Willow QAL: Week 1

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Hello hello!
Welcome to week 1 of the Willow Quilt-Along!  
Jessica Dayon and I are hosting this Quilt-Along and we are super excited you're here!


One of the best things about a Quilt-Along is connecting with you guys and hopefully
having some new friends at the end of it!  So Jessica and I thought it would be fun to
answer a get-to-know-you question each week. We thought we'd start by doing a brief
introduction about ourselves.  We'd love it if you want to play along too!


So I'm Amber Johnson.  I've been married to my husband for 21 years.  
We have 2 children (a boy, 17 and a girl, 14).  We also have a dog that we adore 
(she's half Black Lab and half Brittany Spaniel).  We met on the first day I moved to 
Utah to go to college.  A few weeks later he asked me out.  A couple weeks 
later I told him I just wanted to be friends.  A few months later I realized I was crazy 
and that he was everything I always said I ever wanted so I asked him if he wanted to "hang out" 
again (at that point I knew he was the one).  About 6 months later we were married and now...
here we are!  I was born in California, grew up in Washington State and have been quilting 
for about 20 years.  That's me in a nutshell!


So the assignment for this week is to make 6 Harmony Blocks (above).
I found that they went together relatively quickly by using the chain-piecing method.  

Chain-piecing is a time-saving quilting technique similar to an assembly line.  
You repeat a single sewing step for all the blocks of a quilt without cutting threads 
between each section until after you are done with that step.  It creates a "chain" 
of pieces and saves time and thread.


Note: the blocks finish at 6" so you will be working with small(ish) pieces.  
Try to be as accurate as you can in your cutting and sewing so everything goes 
together nicely.  Check your seam allowance prior to making your first block 
to make sure it's exactly 1/4".


Click HERE for the pattern.
Click HERE for the Willow coloring page so you can fill in your own colors!


Be sure to stop by Jessica's blog next to see her beautiful blocks and get to know her more.
And please introduce yourself in the comment section below.  
We'd love to know where you're from and whatever else you'd like to tell us! :)

Happy sewing!

10 comments:

  1. I saw your post on Bloglovin this morning. I was unable to bring either the pattern or the colouring page up, but it is a good looking block.

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    1. I'm so sorry Lynn. Were you on a PC? If you still are unable to pull them up let me know and I can email them to you.

      Thanks,
      Amber

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  2. Hi! I am addicted to quilt alongs and mystery quilts. This is a beautiful project! Thank you for sharing this with us.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by and for your kind words!

      Happy quilting!
      Amber

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  3. It is nice to meet you! I have been following Jessica for awhile now. It is nice to get to know you online. I have loved all of Jessica's sew alongs and did Independence Quilt last year. I am still trying to decide if I can take on this sew along or not, but I am saving the patterns. Love this quilt! Thank you for sharing and I love having the patterns in a PDF.

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    1. Hi Alycia! It's nice to meet you! :)

      Jessica is really amazing and inspiring. I can't believe all that she accomplishes and her eye for designing! It's been fun to collaborate with her on this project.

      Take care,
      Amber

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  4. I too am having difficulty downloading this pattern. Attempts show "download unsuccessful. Can you include it again in your next blog post?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Sharon,

      I can email you the patterns if you'd like. Or you can try one more time. It seems that others have been able to download the patterns so maybe it was just a busy time when you tried before. Were you on a PC?

      Thanks for stopping by!
      Amber

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  5. Just found you today, and so glad I did!! I love the look of your Willow QAL and have started downloading patterns to catch up. I can't sew it right now because I'm working on a King size quilt that is being raffled off for Special Olympics in Pennsylvania. When that's done (in a few weeks) I'll finally have time to do what I want! :-) Thanks so much for the freebie QAL!!!

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  6. You are welcome! Glad you like the pattern even if you can't make it right now. Good luck with your other quilt. That's awesome you're donating it to the Special Olympics raffle.

    Happy quilting!
    Amber

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I ♥ to hear from you so please feel free to leave a comment. I read each one and try to respond as often as I can. Thanks so much for stopping by! ~Amber