Brynwood Needleworks: New Beginnings

January 1, 2012

Are You Ready?...

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope all of you enjoyed the holidays. Christmas and New Year's were quiet around here, but we had a nice time celebrating the season and now I'm ready to start putting some of those resolutions into action!

You might remember this little fabric assortment. It's going to be the basis for my 2012 ongoing quilt project - The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt. I'm going to host a quiltalong (QAL) right here at Brynwood, and you're all invited!

Now, please understand that this will be the most low-pressure, fun and mostly unscripted QAL you'll probably ever participate in. You'll be choosing your own fabrics, which squares you'd like to create, and the finished size of your quilt.

I'm going to suggest that once you choose your quilt size, you just make the number of blocks needed to complete one horizontal row per month. That's it. (If you're making a large quilt, that might be seven blocks, but if you're doing a wall hanging, your number of blocks will be less.) The large quilt has nine rows, so you'll be finished before November, and if you're an over-achiever, you'll finish long before that! I just want you to know there won't be any pressure and you can finish and show off your blocks - and completed quilt - at your own pace.

Even if you're new to quilting you can participate. You'll be choosing your own blocks, so you can decide on your own level of difficulty, and you can repeat blocks, if you'd like. No one says they all have to be different!

I'm going to show you which blocks I'll choose to sew, and I'll give you my reasons for making them a part of my quilt. I'll also share my thoughts as they relate to the original author of each block. I'll be setting up a Flickr group so that you can upload photos of your blocks each month to share with each other, as well as those who won't be sewing along with us.

If you'd like to participate, you'll need a copy of this book. I've found the best price at Amazon, and if you can click here to purchase your copy.

I also have a set of the templates from the (included) disc, which will print out in one document, so once you've decided that you want to participate and you have your book, please let me know (via email) if you'd like the templates and I'll share them. Understand that you have to have the book, or the templates will be of no value to you.

I'm going to start this project on February 1st. I'll post the names and blog links of everyone who chooses to participate. Now, don't worry if you don't have a blog. I'd still love to have you join in the fun. You'll be able to post your photos in the Flickr group and the only difference will be that there won't be a link back to a blog address.

Please respond in the comment section, or via email if you'd like to participate in my Brynwood Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt QAL. (Please include your blog url if you have one.) I plan to have special giveaways throughout the year for the participants, and will be surprising members of the "party" with a few other things as we progress.

Feel free to share this QAL on your own blog, too. I've made this button for you to put in your sidebar, and you can link it right back to this post.

I hope you'll agree that this will be a fun way to start the new year.

UPDATE: I've added a list of participants (and their blog links) to the menu bar at the top of my blog - 2012 Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt QAL. Just click on it to see who will be joining us. If you want to have your name added to the list, just let me know!