The Ryan Gosling Along Row 5

It’s finally arrived! Row five of the Ryan Gosling Quilt Along is here. For some of you this is the last you’ll want to see of 2 inch squares for a very long time. But for others, the addiction has just set hold and you’re already thinking up new and exciting ways to use these teeny tiny squares in future projects. In any case, it’s time to get sewing and finish this handsome quilt off!

For Row 5, Column 1, you will need:

49 “W” shade squares

8 “C” shade squares

5 “B” shade squares

4 “A” shade square

34 “X” shade squares

 

For Row 5, Column 2, you will need:

15 “W” shade squares

19 “C” shade squares

6 “B” shade squares

10 “A” shade square

50 “X” shade squares

 
 

For Row 5, Column 3, you will need:

21 “W” shade squares

25 “C” shade squares

5 “B” shade squares

4 “A” shade square

45 “X” shade squares

 

For Row 5, Column 4, you will need:

37 “W” shade squares

12 “C” shade squares

4 “B” shade squares

6 “A” shade square

41 “X” shade squares

 

And that is every single block of the Ryan Gosling Quilt, completed. What a feeling! Now it’s time to join each of the rows up, then sew each row together. What you’ll end up with is a lovely Ryan Gosling Quilt top all of your own.

All you need to do now is to make your backing. I opted for a very simple backing for my Gosling as I didn’t want to draw attention away from the front of the quilt. Make sure you sew your backing allowing for 20cm more fabric on every side of the quilt top. This allows for any mistakes while quilting and I find it gives me peace of mind to know that I won’t have to re-do the backing later.

This is what I chose for my backing:

I was so excited about finishing off my Gosling that I completely forgot to add a label. I am kicking myself of course but will just have to add one on later.

Last but not least, here’s another photo of my finished Ryan Gosling Quilt flapping around in the wind!

Thanks for sewing along with me 🙂

Ryan Gosling Quilt Along Row 4

We’re up to row 4 of the Ryan Gosling Quilt Along and as of today, I am getting married in exactly 4 weeks! How the time has flown! I’m so incredibly excited and also nervous about how on earth I’m going to get everything done in time. There’s so much to buy for our new house and I wish I could be stocking up on Kona Solids too! You’ll all have to do it for me and show me your creations so I can live vicariously through you. There will be no new fabric for me for a decent while yet unfortunately. (Although with a wedding, honeymoon in Fiji and a new house to move into, I really can’t complain!) But back to Ryan Gosling. This week you are sewing Row 4.

For Row 4, Column 1, you will need:

87 “W” shade squares

8 “C” shade squares

0 “B” shade squares

3 “A” shade square

2 “X” shade squares

 

For Row 4, Column 2, you will need:

1 “W” shade squares

37 “C” shade squares

20 “B” shade squares

2 “A” shade square

40 “X” shade squares

 

For Row 4, Column 3, you will need:

0 “W” shade squares

25 “C” shade squares

24 “B” shade squares

8 “A” shade square

43 “X” shade squares

 

For Row 4, Column 4, you will need:

80 “W” shade squares

7 “C” shade squares

5 “B” shade squares

5 “A” shade square

3 “X” shade squares

 

 

Only one more row to go! It’s time to start thinking about what you would like to do for your backing. I like to plan my backings as I near the end of my quilt tops, so that by the time I’m ready to sew the backing I have a firm plan in mind. Don’t be afraid to try something new…

Happy Sewing!

Ryan Gosling Quilt Along Row 3

Row Three of the Ryan Gosling Quilt Along is here! When you’re finished this one you’ll be more than halfway, which is always a good feeling. Make sure to keep checking up on yourself with regards to your seam allowances. If you’re not paying attention it’s very easy to start creeping wider or thinner and if you sew just one block that bit smaller or larger than the rest, it is very noticeable when you’re joining all the blocks together.

For Row 3, Column 1, you will need:

55 “W” shade squares

19 “C” shade squares

11 “B” shade squares

2 “A” shade square

13 “X” shade squares

 

For Row 3, Column 2, you will need:

0 “W” shade squares

18 “C” shade squares

38 “B” shade squares

19 “A” shade square

25 “X” shade squares

 

For Row 3, Column 3, you will need:

2 “W” shade squares

22 “C” shade squares

27 “B” shade squares

27 “A” shade square

22 “X” shade squares

 

For Row 3, Column 4, you will need:

54 “W” shade squares

11 “C” shade squares

21 “B” shade squares

7 “A” shade square

7 “X” shade squares

 

It was at this point that I began getting excited about making my next pixel quilt and started wondering about buying in bulk and pre-cutting so that by the next project I’d already have the thousands of squares in various shades of grey. This quilting thing is quite addictive!

 

 

Ryan Gosling Quilt Along Row 2

Victory has been achieved this week! My fiance has agreed to let me have one of the bedrooms in our new house to use as a sewing room! I am so filled with relief that I’ll have my own space to set up and work in when we move – it’s very exciting. Now to get bogged down in planning out how best to store all my fabric, particularly my thousands of 2 inch squares….This week is also very exciting because we are moving on to block 5! This one forms the side of Ryan’s head and is a great opportunity to use some twirly whirly fabric to symbolise hair…. just a thought!

For Row 2, Column 1, you will need:

48 “W” shade squares

19 “C” shade squares

14 “B” shade squares

3 “A” shade square

16 “X” shade squares

 

For Row 2, Column 2, you will need:

0 “W” shade squares

5 “C” shade squares

35 “B” shade squares

59 “A” shade square

1 “X” shade squares

 

For Row 2, Column 3, you will need:

6 “W” shade squares

5 “C” shade squares

13 “B” shade squares

75 “A” shade square

1 “X” shade squares

 

For Row 2, Column 4, you will need: 

53 “W” shade squares

17 “C” shade squares

13 “B” shade squares

4 “A” shade square

13 “X” shade squares

At this point you’ll be able to really see the top of Ryan Gosling’s head coming together – it’s a fun stage so make sure to lay out all your completed blocks so far and have a look. It’s also a good chance to make sure you are keeping the amount of extra novelty blocks balanced. The first time I made a pixel quilt like this I only started adding novelty blocks towards the final few blocks and it looked very unbalanced when finished. Checking along the way is a great idea.

Ryan Gosling Quilt Along Row 1

So it’s finally here – day one of the Ryan Gosling Quilt Along! Yesterday I spoke about the Feminist Ryan Gosling ‘Hey Girl’ memes which in part inspired this quilt along. Today I thought I’d share another couple with you. The ‘Hey Girl’ tag took off and started being used in all kinds of creative ways and I thought you might like these ones because they are craft & sewing themed!

But enough of the pretty pictures, on to the sewing!

Below you will find three things: a Quilt Pattern Key, a zoomed in Block and the Fabric Requirements. The Quilt Pattern Key is to help you keep track of your blocks each week and to make it easier when it comes to assembly. The Zoomed in Blocks are close ups of each block. It will tell you exactly how many squares you need for that block in particular. Assembling 4 blocks will give you a row.  Obviously the Fabric Requirements are to let you know how much fabric you will need to complete the entire quilt. Since they are the most important, we will start with that:

The finished quilt measures 72 inches by 58 inches with these measurements.

The Quilt Pattern Key and Close Up Blocks will be posted each week in groups of four until it’s all finished. Eventually I’ll put the complete pattern into a handy PDF for you all to download and enjoy that way. But for now we will sew along week by week. You can work at whatever pace you like. Please do email me any photos of your progress as I’d love to share them with everyone during the quilt along. You can also choose whatever colour fabrics you would like to use. Using grayscale makes it easy to customise to a different colour scale so that’s why I made my one in grey. Anyone who was also involved in The Happy Zombie’s Ron Swanson Along will know that people made Ron’s in all different colours, and some had him in grayscale but gave the background a colour etc. It was so awesome seeing everyone’s unique take on the pattern and was lots of fun. If you haven’t already, I’d definitely recommend checking it out.

But before we get going there are a few more niggly things we should run through first: 

1. You can print out the instructions on this page for your reference by the sewing machine. Just make sure you check your printer settings and make sure you do a print preview to ensure the face maps and zoomed in squares are fitting onto the page.

2. I’m not a very fussy seam folder – I have no set system for folding to one side or down the middle etc. I generally just work with the fabric – if it’s more inclined to fall one way then I’ll encourage it to do so with the iron.

3. This quilt along assumes a basic level of sewing knowledge. If you haven’t made a quilt before then I’d recommend doing a few google searches on quilting & patchwork basics as I won’t be running through those on here.

4. If you want to grab a button for your website or blog, here it is:

You can link it up to this address: http://wp.me/p4Dl0T-1m which will send people to the very first announcement of the swap with all the links to each weeks instructions.

5. This is a free pattern that has taken me MONTHS to put together including all the cool little buttons and icons you can see on the site. I’m thrilled to be sharing it with you for free but if you do use it or think it’s cool please link the button to your site or share it on social media so people know that you are participating.

6. I work full time and am house hunting and wedding planning at the moment (Excitement is an understatement!) but I will endeavour to answer every comment posted, so don’t be shy! It might take me 24 hours to get back to you, but I will get there.

7. Endless lists and copyright legal stuff is incredibly boring and detrimental to fun sewing times so let’s all just agree that it’s a fun pattern, we’ll go at our own pace and we will share photos and dramas along the way? Yes? Awesome! Let’s go!

We will be starting in with the top row of the quilt, which is the top of Gosling’s head and a lot of background space. Now you could look at this as a pretty boring row OR you could see the million options for customisation. I liked popping in colourful squares into these white spaces to make it more interesting, but you might like to change the background colour altogether. I also like putting swirly or hair-like squares in to represent actual hair. Have a good think before you get started about what you would like your finished Gosling to look like. Time spent in reconnaissance…

To make your life easier I’ve also made a Zoomed in version of each block for this week.

For Row 1, Column 1, you will need:

85 “W” shade squares

7 “C” shade squares

2 “B” shade squares

1 “A” shade square

5 “X” shade squares

(Remember to look at the Fabric Requirements chart above to see the shade values. You can use greys like I did or use the chart to select varying hues of another colour family.)

For Row 1, Column 2, you will need:

21 “W” shade squares

25 “C” shade squares

13 “B” shade squares

12 “A” shade square

29 “X” shade squares

(Don’t forget to put in some little highlight squares occasionally. Make sure the square generally matches the shade of the colour it’s representing, e.g. a black square with white dots would be a great one to use in place of one of the “X” squares.)

For Row 1, Column 3, you will need:

42 “W” shade squares

9 “C” shade squares

21 “B” shade squares

18 “A” shade square

10 “X” shade squares

Make sure to work slowly – it’s really easy to make a mistake with these blocks and not notice. And unpicking these takes a LONG time.

For Row 1, Column 4, you will need:

95 “W” shade squares

0 “C” shade squares

0 “B” shade squares

5 “A” shade square

0 “X” shade squares

Some people like to cut a slab of white fabric for blocks like this, rather than cutting out each individual square only to sew it back together again. There are two reasons why I don’t like doing it that way:

1. My maths is terrible and I ALWAYS end up making a mistake and having to awkwardly trim the square back to the right size.

2. I like the look of seeing each square individually sewn like the traditional pixel quilt. I think it looks so much more detailed and impressive and is worth the time and effort. Plus it allows you to pop in fun novelty squares very easily.

But at the end of the day, this is your quilt so if you would like to cut a big slab of white – go for it! Be sure to show me pictures so that I can see the alternative 🙂

Happy Sewing!

Here is my Ryan Gosling ‘hanging out’ at a local park in my area. Remember to email photos of your progress to barlow-jess@hotmail.com so we can all enjoy the Gosling Goodness and provide feedback and advice about colour choices etc. This is going to be really fun so stay tuned! Make sure to follow on Facebook too for daily updates and sharing of other sewers progress photos along the way.

Also, I’d really like to get my quilt in the same room as the real Ryan Gosling for a photograph… who knows, maybe we can make it happen….

Introducing… The Ryan Gosling Quilt Along

After really enjoying the Ron Swanson Along run by The Happy Zombie, I decided I’d like to design my own pixel quilts and run a quilt along of my own. I’ve recently completed a Heisenberg pixel quilt and a Daria pixel quilt but I figured that they would only appeal to a small niche of people who enjoyed Breaking Bad or the awesomeness that was the Daria cartoon TV show. So instead of going for a particular TV character, I opted to go for Ryan Gosling because of the ridiculously popular ‘hey girl’ memes that have been floating around for a few years.

My favourites are definitely the feminist Ryan Gosling ‘hey girl’ memes which really took hold last year and were all over my Facebook feed for a good 6 months. They’ve since tapered off now but it was awesome to see the light shined onto some feminist issues and put out there in the mainstream. Ryan Gosling himself doesn’t really deserve the credit for it, but his face is what got the message going and is the main reason why I love the idea of a Ryan Gosling Quilt.

It’s taken the best part of two months of planning and measuring and copious excel spreadsheets and calculations, but I’v finally, at long last got the Ryan Gosling Quilt Along pattern ready for you to use. I’ve finished my Ryan Gosling Quilt top now (as I had to test the pattern!) but I’ll be posting the instructions online so that you can make one for yourself.

This Quilt Along assumes basic knowledge of patchwork and quilting so if you’re not sure on the basics you’ll want to run a few Google searches or consult your local Patchwork shop or LongArm Quilter for advice.

I haven’t included pressing directions as this is a very basic quilt made up of squares. I personally press my seams in alternating directions but if you’re more of a ‘press them open’ or ‘all to one side’ kind of a person then that’s up to you. I’ve used all methods before and haven’t noticed much discernible difference between them so I don’t generally pay it too much attention.

I’ve made my Ryan Gosling in shades of grey but if you’d prefer shades of blues/pink/red/green…. don’t let the pattern restrict you. The shades of grey in the pattern can easily be adapted to shades of a different colour or different colours altogether if you’re feeling ambitious and want to give him brown hair, a blue suit and white shirt etc.

If you want to make your Ryan bigger or smaller, it’s an easy matter of adjusting the size of the square you work with. I used 2000 2″ squares so if you want to go smaller then you’ll be down to a teeny tiny 1.5″ square. I do have a collection of those but I must admit I am procrastinating from attempting a quilt using those ones. They’re just SO small. Not impossible but I know I’ll get frustrated. In any case, no matter what size squares you use, please, please post a picture of your finished quilt or a link back to your blog – I would love to see what you do!

So without further ado, here are the fabric requirements:

This quilt took me about a week of sewing round the clock to get done – including cutting out all the squares. It sure is a lot of sewing but check out how awesome the finished product looks:

Made by Jessica Barlow of http://www.jessmadethis.com. Please do not share or redistribute this image without permission.

Worth it. If you do decide to participate in this quilt along and would like a button for your blog or website, please grab the one from the top of this post and link it to: http://wp.me/p4Dl0T-1m

Happy Sewing!

Postage Stamp Quilt Plans

This week has been a rather disappointing week for me in regards to sewing – mainly because I haven’t had a chance to sit down at the machine for even 5 minutes. The reason for my sewing deficiency is a good one though – in the past couple of weeks my fiancee and I purchased our very first home AND decided to get married and go on a honeymoon before our settlement date in 3 months time. Suffice to say there has been a LOT of phone calls and running around trying on dresses and scouting venues and not a great deal of sewing or crafting.

But true to my word when I started this blog, I have to post once a week on a Wednesday regardless of how crazy the rest of my life is. So this week I thought I’d share with you the project that I’m using all those itty bitty 2 inch squares for from the swap we just finished.

Anyone who has participated in a quilt square swap before will know that you often end up with heaps of blue coloured squares. After this happened for my third successive swap, I decided I needed to do something with those blue square instead of just recirculating them in future swaps.

And so the Blue Day Postage Stamp Quilt was born! Since the postage stamp quilt swap started, I’ve been working on separating squares into sets of 100 unique blue squares, ironing said squares and sewing them together into pairs. The idea is that once I’ve got all my blocks grouped up then I’ll try and work on a couple of blocks a week and have the quilt top done by the time my partner and I move into our house (pressures on!)

Here are a few photos of my progress so far:

This is what I come home to each day! Little baggies of 50 2 inch square pairs ready to be ironed so that I can sew them into 25 sets of four 2 inch squares. (Whew! What a sentence…)

This block is made up entirely of blue squares I received in the recent PSQ swap! I laid it out yesterday and popped it in a baggie ready to be sewn together.

These are the first 3 completed blocks of my quilt project. In the corner are my little baggies filled with sets of 100 unique squares ready to be sewn into blocks. Lot’s of work to be done but I think it will be worth it!

60 Free Quilt Alongs & BOM Projects

Since I am about to start running my very own Quilt Along on this site (stay tuned!) (and because I had a crazy week and disappointingly did absolutely no actual sewing) I thought it would be good to create a list of some of the other awesome Quilt Alongs (QAS) and Block of the Month (BOM) Projects that have already been shared for free online. I managed to find 30 of each and have listed them below.

It drives me crazy trying to keep up with BOMs online – my life never seems to coordinate with the wonderful projects on offer. For that reason I tend to keep away from paid BOMs, time specific BOMS and Quilt Alongs because I’m never able to utilise the patterns in the timeframe or sew along at the same pace as everyone else.

So for this list, I’ve only included free projects. Some may be current, some may just be a collection of awesome blocks that could be made into a quilt, others may have happened a few years ago but luckily are still around for us to try at home. I’ve also excluded the ‘Mystery’ category of Quilt Alongs and BOMs because quite frankly, I find them to be quite annoying. Making a quilt takes a LONG time and I don’t want to run the risk of spending countless hours making something that I mightn’t necessarily like. So if you’re looking for mystery projects, you’ll have to consult Google.

There also appears to be a lot of confusion surrounding what differentiates a BOM and a Quilt Along. For me, I think a Quilt Along makes a quilt that doesn’t look like a whole bunch of the same block sewn together and a BOM quilt is blocks that are all the same. But while I was hunting through BOMS & QAS online I found that everyone seems to categorise them differently. For the purposes of this list I went with the BOM or QA authors determination of their project. If they called it a Quilt Along but I think it was more of a BOM, then I put it in the Quilt Along category. By the time I finished this list I was completely bamboozled by the definition of each so I’m sure it might have ended up a bit muddled. If you’ve got a definition you stick by, I’d LOVE to hear it!

Anyway, a list post isn’t that great if it’s just a whole bunch of waffle and no actual list, so here is my list of 30 free Quilt Alongs that you can try around the internet:

SpringLeaf Studios 2015 Drunkards Path Quilt Along

The Happy Zombie’s 2012 Ron Swanson Along

We All Sew’s 2014 Chandelier Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sassy Quilter’s 2014 Triangle Quilt Along

My Poppet’s 2013 Triangle Quilt Along

Thought and Found’s 2011 Oh My Stars Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

Modern Tradition Quilts 2014 Punky Wunkin Quilt Along

Cora’s Quilts 2015 Legend of Zelda Quilt Along

ReannaLily Designs’ 2011 Rockin Robin Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Freshly Pieced’s 2011 Supernova Quilt Along

The Tartan Kiwi’s 2015 In Flight Quilt Along

Pieces by Polly 2013 Hexes by Halves Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sarah Quilts 2013 Barn Door Quilt Along

Deanna Jennings 2015 Shimmer Braid Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Quilting’s 2012 Tetris Quilt Along

During Quiet Time’s 2014 Little House on the Prairie Sew Along

Choly Knight’s 2013 Nyan Cat Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pieces by Polly 2013 Hexes by Halves Quilt Along

The Bored Zombie’s 2014 Futurama Quilt Along

Confessions of a Fabric Addicts 2015 Sweet 16 Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vicki Welsh’s 2014 Cross the Drunkards Path Quilt Along

Hopeful Homemakers 2013 Scrappy Swoon Quilt Along

String Thing Alongs 2012 String Thing Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Made With Love 2013 Bestie Quilt Along

The Plaid Scottie 2011 Double Wedding Ring Quilt Along

Jo’s Country Junction 2011 Crumb Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bryan House Quilts 2014 Boos and Ghouls Mini Quilt Along

We all Sew’s 2013 Deer Quilt Sew Along

Sew Take a Hike’s 2010 Quilt as You Go Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Has your list of sewing projects just grown by a mile? I know the feeling, and it’s about to get even worse. Read on to see my list of 30 free Block of the Month (BOM) Quilt Alongs available online:

Cora’s Quilts 2014-15 Super Mario Brothers BOM Quilt Along

Fandom in Stitches 2011-2015 Project of Doom Harry Potter Bookcase BOM Quilt Along

Persimon Dreams 2014 52 Blocks BOM Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Simple Simon & Company’s 2015 Quilt Block of the Month Series

Jacqueline Steve’s 2014 Sew Sweet Simplicity BOM Quilt Along

Persimon Dreams 2013 My Favourite Block BOM Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fat Quarter Shops Blog 2015 Snapshots BOM Quilt Along

Sew Fresh Quilts 2015 Elephant Parade BOM Quilt Along

Adventurous Quilters 2015 Scrappy Adventures BOM Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quiet Play’s 2015 Zoo Animals Paper Piecing BOM Quilt Along

Live Love Sew’s 2015 BOM Quilt Along

Adventures of a Quilting Diva’s 2013 Spool Along BOM Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shape Moth’s 2012 Sew Out Loud BOM Quilt Along

Debby Kratovil’s 2015 Galaxy of Stars BOM Quilt Along

Quilt Addicts Anonymous 2015 Kaleidoscope BOM Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Persimon Dreams 2012 Home Sweet Home BOM Quilt Along

Angie’s Bits’n’Pieces 2015 Let’s Go Free BOM Quilt Along

Persimon Dreams 2015 Scrappy Crown Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tweety Loves Quiltings 2013 Snoopy and Friends BOM Collection

Tweety Loves Quilting 2013 Disney Movie BOM Collection

Fandom in Stitches 2013 Not All Who Wander Are Lost BOM Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shiny Happy World’s 2014 Controlled Chaos BOM Quilt Along

Fandom in Stitches 2012 There and Back Again BOM Quilt Along

Fandom in Stitches 2012 Muppets BOM Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Six Two Seven Handworks 2013 Block Rock’n BOM Quilt Along

Amys Creative Side 2012 Dancing Stars BOM Quilt Along

Whims and Fancies 2014 Doctor Who BOM Collection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shape Moth’s 2013 Forest BOM Quilt Along

Oh Fransson! 2013 Cat Quilt BOM Along

Patchwork Posse 2013 Around the Block BOM Quilt Along

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Are you running a Quilt Along of Block of the Month Project for free? Or do you know of one that I’ve missed? Let me know and we can keep building this list as a great resource for all of us. There are so many projects here that I want to try. Some are well above my current skill level, and some are well below but all of them look fantastic and I’m enjoying trying to figure out where to spend my time. Keep an eye out for next week when I’ll be launching the Jess Made This Ryan Gosling Quilt Along!

Postage Stamp Quilt Swap Conclusion

Wow! Wasn’t that swap a lot of fun! I’ve received all but a couple of my swaps now and would like to thank those who sent me in photos of the fabric they received. As you can see from the above photos, quite a wide variety of fabric has been shared – which is exactly why we all love these swaps so much. (At least, that’s the reason I do!)

I thought it would be fun to compile some statistics about the swap so you all know how exciting it has been from my perspective as the person teeing up partners and resolving issues etc.

17 is the number of people who participated in the swap.

7200 is the number of two inch squares that were swapped.

2200 is the number of 1.5 inch squares that were swapped.

65% of swappers were from the USA.

30% of swappers were from Australia.

5% of swappers were from Sweden.

So far we’ve had zero cases of negative feedback and from what I can ascertain a 100% swap arrival rate. However, if you are reading this and are yet to receive your swaps, please allow one more week for them to arrive. Postage internationally can take time and occasionally life gets in the way of mailing humble fabric squares. If your lots haven’t arrived by the 25th of March though, please contact me and I will arrange for more squares to come your way and have a chat with your swap partner.

I learnt a lot about how to run a quilt square swap, particularly in regards to what I need to include in the instructions and how to explain how a swap works. When I run the next swap (yes, there will be another one!) I will be including a photo series of what constitutes a good quality square that is suitable for swapping as there was some confusion/variations in opinion in regards to this. I think this will ensure that everyone is happy with their squares that arrive and will make the swaps even more enjoyable.

I won’t go into everything I discovered here because it will be more useful if I post about that just prior to the next swap. So in the meantime, enjoy your squares, get sewing and don’t forget to keep us all updated about what you’re making. This is what Samantha is working on at the moment:

 

It’s called the Trail Mix Pattern and was designed by Mabeth Oxenrider. This particular one above used mainly Civil War Reproduction Fabrics but Samantha is using brighter prints for hers. She is currently piecing 9-patch blocks with a finish size of 3 inches! Very impressive and I’m sure we are all looking forward to seeing the finished product!

I’ll be sharing what I’m doing in next weeks post! If anyone else would like to share their itty bitty square project, please do send in some photos to me: barlow-jess@hotmail.com so we can all enjoy & appreciate your work!

Thank you again to everyone who participated. I’m looking forward to round 2!

Wonky Houses Swap

A few weeks ago I posted about a Wonky House Swap that I was involved with on Facebook. (You can check that post out here.) The only problem was that when it came time to post the Wonky House off to my partner, not only did I realise that I had accidentally cut it down to 12 inches instead of 12.5 inches, I had also misunderstood the swap and was supposed to make 4 Wonky Houses instead of just 1!

Naturally I had more than a few moments of panic as I tried to figure out what on earth I could do. In the end I just grabbed my box of scraps and got sewing. It was late when I finished but I’m really proud of what I managed to come up with.

The block I’d made previously had to be taken apart and re-sewn with a new ‘sky’ and ‘grass’ so that I could make up the extra inches. Thankfully that didn’t take too long and I think I ended up with a better fabric choice anyway.

Here are my final four wonky houses (please excuse the crinkles, these were taken before I attacked them with an iron!):

 

I hope my swap partners like the ones I’ve sewn above – I certainly do! I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do with the Wonky House Blocks that I receive in return though. They are quirky and fun and I like the look of them all together so maybe a house quilt is in order. If I did that though I think my perfectionist tendencies would kick in and I’d want to have all the ‘grass’ sections line up so it looks as though the houses are on a street all together… I’ll have to see what arrives and go from there!