Welcome to the Nightingale Quilt Along! I'm so excited that you're here!

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A Nightingale Tribute

As many of you know, I named this pattern after Florence Nightingale, who is often referred to as the founder of modern nursing. The last year has been historic for the world of healthcare. In the midst of that I designed Nightingale as a way to celebrate my own personal career as a nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, but also other healthcare professionals and their INCREDIBLE work for our communities. With 2020 being Florence Nightingale's 200th birthday, it seemed like a good fit…. Nightingale was born.

You can read more about Florence Nightingale by clicking on her image above. She lived an incredible life! In honor of the many doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists, phlebotomists, physical therapists, nurse techs and SO many other healthcare personnel we are so excited to make a donation on behalf of each participant of this Quilt Along. For each person that has signed up as of 9AM on Monday, April 5th, we are donating $1 to First Responders First. This means that we were able to donate $1,500 this morning! This is an organization that takes a whole human approach to addressing the needs of our frontline workers in order to support their ability to serve. They provide essential supplies, equipment, accommodations, child care, food, and critical mental health support and resources to ensure that our frontline workforce is protected, well-supported and resilient. I'm so excited to support this amazing cause. Thank you for making this a reality!

SCHEDULE

Every Monday for the next 7 Mondays, I'll send an email with the weekly prompt. You'll find the task that we are doing for the week, as well as detailed instructions of any key steps. You can create any size of the pattern, but I'm specifically gearing the schedule to the Square Throw (16 blocks) and the Large Throw (20 blocks). 

• April 5 - Week 1: Plan
• April 12 - Week 2: Cut & Organize
• April 19 - Week 3: Create 4/5 Blocks
• April 26 - Week 4: Create 4/5 Blocks
• May 3 - Week 5: Create 4/5 Blocks
• May 10 - Week 6: Create 4/5 Blocks
• May 17 - Week 7: Sew Blocks Together

If you are making the Square Throw, you'll create 4 blocks per week. If you are making the Large Throw, you'll create 5 blocks per week. 

WEEK 1

This week we are planning our quilts and gathering supplies. If you already have your fabric picked out and you plan to prewash and/or starch, feel free to go ahead and do that this week. I'll talk more about that further down. :)

SUPPLIES

• Nightingale Quilt Pattern
• Basic sewing supplies
• A square ruler that has a 45 degree line. This ruler needs to be at least 6.5" square. If you only have a 12" ruler, that'd work too! Alternatively, if you are interested in Bloc Loc Rulers, you will need a 6.5" Bloc Loc HST ruler and a 2.5" x 5" Finished Flying Geese Bloc Loc ruler. Again, if you have a square ruler with a 45 degree line, you don't need the Bloc Loc rulers… they're optional. :)
• a 6" x 24" ruler or 8" x 24" ruler for cutting yardage for the Background fabric
• Fabric

FABRIC REQUIREMENTS

Here is a list of the fabric requirements. They can also be found within your pattern. Note that you can use ¼ yards and fat quarters interchangeably. You can also gather scraps and cut fabrics according to what you have on hand. I've had a few questions about how to use a scrappy background. I cover this in the PDF below!

CHOOSING FABRICS

This is one of my favorite parts of the quilt making process! I wanted to take some time to break down how I like to choose fabrics, specifically for this quilt. Download the PDF below for tips on how to choose colors, how to mix small, medium and large scale prints and how to balance saturations or “values." I also cover what directional fabrics are and if you can use them for this pattern. (spoiler alert, you can!)

MOCK-UPS

QUILT KITS

If you are looking to make a quick and easy decision, there are several Nightingale Quilt kits to choose from! Check out my original Nightingale QAL blog post for a list of quilt kits. 

INSPIRATION

If you're looking for further inspiration, here are a few ideas:

• Nightingale Pattern Tester Blog Post
• SewFinity - has lots of mock-ups along with the corresponding fabrics for purchase!
• The #NightingaleQuilt hashtag on Instagram
• The Lo & Behold Patterns Facebook Group

Coloring Pages

Find coloring pages within your pattern, or download extra sheets below. You can use coloring pencils or markers to plan your quilt. You can also upload the file to Adobe or ReColor to digitally plan your quilt. Another idea is to number the fabrics 1-16 or 1-20 and write where you want each number to appear within your quilt. This is one of those patterns, that may or may not really benefit from a coloring page pre-construction but you have it if you need it! :)

Pre-washing

Everyone has different opinion about pre-washing. Pre-washing simply means to wash your fabric before you cut into them and start sewing. The benefit of pre-washing is that you will wash away excess dye to reduce possible color bleeding. Reds, blues and purple fabrics are notorious for bleeding, so I sometimes pre-wash when I have high contrast colors such as red and white. While I acknowledge that not pre-washing these fabrics is a "risk," often times, I skip pre-washing and use Shout Color Catchers when I wash my quilt for the first time. Typically, these Color Catchers do the trick, but if I ever find bleeding in my quilt after the first wash, I would rather deal with the aftermath than take the time to prewash. This comes down to personal preference and how much you want to be adventurous with it (or not).

Most fabric manufacturers use starch and stabilizers on their fabrics to keep the fibers stiff while they're on the bolt. When you wash your fabric, either before it's in the quilt or after, you wash away that starch. Personally, I like the added stiffness, as it makes for cutting and sewing to be easier. But if you choose to prewash you may decide that you want to add some starch back to the fabric to make it easier to work with. 

Some quilters also choose to pre-wash so that they "pre-shrink" their fabric. This makes a difference if you are using various fabric types within your quilt. For example, linen shrinks at a different rate than cotton does. If you use both types of fabric within your quilt, once they shrink they could cause areas of pulling on your seams. If you go ahead and pre-wash/pre-shrink everything, then the fabrics in your quilt will all behave similarly, which will in turn give you a more stable quilt. That being said, I can probably count on one hand the amount of times that I've pre-washed my fabric. 

How to Prewash:

Wash fabrics in cool water with a mild detergent. Feel free to use a mesh bag to prevent fabric from stretching or twisting. Dry on low heat and remove the fabrics from the dryer immediately once it's dry. For yardage, re-align selvedges and press the fabric to create a new fold. Most people do not pre-wash pre-cuts because if the fabric frays too much, you might not have the designated amount that you need for your project. Some people also “stay-stitch” about 1/8" away from the perimeter of the edges to help prevent the fabric from unraveling too much.

Again, pre-washing is one of those a highly debated topic in the quilting world, so don't feel like there's a right or wrong answer. :)

Starching

To be honest, I don't really use starch that much. However, I've found that if I am working with smaller pieces or bias edges, it really does help with accuracy. Starch makes your fabric more stiff, which makes it easier to sew and work with.

Remember that you'll want to starch your fabric before you cut them, so if you decide to use it, I recommend going ahead and doing that this week. For yardage, assess how your WOF is folded. You'll want the two selvedge ends to be right on top of each other. This may mean ironing a new crease in your fabric. When I starch, I spray the entire piece of fabric to get it pretty saturated, then use my iron to press out any wrinkles or creases. This is the starch that I use. Once you starch your fabrics, lay them on a flat surface until we cut into them next week.

Facebook group

If you have any burning questions, or if you're just looking for community and support, join the Lo & Behold Patterns Facebook group! It is not required- all of the information for the QAL will be delivered via email. That being said, if you are looking for advice with fabrics or anything else, the FB group is a great place to look!

$25 gift card giveaway

When I announced the QAL a few weeks ago, I also announced a giveaway for those of who who share'd the “I'm In!" image. The winner of the $25 gift card to our shop is @grcmfisher ! Congrats! Send me and email and I'll get you your gift card!

week 1 prompt & prizes

This week, your task is simple. :) Nail down what fabrics you'd like to use for your quilt and do any necessary prep work that you wish to do. Share your fabric pull to Instagram and be sure to use the hashtags #nightingaleQAL, #nightingalequilt &  #loandbeholdpatterns and you'll be automatically entered to win this week's prizes! You have until next Monday, April 12th at 8am EST to get your entry in! The winner will be randomly chosen and announced in the Week 2 newsletter!

This week, we have two prizes! One lucky winner will receive:

• A  $75 gift card to Woven & Woolly! Hint: this is where I purchased my Art Gallery color chips!
• A $50 gift card to Cottoneer! Andrea curates the more GORGEOUS bundles. Truly!

These are two really great shops so be sure to give them a follow on Instagram!

grand prize

We have two grand prizes! One lucky winner in both the USA and Canada will win free long-arm quilting! American quilters will have a chance to win edge-to-edge quilting from the Henhouse Quilting. Canadian quilters will have a chance to win edge-to-edge quilting from Matante Quilting! To enter, you'll need to participate in each week of the QAL by sharing your progress photo each week (with the hashtags!). One winner will be randomly chosen from the USA and Canada at the end! 

(Canadian participants, there will be a separate hashtag that you'll use for Week 7. I'll share about that when the time comes!)