Knitted Star QAL - Week 7

It's the seventh week of the QAL, which means we made it to the catch-up week! 

If you are just now joining in, here's what you've missed:

• Week 1: Planning
• Week 2: Cutting
• Week 3: Sewing Part A
• Week 4: Traditional: Rows F, G, H, I; Modern Throw: Make 3 blocks; Modern Bed: Make 6 blocks
• Week 5: Traditional: Rows J, K, L, M; Modern Throw: Make 3 blocks; Modern Bed: Make 6 blocks
• Week 6: Traditional: Block Assembly; Modern Throw: Make 2 blocks; Modern Bed: Make 6 blocks
• Week 7: Catch-up
• Week 8: Quilt Top Assembly 

If you found yourself a little behind schedule, use this week to catch back up. If you're already on schedule, use this week to plan the rest of your quilt if you haven't already! What's your backing and binding fabric? Do you have a quilting plan? Are you quilting it yourself, sending it off to a long-armer? This week, I plan to share about options if you want to quilt your Knitted Star yourself....next week, I will share options for having your quilt long-arm quilted. 

Admittedly, any time I do my own quilting, I typically machine quilt something super simple....cross hatch, diagonal cross hatch, match stick quilting, etc. Things that are very easy for me to pull off with my walking foot and trusty Janome 6700p. BUT have you ever wanted to learn free-motion quilting? I know I have! And honestly, I've never really given it a try because it just seems SO intimidating.

Intro to Free Motion Quilting 

That's where String in Story comes in! HollyAnne teaches free-motion quilting to hundreds (maybe even thousands?) of quilters world-wide! She has a really awesome program called "Intro to Free Motion Quilting" which is a weekend mini-course that teaches you how to free motion quilt! And the best part is? It's only $27....say whaaaaa?

Okay, okay, so HollyAnne is not only an incredible teacher, but she so generously came up with a few quilting plans for Knitted Star and I HAD to share them with you!

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Quilting Option #1

This option is the most beginner friendly. She used a meander pattern to fill in the background. This option would be covered in Intro to FMQ!

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Quilting Option #2

I love how this one looks like holly! Doesn't it? HollyAnne recommends using swirls or meander for the background of this option.

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Quilting Option #3

This one kind of blew my mind! How cool are these feathers?! She recommends either swirls or meandering for the background of this one as well.

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Also, one of her students, Ashley of @ashley_quilts, free motion quilted her first project, which just so happened to be a Knitted Star wall hanging! How gorgeous is this?

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Again, if you want to learn more about "Intro to FMQ", you can find that here. This is an affiliate link, so I do receive a small commission from each purchase. 

Week 7 Prize

I'm super excited to share that our prize this week is THREE seats in String & Story's "Intro to FMQ" course! Enter to win by sharing a photo of your Knitted Star progress on Instagram and use the hashtags #knittedstarqal, #knittedstarquilt and #loandbeholdpatterns! The deadline to enter is Sunday night, 11/1 at midnight, PST. Good luck!

PS- if you decide to go ahead and purchase the course and you also win this week's prize, HollyAnne will refund the cost of the course. :)

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Next week, we are cutting our edge blocks in half....deep breaths, my friends! It'll be okay! Then we will get our quilt tops pieced! I can't WAIT to see everyones hard work pay off!

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See you on Monday!

Brittany