It's here!! The Star Light Star Bright Quilt-A-Long officially starts today!!! Today's post is going over everything you need to know to Quilt-A-Long. There will be a post each Wednesday from January 29th until March 12 with weekly assignments and then there will be a Parade and Grand Prizes on April 2nd. So . . . onto a little rundown on how it's going to work!!
THE HOW TO
The Star Light Star Bright Quilt-A-Long is my own quilt design and I hope you enjoy putting it together. The quilt-a-long will include 6 different sizes for the Star Light Star Bright block giving you multiple layout options. You can also choose how many blocks you want in your quilt. You can do a 1 x 1 block layout, 2 x 2 block layout, 3 x 3 block layout, and/or a 4 x 4 block layout. This quilt will not be made by making one block at a time but rather a more assembly line process. Once the units are done, then the blocks will be created. I broke down the construction of the quilt into 7 weeks and then added an additional 2 weeks to get it basted, quilted, and bound. The schedule will be as follows
Jan 15 - Intro, Fabric Requirements, and Prizes Announcement
Jan 29 - Cutting
Feb 5 - Flying Geese
Feb12 - Half Square Triangles
Feb 19 - Building Block Centers
Feb 26 - Building Block Sides
Mar 5 - Building Block Corners
Mar 12 - Piecing Top and Grand Prize Linky
Mar 12 - Piecing Top and Grand Prize Linky
So count on checking back each Wednesday to see what the next week's assignment will be. You will want to try to keep up weekly as there will be prizes along the way!! Be sure to take a picture of your finished weekly assignment so that you can link it up for the weekly prizes :) Oh, and if you are new to quilting, no worries, this will be super beginner friendly! I will go through each step in great detail in the Wednesday posts.
CHOOSING A SIZE BLOCK AND BLOCK LAYOUT
So to start, you need to make some choices. What size project do you want to make and with what size blocks. Check out this chart below to help you decide what size project you want to make and with how many blocks in it. A 1 x 1 layout is 1 block, a 2 x 2 layout is 4 blocks, a 3 x 3 layout is 9 blocks (Kits provided for this layout) , and a 4 x 4 layout is 16 blocks.
THE FABRIC REQUIREMENTS
Regardless of what quilt you want to make you will need to choose fabrics to make your "star" which I refer to as print fabrics and fabrics to make up the background of the quilt ie . . background fabrics. You will also need binding fabric and backing fabric for when you are ready to finish up your quilt :) (Because we area all about finishes, no wip's here :)
Print Fabric Requirements
Use the chart below to determine the amount of print fabrics you will need. In all layouts except the 1x1 layout the total number of fabrics are the same the number of blocks in your quilt. The size of each fabric depends on the size of your project. In the 1x1 layout, you will need to select 3 different fabrics. The "Main" fabric is the fabric that makes up the "diamond" around the star. The 2 star fabrics are the fabrics that will make up the star in the center of the quilt ;)
See the chart below for the amount of background fabric you will need for your particular size project. ( I will be showing everything with a white background fabric, but you don't have to use white, feel free to choose any color you like for the background)
Binding and Backing Requirement
Refer to the two charts below for the requirements you will need for binding and backing for your particular project :)
I have asked my wonderful friend and sponsor Julie from the Intrepid Thread, to put together some custom bundles together for Star Light Star Bright Quilt-A-Long. And as always, she came up with some stunning options for you. The Kits are made for the 3 x 3 layout and can be found in all 3 sizes (baby, picnic, and queen) in that layout. Julie even gives you the option of choosing your background color :) I went ahead and put each bundle into the quilt layout so you could get an idea of how they will look in the quilt.
And as before, These bundles are at a special Quilt-A-Long discount price, but Julie didn't stop there. Use the coupon code HAPPYQAL10 at your checkout and receive and extra 10% off your order. Yup, that's additional discounts on your purchase that you can use on your binding and backing as well as your already low priced kit, Yippee Skippee!!! Thanks Julie!!
Anthem Quilt Kit
Aren't these just fabulous. Julie has impeccable taste in fabric!! Good Luck choosing a favorite!! It was a super hard choice for me, but in the end I decided I am going with Anthem. I am so excited! And like I mentioned, you can choose your color background as well. So don't be afraid to do something other than white, look how adding a background color changes up these kits ;) Stunning!!!!
Carry the Torch with Grey
Winter Games with Navy
THE PRIZES
I am so very excited about the Prizes for this Quilt-A-Long!! I don't know about you, but I know that I am highly more motivated to keep up and finish when there are prizes at stake ;) So how about this for a little motivation.
All those that finish their quilt top will be eligible for the Grand Prize. The Grand Prize's are sponsored by The Intrepid Thread and Fat Quarter Shop and huge Thank You goes out to Julie and Kimberly for their generosity in these prizes. Wan't to know what they are???
A $75.00 Gift Certificate that you can spend as you like!! There will be 4 lucky Grand Prize winners, 2 winners will receive a Gift Certificate to The Intrepid Thread and 2 winners will receive a Gift Certificate to Fat Quarter Shop. Talk about some fun Shopping Sprees!!! And if that whopping amount of fabric goodness isn't motivation, then I don't know what is!!
But . . . Sometimes it is hard to keep motivated when the end is so far away. So for that . . . We have a little Weekly Motivation. Each week you will be able to link up (You don't have to have a blog to link up, you can link to a flickr picture :) your completed assignment for a chance to win the weekly prize. These Weekly Prizes will be sponsored by several of my Sponsors and will be so fun!!!
THE BUTTONS AND FLICKR
Now down to the last of the nitty gritty. First, If you are Quilting-A-Long and have a blog, It would be wonderful if you added the button to your blog :) It really helps to spread the word and the more that Quilt-A-Long the better!!! If you have already added the button, thank you!!!
Second, I would love it if you joined the Happy Quilting Quilt-A-Long Flickr group. You can post your fabric here, your progress, ask questions, ect. And it is a super fun place to get to chat along with everyone participating :)
LET'S GET GOING!!
So that just about wraps it up!!! You have two weeks for this assignment, round up your fabric. On Jan 29th you will be getting your cutting assignments.
Now I know that was a lot for one post, so if you have any questions at all regarding the Quilt-A-Long please do not hesitate to email me at happyquiltingmelissa@gmail.com. I don't want anyone to not participate because they are confused by my rambling :) And one last thing, please feel free to make your quilt your own. If you want a different layout, great! Want to add a border, perfect!! What ever you envision, you make it, all will be eligible for prizes :) Now . . . Let's get Quilting-A-Long!!!
