Free Motion QAL - Piecing Your Quilt Top

Welcome to the second week in the Free Motion QAL! I hope you all enjoyed the excellent FMQ advice offered by Jen, Pat and Renee last week, and are really pumped to get started :o) Even if you're not participating in the QAL, it is well worth reading through each of the advice posts (here, here and here) - there are SO many tips and tricks offered by these ladies. 

One other thing I need to mention is that I may need you to be a little patient with me over the next couple of months of the QAL. My partner has a slipped disc in his neck, and will be having surgery next week (with six weeks recovery) - so I'm pretty stressed out at the moment, and I can't guarantee I will be able to get all of the posts up according to the schedule. I will try my best to get all the posts up on time, but please bear with me if they are a little late sometimes.

So, this week I will be talking very briefly about putting your quilt top together. There isn't much I can add that isn't included in the pattern - but I would suggest making use of the colouring sheet included in the pattern to decide on the layout of your five coloured stripes. I am giving everyone two weeks to get the quilt top together, and then I'll be back in two weeks to talk about basting your quilt. 

This is my in-progress quilt up on the design wall - I am having an absolute ball putting this together. I know I've mentioned it before, but the Cotton Couture I'm using is an absolute dream to sew with - the hand is incredibly soft and I'm anticipating it will be amazing fabric to quilt.

This is a very quick and simple top to put together - the hardest part is making sure you don't mess up the order of each row. I tend to tackle each row separately - so I sew each row together, put it back up on the design wall before dealing with the next one. I know some people can chain piece all their rows at the same time and get everything right - but I've learnt from experience I'm not one of these people. So to avoid ripping more seams than I sew, I play it safe and do it one row at a time :o) 

It's taken me a while to get organised, but I've started a Flickr group for the QAL - so please feel free to share your progress (and questions) over there. Starting with the next QAL post, I will be adding a linky party to each post, so you can share your progress here as well. If you are on Instagram, please use the hashtag #freemotionqal. 

xx Jess