Hello and welcome to the Journey Home QAL!  I’m so happy you’ve joined our group. Please be sure to use the hashtag #journeyhomeqal to post photos of your fabric pulls, process, progress and finishes along the way.  If you are not yet officially signed up to receive the weekly emails and be eligible for weekly prizes, please find the sign up form here and start you journey with us.

You can see the announcement post where I share the timeline and all other important information you might need.  And lastly, if you haven’t yet, head on over to my shop and pick up a PDF Instant Digital Download copy of the pattern (coloring sheet included)!   Take a moment to notice the supplies that will be needed to complete this quilt. Also, take a few minutes to read through the pattern fully to have a complete picture of what’s in store.  One thing I think is important to mention is that you’ll want to be mindful of your personal time commitment for this quilt.  If you are very restricted on time, I might  think about choosing the 9 block or less option so you have more of a chance of being successful and finishing your quilt on time.  What I’d like to avoid for all of you and myself, is having this turn into a WIP project that goes into the pile never to be seen again-LOL, or is that just me that does that? If on the other hand you have more time in your schedule this summer  and are feeling motivated, I say, go for it.  Make the twin size if you feel inclined!

Now, let’s dive in to this pattern and start planning our fabric selections! I realize many of you may have already done most or all of this and are ready to go.  Thanks for being so prepared and patient.  Just one more week until we start cutting.  For those who haven’t had a chance or have just recently purchased the pattern, please read on and don’t forget that Lamb and Loom is offering 10% off   all fabric (excludes Warp and Weft and Pre-Orders) now through the 28th!

The first thing you’ll need to do is figure out what size quilt you want to make and what colors you’ll want to work with.  I like to assign a letter to the fabrics in my patterns in order to give you, the quilter, a way to then organize your own unique selection of fabrics. IF YOU ARE A BEGINNER, I would recommend sticking with the 5 or 6 color layout that I based the pattern on as it will simplify your color selection and there will not be any guess work when it comes to cutting.

Of course for those more experienced or anyone feeling very adventurous, you certainly have the option of playing around with the layout, either a little or a lot.  You’ll notice some examples on page 7 of the pattern.  This will require a bit of quilt math to determine quantities.  This is not that difficult (although I don’t recommend it for beginners), just takes a little focused energy.  Here’s what I did for mine:

You’ll notice I show the original on the left and the version that I will be making, on the right.  With the exception of the white background, they are quite different.   The block in terms of the construction and design is the same, I have simply added some more colors and changed up the layout just slightly .  What this means is that I will have to adjust the math a bit in order to know how much of each fabric I’ll need as well as how much to cut later on.

I’m choosing to make the large lap quilt size at 54″ x 54″, which means I’ll be making 9 blocks total!

The alternate design is more intricate and less straight forward which appeals to me visually however means I need to make a few adjustments to determine my fabric needs.

So after looking carefully at my original design and doing a bit of math, I came up with this adjusted chart. This is fancy and computer generated for the purpose of this post and the pattern, however you can certainly sketch out something similar and simple along side your coloring on the page provided in the pattern.

While it may look a bit daunting and more difficult than the original,  if you break it down into what you need for one block and then multiply that by the amount of blocks you plan to make, it’s actually pretty simple.  Because I had so much of fabric C in my original design and chose to change up those same elements in the new design, that became more complicated, but again, totally doable.  How much you change up the design will determine how much quilt math you’ll need to do.  You could also just use this Bonus Layout as your layout and choose colors to match the letters in this more complicated design;  just consider this one as the design you’ll be using and choose colors to correspond with these letters.  It is more intricate and perhaps challenging when it comes to knowing cutting quantities,  but for those experienced quilters or those ready to be a bit more adventurous this round, it’s an option!

Reminder: The above blocks could be made with fat eighths! So you could choose a palette and go with a scrappy look and make all your blocks different…. or some variation on that.  Remember you can get two blocks out of a fat quarter per fabric (excluding background) so if you’ve got a bunch of fat quarter bundles or are eyeing some, those could be a great option as well.

So for this week,  I suggest using your coloring page (make several copies) and having some fun with color palettes you might like to see in this quilt.  Hopefully you’ve had some time to consider this before today as it can sometimes be hard to decide on a final palette.   The fabrics I’m using in my QAL quilt and in my original cover quilt,  were purchased at Hawthorne Supply Co and Superbuzzy,  two of my most favorite online shops.

I’m so excited to see your fabric pulls for your Journey Home Quilt.  Please post to Instagram, using #journeyhomeqal  in order to be eligible for this week’s prize drawing, and don’t forget to tag me @bloomingpoppies, so I can see your beautiful work.  Enjoy!

Oh, and guys, I’m sooo excited to announce that this week’s prize will be a crib size quilt bundle from Lamb and Loom Fabrics!!  Linli has been so generous to put together this beautiful 20th Anniversary Heather Ross bundle for one lucky winner.  I’ll announce on Sunday!  If you’re the winner, you could always make two Journey Home Quilts,  gift it to a friend or save for a rainy day!  And last but not least the winner this week will also receive, as a gift from me, a brand new Quilt in a Day 6 1/2″ Square it Up Ruler!!  Whoo hoo!  I’m so happy to have you all along for this journey!

Feel free to email me at kanderson.abraham@gmail.com with any questions or post your comments/questions below and maybe receive community support from your fellow Journey Homers!  Have a great week!