Chamomile QAL- finale!

Hello! Welcome to the grande finale of the Chamomile Quilt Along! After all the drama of sickness and more sickness and broken machines, I was able to finish my top thanks so a sweet neighbor and my husband. Bless them both. I love how it turned out!

I wan't sure how much the gray sashing was going to show up, or if the cornerstones would overpower the blocks, but I am pleased with how it all balanced out in the end. This is definitely the lightest, airiest quilt I've ever made. I used Riley Blake white (a bright white, if you remember the background fabric post), Kona Silver for sashing, and various colored scraps for cornerstones from many different manufacturers.

Now how to quilt it!? I'm sending it to Emilee at Paisley, Prints, and Polka Dots for sure, just need to pick a design. You can see her pantographs here. Don't forget she is offering 20% off all Chamomile quilts she receives before June 15th!

I'm most excited about the backing I have for this one, can't wait to show you. Until then, let's announce the winner! The winner of $75 dollar quilting credit from Heather Alexander Quilting is @kimradair!! I love the sashing she used. Also go check out the drama of her 2-year old drawing on her quilt top with Sharpie the morning after she finished it! Yikes! Oh toddlers.

If you are late to the party you can purchase a PDF or paper copy of the Chamomile pattern here. It's fun and easy.

Thank you all for participating and for your understanding as I wasn't as involved in this one as I would have liked. You're very patient and kind! Be sure to check out all the lovely tops everyone made at #chamomileqal on Instagram.

Next up for quilt alongs in these parts will be Rise, staring in June. I'll have more details, and paper patterns for sale, very soon. It's a fun one! You can check out #risequilt to start getting ideas. See you then!

Chamomile QAL Week 6- finish the top!

Chamomile friends! Hello! So I think maybe the universe is telling me I shouldn't host quilt alongs anymore. Why do I get so sick every time! My influenza turned into pneumonia and I'm sicker than I've been in a long time. I'm hoping with antibiotics I'll be back to sewing this week and can finish up my top, but no telling yet. So that's a huge bummer, but that's life huh. I'm very excited to see all of your progress and share last week's winner.

Check out this red and navy beauty by @cottageindustryquilts. I love it!

How about this loveliness by @what_saysie_makes. Dreamy!

And a sashing bouquet for you by @luv.pieced :) She's making a King size Chamomile!

Alright, and the winner of $50 quilting credit from Knot and Thread is @lynnhoule4!! Yay!! You will love her quilting. 

Crossing my fingers for a healthy body and a quilt top to show you next week! I'm so close! Thanks for sewing along and checking in here.

Chamomile QAL Week 5- finish sashing

You guys, it's been a rough one over here. Influenza hit everyone but the birthday boy (a birthday miracle!) and it was TERRIBLE. But we're almost through the worst, and I don't want to relive it so let's talk about pretty quilts :)

Before the monster hit, I was able to put my 2 rows together. The Juki still isn't fixed, that's a story for another day too! I don't tell the sad ones here, ha! Usually. I really like how this is looking, it's just how I'd hoped it would. Love it when that happens!

I love to see your progress on #chamomileQAL, you're doing such a beautiful job and I'm so glad you are finding the pattern easy and fun! You have to admit the sashing is boring though. It's worth it.

This week's winner is @whill389! You win 20% off edge to edge quilting by One Sweet Bee Designs. Hooray!!!

Find something interesting to listen to while you finish that sashing up! I'm still listening to Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee, as well as LDS General Conference talks, and lots of music. We'll see you next week for the last week!

Chamomile QAL Week 4 and a Birthday Scrappy Trip!

Before I get to this quilt, this week we are making half the sashing and assembling two rows of Chamomile!! I broke it up this way because making the sashing for this quilt is so dang boring and I needed the gratification of some blocks together with rows. If you would like to make all the sashing this week instead, go right ahead.

I'm super excited about how mine is turning out, but a wrench got thrown in the works this week when I broke the bobbin case on my Juki, so I only have one strip of sashing done! I put it in hurriedly and somehow the needle hit the case and bent it. I am going to do my best to catch up, but last time I got a machine serviced it took a week, so we will see. Continue as scheduled, and I will meet up with you hopefully by next week!

This week's winner is @roxannehougardy!! You won three free patterns from @piecedjustsew, please DM her to claim your prize. Thanks so much for sewing along.

While I'm here let me show you my latest finish- I made this quilt to be the birthday quilt at our house. So, if it's your birthday you get to use it on your bed for the week! I finished it just in time for boy #2's sixth birthday this week, and he is so excited about it.

The pattern is a Modified Scrappy Trip Around the World, originally a free pattern by Bonnie Hunter that I changed to use alternating white squares, and larger blocks that maximize Jelly Roll strips. I originally made this version in Gooseberry fabric by Lella Boutique and gave that quilt to my niece.

This time I used V and Co. Confetti Dot Ombre. The gold metallic dots make the quilt so fun, just perfect for a birthday. I actually didn't use a Jelly Roll this time, I only had 12 FQs of this fabric and later decided this is what I wanted to make with it. The original Scrappy Trip pattern is very random, kind of like this red, white, and blue quilt I made several years ago. For this one though, almost every detail was planned. Here's how I did it.

-From the 12 different colored FQs, I cut: (5) 2.5" x 21(ish)" strips from each. I separated those into color groups- 4 groups of 3 colors, so that the darker colors would for sure be spread out evenly. Each block had 3 colors and a gold strip, with the 4 white strips. I think it worked out great only having 12 colors. With the different ombre tones, all the colors from a Jelly Roll would have been way too much, plus I didn't love every color available.

-I also cut (10) 2.5" x WOF strips (to be cut in half) of Essex Metallic gold linen for the center strip in each block. I copied this technique from Cindy at Hyacinth Quilt Designs. She used my modified tutorial to make hers, but added the accent color and a clever pressing tip. I in turn used both of those wonderful methods on this quilt! I added the element of ombre this time, however, which makes it a little tricky. In order to balance out the dark and light tones, I tried to alternate the strips within each block. For example, when I first sewed the strips together, I'd alter them:
green, dark to light
purple, light to dark
teal, dark to light
I think I stuck to that method for about 90% of the blocks anyway. I find it funny that Cindy and I  keep building on each other's ideas. What's your next move Cindy? :)

-I used a jelly roll of Moda Bella white 98 as specified in the original post.

Hopefully I didn't make that too confusing! I love how it turned out. I had it quilted by Emilee Hathaway of Paisley Prints and Polka Dots because I wanted to use the aqua minky she carries. I asked her to do a certain design, and I don't think she had it, so she just did it freehand! Can you even imagine!? I was so surprised, and thrilled with the personal touch for this special quilt. Thank you Emilee! The binding is Swiss Dots in gold by Riley Blake Designs from Simply Love Fabrics. Swiss Dots are one of my favorite bindings and this one was just PERFECT.

I was so happy to hand it over to my middle child to add to his birthday joy. He is so excited to use it this week, and honored to be the first one to do so.

Thanks for stopping by, and see you next Monday with some hopefully beautiful Chamomile pics!

Chamomile QAL Week 3- Last blocks and cornerstones

Hello hello again. Welcome to Week 3! This week is all about finishing up blocks and making cornerstones. 

I think I'm the only one in the whole quilt along doing the cornerstones this way (from scraps)- they should all be one color, and according to the pattern are really fast to piece. I'll be doing some IG videos to show you some tips and tricks. Should be a pretty easy week!

Here are some of the wonderful blocks you've been making!

 @piecedjustsew

 @sauervicky

 @quiltylilladybug

@mackmt

Seriously these quilts are looking so dang cute, it makes me so happy to look at them all! A few of you are already way ahead of the game and it's so fun to see your tops! Don't forget you can send your Chamomile top to @emileehathaway before June 15th for 20% off longarm quilting. She's one of the best! (I helped her make a logo this week, isn't it cute? It's fun to make other people's ideas come to life.)

Don't feel rushed by other people's progress though, all in good time! Let me know if you have any questions about cornerstones in the comments. 

Finally, last week's winner is @sauervicky!! Please send you address to @crimsonconfection via DM. Thanks for sewing along! And thank you Jennifer for the beautiful bundle!

Chamomile QAL Week 2- make 10 blocks

Welcome back folks! How are those blocks coming? Here are my first 5 that I had to catch up on from last week.

And here are all of them! Technically we are doing 10 blocks this week, but they are just about the simplest block around, so I just went ahead and finished all 20 while I was at it.

For last week's participation prize I made this pillow cover, and the winner is @janicevandyk!! You can email me at woodberrywayblog@gmail.com or DM me to let me know your address. I used the strip scraps for this project, and alllll the different pretty quilting stitches on it. I hope it makes you happy! :)

People always ask me about the zipper- you can find how I put zippers in pillows here.

Thanks for playing along and we'll see you all next week for finishing up blocks (if you need to) and cornerstones! The prize is super pretty too!

Chamomile QAL Week 1- Cutting

Welcome to the Chamomile Quilt Along! I am so excited about all of you sewing along with me, and a little nervous too. This is my first official quilt along for a pattern from my shop. Chamomile is a top 3 favorite and I'm so glad you are here to make one too!

It's never too late to join, you can grab the Chamomile Pattern in paper or digital form. And if you're still catching up:
Chamomile Introduction Post

This week is all about cutting fabric! There are essentially 3 way you can go about this:

1. Follow the pattern exactly. This gives you a majority of strips for faster piecing, and some squares to use to swap out and mix in fussy cuts if you'd like, or to just give it a scrappier touch. There's also a 1/2" margin for trimming space. I did it this way first time, and used lots of fussy cuts.

2. You can opt to not cut a square off the end of your strips, sew the strips together as directed (they will be longer) and get FIVE strip sets from each instead of four. This will make your block piecing even faster! I'm going to do it this way this time, mostly. I only have 2 little fussy cut squares to mix in.

Here I've got half on mine all ready to sew in sets of 4.

 3. You can go totally scrappy, cutting all 3.5" squares for the whole project. Sewing will take a little longer, but the result will be amazing! My neighbor friend @kimradair is doing it this way. You'll need 16 3.5" squares for each of the 20 blocks.

Special note: Some have asked if you can use precuts for this pattern. You can, if you alter it a bit. The best way to make the most of your precuts would be to use 36 2.5" squares for each block, sewing them together in a 6 by 6 grid to get the resulting 12" block. @sharita1 did it this way, and reduced the blocks to just 9 to make a baby quilt.

The sashing and cornerstone cutting are pretty straight forward. Be careful with those skinny strips! I don't have a Stripology Ruler, but if you have one of those it would be pretty nice to have for this part!

I am doing scrappy cornerstones so it's going to take much longer without the strip piecing, but I'm excited to use up some springy solid scraps.

A few people who have made this pattern have preferred to have the colored and white parts inverted on the cornerstones, like in the picture below by @sistersquiltshop. If you want to get that look, cut 6 WOF strips from your cornerstone color, so a quarter yard might be a very tight squeeze! This one is just gorgeous.

Let me know if you have any questions in the comments, and thank you for being here! I have loved seeing your fabric pulls over at #chamomileQAL, this is going to be SO GOOD! If you haven't posted your fabric or cutting or progress yet, be sure to do so to enter to win this weeks prize, which is a surprise from me :) Enter to win by posting to the #chamomileQAL hashtag some time before midnight PST on Sunday. After that we'll start in an all the awesome goodies from these ladies!