Bees, Swaps, QALs, and Hops, WIPs
My Small World QAL – Fabrics + Plans
May
Welcome to the My Small World Quilt-Along! I am in love with this pattern – like all of Jen Kingwell’s designs, it is unique and adorable. It combines a lot of traditional block designs and techniques, including a bit of embroidery. It’s meant as a wall quilt, finishing at around 33″ x 52″. I’m going to make mine larger by expanding the background so it finishes around 88″ x 64″ – a better size for a twin bed or throw.
A quilt like this just wants to be scrappy and I’m happy to oblige. I pulled 14 fat quarters from my stash as a starting point and I’ll add scraps to fill in as a I go. I noticed while reading through the pattern that there are a lot of 2 1/2″ and 4 1/2″ pieces, which are great for Moda candy (2 1/2″ squares) and charm squares (5″ square) so I’m working some of those in from my stash, as well. My only rule is no pink or purple (at least not as a main color in the print).
I’ve also rounded up a selection of low volume prints from my scrap bin. I suspect I’ll end up having to purchase a few more once the main part of the quilt is complete. Low volumes are hard to come by and I’ve been using them up quite a bit in recent projects.
My plan is to cut all the background bits first since those are rotary cut. I went through the pattern and made a tally of all the necessary pieces of each size. Then I’ll make my templates for the rest of the pieces and jump in with section one.
If you are joining us on this quilt-along journey, be sure to take a look at the erratum from QuiltMania for section 1. You can download that {here}.
And also pop by to visit my co-hosts! The hastag #mysmallworldQAL is already filling up with wonderful inspiration on Instagram.
Cindy of Live a Colorful life {@liveacolorfullife}
Megan of Lucy and Norman {@lucyandnorman}
John of Quilt Dad {@j_q_adams}
Danielle of Mes Petits Elefants {@petitselefants}
Kerry of verykerryberry {@verykerryberry}
I need to get some low volume fabrics too. I have nothing in my stash for this sky.
Would love to get details on how you are making it big. I would love to make this one bigger but was sort of stuck on how to accomplish it. It is just a really unusual size. Anyway, we talked ourselves silly at retreat on this one. I saw at least two Quiltmania issues running around.
Lisa,
I don’t know if you remember, but we met at HMQS at the Handiquilter booth. I was talking to Vicky when you walked up. The moment I saw this pattern, I knew I had to do it, but because of other commitments, I’m not sure that exactly now will work for me. I am going to be lurking though and wondered if you were going to be posting how you modify the pattern to make it bigger. I have the magazine with the pattern and am in agreement that I would love this to be a larger quilt. I’ll be watching to see what you do.
It was sure nice meeting you.
I’m also interested to see your plans to make this larger. Presently the quilt is wider than it is longer, yet bed quilts are the other way round. Does that mean you are intending to add a lot more sky? (50″ more?) I look forward to seeing it!
I’m just joining in but I can’t wait to get started! This quilt will be quite the skill builder for me, and I’m planning on enlarging mine, too. Looking forward to seeing how you go about doing that. If you need some low volume fabrics, I just purchased some charm packs from Spun Sugar Quilts on etsy that should work perfectly!
Can’t wait to see them done!
I am just starting this now and would like to know how you made it larger, did you just increase the sky with the same size 11/4 squares. I love this quilt and wish I had found it when everyone was doing it, a lot of the links have closed. Any help would be wonderful.
Thank you
Ruth