The Sweet Home QAL -- Corner Squares & Sashing

Welcome to week FOUR of the Sweet Home Quilt Along 2021! I'm once again co-hosting this quit along with my dear friend and talented AGF sister Sharon Holland, who's also the designer behind the adorable Sweet Home quilt pattern!



During week FOUR we'll tackle the thirty Corner Squares in the Sweet Home quilt pattern!

Below you can see the schedule we've been following throughout the QAL, but of course Sharon and I want to encourage all to sew at their own pace. As always, if you're new to discovering our QAL you can join the more than 1200+ makers sewing along with us at anytime by signing up at Sharon Holland Designs. Once you're signed up, you'll have access to a Quilt Kit Directory full of amazing Sweet Home quilt kit options, Sharon's weekly quilt along blog posts that will feature a new amazing Giveaway with one of our sponsors, and new video tutorials each week that Sharon is creating to support her Sweet Home pattern. As her co-host, I'm excited to share the Sweet Home version I'm making each step of the way throughout the duration of this quilt along right here and on my social media!



When you visit Sharon's blog you'll see the beautiful Sweet Home she's making using her brand new Bookish collection for AGF. The Bookish Sweet Home Quilt Kit is available at Lady Belle Fabric and is the perfect Fall quilt!

For my Sweet Home I'm using the Cozy & Magical Quilt Kit available exclusively at Lady Belle Fabric that features prints from both of my new Art Gallery Fabrics collections, Cozy & Magical and Plaid of My Dreams!





Again this week I used the speedy chain-piecing technique to make my Bungalows, a sewing technique that mimics an assembly line where you'll sew piece after piece and then block after bock, continuously feeding your quilt pieces through the machine without cutting your thread in-between each step. If you're new to quilting and/or chain piecing, Sharon has been putting together a super helpful weekly video series on her Sew Along blog that includes video support for each step of her Sweet Home pattern throughout our QAL that's full of helpful information and tips. Sharon is always incredibly informative and thorough with her instructions, so be sure to check out these amazing video tutorials!



These tiny corner square pieces come together so fast and they're so cute! Once you finish all thirty squares and your sashing is cut, all that's left to do is to sew together your log cabin and bungalow blocks with your sashing and you'll have your finished quilt top!





As you finish this weeks piecing, be sure to share photos of them on Instagram with our QAL hashtag #SweetHomeQAL2021 and to tag me @MaureenCracknell & @SharonHollandDesigns. We can't wait to see them! Now it's time to head on over to Sharon's blog if you haven't already, to check out her Bookish version and to enter our amazing Giveaway with this week's sponsor, Oliso, for a chance for TWO to win one of their amazing Mini Project Irons!

Thanks for joining our QAL, we’re so happy you’re here!

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

A Fresh Start : :

After a busy, long weekend, and a completely overloaded month preparing for my trip to Quilt Market, today feels a little unusual for me. Many of you may not know that a typical "work day" for me begins and ends with my Etsy shop -- responding to each of the custom order requests I receive, filling those orders, packaging, shipping, etc... Making my Birthday Crowns has been the better part of this sewing gig for me for the past couple of years now. All the fabric designing, pillow & quilt making, and blogging I share here is the counterbalance, and in many ways has been the brighter side of my work. I've made so many crowns that I'm officially feeling burnt out and ready for a break. Maybe for just a little while, possibly forever, I'm not certain just yet. Since urgently opening my Etsy tab immediately after seeing the kiddos off to school has been my norm for so long, today feels new and different. While I certainly hope to continue with my Etsy shop success, from here on I hope that will be from selling the things I really, really want to make -- pillows & quilts! I'm currently offering several of my quilts for sale and will continue to add many of the things I make to share here to my shop. It's all pretty exciting! So today, before deciding what to make next rather than having it already decided for me, I'm taking a little time to enjoy the excitement, relaxation, and spontaneity ahead of me!

I'm feeling very inspired after finally reading Big Magic! Have you read it?



I'm deliberating before deciding what to do with the last of my pretty Nightfall strike offs!





I'm planning a fun Friday Giveaway for my friend Amy's wonderful new book, Intentional Piecing!



I'm elated to have a working Oliso Pro Smart Iron once again!



I'm looking through old and new sketchbooks for inspiration to create my new fabric collection!



I'm committed to cutting into these beautiful patterned AGF denims!



I'm planning to be back soon with something new share!

Happy sewing!! ♡ Maureen

Quilt Top Snapshops : :

Today, once my etsy order making was done, I pulled out my Rapture quilt rows and got to work, taking lots & LOTS of photos as I pieced and pressed! While I couldn't quite remember the order I had previously decided on for each finished column, in no time at all I had a new complete quilt top! One that might just be even better that my original idea, who knows!

I'm sending this one off to Melissa to add these adorable loops & swirls, a choice completely inspired by Rapture's Windswept print!

This will be my fifth quilt finish of the year and it's only the beginning of the forth month, woohoo! I do love meeting goals and even more, surpassing them!

♥  Maureen

January Beginning : :

The last of our family visitors headed back home over the weekend, and so today things are officially back to normal. Well, except that both Kevin and I are pretty sick with this nasty chest cold that everyone has right now, we're never home and under the weather at the same time?! Plus we're all a little heart sick from saying our goodbyes. It's always so hard, especially after having such a special and long holiday. We made a lot of great memories in this new house of ours, and started some new traditions, too. It really has been magical! So much so that I can't even think of taking our tree down yet.

So today, I have plans to take an easy, do some cleaning, and then sew and get myself a little more acquainted with this new, super fancy iron of mine!



This pretty yellow, Oliso Iron showed up on the doorstep of my old house, and was delivered by my best friend who noticed the box, just before Christmas! No note or receipt attached, so it's a bit of a mystery gift? And quite the upgrade from my old, $13 Black & Decker Iron!



So far I have only spent one day working with it, but I am loving it! It presses beautifully!! It has a sensor in the handle that lowers the iron when you touch it, and raises the iron off of your work when you let go. If you suffer from chronic joint pain, like I do, or other arm and shoulder injuries, I can see where this could make a big difference in your sewing life. It really does minimize the amount you have to lift, and for some of us, that's huge!



Having such a pretty iron also made for some sweet picture taking as I worked on my next Fat Quarter Gang Project with Luxe in Bloom! This fabric is SO gorgeous and I'm really excited about this next tutorial! I really hope you guys like it, I'll be sharing the project how-to on the AGF blog next Monday, along with a Luxe in Bloom GIVEAWAY right here!!



I also want to thank Melody for the gift I received for joining in the Ruby Star Wrap-Along! It was so much fun and totally my pleasure! Aren't these sweet?!



Happy Monday, everyone!!  ♥,  Maureen