The Luna Quiltalong Week 11 - Quilting

I hope you enjoyed your week off last week and are ready to get started with the quilting. I always look forward to this part of the process because I can put on a good audiobook and just focus on stitching — it is very relaxing.

However, I know that this step can seem daunting if you are a newer quilter so I put together a video with some things that you can do to adjust your machine to make it a little more quilting-friendly.  The only supplies that you are going to need for this step (unless you are hand quilting) are a sewing machine, thread (this is what I almost always use), and a needle (these are my favorite). 

If you are looking for more tips on the quilting process, make sure to check out this video I did a while back where I answered lots of submitted questions about how it all works.

I am off to start my quilting! Have a great week!

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The Luna Quiltalong - Basting

In the past, I haven't included an entire week for basting in my quilalongs because (1) there are always a significant number of participants who have their quilts long arm quilted and (2) there are lots of different ways to baste a quilt and this is just one. 

But this time I am including it. I have basted a lot (and I mean A LOT of quilts) so I have a method that works extremely well for me. Also, basting can be very overwhelming if you are a new quilter so I wanted to assure you that it's really not that bad and you can definitely do it. 

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The Luna QAL - Prepping Your Quilt for Quilting

You might be thinking . . . I made my quilt, what more do I need to do? Well, you don't HAVE to do anything at this point but there are some things that you can to do to help your quilt be the best it can be (especially if you are having your quilt long-arm quilted).

These steps take just a little bit of time but can give your quilt a more finished look. If you are having your project long-arm quilted, your quilter will also be grateful that you have prepared your quilt.

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The Luna QAL — Week 7

This week we are sewing our blocks together! If you are a little behind schedule, don't stress — there is lots of time toward the end of the quiltalong to catchup (including a catchup week). 

There isn't too much about this process that will be different than last week. Because the blocks are decently sized, you have already done most of the work!

When sewing your quilt top together, you can sew all of your blocks into rows and then sew the rows together. This is the simplest way to do things and there is nothing wrong with it . . . except that I don't like to piece long seams and I try to have use few as possible. I put together this little video during the Carly Quiltalong to show how I piece my quilt tops.

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The Luna QAL - Week 6

\This week we are going to be finishing our blocks. I am on vacation, but I put together all of the tips that you will need in this video. 

Happy sewing!

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Pressing Your Seams

You can press your seams open or to the side in this pattern. 

I always press my seams open — check out the video for a sneak into how I press my seams.

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The Luna QAL Week 5 — Time to Start Sewing

If you missed my post yesterday about seam allowances, make sure to read through that one before you get started because it is time to start sewing.

Here are the reasons that I pin (pretty much) everything:

• It helps the fabric feed through your sewing machine more evenly.
• It keeps your fabric aligned so that you get the same seam allowance on the fabric on the top and the bottom.
• It keeps your fabrics organized so that you don't sew the wrong pieces together.

In the video, I talk about whether you should pin, how I pin my blocks, and different types of quarter inch feet. I am devoted pinner (as you can see from the image above) so you can guess what I recommend!

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The Luna QAL Week 5 - Useful Supplies and a Quarter Inch Seam Allowance

Before we get started with sewing our pieces together, I wanted to discuss a couple of things. We have already talked a bout necessary supplies for making a quilt, but I wanted to talk specifically about supplies for piecing and then also give you some information about seam allowances.

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The Luna QAL — Cutting Your Background Fabric

This is probably not going to be your favorite week of the quiltalong, but we can't really make the quilt without background fabric so let's power through! You can cut your fabric for your quilt from yardage or you can cut it from scraps — I am going to use yardage for my jelly roll quilt and scraps for my scrappy quilt. 

Usually in my patterns, I will give you the number of width of fabric (sometimes referred to as WOF) strips to cut from your yardage and then the number of pieces that you need to sub-cut from those pieces, but I didn't to that in this pattern for a couple of reasons having to do with space constraints, taking into account personal preference, and also the potential of dealing with directional fabrics.

But don't worry, I'm going to give you instructions some guidance here! 

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The Luna Quiltalong - Cutting Rainbow Scraps

I know that lots of you are making a rainbow scrap Luna Quilt (my favorite kind) and figuring out how many pieces of each color you need can be a little bit daunting. Don't worry! Rainbow scrap quilts are very forgiving and I'm going to give you some ideas to help you figure out how many pieces you want to cut for each color.

Before you get started, make sure to check out this post about creating a successful rainbow scrap quilt. 

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Cutting Your Feature Fabrics - Scrap Quilt Edition

Cutting from scraps can be a little bit messy. If you are like me, your scraps are wrinkled up and stuff into bins. There are loose threads. There are lots of pieces that will be too small for your project. It takes a little more time to cut your fabric from scraps than it will from a fat quarter bundle or a jelly roll. 

Here are a few tips that should help you cut your pieces for your scrappy Luna Quilt:

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Cutting Your Feature Fabric

Welcome to Week 3 of the Luna Quiltalong! I hope you now have all of your fabric ready to go and that you have shared it on Instagram using the #lunaqal hashtag. It is fun to go through and comment on each other's posts!

This week we are cutting into our feature fabric. I will have post for you today about cutting your non-scrappy fabric and I will have a second post this week about cutting fabric from scraps. This can be a little daunting if you are a new quilter, but I promise that it gets easier with time.

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The Luna QAL Week 2 - Picking Your Scraps

You may have guessed by now that I love scrap quilts. I love how they look, I love the process of using leftover pieces to make something new, and I love writing patterns that work well with scraps. The Luna Quilt is a wonderful project for scraps because it uses a variety of smaller pieces and it is great for leftover jelly roll strips or binding strips.

Sorting through scraps, especially if you have a lot of them, can be a little bit overwhelming. If you are making your Luna Quilt scrappy, here are some options to think about.

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The Luna Quiltalong - Supplies You Need to Make a Quilt

When it comes to quilting supplies, I am a bit of a minimalist but there are a few things that will make the process of making a quilt much more enjoyable. If you are a new quilter, don't feel like you need to be every product that is shown to you — you don't need much to get started. 

I am going to give you a list of items that I would consider to be essentials, and then a list of things that are optional but that I find to be helpful. For some items, I will give you an inexpensive option and an option that is a little more of an investment. 

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The Luna Quiltalong - Background Fabric

Today we are going to be talking about background fabric. To be completely honest here, I am kind of a boring background fabric person. I like to put the focus on the feature fabrics and end up using a white, off-white, or gray most of the time.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this! Some of my favorite "safe" fabric colors are Kona Bone, Kona Snow, Pure Solids in White Linen, Cotton Couture Soft White, Kona Ash, Designer Essentials Winter White, Speckled in Dove, and Designer Essentials Natural. I use one of these colors as my background fabric at least 90% of the time.

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The Luna Quiltalong - How much fabric do I buy?

If you are new to quilting, buying fabric can be a little (lot) stressful. It is not cheap, but you are about to spend a whole bunch of your time working on a project so it is worthwhile to spend time (and a little money) buying something that you really love.

The fabric requirements for the Luna Quilt are listed in the pattern and I am going to walk you through what all of these mean, talking specifically about the lap size quilt but you can apply this to any quilt size. There are 4 different types of fabric that you will need : feature fabric, background fabric, binding fabric, and backing fabric.

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A Scrappy, Rainbow Luna Quilt

One advantage of writing jelly roll patterns is that these patterns lend themselves very nicely to scrap quilts. You end up with lots of small-ish leftover pieces — whether from binding strips, jelly rolls, or just scraps from larger cuts of fabric — so I have been loving that I can make a scrappy rainbow quilt for most of these patterns. The Luna Quilt pattern is perfect for scraps.

My scrap bins overfloweth (shocking, I know) so I had lots of colors on hand when starting this quilt. I decided to go rainbow-y and made an effort not to re-use any of the color fabrics (and I also tried to just use prints, no solids). I tried for variety with the background fabric but they aren't all unique and about half of them are solids.

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A Baby Size Luna Quilt

After I made this quilt a few weeks ago, I had some scraps and a few Lady Bird jelly roll strips leftover and I was anxious to put them to good use. They were perfect for making a baby size version of the Luna Quilt.

I have been adding jelly roll friendly patterns to my shop this year and Luna and Freya both fall into that category (you can find all of my jelly roll friendly patterns here). I LOVE this collection — the florals are so pretty and I love the coral combined with the other colors. By the time I was done making this baby quilt, I wished I had just bought another Lady Bird jelly roll and made a lap size version for myself.

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The Luna Quilt - Mockups

It's time for the mockups! I appreciate your excitement about this pattern — one of my main goals when writing patterns it write something that will help you fall even more in love with quilting and I think this is a great one for that, especially for beginners.

Of course I had fun making these mockups because it is one of my favorite things to do. I made quite a few this time and tried to give a range of different looks. 

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The Luna Quilt in Bon Voyage

Remember when I had this very tempting stack of fabric a few weeks ago? For about 2 seconds, I wasn't sure what to do with the collection, but I pretty quickly zeroed in on making the Luna Quilt. 

Bon Voyage is a beautiful collection! And it has one of my favorite shades of blue — I have no idea what that shade is called, but it's this one. Blues in this shade seem to be underrepresented in the fabric world so I always snatch them up when I see them. 

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