My Small World Quilt-Along: Introduction Post and Schedule

Welcome to the start of the My Small World Quilt-along.  Hopefully your supplies have arrived or are only days away and you can start your preparation.  This is an introductory post with the schedule and a few ideas to help you prepare for the construction of part one and making the rest of the quilt.  You can check out the rest of the host teams' thoughts at Cindys, John's, Megan's, Danielle's and Lisa's blogs and IG feeds for progress hints, and tips-please allow for different time zones for these posts. The Instagram hashtag #mysmallworldqal will take you to these too!


Errarta
I recommend having a thorough read of the instructions before you start- note the diagram error on page 61.  Originally Quiltmania magazine created a PDF file with corrections for this but they have now withdrawn it.   You can see some details on this blog post from John/QuiltDad.   Jen Kingwell published the corrected pattern herself and it available on her website.  Another minor error to note is on page 74, the larger semi circle template is missing it's label- it is BF.  Note the size of the quilt too, 33" x 52" and many of the pieces are very small.  I'm getting zip lock bags labelled as I cut out different sections for later construction.  There's more info and links further down this post for those wishing to increase the size.

Low Volume and Sky

The sky area features in parts 1-5 of the construction sections so you may want to at least get your fabrics out to plan and maybe get cutting too, there are a lot of little squares involved!  I added a little aqua and yellow to my palette but kept it very light and low contrast.  I know a few participants are interested in having a blue sky.  Charise of Charise Creates has already started hers and the Blue Skies picture below shows how pretty the aqua and cream low volume fabric look together.  I would also recommend a look at the hashtag #mysmallworldqal on instagram to see how other skies look as a few people have already started sewing.  You will find @vickidjl (of Sew Inspired) photo which is another very pretty cream and aqua sky.

Photo kindly supplied by Charise Randall

Templates

Most people will be machine sewing this quilt.  It is template based, and could also be hand pieced if that is your preference.  For templates, I used a mix of template plastic, old Paperchase notebook covers- these make for thicker templates, great for drawing around and freezer paper.  I used freezer paper for some of the curved templates that only have one piece to cut out and I will use it for making lots of the AE/iorange peel templates to appliqué on.   Remember to chose either imperial inch (pink outlined templates) templates or metric (black outlined templates)- don't mix together, plus there are also templates are suitable for both measurement systems also shown in black.  I use a ¼" quilter's wheel to create the seam allowance on fabric with the curved templates.  Incompetech allows you to print a range of shapes- hexagons, 60 degree triangles etc at specific sizes for free e.g. for English paper pieced hexagons in part 5.  I use Karen Buckley's Perfect Circles for appliquéing circles.

Areas to think about during the QAL

During the construction, there are some decisions to be made especially around hand piecing choices.  Here are some areas to think about:

• Appliqué circles, curved pieces and orange peel in most of the sections   
• Clamshells in part 4
• English Paper Pieced hexagons in part 5
• Arcs in part 5
• Dresden piecing in part 5
• Triangle arcs in piece 5
• Embroidery- buildings in part 4
• Lots of small green squares need in part 5 and 6

I am going to make a start on some of these early on-I think the clamshells are something I will start preparing sooner rather than later.   EPP takes me ages and hurts my hands- even the preparation of those hexagons takes some time. I think I will hand sew these together but along the seam lines and without papers.  Sue of Jersey-Scraper has offered pre cut hexagons for the price of postage- contact her for this and also for a low volume strip swap for the sky.  As different hosts cover their section of the quilt along, they will share some of their methods and decisions. So far, I have decided not to include embroidery and I will be using needle turn appliqué for all appliqué shapes. 

Palette and Fabric Choices

I am not a huge fan of planning quilts which is the reason Jen Kingwell's quilts appeal to me.  The scrappy palette means I won't have to buy new fabrics, scraps and stash will suffice beautifully.  I am thinking about how much contrast I want to create.  Viewing Jen's quilt through a black and white filter shows the contrast levels amongst the scrappiness and they are relatively low.  I am thinking of a sightly stronger contrast although I am guessing it will evolve as I sew.  I photographed some fabric pulls as an aide memoire when I come to cut buildings and roof tops so I can recall the colours I liked.

Sizing Up

Sizing up is something I know has come up on Instagram discussions.  I will be sticking to the standard size as this quilt is going on my sofa so is just the right size.  There are a number of options for increasing the size.  Lisa is considering this so you might want to read what she says and Cindy is also looking at this option.  Jo of a Life in Lists is expanding the quilt by repeating chunks of sections and adding a lot more sky- you can see her plans in her sketch below.  She is also following this up with a detailed post on her blog.

Photo kindly supplied by Jo Greene

This method means that the size of the pieces remains the same- there's just a lot more of them.  Another alternative is to double the size of the pieces by reproducing the templates at 200% and resize the rotary cut pieces- remember the size for these in the pattern includes seam allowances consider this in your calculations!   For example, a rotary cut 2 ½" square will double up to become a 4½" square including  the seam allowances.

A few thoughts about the quilt along in general.

1. As it is Jen Kingwell's pattern for Quiltmania we cannot give chunks of the pattern away- i.e. details about the size of each piece so posts will concentrate on skills involved e.g. appliqué or alternatives to sections you might want to change e.g English paper pieced hexagons.  Jen and Quiltmania are following the progress of the quilt-along and looking forward to seeing your versions of My Small World!
2. All the hosts agreed that the emphasis is on a community quilt along so we have not sought sponsors, prizes or a commercial aspect to the quilt-along so if you see anything along these lines on social media, it is not linked to us but to the individuals offering a giveaway, kits to buy etc.  Instead, we wanted to host a fun, community quilt-along over the next few months and provide the motivation and a little help that we all need to get something we really want to do done! 
3. There is a Flickr group for those not on Instagram or still like the old style Flickr groups.
4. Please continue to share on #mysmallworldqal  on Instagram, Twitter and Flickr. 
5. There's no compulsion.  This quilt along is to help and encourage not lay down the law.  If you want to do something different, share it as others may want to do what you have done!
6. The construction posts are timed during specific weeks rather than named dates so they may not be there early on Monday morning of that week but later in the week instead.  

I hope that helps.  Any quilt-along questions will be answered in the comments.  I'll write a mini blog post with a link to each part of the  quilt-along over the next few months as well as showing my progress.  Here's the schedule:

• 18th May Intro post - All hosts will be posting!
• Week beginning 25th May -Part 1 - John Adams - Quiltdad
• Week beg. 15th June -Part 2- Kerry Green- verykerryberry
• Week beg. 6th July - Part 3 - Megan- LucyandNorman
• Week beg. 27th July - Part 4 - Lisa- Vintagemodernquilts
• Week beg 17th August- Part 5- Danielle - Mespetitelefants
• Week beg. 7th Sept - Part 6 - Cindy- Liveacolorfullife
• Week beg. 28th Sept - Finish - All hosts will be posting!