It's our final sewing week, fellow wheelers! I can't believe how these weeks have flown by. Of course, as many of you have happily discovered, Wagon Wheel is a pretty speedy make!

 

I'll be back in your inbox in a couple weeks to follow up, share some of the great work folks are making, cover some quilting ideas, and announce our GRAND PRIZE winners who will be scoring amazing goods from our sponsors. Remember to scroll down to see Week 3 winners, AND get a look at our Grand Prize lineup! 

 

If you joined after our start date and are missing any emails, you can find  links to them on this page.

 

Our goal this week is to sew your blocks together with sashing and borders to complete your quilt top!

You've made your wheels and inserted them into your background squares – congratulations! Those are the harder steps, so now you can coast to an easy finish! 

 

If you didn't already true up your blocks, refer back to Week 3 and do it now!

Did you wait to cut your sashing as we recommended in our first email? Now it's time to decide what fabric to use! Will you mix it up, keep it subtle, or go bold? There is no one “right” choice, it all comes down to what YOU think works well with the wheels you've created, and what you want to emphasize most in your Wagon Wheel quilt. 

 

I like to arrange all the blocks on my design wall (or the floor) to get an overall sense of the color placement. Leave a couple inches between the blocks, and you can audition your sashing options to see what feels right for the sashing (and cornerstones). Make good use of your phone camera for these decisions—snap an image of each sashing fabric option in place, and you can easily scroll between options to compare.

 

Another advantage of waiting to cut your sashing?  If your blocks finished slightly smaller (or larger) than our instructed 20-½ inches, you can cut your sashing pieces to size, as shown below!

Following the instructions in the pattern, first make your horizontal sashing rows, beginning with a sashing piece and alternating these with a cornerstone block. Press the seam allowances toward the sashing.

Next, make your block rows, beginning with a wheel block and alternating with vertical sashing strips.

 

Below, I've pressed my sashing strip seam flat first (which helps to “set” the stitches), then I press the sashing open. As instructed, press the seam allowance toward the sashing. 

Why does the pressing direction of the seam allowances matter? Following the recommedations allows your cornerstone/sashing strip seams to neatly nest!

One thing I do when sewing rows of blocks is align my blocks, rather than just focusing on aligning the edges I'm sewing, as shown below. This ensures your block row will be straight in the end.

Once you've sewn your block rows, sew them to your horizontal sashing rows to complete your top.

I want to talk about borders! Part of the design process of any quilt pattern is figuring out how to make all the parts work across all the sizes, with the least amount of variation. 

 

I loved the asymmetrical borders on the original quilt that inspired my Wagon Wheel design, and this approach allowed me to add top and bottom borders for height as needed, while all the other elements share the same measurements and templates. Borders are an easy way to change the size of a quilt to suit your needs. If you need your queen size to be bigger than the queen dimensions in the pattern, you can make a larger border, or add another row of blocks. Your borders can get fancy too, if that's your style – maybe it's a row of cornerstones, or half-square triangles. 

 

And one last note: If you squared up your blocks and cut through the background seams, be sure to secure those seams on the outer block edges that are not sewn to sashing or a border!

Don’t forget to post a picture of your finished top with hashtag #wagonwheelsal24 by midnight, October 6 for a chance to be considered for our fabulous roster of GRAND PRIZES. Remember, we're looking for consistent posting (each weekly goal) and the “I'm In!” graphic! (Scroll down past our Week 3 winners to take a gander at our Grand Prize lineup!)

 

@marcellaharville won a pair of QuiltFolk magazine issues for her fun RR blocks and photos! 

 @calix_ania won a $50 gift certificate from our sponsor and delightful online (and brick and mortar in Toronto Canada) shop Fabric Spark! 

@xole won a fat quarter bundle of Garden Party by Liberty Fabrics donated by our friend Wendy at The Next Stitch! This bundle features 24 beautiful florals that will transport you to the British countryside for a garden soirée, printed on premium quilting cotton. 

@littlesisterquilts won a bundle of my Eastham fabrics, donated by our sew along partner and sponsor Sewtopia.

Enjoy your final official sew along week! We'll be back in a couple of weeks with our grand prize winners, and a wrap-up of some of our favorite wheelers! XOXO Denyse

• A bundle of my New Bedford fabrics from the archives, donated by Sewtopia! (New Bedford is one of my faves, I think you'll love it too!)

 

• A Ruby + Bee solids fat quarter box, donated by Sewtopia! This is the full Ruby + Bee solids collection—all 70 colors, 17-½ yds of delicious color!

 

• An 18-piece bundle of Colorwash by Carrie Bloomston, donated by our friends at XLN Fabrics.

 

• Our friends at Soak are donating another fabulous bundle of goodies to care for your materials in an eco-friendly way, including a Soakwash Scentless bundle (featuring art from my Ansonia fabric collection), Flatter smoothing spray (in mint and lacey scents), and Sew Fine Thread Gloss!

 

• QuiltFolk is donating an annual subscription of their groundbreaking, ad-free magazine that provides inspiration through the exploration of the lives, work, history, and stories of our fellow quilters, AND  a copy of their incredible 260-page coffee table book, QuiltFolk Life. Quiltfolk knows that once we understand who these quilters are, and where they come from, we can begin to discover new places of inspiration within ourselves. 

 

• Our good friends at Oliso are donating a pair of their fabulous irons! Oliso produces cutting-edge fabric tools tailored to the needs of quilters and sewists, making ironing easier and empowering your creative endeavors. (I'm lucky enough to use an Oliso Smart Iron myself, and it is the BEST!) Oliso is contributing an M3Pro Project Iron, and a TG 1600 iTouch Smart Iron! Woot!