Monday, March 20, 2017

Freefall Quilt Along - Step 1 - Cutting

Welcome to the first installment of our Freefall wallhanging QAL!  I am so pleased that you are here.  Happy Spring Equinox, First Day of Spring, if you are in the Northern Hemisphere, Happy Autumnal Equinox, First Day of Autumn, to those n the Southern Hemisphere.  Who knew quilting would have me using so much geography and math!

I am even more pleased to announce that I have got yet another prize for finished flimsies or quilts!  Lara of Buzzin' Bumble has offered a copy of her book Crafted AppliquĂ© (that takes you to her book on Amazon; I'm not an affiliate, just a great book and technique to check out) to one lucky winner!  

I got to know Lara through Pets on Quilts at LilyPad Quilting; we love all animals, but dogs especially.  We love good literature, from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling to the poetry of Mary Oliver. She lives at the northeastern end of 'our' lake, Lake Erie, I live at the southwestern.  I was so happy to be a part of her book launch last May.  This brings the total value of prizes to a little over $250!! Wow!

Here's a reminder of our quilt stats:

Quilt size:  38" (note that it has no borders; you can always add some if you prefer!)
Block size:  7.5" finished
Number of Blocks: 25

Abbreviations
WOF - width of fabric 
BG - background

Cutting

Background Fabric
1.  Cut an 8.5" X WOF strip.  Cut this further into two 8" squares.  Look at the bottom lefthand corner of the quilt photo where there are four squares; two leaf blocks and two blank blocks.  These are those two blank squares.  

Note! Set these two squares and the remainder of this strip aside for now; you will use it in Step 3 when we construct the big shadow leaf point in the top right corner of the quilt.

From the remaining fabric cut:
  • (1) 4" strip by WOF; subcut into one 4" square, and (8) 3.5" squares
  • (1) 2 3/4" strip by WOF; subcut into 9 rectangles 2 3/4 x 3 3/4"
  • (2) 2.5" strips by WOF; subcut into (31) 2.5" squares
  • cut (2) 2" strips by WOF; subcut into 14 rectangles 2x3.5" and (4) 2" squares
You may want to label each of these sets, as it will be over the next several weeks that we pull from them.

Shadow Leaf Fabric
  • (1) 4" strip by WOF; subcut into one 4" square, and (10) 3.5" squares
  • (1) 3.5" strip by WOF; subcut into 18 rectangles 2 X 3.5"
  • (1) 2 3/4" strip by WOF; subcut into 11 rectangles 2 3/4 x 3 3/4"
  • (3) 2.5" strips by WOF; subcut into (37) 2.5" squares
  • (4) squares @ 2" 

Individual Leaves (multiply the following pieces by 20, for 20 leaves)
The pieces for each leaf can be cut from a scrap approximately 7x11" OR 10 different fat eighths will yield enough pieces for 20 leaves, two of each colour.  It is important to plan a bit here.  Lay out your 20 leaf fabrics atop the background fabric and atop the shadow leaf fabric.  Six leaves float on the background fabric and eight leaves float on the shadow leafSix will float on half background/half shadow leaf.  Remember the photo from the previous post that shows is what I did:
I still moved a few around after I took the photo!

Cut the following for each leaf:
  • (1) 3.5" square
  • (1) 2 X 3.5" rectangle
  • (3) 2.5" squares 
  • (1) 2" square
  • (1) leaf point - you will use the template made in the paper-piecing tutorial which you will find here 
You may want to organize your sets of leaves into ziploc baggies.

See you in two weeks. 😊

Freefall Quilt Along Schedule

March 14 - Fabric Requirements and Tips
March 20 - Step 1 Cutting
March 27 - Link-up #1
April 3 - Step 2 Construction of Leaves that Float on Shadow Leaf
April 10 - Link-up #2
April 17 - Step 3 Construction of Leaves that Float on Background and Shadow Leaf point
April 24 - Link-up #3
May 1 - Step 4 Construction of Half and Half Leaves  
May 8 - Link-up #4
May 15 - Step 5 Quilt top Assembly
June 15 - Final Link-up for Flimsy or Finished Quilt  

Linking up
Cooking Up Quilts
Patchwork Times 




23 comments:

  1. I know what I'll be working on sometime this week. :)

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  2. Your finished quilt looks awesome! Enjoy the quilt along

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  3. It will be a lot of fun to watch these quilts develop. Have fun!

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  4. Happy Spring Equinox!!! I'm all ready :)

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  5. Eeek. And I still haven't picked out my fabrics. I just can't decide. :) Somebody needs to come over and go through my stash and pick something out for me.

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    1. Don't worry Jen....I haven't picked mine out either.

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  6. This is so good to have all those cutting details.I am off for my knee MRI today, but first, a visit to the fabric shop for some golden or yellow batik. I still haven't decided which background to use, so might just have to have a new one slip into my hands as well. Freezer paper leaf, love it.

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  7. I resisted joining along because I have three other QALs I'm doing, but I really love leaves and fall and wallhangins and batiks, and, and, and. So I pulled fabric today and am cutting it out. Thank you for a great QAL!

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  8. Beautiful fabric, looks like fun!
    cork@pa.rr.com

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  9. Love the fabrics you have chosen - they look beautiful! mumbird3(at)gmail(dot)com

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  10. Yup, love the colours in this quilt!!

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  11. Crap...I'm behind in blog reading. Guess I need to play catch up and find the fabric requirements post. Behind already...sigh....

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  12. The quilting is beautiful! Thanks for posting the schedule to refer back to the different posts!

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  13. I have the yellow, not one but TWO fabrics, and now realise I should really wash all the pieces first,Drat,I was so looking forward to some cutting tomorrow. And I chose 2 new background fabrics, YES, they just sort of slipped into my hands.

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  14. Such pretty fabrics. Looking forward to seeing this one come together.

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  15. I really, really want to join in although I'm really, really bad about following the posted schedule! :) I'm seriously going to try to keep up with this one. Fingers crossed!

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  16. I am definitely taking part, I just have to get myself organised!

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  17. This looks like a really neat project and quiltalong - wish I had the time to join in...hmmm...(an autumnal one would really suit me at this end of the world)!

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  18. I can't entertain the idea of a new quilt project right now, but I look forward to seeing everyone else's fabric choices and progress in the next few months. : )

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  19. I'm off to the closest fabric store on Saturday to buy batting and lucky me they have a sale so hoping to buy the fabrics for the background fabric and background leaf then. Three of us are making this together so hopefully we can keep up.

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  20. I have never done a quilt-along before, and I don't have a blog. How do I participate? Do I just post pictures of my progress in the comments? noholzbarred(at)gmail(dot)com

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