Little Forest Quilt Quilt-Along: Week 1 (and giveaway information)

I am such a dork.

I know.  You're sitting there thinking, "Um, we already knew that!"

Yesterday I blogged that the quilt along was going to start on September 1.  I forgot that Linda and I agreed all of our posts about this would be on Fridays.  So, that's actually September 2.  Oh, well!  I'm going to post Week 1's assignment now, and you'll have an extra day to work on it!

Are you ready to get started on our quilt along?  Some people just joined up, so we'll give everyone a week to get organized and ready to go.

Your assignment for this week is as follows:

1. Go to http://www.purlbee.com/little-forest-quilt/ and download the cutting and sewing instructions.  It's not exactly apparent where those are.  There are two orange links, with bullets next to them.  They say "cutting" and "sewing."  Download those pdf files and keep them handy.  Also, you might want to bookmark the page, because you also need the instructions on the page.
2. Decide what size you want to make.  Linda, over at Little Bits and Pieces, shows you some different sizes.  You can do that, or something completely different.
3. Decide if you're going to make your trees like in the pattern or without the seam down the middle.  Again, see Linda, over at Little Bits and Pieces, to link to a tutorial for making blocks without the seams going up the middle.  You'll get a fatter tree if you don't do the seam in the middle.
4. Pick out all your fabrics.  Get your greens, browns, and whites (or whatever colors you're going to use ready).
5. Make sure you have thread, supplies, etc. all ready.
6. If you haven't done so, please join our Flickr group so you can get your photos posted.  We all want to ooohh and aaaahhh over your work.  And, you will want to be eligible for the prizes!

Easy assignment for this week.  Next week, we start cutting and sewing.  I'm working on some sample blocks, and I plan to post some sewing and pressing tips for you next week as we begin.  I know a few of you out there are a little new to quilt making, and I found some things that helped make my blocks more successful.

Here is the color scheme I am using.  I decided to go for a very nontraditional, "modern" look.  These color choices were inspired by a Christmas placemat I picked up at Target two years ago.  It was inspiration for another quilt I was going to make (and still want to), but I haven't gotten to yet.  I pulled some of those fabrics out and whacked off a little for this project.  (Hope I'll still have enough left for the other project!  LOL!)  I also pulled additional pieces of fabric from my stash.  I'm challenging myself to use mostly fabrics from my stash.  I'm trying to use some that read as solids, some that have stripes, some that have dots, some that have a lot of pattern, some that have large patterns....I wanted to mix it up a lot.

I was going to use this white-on-white for the background, but I decided to go with a plain white Kona instead....just for a more modern look.  And I'm going to use black for all my tree trunks...again, for a modern look.

I'm going to do the seam up the middle of the tree.  Lately, I've been improvising a lot on things, and it hasn't worked well for me.  So, I'm going to follow the pattern and make them that way.  I am going to do 25 trees.  I'm thinking about making mine an advent calendar somehow.  Haven't quite decided yet.

Hop on over to Linda's blog to see what colors she is going to use!

So, what are you going to use?  Are you going to challenge yourself to use only greens out of your stash?  Are you doing a different color scheme?  What inspired your color scheme?  Look around you.  Check out the stores.  There is color inspiration everywhere.  (I have another blog post coming about that soon.)

The Giveaway:

I'll have a little surprise giveaway for the players who do the following by Friday, September 9.  To be eligible:

1. Take a photo of your fabrics (they don't need to be cut out).  We all want to see the different color schemes you've chosen.
2. Post your photo in the Little Forest Flickr Group.
3. In your description of your photo on the Flickr group, tell us all what inspired your color scheme.

I'll do a random drawing for a winner from everyone who gets their photo posted to the Flickr group by 11:50 p.m. on Friday, September 9.  Hope you have fun with it!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

Comments

[Peggy Plumley]

I would very much like to join this quilt a long. I even know what fabrics I am going to use. I just can't wait.

[Caroll D]

Love the fabrics you have chosen.

[terriaw]

love the variety of aqua, red and green colors you're using! Going to make a fabulous little forest!

[Allie]

Not quilting along with this one, but I must say, I LOVE the colors you've chosen!

[Lynn]

Guess it's time to dig out my fancy ruler to make the trees without a seam. I'm going to add this quilt along to my official to-do list on my computer so that I will be more likely to keep up.

[Lynn]

By the way, your link to Purl Bee actually goes to Flickr. Not a problem since I also needed to go there. Then I just copied the written URL and pasted it into my browser to go to Purl Bee. But just thought I should let you know it doesn't take you where I think you meant it to.