howdy all!
consider this the official kick off post to probably the craziest sew along i've joined yet!
since this sew along is primarily on instagram, and i don't want you blog followers to miss out, i figured i would do a quick intro post about the project, what materials i'm using and all that good stuff.
gnomeangel has hosted this sew along in the past, and this year
lisa and i finally took the plunge to do it. this sew along features tula pink's city sampler book, which has 100 different 6.5" blocks in it. the catch is to sew and post all 100 blocks in 100 days (1 block per day).
there are prizes, festivities, and all sorts of fun to be had! to read more about it directly from the awesome organizer,
click here for her post all about it! this will be her last year hosting this sew along with this particular book, so why not jump on board?
now, more about my version of the project!
the fabrics
i'm not using tula pink, nor is it even a requirement for the sew along. i'm sure some people are doing theirs strictly tula (i know lisa has some in hers) but again, not a requirement. my quilt blocks will be made of three main "blender" fabrics
foundation by sassafrass lane designs
see fabric here
"holy cow, emily. that's super colorful"
you bet it is. lisa and i talked about what direction we wanted to go with these quilts, and both of us kept coming back to the rainbow varieties we had seen when searching the hashtag for inspiration. i saw this bundle pop up on instagram, and after thinking about it quite a bit, i snagged it up from
pink castle fabrics and then stared at it for a long while. i would be lying if i said i wasn't nervous about this coming together. my quilts, especially the ones i've made for myself recently, have been very simple in color and more darker tones. now that i've got this rainbow vomit of colors, what the heck am i going to balance it with??
grunge by basicgrey
see fabric here
i. love. grunge.
what better way to balance out those fun, bright prints than with fun, bright grunge? of course, i had some scraps already, but then i took my fat quarter pack down to the cutest little shop in town,
thistle dew quilt shop, where they have a wall of grunge. i pulled out some of the more obscure colors, like the wonky greens & such and found perfect matches. having grunge options really helped balance out my fabrics and allowed the prints to be able to shine.
i also had a fat quarter pack of the "grunge marks the spot" varieties, which has allowed for grunge with a little "extra" to be added in here and there.
dimples by andover fabrics
see fabrics here
as i was moving along (here's your first hint that i've already sewn blocks) i was feeling a little off balance with just only having my original fat quarter bundle (which i wanted to have some of in most blocks) and grunge. sure, i was pulling a few more basics here and there, but my more obscure colors were being really repetitive. i reached in to my stash and realized i had some of this dimple fabric left over from a previous project, but only just enough for one block. it was then and there that i decided i would make another trek out to thistle dew, where yet again, they had their walls of fabric and SO much of these dimples. i grabbed at least one of each color to coordinate, including some neutrals, and as i began adding them in to my blocks, i was able to breathe a sigh of relief as it toned down some blocks in some ways, and allowed my grunge to take a break.
fussy cuts
yes, some of my blocks will be featuring fussy cuts. some very random, some have a theme, but all are for fun! they are mostly intended to match with the fabric of the block they are arranged in, so there is some cohesion between it all. i won't say what they are, so you'll have to wait and see!
the blog
now, as i mentioned earlier, i don't want to leave you blog followers hangin' and not see what gets posted in case you aren't instagrammers (if you are, follow me
wereradletshug) BUT there is a catch. i'm sure i'll be trying to keep my brain on straight just to remember to post on there daily, but blogging takes a little bit more to it. SO, here's my plan.
i plan to post on here every 10 blocks (ideally every 10 days) for you to see, as well as keep a record for myself. that way, there aren't 100s of posts to scroll through, just about 10 or 12 between july 7th when it starts and october 14 when it ends (this intro post, plus i'm sure a final round up post included).
I also have a TON of finished quilts coming up, and i wouldn't want them to not have their time to shine as well!
kick offwell, all the fun officially begins tomorrow, with some people being "in the future" living in the southern hemisphere already having their fun begin at this very moment. it isn't too late to join in, since you post in your own time zone!
i'm super excited about this project, as it is pushing my current set limits by including insane amounts of color, smaller block sizes & hints of fussy cutting all tossed in to a crazy time frame
