Week 1: Colorblock LOVE + Kinship QAL

Welcome to Week 1 of the Colorblock LOVE + Kinship Quilt-Along. This week is all about fabric preparation. Which means it’s the fun part of choosing your colour palette and fabrics and then getting to cutting.

Each week, on Sunday, I will post a reminder blog post about where we’re at in the event and share my thoughts on that week’s action and how I approached it. I’ve made my version with the Kinship: 100 Block Fusion Sampler blocks, but you can make yours as per the pattern or with a mix of both. Sam has published the addendum for how to make it using the Kinship blocks and you can find it as part of your download.

Week 1: Fabric Selection

Sam’s written a really great blog post on how to choose your fabrics for this project and you can read it by clicking here. It’s a great insight into the designer’s thought process for the quilt and a fabulous lesson in understanding value.

I confess, when I picked my fabrics I completely ignored this valuable advice. I knew that I was going to want to have some fun with my fabric collection, so I started with the idea of each letter being it’s own colour and went from there.

Originally I had the colour palette as hot pink, orange, purple and yellow but my stash didn’t have enough depth of prints in purple so I switched it out for navy.

On all the versions of this quilt that I had seen previously the background had been done in colour, so I decided to have fun with some low volume’s that I had in my collection. My background is primarily fabrics from Lizzy Houses’ Whisper Palette Collection with a couple of ringers thrown in where I didn’t have enough for the size of the cuts.

I paid no attention to the recommendation of where to place value in the background of this quilt and instead I opted to play with the lines and alternate where my darker value sat. (I’ll talk more about this and show more detail when we get to the letter making!)

My Kinship Blocks are all made from the appropriate colour family for each letter. I made a deliberate decision to choose prints where the colours on those prints were limited and not overwhelming so that the blocks read as a distinct colour. I did this because the letters on the quilt only work, in my opinion, if they are distinct from each other. In this instance I achieved this by using one different colour per letter. My L is hot pink, my 0 is orange, my V is yellow and my E is navy.

I didn’t use any solid fabrics for the blocks instead opting for all prints, whether novelty prints or tone-on-tone. I only used solids when it came to joining the blocks to make them the required size for the letters. I did this so that the blocks are clearly defined in the letters.

Overall I’m really happy with how this version has come together. I can’t wait to share each letter with you as we move through the event.

Week 1: Fabric Cutting

Learn from my mistake – go read Sam’s post about making long cuts! Click here to read.

There’s a lot of longer cuts in this quilt and that’s ok, it’s a skill we should all have. I am not well versed in making longer then normal cuts and it showed. There’s a lot of bias involved with the V and the pattern talked me through it really well and then Sam’s tutorial helps even more. If it wasn’t for both of these things my V would look like a W.

The only thing I would add to Sam’s tutorial is to use freezer paper on the V if you’re worried about stretching it out. You simply iron it (shiny side down) to the back of your fabric BEFORE you cut. It will hold the fabric while you work. I wouldn’t remove it until the quilt was assembled. I’d also use this technique for the V strips if I did it over again.

Sam’s Version

Be sure to head on over to Sam’s blog and check out the methodology behind her version. Click here to read all about it.

Tutorial Blog Posts

Sam has written and published all the posts for this event so those of you that want to skip ahead can. However, for those of you that want to sew along at pace I’ll publish the list of tutorials every week and mark on it where we’re at.

• Week 1: Fabric Selection <- YOU ARE HERE
• Week 1: Fabric Cutting <- YOU ARE HERE
• Week 2: Make the L
• Week 3: Make the O
• Week 4: Make the V
• Week 5: Make the E
• Week 6: Quilt Assembly

Prizes

If you use the Kinship blocks to make your version you will be eligible for entry in the AUD$500 prize. You can find out details by clicking here.

Sam and I have organised a range of prizes just for this event and we’ll be announcing them as we progress through the event.

Follow Along with GnomeAngel

You can follow along with my progress via Instagram or by joining the Home of the Gnome Facebook Group.

Follow Along with Hunter’s Design Studio

You can follow along with my progress via Instagram.

Join in with this Hashtag!

And be sure to hashtag your Colorblock LOVE + Kinship progress with #colorblockLOVEqal on Instagram so we can see and share your work!

PS. For those of you that are like me and spell colour with a U, I will also be checking the #colourblockLOVEqal hashtag for prize allocation.