Color Jolt QAL Week 6: Finishing Our Quilts!

by | Nov 5, 2020

We made it! This is the last week of the quilt along and by the end of it, you will have a completed top. I finished mine last week (because… working ahead, of course) and I’m always surprised how delighted I am when a quilt top is done. This is my fourth (maybe fifth?) Color Jolt quilt top that I’ve made and it’s tied with my very first one as my favorite. I’ve loved seeing all your different fabric choices as your quilts come together and I am very excited to see your finished tops start popping up. Some already have so check out the hashtag if you missed those!

This week we’re adding our sashing between our rows and then adding our borders. That’s it! This will be the fewest seams we’ve sewn since we started! The key this week is to accurately line up the blocks across from one another as you add sashing so that you get nice, clean vertical lines when your rows are all together. 

I made a video last week that covered Weeks 5 AND 6. I go over some tips and tricks to use this week as you sew things together so check that out. You can fast-forward to the 6 minute and 30 second mark to skip the Week 5 tips and go straight to Week 6. I’ll hit the highlights below so you have it all in one place too!

Due to last week’s technical issues, some of you have already seen glimpses of my completed quilt top in the video, but here it is!

Tips For This Week 

There are only a few seams to sew this week so take your time and get them just right! A few tips for that:

1. Keep using your short, paper-piecing stitch length this week! You do not want to try to remove papers later and realize you used a normal stitch length for adding your sashing. Trust me on this one. 

2. To help your machine pull your fabric through at the best relative rate/tension (because you have your paper on and it can complicate the mechanics of your machine a bit), I recommend adding your sashing with the fabric side of your rows up. You can see in the photo above that that’s how I did mine. 

3. After you’ve added your sashing to one row and are then sewing that rows to the next, pay special attention so that the columns between your blocks are lined up. Personally, I took a ruler and lined it up with the edge of each block, then used it as a guide to mark on the far side of the sashing so I could see exactly where I wanted the edge of the blocks on the next row to hit. Even if things are lined up perfectly, these can be hard to keep in place as you’re sewing so I highly recommend either pinning like your life depending on it or using a long basting stitch at those intersection spots first and then folding back the seam so you can see that you’ve nailed the alignment before adding your actual seam (with your short stitch length) to join the row. I illustrate this technique in my IGTV video so if this description didn’t quite click for you, jump over there and check it out.

4. It will take a while to remove your papers from the back of your quilt at the end. I recommend a pair of tweezers for your corners and a good movie to settle in with for this part!

That’s it! Have fun. Also, due to the U.S. election, Instagram is still preventing posts from showing up in order on the hashtag so make sure you’re tagging me in your photos so I can see your finished quilt tops!

This Week’s Instagram Post & Prize

Our Week 5 winner of the spool set from Aurifil thread is: Shannon @shannonlookenott! Congratulations! DM me your address and we’ll get that headed your way!

    Week 6 Prompt: Now that your quilts are done (or close?), tell us about how you’re planning to quilt them! Do you quilt on your domestic machine? Use a longarm quilter? Switch between both? Don’t forget our longarm quilting sponsors for this QAL to get your 15% off your quilting. I’ve put the details below for you again.

    Week 6 Prize Sponsor: This week’s winner get a mini iron from @olisohome. Have you seen these? They are adorable! I’m waiting for my turquoise one to ship later this month. I actually really love preordering things because then when they ship it’s like a surprise present. (That I paid for, haha.). If you don’t win this week and want to get your hands on one, you can check them out HERE.

    Longarm Quilting

    Don’t forget that Katie @ ModernTextiles in the US and Kerry @ That’s Sew Kerry in the UK are both offering a 15% discount on quilting for your finished tops! You’d still pay the normal (very reasonable) amounts for batting or anything else you buy from them and any shipping. ⁠You’d need to have your quilt top to them by the end of February 2021, so finish those quilts 

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    When your quilt is ready, you can reach out to either of these ladies (depending on your location) and they’d be happy to answer any questions or walk you through the process of getting your quilt to them.

    That’s it! Happy (final week of) quilting! 

    -Kate

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