My Small World Quilt-along

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Hello, friends! I'm not sure if you've heard already, but I'm part of an amazing team -- along with Kerry, Cindy, Megan, Danielle, and Lisa -- that has come together to co-host the My Small World Quilt-along. Not familiar with the My Small World quilt? It's a fantastic piece designed by the equally fantastic Jen Kingwell, who is an author, new Moda fabric designer, and owner of Amitie Textiles in Melbourne (an adorable little shop that I had the pleasure of visiting while down under back in March.)

If you're quilting along with us, now's the time to make sure you have your pattern and start pulling out fabrics for your quilt.

(Note: More information about the quilt-along can be found below, but Kerry has compiled a really comprehensive post that I highly recommend for more information. Check it out here.)

As soon as I saw the pattern, I fell in love with it. Does it have some small, fussy piecing? Yes. Hand sewing? Yes. Curves and dresden plates? Yes. And if you follow my blog, you know that none of those are my favorite things. But I am confident that I can work around some of those challenges and still enjoy the process.

For example, I will be relying on fusible, raw edge appliqué instead of hand sewing or EPP. Semicircles? I'll be fusing those down too. And I'm on the hunt for some great cheater prints (squares and hexagons) that might work in the some of the patchwork areas and instead of the EPP bits. If that stuff interests you, let me know and we can share tips and progress. And please share links to any cheater prints that you know of that might work in the quilt.

The pattern can be found in the Spring 2015 Special issue of Quiltmania magazine. It's not the easiest issue to find, but we've been compiling a list of shops and stores where it's been spotted. If you have any additions to the list, please let me know in the comments to this post and I'll update the list.

In the UK it can be found at:

• Some branches of WHSmiths

• Some  quilt shops and newsagents- those that already stock Quiltmania publications

• Online at The Contented Cat.  They will also send overseas - a possible option for European quilters.

• Online at Coast and Country Crafts. One copy left at the time of writing!

• Online at The Running Chicken.  Listed here, new copies arriving 8th May and they will send overseas. 

• Online at Newstand, a couple of copies left here 

For Europe (and elsewhere)

• Quiltmania website available in English and French.  They send anywhere in the world.

In USA

• Joann's

• Barnes & Noble

• Online at Happiness is Quilting (currently showing out of stock so email to check) 

• Quilter's Paradise has copies online/instore

• Online at My Primitive Gathering- watch out for the shipping price, one buyer reported it as $9 in USA

Australia/New Zealand

• Order from local newsagent

• Minerva in NZ

• Online at Sewn and Quilted

Photo courtesy of Cindy at Live a Colorful Life

The power of quilt-along such as this come from the community that is participating and the activity and excitement that it generates. There is already a great deal of activity carrying the hashtag #mysmallworldqal on Instagram, Twitter and Flickr, so be sure to contribute your progress pictures. 

Other things that have already spun up in the community include:

• Fabric swaps for low volume prints to ensure scrappy variety in the patchwork sky portions of the quilt
• Resizing tips to make the pattern (currently 33" x 52") into a bigger quilt
• More information about shops stocking the issue of Quilt mania
• Fabric and other giveaways from individual bloggers, shop owners, and quilters (caveat: all the hosts agreed that the emphasis is on a community quilt-along, so we have purposely not sought official sponsors, prizes or a commercial aspect to the quilt-along. 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!)

Jen Kingwell herself and the nice people at Quiltmania will be following along as well, so you may see some nice comments from the designer herself!

Courtesy of Charise Randall at Charise Creates

The schedule for the quilt-along can be found below. The pattern is presented in six parts, which is how we will be proceeding. We hope it's provides a comfortable pace with which to keep up, enjoy the progress others are making, and get any and all of your questions answered. We'll kick of the piecing next week with part 1 right here on my blog!

My Small World QAL Schedule

• Week beginning 18th May - Intro post - All hosts will be posting!
• Week beg. 25th May - Part 1 - John Adams - QuiltDad (me!)

(Note: if you're getting a head start on part 1, there is a mistake in diagram 9 of the printed pattern. Errata can be found on the Quiltmania website. Kerry had the great idea to print the correct diagram, cut it out, and washi tape it over the original diagram in the magazine.)

• 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!

Will you be quilting along? Let me know! Leave a comment below.