Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Freefall QAL - Fabric Requirements

In order for you to begin planning for the start of our Freefall quilt along on March 20, here are the quilt stats, photo of the flimsy, fabric tips and requirements.  This quilt could most likely be done entirely from your scraps and stash; you could even go super-scrappy with the background fabric as long as the fabrics all read one value, probably light if your leaf is a medium or a dark.  I would recommend keeping the shadow leaf all one fabric.


Quilt Stats:

Finished quilt: 38" square
Finished block:  7.5" 
Number of blocks: 25 total.  20 of these blocks are small leaves, 3 blocks make the big shadow leaf's point and there are 2 blocks that are plain.
*The quilt has no borders; you are welcome to add some if you like, but there is no yardage for this in the requirements.
Steps:  will be released bi-weekly with a full month allowed to quilt your top.

We will be making a wallhanging in Spring colours.  Of course, you may make yours in Fall colours if you wish and get a jump on Fall.  You could go totally modern and wild!  Maybe totally scrappy.  Patriotic for Canada's birthday!

Fun and poignant anecdote:  When I was planning out the dates for this QAL, I realized I should allow a full month for participants to finish up flimsies and hopefully quilt their quilts.  The final step will be given May 15, so that meant June 15 is the final reveal and parade of quilts.  June 15.  This is an auspicious day for me, because it was my dad's birthday.  He would have been 91.  Each year, he would flip ahead in our family calendar on the wall and write on the square for that date, "Birthday of a famous Canadian."  All us kids would love it, my mum giving a wry grin and eye roll with an, "Eee, I don't know."  Yet it made an impression on me. He was a very proud Canadian.  Birthdays were special days, happy days, a reason to celebrate.  So I feel he's had a hand in this, my first QAL  Thus, our parade of quilts will be held on the birthday of that famous Canadian. 😄


Fabric Tips

Think of this quilt as having three colour 'families': 
  • the background (BG) fabric--mine is the mottled pink/yellow/turquoise
  • the big shadow leaf fabric--mine is the green.
  • the various leaf colours
The photo below shows how I laid out my fabrics.  I had 18 colours altogether; because there are 20 leaves, I cut two leaves out of two of the fabrics.
The fabrics (two are missing in this photo oops) on the far left float on the green big shadow leaf.  The fabrics on the far right float on the background fabric.  Those in the middle will float on half background/half shadow leaf blocks, so that is why I laid them over both green and BG fabrics.


Fabric Requirements

Background Fabric:   3/4 yard
Shadow Leaf Fabric:  3/4 yard
**Remember that you want good contrast between these two fabrics.  Also note that these yardages are minimal and won't leave much left over; if you prefer to allow extra for error or to add to your stash/scraps, then getting a yard of each will be more than plenty.

Individual Leaves:  There are 20.  Each leaf can be made from scraps; you only need an approximately 7" x 11" scrap for each leaf.  If you prefer yardage or precuts, either 1/8 yard or a fat eighth is enough for two leaves, so you would require 10 fat eighths, but if you want all 20 leaves different, then you need 20 fat eighths, since that is the smallest amount one can buy.  You could also use a layer cake, which is a stack of 10" squares.

So gather your fabrics and I will see you here on Monday for Step 1 Cutting! I have started a hashtag on Instagram, so feel free to post your fabric pull there:  #freefallqal  To see the original quilt, in Fall colours, Windfall, click here.

Any questions, just ask in the comments or email me. 

I am super duper happy that I have three more wonderful sponsors.  Three more prizes! 

First is Cindy of Stitchin At Home who contacted me to offer a copy of her just-released pattern, God's Eye, which is available in her  Craftsy store. I met Cindy in the New Bloggers Hop in 2015.  It was such fun to discover another quilt blogger who lives only a couple of hours away from me, also in a little town, also on Lake Erie!  Cindy and I have cooked up a few things together over the past couple of years.  She has quite a few patterns in her store, lots of freebies...

Second, I also am so pleased to announce another fabric gift certificate! This one is from Fat Quarter Shop, probably the first online shop I patronized regularly, and still do!
They have the BEST Flash sales which have had me cave on many occasions...and of course one adds more yardage because well, it would be rude not to right?  They are generously offering a $25 gift certificate to one winner.  They just might have a Riley Blake roly poly on for 70% off today, March 14, only...

Third is another Canuck, my good friend Joanne of Canuck Quilter Designs.  Joanne and I have been friends for a couple of years now too; I've pattern-tested for her a few times (fantastic designs btw) and participated in her Snow Along two years ago.  She is offering a free PDF pattern (check out all her beautiful designs here) from her Craftsy shop.


 This brings the prizes total to 12!  Woo hoo!


Linking up:
Freemotion by the River
Sew Fresh Quilts
Quilt Fabrication



27 comments:

  1. Thank you for all of the information. It was very well done. Bi-weekly should be quite doable for me. I am planning to make mine a Canada 150 quilt using the Stonehenge Oh Canada line. One or two maple leaves may just end up having moose in them. :)

    I used Stonehenge for a quilt not long ago and I sure hope I have enough of the of the tan and the red left. Otherwise, I see a shopping trip in my near future.

    That was a sweet anecdote about your father and I should at least have a patriotic top to celebrate the birth of that famous Canadian.

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  2. I love the story about your father and that the parade of finishes will be on his birthday. I'm going to rummage through my stash right now; how can I not participate after that story?!? I am so excited to see what I can pull together... :)

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  3. I am off, as soon as it is daylight!! to sort through my batiks. This is so good to have all the amounts first, and for your Dad, what a tribute to know you have chosen his birthday date. Purples, blues and greens are my favourites, might need to find a background one, or steal some from the 150 Canadian Women yardage.

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  4. Not that I need to add something to my To-Do list, but YOU know how that goes! :)
    I'll have to dig through my stash this week.

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  5. Joining Jen, on the "not that I need to add something to my To-Do list"!!
    I'm excited and it all looks totally do-able. It's definitely a 150th project for me. Now the question, does my Canadian patriotic fabric stash have what I need, or MUST I go shopping? :) Always a terrible thing to have to do, but gosh darn, as a quilter, I will endure! :)

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    1. LOLOL you made me giggle out loud! I can totally relate to both those 'issues' ha! I'm already thinking maybe I should buy more of the turquoise Canada Moda fabric from Sew Sisters, and use it for both my CA Women sashing AND a patriotic Oh! Canada quilt. I do hope you see this so we can fix your 'no-reply' blogger issue. :-)

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    3. *sigh* Try again and see if I can get it right this time! I am so not a cyber-guru! I've made the change .... I think? Meanwhile on to the important stuff, fabric selection! I am struggling with that. Lots of patriotics, but as for going with each other, NOT! Your dilemma? .... of course, you really MUST help the economy and get some more for your stash!

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  6. Love reading the story about your dad!

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  7. I want to join in too. I just hope that I can keep up! My daughter is coming to visit the end of April, so while she is here there won't be much sewing. I would do it for the fun of it anyway, I can always catch up later! (It will probably be good for after she leaves, I will be a little depressed! I only get to see her once in a while. :( )

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  8. Love the story. Your dad would smile.

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  9. I don't remember if we were suppose to sign up ahead of time or not, but I am going to try to QAL!

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  10. I just heard about your QAL (through Yvonne @quiltingjetgirl) yesterday on Instagram and it looks like so much fun! I'm looking forward to using up stash as I try to keep up ...
    Thank you for the great introduction and now we'll all celebrate your father's birthday!

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    1. Thanks so very much Laura! I'm looking forward to seeing others' interpretations of my pattern. :-) I do hope you will see this because you are a no-reply blogger, so I don't have an email to send you this personally. You can fix this with the link provided below the comments.

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  11. I'm getting super excited for all of us to get started!

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  12. Not sure if I can squeeze this one in or not, hopefully I can.

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  13. Love how you put falling leaves inside the bigger leaf - well done! Thank you for sharing this pretty on Midweek Makers

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  14. I wasn't going to do this.....so much on the plate...but I'm getting tempted...maybe I'll see if my local buddies will want to quilt along : )

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  15. p.s. I forgot to say that I love that the parade of quilts will be on your Dad's birthday : ).

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  16. As with the others, the story of your father is so sweet!

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  17. Thanks Sandra, for the Instagram update for me, still cannot figure out what I am doing wrong or not doing?? Off to finish the mini quilt for the Laundry day clothesline.

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  18. It's going to be fun to see all the different versions come together.

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  19. That's a beautiful quilt Sandra and very appealing for a quilt along.
    I love your Dad's "Birthday of a Famous Canadian" :)
    Let me know if you would be interested in giving away a "Crafted Applique" book too.

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  20. Love the story and the quilt. Am joining in at kathleenmcmusing.blogspot.com

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  21. I miss our wonderful dad so much ❤❤

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  22. Lovely quilt ! I will be joining the QAL and I have my fabric picked. I enjoyed the story; my birthday is the day before your father which in the States is Flag Day and it's printed on the calendars. I always got to say they raised the flag for me on my birthday.

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