Follow Your Heart: Tennessee Two Tone

Welcome to another week of the Follow Your Heart Quilt Along. This week we are making Tennessee Two Tone, and the directions are found on page 17 and18.
For this block it is essential that you choose two colors that have a lot of contrast. A good way to be sure if there is contrast is to take a photo of your fabrics, than look a the photo in black and white, this will show you whether or not the fabrics have a good contrast.
In the cutting the pattern again calls for you to cut a strip of fabric and than use the Easy Angle Ruler to cut triangles. Instead of doing this I cut 4" squares to make the Half Square Triangles.
To do this you still need to cut the 3 1/2" squares the pattern calls for, and in addition to that cut 3--4" squares of each print and 2--4" squares of your background.
Put 1 square of each print right sides together, draw a line on the diagonal and stitch a 1/4" on each side, cut apart, press and trim to 3 1/2" squares for a total of 4 Half Square Triangle Blocks as shown in the second column on page 18.
Repeat with each print combined with a background to make 2 of each color combination as shown again in the 2nd column on page 18.
If you wish to use one color for you background, rather than cutting the 3 different lengths as listed, just cut 2 strips 20 1/2" long.
When putting it together be sure to lay out all the pieces to double check that you have all the half square triangles facing the right direction to get the arrow effect.
Carrie did the mixed backgrounds and it looks really cool! 
 I can't wait to see your blocks for this week!
Do you have any special plans for New Years Eve?
Our family was going to attend a worship service at our Church this evening, and than watch a movie together. However I have a sick husband and 3 sick kids, so our plans have changed somewhat. We will probably still watch a movie, but the boys will be going to bed a lot earlier than we initially planned.
Happy New Year to you, thank you for following along with my blog this past year, and for supporting Chicken Feed Quilts. I have loved quilting along with you on our various projects, and sharing all the newest fabrics with you. I look forward to another year and have a few new things planned as well!
Kayla

Accuquilt Event: January 2020

Merry Christmas everyone! I have been having a great time celebrating with family, and having my kiddos and my hubby all home has been great. Sam and I have spent the last couple days working on finishing up our reno. I finished the painting of the new space last week and am now busy prepping the remainder of the main floor for a couple fresh coats. We are hoping to put the casing on tomorrow or Thursday and start setting up the furniture as soon as its done. I am so excited for it to all be finished. Needless to say there has not been a lot of quilting happening in my house in the past few weeks, but I hope to remedy that soon too.
With it being Christmas tomorrow, that means January is just 1 short week away, and in January we have an instructor from Accuquilt coming to do few presentations for us.
Pam Heller has been an Accuquilt Instructor for the past 5 years and travels internationally to teach quilters around the world to get the most out of the Accuquilt Cutting System. She will be in our shop on January 14 and 15 to teach you.
On January 14 at 2pm there will be a lecture called First Date with Bob. Pam will introduce to the BOB Dies, which stands for Block On Board. The BOB Dies give you the ability to cut an entire block on one die, and is great for beginners and advanced quilters. The class fee for this is $10.

Later that day at 6pm, there will be a presentation called GO! Beyond the Basics, where Pam will take you through the GO! Qube Companion Sets, the specialty dies, and some curved piecing as well. The tips and tricks she share will take your quilting to the next level! The class fee for this one is also $10.

On January 15 at 10 am there will be a final presentation, this one called There's a Die For That. This one will contain some special tricks to help you convert your rotary cut patterns to be Accuquilt GO friendly. The class fee for this presentation is $20.
For all of these presentations there is no need to bring any supplies, but we would love to see some projects or quilts that you have made using the Accuquilt System so if you have any feel free to bring them along.
For each presentation there will also be exclusive dies available only to those who attend the presentation.
Over the course of the two days there will be sales and giveaways as well.
If you are interested in the Accuquilt System or already have a GO Machine and some dies we would love to see you at the event.
You can sign up for any one of them or all three by clicking here.
Have a wonderful Christmas.
Kayla

Follow Your Heart: Spaghetti Junction

Hi everyone, I apologize again for not posting last week! I was halfway to Calgary when I remembered that I was supposed to write up a blog post before I left for my trip.
My husband took me to San Diego for 3 days for a little get away and we had a fantastic time exploring the city, eating delicious food and sleeping in.
So the block that I missed last week I will share now. It is called Spaghetti Junction and is found on pages 15-17 of your book.
It uses just 2 prints and some background, you can use a couple as they did in the pattern, or just one like I did.
I happen to be using a Layer Cake for my project and didn't have strips 21" long but it turns out that we subcut that strip later into two sets, so a 10" and a 7" strip works just as well for the first cut under the prints section if you have no longer pieces.
For cutting the print triangle with the ruler, you are going to line up the long 5" edge on the 3 3/4" marking on your 60 degree ruler, and trim both angles off.
For cutting the background prints place two wrong sides together (if using two backgrounds make sure the two together are matching), than put your 60 degree ruler on top aligning the bottom edge and the angle should go right through the upper left corner of your rectangle, than you are going to discard the pieces of fabric that are under the ruler and keep the larger "triangles" to use in the block.
When sewing these background triangles to the print one, the first one should align on both sides with the print triangle, and the second one line up the point with the point of the dog ear from the first seam. 
For the rest follow the instructions, especially the pressing directions as this will allow your seams to nest nicely when assembling.
Don't forget to add the borders to finish off the block.

I am excited to see your blocks!
Kayla

Sew Hometown: November, December and Finishing

I don't know about you but I love having deadlines to get things finished. As promised I was able to finish my quilt top for the Sew Hometown QAL along this weekend, and it feels great to have this year long project finished!
The blocks for November are Fir Trees, and we are making 4 of them, each finishing at 12". There is a couple printing errors for this block. The first one is in the Background cutting, you want to cut that first square at 8" instead of 7". The second error is in step 3, you want to trim your blocks to 7.5" square not the 6.5" that is listed.
I did not go too scrappy with my blocks, I chose 4 fabrics and used each one in a different spot in each block. To do this I stacked all four and cut from them all the pieces listed under the green, yellow, dark green, and blue fabrics, than used one of each in each block. This saved a lot of time both in choosing fabrics and in cutting.
When trimming in step 5 be sure you have at least a 1/4" at the top of the block so you don't lose your point later on. I actually measured 1/4"  to the bottom from the bottom of each tree point (where your trunk fabric sits in between) and trimmed that piece first, I add a little more than a 1/4" at the top than but it did allow my trunk seams to line up nicely.
There is a video for this block, if you would like to watch just click below.
https://inspiring-stitches.com/2019/11/sew-hometown-fir-tree-block/

For December we are making 5 Geranium Blocks that each finish at 6". This is such a fun block to make for the last block of the quilt. The unit from step 2 is supposed to be bigger than  your strip set, so don't panic, just line up the centers of each and stitch together. Having a 4.5" square ruler to trim the block in step 3 is really helpful, as you can lay it on top and just cut around all four sides quickly and easily.
There is a video for this block as well: https://inspiring-stitches.com/2019/12/sew-hometown-geranium-block/

Finishing: Take all the blocks you have made and lay them out as pictured on the final page of your calendar pattern. You can switch out blocks or sections of the same size to help with color placement if needed. I was able to just lay mine out as shown in the pattern, and I found the color balance to be good for me. The sections are outline in black so complete each mini section then combine each section to complete the center of the quilt top. Add your borders as instructed and yay your quilt top is done.


I had so much fun pulling this project out each month and constructing a new set of blocks and though the colors I chose are completely out of my usual comfort zone, I am loving how it turned out.
Kayla

December

I cannot believe that we are already a few days into December. My sons are bringing home Secret Santa names from school, making lists at home and begging to set up the Christmas tree. However with the current state of my house I told them we would likely set up the outdoor lights this weekend, but we may have to pass on the indoor decor this year. We are partway through a renovation on our main floor to incorporate a new living room and add a dining room. These boys of mine just keep growing and needing more space.
I just realized that I never posted the blocks for the November Sew Hometown QAL, I hope to finish that quilt top this week so I will do a special post on Monday or Friday with November, December and Finishing, (now I have to finish it ;) )
We want to thank you for your continued support of our shop, and so we will be doing a 12 days of Customer Appreciation event. There will be a new Special or Promotion each day and it will all start this week Thursday.

Dec 5, Day 1: Kits buy 1 and get the 2nd half price (2nd must be of equal or lesser value)

Dec 6, Day 2: 2 free Cutloose Patterns with your purchase

Dec 7, Day 3: 30% off all Shannon Cuddle

Dec 9, Day 4: 4 meters for $40 (mix and match 1meter cuts)

Dec 10, Day 5: Take 50% off one item (limit 1 use per person)

Dec 11, Day 6: Buy 5 spools of thread get the 6th free (6th must be of equal or lesser value)

Dec 12, Day 7: 35% off all Christmas yardage

Dec 13, Day 8: $8 off the ruler of your choice

Dec 14, Day 9: Receive 1 Drink Coupon to the Chrysalis Cafe with your purchase

Dec 16, Day 10: $10 gift card with every $25 spent (maximum of 5 gift cards)

Dec 17, Day 11: Buy 2 patterns get the 3rd for free (3rd must be of equal or lesser value)

Dec 18, Day 12: Choose a gift from under our tree

Thank you to everyone who sewed pillowcases for our Challenge last month, we reached a total of 556! These will all be donated to the Coaldale Food Bank and The Chinook Regional Hospital. 

Next week Tuesday is the next block in our Follow Your Heart QAL, the blocks made by everyone so far are looking great!
Have a great week, and be sure to carve out a little time for quilting, I know it helps my mood immensely to sit by my machine even for 20 minute.

 Kayla