Welcome to the start of the Forever Yours Sew Along - Week 1!

I am so glad you are here and I cannot believe I am hosting my first sew along. To say that I am excited and nervous would be an understatement. But, I love the quilting community and know we will have a great time working on amazing quilts together. Along with a weekly newsletter, blog post and giveaway, I will also be posting on Instagram and look forward to seeing your posts as well.

As we are moving into the fall months in the northern hemisphere, this is the perfect time to make the Forever Yours Quilt. It's fast, beginner-friendly and will make the best personalized gift for your friends and family. The pattern is written as a baby or throw quilt, but more blocks can be added if you want to make a bed size. And, it can be made in two colors or with scraps, fat quarters and other precut fabrics.

The sample above is the design I will be working on for the sew along. I will be using a mix of Oakshott Cotton fabrics in a range of four colors. The colors have a beautiful blend of warp and weft fibers, so I know it will finish beautifully. To make this work best, I will be swapping the placement of the HSTs so the background fabrics on the HSTs will flow into the background borders and allow for the corners to be snowballed as well. (In the Liberty Quilt featured further below, the feature prints flowed into the background border, so I made adjustments to accommodate this). To further highlight the beautiful solids, I am using Kona White as the background fabric, which will also be used for the signature squares. The pattern has the half square triangles (HSTs) put together two at a time, but you can see in the photo below that I have chosen to make mine one at a time, so I have cut out the triangles to piece individually. There are many ways to piece HSTs and I have found that for myself, I love cutting the triangles and piecing them one at a time. This method allows me to piece, then press without the need to trim them at the end. The pattern has the HST worksheets if you have a different method you prefer. In the end, you will need finished HSTs and how you get there is up to you.

Each week our Forever Yours blog posts will focus on tips and tricks and today we will focus on how to choose and cut your fabrics, hopefully to help answer any of your questions. Be sure to check out the first post for more information and you can always email or DM for more information on the weekly check-ins on Instagram.

Choosing Forever Yours Fabrics

When I look on Instagram and see the different fabric pulls, I am excited, inspired and often intimidated by what I see. There are so many options and I love seeing everyone's vision for a particular design. For the Forever Yours Quilt, you can make it with a mix of scrap fabrics, two yardage fabrics, fat sixteenths, eighths or quarters or other precut fabrics. For a wider mix of prints and colors, precuts and scraps are a great option, but you can get a great mix with fat quarters as well.

For the Forever Yours Giveaway Baby Quilts above, I worked with fat quarter bundles. For the quilt on the left I chose a bright white for the background and for the center signature block to let the fun colors and lettering to show well. To highlight the Acufactum prints in the fat quarter bundle on the second quilt, I chose a dark background fabric, Kona Grizzly, and fussy cut the signature square rather than adding a quote or name.

For the original Forever Yours Sample, I worked with 15 of my pattern testers to put this together. I sent them the background fabric and fabric for the signature block and they added the feature fabrics, making the whole quilt cohesive with fabrics that represented each quilter's block. I originally planned to embroider their names, but chose to add them with a Pentel Gel Fabric Pen. I love the finished quilt and the names of friends I can see every day. I gave them no instructions on the fabrics they would use and love how the scrappy mix works together for the completed quilt. I think what works here is that each block works well within itself and the common background fabric ties them all together. I used Art Gallery Fabric Denim for the background and love the soft drape it provides. I used Essex Linen in Natural for the backing because it provides great texture, gets softer with each wash and highlights the quilting and doesn't compete with the quilt top. One word of caution for the denim: prewash!

If you love scrappy quilts and are confident with mixing your prints and solids, go for it. You can change up the background fabrics for each block or keep them the same. It's completely up to you. On the other hand, if the thought of mixing scrap fabrics or even fat quarters intimidates you, there are many options available to you. Using a mix from a single fabric collection is always a good choice since the colors and prints were designed to work together. But if you prefer a less tied together look while still achieving a scrappier look, there are many fabric stores, local and online, that offer curated bundles. These were always my go to choices when I first began mixing fabrics. Today, more often than not since I have found what I like together, I find myself pulling the bundles apart and mixing them with other fabrics in my stash to get the specific look I am wanting. I would encourage you not to be overwhelmed, so choose something pulled together for you or take a few minutes to play around with the prints and solids you have at home.

This pattern was designed as a signature quilt and I love the idea of a swap or group project. I hope to see that as part of the sew along. If you are doing a swap, making a group quilt or other group project, please share. That thought makes me so happy. With the past year of so much separation, I hope to see friends, even Instagram friends, joining together for a block swap or group quilt.

For my final Forever Yours sample quilt, I was fortunate to be gifted the Mystic Topaz fat quarter bundle from Duckadilly Fabric's bespoke Jewel Box Collection, which was also a great giveaway on Instagram. I chose to mix the six fabrics randomly, keeping the four corners more consistent and I am so happy with the arrangement. Rather than going with a white background like I had in the blocks, I purchased yardage and pieced my borders to extend from the outside blocks. This would also be great to piece with four different fabrics to form quadrants and piece the border to match the four sections. For this quilt, I chose 16 of my favorite quotes to add to each block in place of signatures. I waited to add them, again with the Pentel Gel Fabric Pen, once the quilt top was complete. I have a large, 4x8 kitchen island, so I placed a rubber mat underneath, spread it out and added the quotes one by one. As a word of caution: I am confident with adding the writing to a completed top, but would encourage you to add them following the pattern. I would hate for you to complete your quilt top only to add the signatures or wording at the end and be unhappy with the finish.

When I completed the quilting, rather than adding a traditional binding, I chose to use a simple facing technique. This allowed each of the fabrics to flow to the edge with a beautiful turquoise print finishing/facing the edge and visible only on the back of the quilt. If this is something you think you would like to try, I will share this technique later in the sew along for those interested. To keep the focus of the backing on the quilting, I used Essex Linen in Natural because I love the texture and softness it provides. And, as you can see, the handwritten quotes wash beautifully.

There are many options for the feature fabrics, keeping it simple with two fabrics or going for a truly scrappy quilt. Choosing the background fabric can be done by following what you love. You will want to choose a backing that highlights your feature fabrics, so keep that in mind when making your choice. Lighter fabrics will be highlighted well with a darker background, while brighter fabrics can be accented with light or dark fabrics. My suggestion, unless you are fussy cutting to highlight a print in the signature square, is to keep it either light or very dark to be able to add signatures that will stand out. Please let me know if you would like any suggestions. I have found that Instagram quilters are always willing to share suggestions as well.

The sew along prize that will be given away this week is one of my favorites and feels like the perfect match for a HST quilt and fall sew along. I have one and have sent them to pattern testers as well and we all love them. These two handcrafted mugs sit and stack together perfectly and will be great to keep at home or you may choose to keep one for yourself and send another to a friend. How perfect is that? They are a generous size and weight for your favorite coffee, tea or cocoa. The mugs are part of the curated collection at Food52 and made by Jeremy Ayers. To be eligible for the giveaway, simply post a photo of your fabric pull in your feed (your account must be public) and be sure to use the hashtag #foreveryourssa by midnight EST on September 19, 2021. The winner will be posted on Instagram and in next week's newsletter. I can't wait to see your fabric choices as we get started.

I am so glad you are here and sharing this time with me. It's going to be fun and you'll have a memorable quilt at the end. Here's to a great week!

Forever Yours,
Debbie