Quilt Designer Shop Hop – Moving Forward

Hi friends!

Welcome to Day 3 of the Quilt Designer Shop Hop!

Have you been having fun? I am loving all the blocks! Today I am sharing my block with you!

The theme of our quilt designer shop hop is: Moving forward …separate but working together, inspired by life under quarantine. 

I loved the theme: working together. It so fits what is going on in our world right now. If we work together, if we all wear masks to protect each other, if we go out in the world but stay distanced, we can move forward. 

All the designers created their blocks using Electric Quilt. It was a great way to have blocks that we could share with each other so we could create our own unique setting for the blocks.

I love using EQ for my quilt patterns. Sometimes I still start using paper and pencil, but EQ lets me pull those ideas together quickly and easily!

Better Together Block

I love my block. 

Here is the EQ version of my block.

And here is my block. all made. Mostly pressed!

Did ya notice my block has a lot of pieces?

And that’s because there are a lot of us in the quilt world. The block has the feel of being round. I wanted it to represent all of us, each of us holding us all together. 

Hence the name, Better Together.

And the block has a lot of pieces because, crazy quilter that I am, I love HST units, FG units and QST units! So they are all here, in this one block. Different units, all coming together to form a beautiful block.

To get the pattern for the Better Together block, click here! It’s free until July 18th.

Pressing Tip

I tend to press most of my seams to the side. I like those little bumps that I can feel to nest my seams when they come together. BUT, in this block, pressing seams open will ensure a much flatter block.

Note: I did not press all my seams open. I decided on my plan after some things were already sewn together!

One of the reasons I also preferred pressing seams to one side is that in the past, when my seams were pressed open, they would start to pull apart at the ends. Has that ever happen to you? 

It is because, if I didn’t decided BEFORE I started sewing which way I was going to press, I usually just start sewing with my stitch length set to whatever length is the default on my sewing machine. 

Not a good idea! To have success when pressing seams open, you need to use a shorter stitch length. Think paper piecing. My machine defaults to a 2.4 stitch length. When planning to press seams open, a good stitch length is 1.5- 1.7. Nice and tight. Which, since I did not think about my pressing plan before I started making my block, I did not do!

So when you go to make this block, if you plan to press some of those seams open (or all of them open), shorten your stitch length! 

Designer Shop Hop Quilt Idea

During the shop hop, we also wanted to share with you a setting for your blocks. There are 10 designers, so we had to come up with a setting for 10 blocks! Since my block was so complicated, I decided to create a super simple setting!

Here is one version of the setting.  In this version I used a light background that matched the background I used in the blocks.

Here, I used a purple background but kept the background in the blocks light. In this version you can really see the setting and how easy it would be to put together!

And here is my favorite version! A purple background in the blocks and for the setting.

I love how when the block backgrounds and the setting is the same, the blocks appear to float in the setting.

To get the pattern for the Better Together setting, click here. It’s free until July 18th.

Now don’t forget to go visit Becky’s blog and see her FB live! Links below.

Today’s Designers:

Kate Colleran  (me!)  https://seamslikeadream.shop

FB Live:                       11am MT: https://www.facebook.com/SeamsLikeaDreamQuilts/

Becky Jorgensen       https://patchworkposse.com

Blog post link:           https://www.patchworkposse.com/quilt-designers-shop-hop/

FB Live:                      https://www.facebook.com/patchworkposse/

I hope you are having fun seeing everyone’s blocks and quilt settings! If you missed any, click here for the whole schedule! I will see you back here tomorrow for links to Day 4’s designers!

happy quilting,

Kate