Sweet Home Quilt Along: Week 3 - GIVEAWAY

Happy Friday! Each Friday throughout the Sweet Home Quilt Along there will be a new Giveaway with one of our amazing participating sponsors and today I'm so excited to share our WEEK THREE  Giveaway with a prize from Omnigrid!



Omnigrid is a family of measuring and cutting products. When Omnigrid tools are used together they provide quilters, sewists and DIY aficionados with unsurpassed accuracy and quality. A product concept born of the genius of Peggy and Randy Schafer, Omnigrid products work behind the scenes allowing makers to flawlessly bring their creations to fruition -- See more at Omnigrid!

You can follow Omnigrid on their social's -- Instagram & Facebook and be sure to check out their wonderful PRODUCTS!



For this week's Giveaway prize Omnigrid is generously offering an incredible prize pack of wonderful Omnigrid sewing/quilting products shown below! Please note that this prize will be limited to winners within the United States only, sorry international friends.



Omnigrid 8" Rotating Cutting Mat   |  2-1/2" x 8" Ruler  |  4" x 8" Ruler  |  28mm Omnigrid Rotary Cutter

Thank you Omnigrid for this amazing prize!

To Enter: Be sure to use a public Instagram account to post your Sweet Home Quilt Along progress photos throughout the QAL using the hashtag #SweetHomeQAL. Each time you do, you'll automatically be entered into the Giveaway hashtag pool! It's as easy as that, so be sure to share away your blocks and progress pics each week as we work our way from fabric selection, cutting, to making our blocks and finishing our quilts!

We'll announce each Giveaway winner on Monday's late afternoon EST throughout the QAL on each of your host's Instagram accounts at @MaureenCracknell, @SharonHollandDesigns, and @PenelopeHandmade, so be sure to find us to follow! 

New Sweet Home makers feel free to join in anytime, see HERE for details! All our welcome! 

We look forward to sewing with you! xo Maureen

Sweet Home Quilt Along: Week 3 - Bungalow Block

Welcome to week THREE of the Sweet Home Quilt Along, a QAL I'm co-hosting with Sharon Holland, the designer behind the adorable Sweet Home quilt pattern, and Jennifer Jones of Penelope Handmade!

For week three we'll tackle the ten Bungalow style house blocks in the Sweet Home quilt pattern! Below you can see the schedule we're following throughout the QAL, but of course we encourage and want everyone to sew at their own pace!



The Sweet Home quilt pattern is designed by Sharon and is available in her SHOP, for those of you just finding out about our QAL. I'm making a total of four quilts during the QAL, two to keep and two to give -- two will be made with my new Cozy & Joyful collection and two using the original Sweet Home quilt kit, both from Lady Belle Fabric!

Last week and again yesterday, I went out into the yard to pick a few clippings to photograph with each of my blocks. This was the last blooming daisy in the yard!



For my Cozy & Joyful Sweet Home quilts I'm making one with a background in my snowflake print, Make Snow Flurries, and the other background in my red stars print, Snowing Bright. 



Again this week I used the speedy chain-piecing technique to make my Bungalows. If you're new to quilting and/or chain piecing, Sharon has been putting together a super helpful weekly IGTV video series for this QAL on her Instagram that includes video of each step throughout our QAL full of helpful information and tips! Sharon is always incredibly informative and thorough with her instructions, so be sure to follow!



I hope these photos inspire your Bungalow block photos! I can't wait to see them! Be sure to post your photos on Instagram with our QAL hashtag #SweetHomeQAL, as well as tagging me @MaureenCracknell, @SharonHollandDesigns and @PenelopeHandmade. 

Just a reminder -- that from the hashtag pool we'll be able to see everyone's posts, as long as you have a public account, and from there we can interact and encourage one another! We'll also be using the hashtag pool to choose weekly Giveaway winners!



Be sure to pop on over to both Sharon and Jennifer's blogs to see how cute their Bungalow blocks turned out!

I'll see you back here Friday when I share our next Giveaway with our sponsor, Omnigrid!

xo Maureen

Sweet Home Quilt Along: Week 2 - GIVEAWAY

Happy Friday! Each Friday throughout the Sweet Home Quilt Along there will be a new Giveaway with one of our amazing participating sponsors and today I'm so excited to share our week two Giveaway with a prize from Chenille-It!



Chenille-It is a faux-chenille blooming bias tape designed by Nannette Holmberg that's easy to use and adds a wonderful texture to any sewing project. You can use it to embellish quilts, clothing and more -- just stitch it, wash it and you're done!

You can follow Chenille-It on their social's -- Instagram & Facebook and be sure to check out their wonderful SHOP!

For this week's Giveaway prize Chenille-It is generously offering a $25 E-Gift Card to their shop to THREE Sweet Home Makers! You can use the e-gift card toward purchase of any of the wonderful items in their shop like: patterns, kits, fabric, notions, or of course, toward faux chenille Blooming Bias—all available on their site!





To Enter: Be sure to use a public Instagram account to post your Sweet Home Quilt Along progress photos throughout the QAL using the hashtag #SweetHomeQAL. Each time you do, you'll automatically be entered into the Giveaway hashtag pool! It's as easy as that, so be sure to share away your fabric and progress pics each week as we work our way from fabric selection, cutting, to making our blocks and finishing our quilts!

We'll announce each Giveaway winner on Monday's late afternoon EST throughout the QAL on each of your host's Instagram accounts at @MaureenCracknell, @SharonHollandDesigns, and @PenelopeHandmade, so be sure to find us to follow! 

New Sweet Home makers feel free to join in anytime, see HERE for details! All our welcome! 

We look forward to sewing with you! xo Maureen

Sweet Home Quilt Along: Week 2 - Log Cabin Block

Welcome to week TWO of the Sweet Home Quilt Along, a QAL I'm co-hosting with Sharon Holland, the designer behind the adorable Sweet Home quilt pattern, and Jennifer Jones of Penelope Handmade!



This second week we start our block sewing beginning with the ten log cabin house blocks in the Sweet Home quilt pattern! Below you can see the schedule we're following throughout the QAL, but by all means, feel free to sew at your own pace! 



By now you should have purchased the pattern from Sharon's SHOP and used the helpful coloring page to plan out fabric placement or you've chosen one of the quilt kits we put together for your Sweet Home. I have planned to sew four quilts during the QAL, two to keep and two to give -- two will be made with my new Cozy & Joyful collection and two using the original Sweet Home quilt kit, both from Lady Belle Fabric!

When I first told Sharon that I was considering making four quilts she reassured me that this was a very doable goal since for this pattern, once the fabric cutting is complete, the quilt it's self goes together pretty quickly with chain piecing. Once I got going I was amazed how fast it went and how addictive these blocks are to make!

If you're new to quilting and/or chain piecing, Sharon has been putting together a super helpful weekly IGTV video series for this QAL on her Instagram that includes video of each step throughout our QAL full of helpful information and tips! Sharon is always incredibly informative and thorough with her instructions, so be sure to follow!

For the two Cozy & Joyful Sweet Home quilts I'm making I only made one fabric swap. One version will have the red stars as the background and snowflake windows, the other version red star windows and a snowflake background. Seeing the way my Cozy & Joyful finished log cabins looked stacked up waiting for their roofs and chimneys has me so excited to get these quilt tops finished. I think this cheery red plaid is my favorite, I just love it!



I snapped the pic below just after I finished the last cabin block center for my fourth quilt as the daylight was fading. It's my favorite time to work at our dinner table because the light hits the stained glass and casts pretty light, shadows and little rainbows throughout the dining room. 



Once the cabin blocks were finished I chain pieced together the rooftops for all forty cabins and added them to my log cabins! Sharon also has a video for this step on her IGTV for a little extra visual help, you can find that HERE!



I was inspired by Nuria (Fabric Stork's) photo of her Log Cabin House block to go out to the yard for some clippings to pretty up my photos of  my finished blocks to share!



For my Cozy & Joyful quilts I picked a few pine branches to shape into a little tree. So cute!





I hope these photos inspire your Log Cabin House block photos! I can't wait to see them! Be sure to post your photos on Instagram with our QAL hashtag #SweetHomeQAL, as well as tagging me @MaureenCracknell, @SharonHollandDesigns and @PenelopeHandmade. 

Just a reminder -- that from the hashtag pool we'll be able to see everyone's posts, as long as you have a public account, and from there we can interact and encourage one another! We'll also be using the hashtag pool to choose weekly Giveaway winners!



Be sure to pop on over to both Sharon and Jennifer's blogs to see how cute their week two blocks have turned out!

I'll see you back here Friday when I share our next Giveaway with our sponsor, Chenille-It!

xo Maureen

Sweet Home Quilt Along: Week 1 - GIVEAWAY

Happy Friday! Each Friday throughout the Sweet Home Quilt Along there will be a new Giveaway with one of our amazing participating sponsors and today I'm so excited to kick off our very first Giveaway with a prize from Fabric Stork!



Fabric Stork is a wonderful family owned, modern fabric shop on Etsy that offers the most beautiful curated bundles, collection bundles, collaborative quilt bundles & kits, plus yardage to coordinate! They only carry the highest quality fabrics and are always on top of the new trends & must have collections! 

You can follow Fabric Stork on their social's -- Instagram & Facebook and be sure to check out their amazing SHOP!

For this week's Giveaway prize Fabric Stork is generously offering a complete 14-piece fat quarter bundle of my brand new collection for Art Gallery Fabrics, Cozy & Joyful!





To Enter: Be sure to use a public Instagram account to post your Sweet Home Quilt Along progress photos throughout the QAL using the hashtag #SweetHomeQAL. Each time you do, you'll automatically be entered into the Giveaway hashtag pool! It's as easy as that, so be sure to share away your fabric and progress pics each week as we work our way from fabric selection, cutting, to making our blocks and finishing our quilts!

We'll announce each Giveaway winner on Monday's late afternoon EST throughout the QAL on each of your host's Instagram accounts at @MaureenCracknell, @SharonHollandDesigns, and @PenelopeHandmade, so be sure to find us to follow! 

New Sweet Home makers feel free to join in anytime, see HERE for details! All our welcome! 

We look forward to sewing with you! xo Maureen

Sweet Home Quilt Along: Week 1 - Fabric Selection

Welcome to week 1 of the Sweet Home Quilt Along, the new QAL I'm co-hosting with Sharon Holland, the designer behind the adorable Sweet Home quilt pattern, and Jennifer Jones of Penelope Handmade!



This first week is all about fabric selection and deciding which prints you'll be using to create your own Sweet Home quilt!



Once you purchase the pattern from Sharon's SHOP you'll find a super helpful coloring page to plan out which fabric will go where. Pulling prints from your stash and going as scrappy as your heart desires will make for beautiful Sweet Home quilts, but for those joining us who prefer to sew from a kit, we've made that easy by working with several shops to offer a variety of kits that include the four versions Sharon, Jennifer and I will be making plus three additional versions! If you missed my last week's post announcing the QAL you can view that HERE for additional details and to check out each version of the Sweet Home quilt kits!

I have very ambitious goals for this QAL, I'm hoping to make a total FOUR quilts! Two with my new Cozy & Joyful collection and two using the original Sweet Home quilt kit, both from Lady Belle Fabric!



When I finished my first ever Christmas quilt last year, my Merry & Bright Beacon quilt, I shared that I'd love to continue making a new holiday themed quilt each year, at least until we have a good collection to use throughout the season. I knew then that I'd have my Cozy & Joyful fabrics to use for those future quilts and when Sharon released her Sweet Home pattern I couldn't I have dreamed for a more perfect pattern to use for Christmas quilt no. 2!



Over the weekend I cut out all four quilts, which does take quite a bit of time, but using helpful tricks like "stack and whack" sped up the process significantly! To stack and whack is to simply cut multiple layers of fabric, stacked in a single pile simultaneously, rather than cutting one single fabric at a time. For this quilt I layered all of the like cuts of fabric and had no problem cutting them all at once with accuracy. It makes the cutting easy, much more quick & fun!



For the other two Sweet Home quilts, one to keep and one to gift, I'm using the original Sweet Home quilt kit that Sharon designed exclusively for Brooke's shop, Lady Belle Fabric!



This version has a beautiful color palette that includes prints by Sharon, myself and various Art Gallery designers. The background is the sweetest copper metallic polka-dot and the house blocks will be made in a mix of pretty floral and blender prints that will be perfect to use all year long!



Currently on my dining room table, where I've been sewing since March, are four wooden chargers that hold each of my four cut out quilts. It's always so crazy to me to look at the pile of cutout fabrics knowing they'll soon be a beautiful new quilt top. It really is magic!



I can already tell how pretty this Sweet Home will be just by seeing the fabric cuts laid out, waiting to be stitched together! 



For those of you joining in, I can't wait to see your fabric selections! Be sure to post photos of your fabrics on Instagram with our QAL hashtag #SweetHomeQAL, as well as tag me @MaureenCracknell, @SharonHollandDesigns and @PenelopeHandmade. From the hashtag pool we'll be able to see everyone's posts, as long as you have a public account, where we can interact and encourage one another, which is the very best part! We'll also be using the hashtag pool to choose weekly Giveaway winners and we have some wonderful sponsors lined up, checkout the amazing list!



I'm looking forward to seeing who's joining in and to feeling the wonderful sense of community that always happens during a QAL! Be sure to pop on over to both Sharon and Jennifer's blogs to see what fabrics they've selected, for loads of inspiration and tips for getting started on your own Sweet Home quilt!

I'll see you back here Friday when I share our first Giveaway sponsor and prize!

xo Maureen