Welcome to Week 1 of the Use Your Stash QAL! In this email you'll find prize information, social media prompts, and tips for this week's theme. Each week I will send you social media prompt suggestions. Note that these are totally optional, but I'm hoping to spark greater community discussions with these prompts as we evaluate our stash habits! This week's social media prompt is this: Why are you participating in this QAL - what are your goals, and what do you hope to achieve by the end of it? How big is your stash, and what kind of feelings does it invoke (overwhelm, guilt, happiness, joy, etc)? This week we're discussing how to adapt quilt patterns to use your stash, and I have some great tips to share with you! 1. Often, adapting a pattern for your stash means using Fat Quarters or scraps in patterns. However, one of my own favorite stash busting methods is to break up a fabric choice in a pattern to use up multiple smaller pieces of yardage. For instance, let's say I wanted to make the Boxwood pattern below, but I didn't have enough of Fabric C in my stash to make the pattern as written. What I could do is substitute another piece of yardage from my stash for part of Color C. You can see an example of this in the image on the right. The only catch with this method is you need to be able to read through the pattern to determine which pieces are used where, and then check the WOF cuts for those pieces to ensure you have the right amount of fabric. |
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2. This tip comes directly from Rebecca Ricks of RRQuilts, who has written a guest post over on my blog with some tips for using scraps in patterns. This post will be a big part of our scrappy-focused week, but I wanted to share an example this week how Rebecca substitutes parts of patterns with scraps. In the rendering of the Lily Pattern on the left below, you can see how she's taken one of the fabrics required of the pattern and substituted it for scraps from her stash in the same color way. On the right is the rendering of the Fat Quarter version of the Lily Quilt. However, you could apply this same method to the FQ version as well, and replace some FQs with scraps of similar colors. |
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The rest of our tips will come from the queen of stash and scrappy quilting: Christina from Kindred Quilt Co! If I'm ever struggling with how to make a pattern scrap or FQ friendly, I always turn to Christina for advice. Read on for all of her tips! |
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Hi, all! Christina from Kindred Quilt Co here. I get asked all the time how I choose fabrics for my quilts - especially scrappy ones. With the #UseYourStashQAL coming up, I thought it would be a great opportunity to tell you a little bit about my process and how you can adapt quilt patterns to fit your stash. 1. What size fabrics do you have in your stash? I love fat quarters, so for me, a quilt pattern that is FQ friendly is a must! I love a good quilt pattern that requires as many fat quarters and as little background fabric as possible. But you might have a lot of half yards or yardage. Determine what will help you use your stash most effectively and let that guide which pattern to pick. 2. Use a color palette app to help decide on a color scheme. My favorite color palette app is called Pigments (@pigmentsapp), and it's available both on Apple and Android. The app randomly generates color palettes based on certain settings. You can pick the number of colors you need, lock certain colors you like, and even select colors from images. I like to use this app to guide me on what colors will be in my quilt, and then "stash shop" to see what fabrics I have on hand. You can also work the other way around, by selecting a couple fabrics you know you already have, and allow the app to generate random colors you hadn't thought would work together before. 3. Make it scrappy if you can! Is your scrap bin overflowing? Consider adapting a pattern to fit your scrap bin. I always have a ton of 2.5" strips and 5" squares, and those sizes are very common in a lot of quilt patterns (like my Eyelet Lace Quilt). If a pattern calls for a fat quarter for a specific color, see if your scraps will cover all the cuts needed for that one fabric. You can group your scraps by color - even though the fabrics might not be the same, the colors will be and it will still work! Challenge yourself by committing to only use your scrap bin. You can always frankenpiece scraps together to give you the full fabric amount you need, too. The options are endless! 4. Have fun! My favorite thing to do when I don't know which fabrics to pick is to dump my entire scrap bin on the floor and just play. It's so enjoyable to turn off the world and focus on being creative. The color palette app helps me come up with new color combos I usually wouldn't have picked on my own. The whole process inspires me and gets me so excited to start the project. Use this opportunity to try something totally new, step outside your comfort zone, use those fabrics you've been hoarding, or bring new life to fabrics you may have forgotten about. We all signed up for this QAL because we love quilting and want to use up our stash, so let's have fun with it!I hope these few tips will inspire you to use your stash. I can't wait to see what you all create. Thank you, Amber for hosting this #UseYouStashQAL and giving me the opportunity to share what I'm most passionate about! Happy Quilting! |
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The winner of this week's prizes will recieve: Winners will be chosen randomly every week using the #UseYourStashQAL hashtag on Instagram. Post every week for a chance to win! Note: it might seem odd to have fabric gift cards as a prize in a quilt a long designed to use your stash. However, week 5 of this QAL will focus on responsible purchasing and consumption, and these prizes can help accentuate your stash to make it even more usable! |
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Unlike a traditional QAL, we won't be focusing on some specific part of assembly every week - since everyone will be working with different patterns! Instead, each week I will be sharing tips, tricks, and resources around sewing more sustainably, using your stash, and intentional fabric buying. Each week we will also have optional prompts for social media posts that encourage you and others to think about you can use these ideas in your quilting throughout 2023. Share your progress each week for a chance to win some awesome prizes! |
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Note that by joining this QAL you are agreeing to receive emails from me. You can unsubscribe at any time, but please do not mark my emails as spam as that greatly impacts my business and others on my email list. |
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