It’s Week 6, the finale week for the Sweet Home Quilt Along and time to reveal the quilts we’ve have been working on. You’ll also want to visit Maureen’s blog to see her beautiful Cozy and Magical Sweet Home finish.

There’s a lot to share with you this week on the Member’s blog and on the Sweet Home QALTutorial page—let’s get started!

Bookish Sweet Home Quilt

The first of my two 2021 Sweet Home QAL makes to show off is the Bookish version. This quilt is made with prints from my new Art Gallery Fabrics Bookish collection, AGF English Toffee Pure Solid, and Cafe Latte Decostitch Elements. I’m thinking of it as little libraries and the houses nestled between leather-bound books. This fall palette is one of my favorites!

The incredible long arm quilting on this quilt was done by Brook Becker of Lady Belle Fabric. Brooke is also our guest this week on the Sweet Home QAL Tutorials and we have an informative Q&A video interview about working with a long armer and sending your quilt out to be professionally edge-to-edge quilted.

Brooke still has some kits available for this Bookish version.

For batting, I used Hobbs Tuscany Silk inside and it shows off the quilting stitched beautifully. Doesn’t it look like something you’d see on a beautiful tooled leather-bound book?

This was my last styled photo of the Bookish Sweet Home and it’s a sunny corner chair in my office and I believe I found the perfect spot for this quilt!

The backing is Mark My Words (bookmarks) and the binding is Between the Lines, both from the Bookish collection. Remember my half-square triangle pillow project from last week? I love seeing it all come together—don’t you??!!!

If you have any materials left over from making your Sweet Home quilt or just want a fun project to make your own fabric covered books then be sure to check out my Bookish Look Book post on the main blog page and I’ve a video tutorial for covering hard cover books or notebooks with fabric.

Holiday Mix Sweet Home Quilt

My second Sweet Home quilt I made for this quilt along was actually my first quilt made and finished before the quilt along even started and while I was waiting for my Bookish fabrics to arrive. This was a fun quilt because it has a holiday look without any actual holiday prints in it so great for all year enjoyment and I knew I’d be binding it with Chenille-It Blooming Bias in Jade.

As an added bonus to our QAL tutorial videos, Nannette Holmberg, owner and creator of Chenille-It put together an inspiring video on the many uses of Chenille-It and how to add extra texture and creativity to your quilts and other sewing projects. It’ll make you want to add chenille to every project!

I’ve many tutorials for adding Blooming Bias to pillows on my blog Tutorial page. I’ve added my own Chenille Binding Tutorial video from last years Sweet Home QAL to this year’s Members Tutorial page so all the information is in one spot. If you’ve never tried this product before, a pillow is a great place to start!

To prep a quilt edge for Chenille-It binding you need to either zig zag or serge the edge and is further explained in the tutorial videos. In the past, my Chenille-It color was very close to the background color of the quilt and not any more was required than zig zagging the edge and adding the Blooming Bias. This quilt, the background and binding were notably different so I did a little experiment and wrapped the raw edge in a single layer of 5/8’’-wide Blooming Bias tape as I serged the edge (to better hide the raw edge). I started with a full roll of Chenille-It and measured out the wrapped edges and all 16 lengths needed to bind the edges (see tutorials) and JUST had enough to cover my Sweet Home quilt incase you wanted to do this as well—there’s enough.

To “bloom” the faux chenille, you’ll want to pop your finished and bound quilt into the washing machine and set according to your batting manufacturer’s instructions. I use Delicate cycle, low spin with a bunch of light colored hand towels in the load and use the lowest setting on the dryer with dryer balls to help fluff and dry the quilt.

The Hobbs Tuscany Silk Batting launders beautifully and gets softer with every washing! I didn’t press this quilt like I would normally after washing and love the crinkly-soft look and Chenille-It texture on the binding.

The beautiful quilting on this quilt was done by Terri Neil of Quilting Rubies. Terri does hand-guided long arm quilting which means she reproduces an edge-to-edge pattern by hand rather than by computerized process.

All the fabrics in this quilt are from Art Gallery Fabrics and were curated by me from different AGF collections and designers. The fabrics in the quilt are from these collections: Everlasting, Signature, Floralia Fusion, Velvet, Open Heart, Kismet, Lilliput, Vert, and Plaid of My Dreams for backing.

OUR SPONSORS

GIVEAWAY

This is our final giveaway on the Sweet Home QAL and both Maureen and I want to thank our wonderful sponsors for the generous prizes they provided and also those sponsors who gave their time and knowledge to add to our tutorials. Be sure to take full advantage of the videos on the Sweet Home QAL Tutorials page!

We have an extra special giveaway this week and with it being our grand finale, we have a BIG prize package. To enter for the prizes, Members need to leave a comment on this blog post to be eligible for the drawing. Read more about the entry details below.

TODAY'S FEATURED SPONSOR IS Lady Belle Fabric!

Lady Belle Fabric is run by husband and wife team, Rob and Brooke. In their shop you'll find both bundles and single cuts of hand-picked fabrics that are fresh, modern, and fun! Designer fabrics include many of our favorites -- Art Gallery Fabrics, Cotton + Steel, Free Spirit, and Moda, just to name a few! Lady Belle Fabrics goal is to offer the most gorgeous fabric as quickly as they can!

Shop * Instagram * Facebook * Pinterest

As part of the amazing grand finale giveaway, Brooke Becker of Lady Belle Fabric is giving all Sweet Home Quilt Along members 20% off long arm quilting on any Sweet Home quilt sent to her before the end of the year on December 31, 2021.

The fantastic Week 6 grand finale giveaway package will include the following for one lucky winner:

Edge to Edge Quilting from Lady Belle Fabric

15-piece Pure Solids Fat Quarter Bundle from Art Gallery Fabrics

16-piece Bookish Fat Quarter Bundle from Fat Quarter Shop

Batting of Choice from Hobbs Batting

Take a closer look at the Prize Package

Quilting and Batting

One lucky winner will be sending their Sweet Home quilt to Brooke Becker to be edge to edge quilted and filled with the Hobbs batting of their choice. All Members get 20% off their Sweet Home quilting service if sent in before the end of the year.

The winner can select the Hobbs batting of their choice which will be sent directly to Lady Belle Fabric and ready to be used in quilt sandwich sent in by the winner. With #hobbsinside you’ve put the best inside your Sweet Home quilt!

Pure Solids Bundle

To help your restock your stash, Art Gallery Fabrics is giving the grand finale winner a 15-piece Pure Solids fat quarter bundle with colors that coordinate beautifully with Maureen’s Cozy and Magical collection and my Bookish collection. These are a must in any makers fabric hoard!

Bookish Bundle

Our friends and sponsor at Fat Quarter Shop are back again to give our winner a 16-piece Bookish fat quarter bundle. This is the collection I used in my quilt and is only just in shops now!

Giveaway Now Closed

Congratulations to Sandra Jacob!

*Note: This giveaway is open to QAL Members and will ship to US addresses only (sorry, International Members). If you're a "no reply" or anonymous commenter, please remember to include your email address in your comment--you can't win if I can't contact you!

1. Simply leave a comment here under this post and tell me your favorite part(s) of the Sweet Home QAL! (Counts as first comment entry.)

2. Leave a comment and let me know what you thought about the Q&A interview with Brooke Becker of Lady Belle Fabric. Did you learn anything new about long arm quilting? If you’ve never sent your quilts out before are you more apt to do so now after meeting Brooke and listing to this video? (This comment counts as a second entry). 

3. Following me (Sharon), Maureen, Lady Belle Fabric, Art Gallery Fabrics, Fat Quarter Shop, and Hobbs Batting qualifies you to make a third entry and ups your chances to win this fantastic prize! Just let me know the social platform you’re following us on by making a separate comment on this post (counts as a third entry).

4. In my interview with Brooke, we talked about spiderweb quilting design, can you answer my question about what a spiderweb quilt design means when used on a quilt? This counts as a BONUS fourth entry!

That’s FOUR possible entries and up to four chances to win! Enter now through Sunday, October 3, 2021. I’ll be drawing one lucky winner from the comment pool on this post. The winning comment will be picked at random around 4 pm Eastern. I’ll post the name of the winner on this post. Good luck!

After the QAL

Maureen and I have throughly enjoyed bring you this quilt along. I’ll leave the Sweet Home Members Area up even though this will be your last blog post (and email newsletter) from the quilt along—I know you’ll still want to access the tutorials and blog posts as reference in the future and to follow along as the more recent Sweet Home members catch up and finish their quilts. If you’re just joining us, you may want to start at the first blog post in the QAL and work in chronological order to the present.

If you’re not signed up for newsletters of blog posts from my main blog (only email required upon sign up) you may want to do so and you’ll get an email each time I post a new blog post. It’s a great way to keep up to date on pattern releases, new fabric collections, and new projects and events. If you’ve already signed up, then you’re all set!

Those of you who are also on Instagram, we’re loving seeing all your Sweet Home quilt progress photos so keep those coming! Tag us @maureencracknell and @sharonhollanddesigns and use the #sweethomeqal2021 hashtag so we don’t miss any of it.

Thanks for joining us on this fun quilt along,

Sharon & Maureen