;)

I hope you're all experiencing the excitement of having the 129 fabric pieces come together to form each star! I'll leave you with this fanstastic 16" star made by Julie McLane!  What a great example of coordination and contrast! I love how all of our quilts will look so amazingly different and special when we're done!

This week of the QAL is sponsored by Kate Basti of Quilt with Kate.  Kate is a graphic designer tuned quilter extraordinaire and is the author of some pretty great paper piecing patterns! She will be emailing a bundle of THREE pattern PDFs to the winner. Please refer to the weekly QAL email for specifics with how to enter this drawing. Make sure to check Kate out on Instagram, too: @katebasti.

Have a great week! Don't forget to join our Facebook group here: Friends of Threaded Quilting Studio.

Snowflake Suite of patterns NOW AVAILABLE!

The 20" (paper pieced) No Y Seam Feathered Star pattern is new and exclusive to these patterns!

I'm so excited to roll out THREE new patterns that use feathered star blocks!

Buy your choice of pattern and join me for the next Quilt-A-Long that begins on New Year's Eve! How's that for ringing in 2018 with a new project and new challenge?!

The QAL will take place over ten weeks: nine weeks of "challenges" and one week of catch-up. :) It averages out to about two feathered star blocks per week. Unless you're piecing the Feathered Star Blizzard... with nearly double-the-stars, you might decide to take on more per week or extend your QAL experience by another few weeks. ;)

More information such as materials needed and fabric requirements can be found here.

Leave a comment below or email me at threadedquilting@gmail.com if I can answer any questions!

New Quilt-A-Long Announced!

We had so much fun the first time, we're doing it again!

On December 31st, the next QAL will go live!

Update! I now have three patterns from which to choose!

When I'm excited, I use a lot of exclamation points!

:)

Corresponding buy buttons can be found directly below each layout.

The first option will look a lot like our first QAL. The blue and white color way reflects our current wintery reality... at least in the midwest. They're snowflakes!

This sampler will include all five sizes of feathered star blocks for which I have patterns: the 8", 12", 16", 20" & 36". Fun layout? Check! Wild'n'Crazy border? Check!

Snowflake Sampler QAL - 76" x 86"

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The other option is slightly less intense, but also: still a little intense. We are talking feathered stars here, after all. Instead of making many different colors and sizes of stars, this quilt features only two blocks repeated. 

Star Flurries - 86" x 86"

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Feathered Star Blizzard - 76" x 86" (Layout Option 1)

Feathered Star Blizzard - 76" x 86" (Layout Option 2)

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If the second layout was the "lite" version, the last two are the "heavy" versions. Twenty-four feathered stars! My goodness!

We're another month or so away, but it's never too early to be thinking about fabric! I have the yardage requirements for both options ready for you:

Snowflake Sampler QAL - fabric requirements

Star Flurries  - fabric requirements

Feathered Star Blizzard - fabric requirements

If you are not yet on my email newsletter list, please sign up! I'll be communicating the important developments by email as well as posting here.

Feathered Star QAL: Week Three

12" No Y Seam Feathered Star

Thank you Club 129 for your input last week! I asked in the weekly QAL email that went out what blocks you wanted to work on next.

I'll be honest, when I penciled in the calendar for the QAL, I planned on doing ALL the foundation paper piecing blocks first. Because I have to kind of switch my brain to get into "paper piecing mode" and gather the appropriate tools, I thought it would be more efficient to make the similarly constructed blocks in batches instead of switching back and forth from paper piecing to regular piecing.

Either you all REALLY like paper piecing, you see the "wisdom" in batching, or you are nervous about the upcoming Fierce Feathered Star blocks, the clear majority want to continue paper piecing!

Your Week Three challenge is to make two 12" No Y Seam Feathered Star blocks! 

In the whole quilt top, there are only two 12" NYSFS blocks, so when you are printing the templates, you'll need two copies of each page (print pages 29-33 of the PDF BUNDLE or pages 11-15 from the single NYSFS pattern PDF).

Cut templates apart and cut fabrics* according to pattern.

*As the blocks get smaller, the less excess fabric you'll have according to the pre-cutting instructions. If you've had trouble aligning your pieces when making the 16" stars, you might want to cut larger pieces to give yourself more margin. The big exception to this is if you are working with the fabric kit. The white fabric pieces need to be cut exactly as stated because there isn't a lot of extra fabric (my fault) and I'd hate for you to run out! You don't have to be careful with the other fabric amounts for this star, so even if you have the kit, you can still cut the other fabrics larger to give yourself more room. 

For more information on fabric kit cutting, read this: Week One (first few paragraphs of the linked post). 

By now, you are a PRO at constructing the No Y Seam Feathered Star blocks! The 12" blocks go together in the same way as the 16" blocks. 

Remember to remove your papers when you are done and refer to the QAL pattern to see how the sashing strips need to be sewn to the 12" blocks.

I hope you're all experiencing the excitement of having the 129 fabric pieces come together to form each star! I'll leave you with Chris Simon's 16" stars! Check out more from Chris over on her inspiring Instagram profile @thecolorfulom.

Have a great week! Don't forget to join our Facebook group here: Friends of Threaded Quilting Studio.

Feathered Star QAL pattern is now available

It's ready for you! Summer challenge, anyone? :)

We're closer to beginning the Feathered Star QAL (June 25th)!  As I was testing the pattern and getting it ready for you, I fell in love with the fabric combinations! It's one thing to design on the computer and a completely different thing to see a design come to life in person. I love the whole process of designing and quilting, but that is one of the best feelings! 

Fabric Shack is still selling kits of the exact fabrics that I'm using in my quilt. You can check out that deal here. The whole quilt top + binding fabrics for $68?! Yes, please!

Do you own the Fierce Feathered Star pattern? It's the one with large 20" & 36" stars. If you do not have this pattern already, you'll need to buy this bundle for the QAL:

If you have already purchased the Fierce Feathered Star block pattern, all you'll need is this pattern for the actual twin sized quilt top:

I realize that having different options can get confusing, but it was important to me to honor those who had already paid for the Fierce Feathered Star block pattern and not make them pay for it twice.

Email me at threadedquilting@gmail.com if you have any questions about which you should buy if you are interested in quilting along with us! 

Watch this space for more as the QAL unfolds. I'll just say this, too, if you like the pattern but know you won't be able to commit to a 9-week project (I get it!), the patterns give you everything you'll need to QBY (Quilt-By-Yourself). HA! I just made that up, but it's true. :)