Willow QAL: Week 2

Thursday, April 2, 2020

Hey friends!  How are you?  
I hope you are doing well and enjoying this Quilt-Along so far!
I'm enjoying having some purpose during this quarantine 
and time at my sewing machine 
(which is my happy place - as I'm sure it is for most of you!)


The get-to-know-you question for this week is:
"How did you get into quilting?  Who taught you and what was the first quilt you made?"

I was newly married, my husband traveled a lot and I didn't have a lot of family close by.
I needed a hobby so I asked my grandma to teach me how to quilt.  
She was thrilled since she was an avid quilter and no one else in our family quilted.  
I chose to design a pattern based on a quilt I saw in a home decor store.  
I'm still baffled why I decided to design my own pattern when I could've just bought one! 
It would've been so much easier! 
But we went shopping together, had several lessons and then I was left to make most 
of the blocks on my own.  Well, that quilt took me 3 years to finish LOL!  
But after that I was hooked!

[My first quilt]

Check out Jessica's response HERE and be sure to tell us how 
you got into quilting while you're there!

Now onto this week's assignment...
This is the Grace Block and you'll need to make 4 of them this week.


You can find the tutorial for the Grace Block over on Jessica's blog.


It's a fun little block to make!
Make sure you are using an accurate 1/4" seam allowance so your points don't get cut off!


All of my Grace blocks are going to be the same except for one
because I ran out of fabric on the last one, haha.
I knew I might run into this problem since I'm using my stash but I really don't mind.
It's very similar to the others and I really don't think you'll notice 
when the quilt is all finished.


So that's it for this week!
We'd love to see progress, so if you are on Instagram, use the hashtag 
#willowqal and tag us both - @jessicadayon and @gigisthimble.

Let us know if you have any questions!
Happy quilting!

4 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for this QAL. I am just adoring my fabric pull and the blocks are all so unique.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are welcome! We're so glad you're enjoying the QAL!

      Amber

      Delete
  2. I learned to quilt with Doragene (mother-in-love). A group of her friends in her ward got together every month to quilt. It was 1980. I had Three little boys (13, and 15 months apart) and she felt like I need a day out. Doragene had me sew together the circle method of the Irish Chain. She cut out with scissors and a yard stick. 1/4 inch was foreign to me as I was a seamstress. I raised my family and joined a quilt guild ten years ago. I was voted upon after three months to become the Vice President. Little did I know I was committed to become the President the next year. I learned about rulers, rotary cutters, cutting mats. I have to laugh now but, it was by far the most expensive year catching up with all the quilting tools. My first quilt was a Star Quilt on my own. I just looked at a picture and went from there years ago. Cutting out the diamonds with cereal card board and with scissors. It was beautiful. I used a lot of Doragenes stash. NOT THE QUALITY OF THE FABRICS NOW. I used a sheet to set it and the backing. That was over 35 years ago. The star fell apart over the years, but the sheet was intact. I used it for picnics in the yard for my children. Eventually it was a ball of rags. Smile! I basically can look at a block and do it myself. I started quilting and that has been 10 years ago. I've since have made over 20 quilts after our mission six years ago. Big quilts and a few baby. Love the process! I have a great Long Armer Friend LaRessa Baldwin. So I can get on to other quilts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for sharing that story! Good for Doragene for getting you into quilting! I can relate to needing the day out and the card board templates!

      Happy quilting!
      Amber

      Delete

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