Sweet Home Quilt Along: Week 6 - The Finale!

Welcome to week SIX, the final reveal week 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 SIX, this final week of our QAL, it's time to reveal our finished Sweet Home quilts! Whether you have a complete top to share, or several like I do, that you plan to send to a long arm quilter. Or if you completely finished your Sweet Home, quilted + bound, now is the time to photograph those beauties and celebrate! Below you can see the schedule we're following throughout the QAL, but of course we always 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. Throughout the quilt along I've made a total of four quilts, two to keep and two to give -- two made with my new Cozy & Joyful collection and two using the original Sweet Home quilt kit, both from Lady Belle Fabric!



As I mentioned last week, I'll be sending all four of my quilts to Brooke at Lady Belle Fabric who offers an edge to edge long arm quilting service, Lady Belle Quilting, in addition to her amazing fabric shop! I've decided on the allover quilting patterns for each and I can't wait to see them completely finished!



From Brooke's catalog of quilting patterns, I decided on Frost, the large scale allover snowflake pattern from the narrowed down options I shared last week. Thank you to those of you who chimed in to offer your thoughts, it was a huge help! Since Potter County's snowy winters are one of my favorite things about living where I do, especially during the holidays, I decided it was the most meaningful option for my family's 2020 Christmas quilt that also has a background made with my creamy white with red stars print, Snowing Bright!





My my second Sweet Home quilt top, made using the original kit that was available at Lady Belle Fabric, I decided on the Baptist Heart Clams quilting pattern. It's just so sweet and I ultimately chose this option because I think the fans + heart combo will be a meaningful way to show all the love that went into making these quilts! 





I'm so excited to see everyone's finished Sweet Home quilts and I hope you've loved sewing with Sharon + Jennifer + ME! Today both lady's are sharing their quilt reveals own blogs, so be sure to pop on over to both Sharon's and Jennifer's blogs to see their final week six posts!



As always, I hope my reveal quilt photos inspire your week six 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!



I'll see you back here Friday for one last finale Giveaway with our sponsor, Lady Belle Fabric & Quilting!

xo Maureen

Sweet Home Quilt Along: Week 5 - 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 FIVE  Giveaway with a prize from OLISO!



Oliso believes in the human-centered design process. Their San-Francisco based team of inventors, engineers and researchers know that great ideas are best inspired by listening to people. From this process they're able to design products that simplify everyday life and address users’ needs. Their goal is to marry aesthetics and function to create ergonomically optimized products that disrupt stagnant industries dominated by the same few companies. Visit Oliso to see how their products can change your home and lifestyle for the better! 

Oliso.com   *  Blog  *  Instagram  *  Facebook   We hope you love visiting Oliso!

For this week's Sweet Home Giveaway, Oliso is offering one lucky winner their pink Oliso Mini Project Iron which brings you the power of a full size iron in an adorable compact design!

Each Oliso Mini Project Iron comes with its Solemate, a silicone trivet that hugs the mini iron for travel and storage and functions as a safe place for the soleplate to rest while ironing.

Thank you Oliso 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 progress pics each week as we work our way to 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 5 - Assembly & Finishing

Welcome to week FIVE 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 FIVE, now that our Sweet Home quilt tops are complete, we'll move on to the final quilting stage! Below you can see the schedule we're following throughout the QAL, but of course we always 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. Throughout the quilt along I've made a total of four quilts, two to keep and two to give -- two made with my new Cozy & Joyful collection and two using the original Sweet Home quilt kit, both from Lady Belle Fabric!

I'll be sending all four of my quilts to Brooke at Lady Belle Fabric who offers an edge to edge long arm quilting service, Lady Belle Quilting, in addition to her amazing fabric shop! This week I'll piece together my quilt backs and will photograph full shots of all of my quilts tops to share next week for the BIG reveal, before sending my quilts out to Brooke!



Since two of my quilts are gifts, I'm letting the recipient decide their own allover quilting design to finish their quilts with. For me, I've been browsing Brooke's long arm quilting patterns, trying to decide on which pattern I'll choose for each of mine!

The Cozy & Joyful Sweet Home quilt that I'm keeping for my family's 2020 Christmas quilt has a background made with my creamy white with red stars print, Snowing Bright!





So far I've narrowed quilting patterns down to FOUR! Three different snowflake options -- Frost (top left), Falling Snow (top right), or Simple Snowflake (bottom right). And one festive option -- Holiday Lights (bottom left). Right now I'm leaning most towards Holiday Lights, because it perfectly mimics my Cozy & Joyful Northern Lights print, but I'd love to know what you think?! It really is so hard to choose!



The second Cozy & Joyful Sweet Home quilt is made with my own Make Snow Flakes print as the background, so it will be exciting to see if this one ends up quilted with snowflakes!



My other two quilt tops are Sweet Home twins, made using the original kit that was available at Lady Belle Fabric. This version is made using a mix of prints by me, Sharon and fellow various AGF designers. It's so perfectly sweet and pairs with this quilt pattern perfectly! 





For this one I've narrowed the quilting options down to three, each adding to the overall "sweet" theme of this quilt -- Ginger Flowers (top left), Tight loops (top right) and Baptist Heart Clams (bottom). Currently it's a complete three-way tie for this one, so I definitely would love some help! The flowers pattern would highlight the garden-y theme that flows throughout the quilt because of the prints I used. The tight loops is just so classic to me and is something I always meant to try myself on my home machine using free motion quilting. The fans + heart combo is adorable, unique and would be a meaningful way to show all the love that went into making these quilts. ALL are such great options!



Beyond making these BIG quilting pattern decisions, sewing together quilt backs, taking reveal photos and shipping these beauties off to Brooke, this quilt along is pretty much a wrap for me! It's really flown by and I hope you've loved sewing with Sharon + ME + our new guest, Jennifer! Today both lady's have lots to share one their own blogs, Sharon has continued adding to her helpful weekly IGTV video series for this QAL on her Instagram and she has an amazing YouTube video for adding faux chenille binding using one of our sponsored Giveaway products, Chenille-It! So be sure to pop on over to both Sharon's and Jennifer's blogs to see their week five posts!



Such an amazing finish, right?! I'm planning to do this myself with at least one of the two quilts I'm keeping and I can't wait! 

As always, I hope these photos inspire your week five 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!



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

xo Maureen

Sweet Home Quilt Along: Week 4 - Corner Squares & Sashing

Welcome to week FOUR 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 FOUR, now that our Log Cabin and Bungalow house blocks are complete, we'll move on to the final piecing portion of the Sweet Home quilt pattern, corner squares and sashing! Below you can see the schedule we're following throughout the QAL, but of course we always 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!

I'm currently a little more behind than I had hoped to be by this week because we've been tackling some home projects in our free time now that the weather is finally a bit cooler. Yesterday I completed one of my Cozy & Joyful quilt tops with the snowflake background and I'm so in love!



My second Cozy & Joyful Sweet Home will have a white with red stars background, but the corner squares are the same pretty, cheery bright red! The corner squares for all four of my Sweet Home's are all done, I just need a few more days to piece them altogether.



Yesterday I made major progress on the twin Sweet Home quilts that I'm making using the original quilt kit that was available at Lady Belle Fabrics. This quilt includes the sweetest peachy coral solid corner squares and a sashing made in an off-white with copper metallic polka dots print by Art Gallery Fabrics.



Again for the corner squares I used the speedy chain-piecing technique. For me, chain piecing especially made working with the tiny pieces needed to make the corner squares a much more fun process, since tiny pieces has never been a favorite of mine. I've mentioned since week two, when we began making Sweet Homes blocks, that 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. This video series is full of helpful information and tips, including on how to chain piece, so be sure to follow Sharon for her helpful videos!





Once the corner squares are finished, my quilt top assembly using the sashing pieces has been going pretty quickly. Just seeing each block and piece laid out has me so excited to see these quilt tops finished!



As always, I hope these photos inspire your week four 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 their week four posts!

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

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 - 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