SEA BREEZE MINI QUILT-A-LONG STARTS TODAY

I’m so excited for the start of the Sea Breeze Mini Quilt-a-Long today. A quilt-a-long is where a group of people sew the same quilt at the same time, either together or virtually.

The pattern I’ve selected for this quilt-a-long is the Sea Breeze Mini by Megan Bohr of Canoe Ridge Creations.

I’ve picked this pattern because of it’s visual impact and because it’s a great quilt for those that might be newer to quilting. It’s a simple use of half square triangle (HST) and squares, but matching those points will give you a great sense of accomplishment (well it does for me).

You don’t need a lot of fabric to make this quilt as it finishes at 22½ square. If you’re having trouble deciding on what fabric to use there’s a Sea Breeze Mini Quilt Bundle available here in my shop.

I’ve started working on my Sea Breeze and I’ll be revealing it a little bit at a time on my Instagram account over the next 2 weeks.

Here’s a couple of tips I’ve found for putting it together:

• If accuracy is something you’re not that great with (an I’m not) then I’d recommend cutting the squares that will become your HST’s (the larger square of the two you have to cut) with an extra ½ inch. For example if it was 4″ square I’d recommend cutting it 4½” square. This will allow you a little more wiggle room when trimming down to the required size.
• I used a blocloc ruler to trim my HST’s (which is a major luxury) so I pressed my HST seam to the dark instead of open like the pattern states. However, if you don’t have a special HST ruler I’d recommend pressing open – this will help your ruler lay flat when you’re lining up the 45° line on your ruler to trim to size. (I pressed my seams open when I constructed the block to help reduce bulk and aid with lining up my points.)
• If you can’t decide on final layout built each block and then try different layouts. Try and step back (or stand on a chair) and get some distance and see how they look. I always try and take a photo with my phone and see how it looks.

One of the best things about participating in a quilt-a-long is there’s lots of people to ask questions of if you need to. You can join the Facebook Group here or simply tag your images with the hashtag #seabreezemqal on Instagram. If you’d rather you can email me via my contact page and I’ll do my best to help out – if I can’t help I know some cool people who can.

The quilt-a-long will be going until 2 August. On Saturday 2 August I’ll be hosting a link party (you can either link to it via your blog or Instagram account) here. All you have to do is link up an image of your mini (no matter how far along you’ve gotten) and you’ll go in the draw to win some great prizes.

Over the next 2 weeks I have some fabulous bloggers and Instagrammers lined up to share their versions of the Sea Breeze Mini and answer any questions you may have. Each day here on the blog I’ll be posting a little get to know you with each of the hosts and then you can head to their blogs to read all about their adventures with the Sea Breeze Mini.

It’s all really exciting and I’m so looking forward to seeing everyone’s mini’s come alive. Who knows this might just be the start of a mini wall of awesome! So who’s with me?

You can buy the pattern here: Sea Breeze Mini