Partial Dreams Quilt Along: Week 1

Our Partial Dreams Quilt along starts today! Partial Dreams is a FREE pattern that’s been available on my site for about a year now. I thought it was about time for a FREE quilt along. So, I thought this pattern would be perfect for this event. I talk a little bit more about this pattern and why I wrote it HERE.

If you haven’t signed up for the quilt along yet, you can do that HERE. I’d love to have you join us! Stragglers are always welcome in my events. So, you can still sign up as long as the quilt along’s still going. After you sign up, your welcome email will contain the pattern, schedule, and a run down of the extra fabrics options I added to make this quilt along more inclusive.

On the schedule for this week

This week we’re going to gather our fabrics and cut our pieces. I’ll be using a Jelly Roll for the foreground of my quilt. The pattern also has instructions for using 16 Fat Quarters. Both options allow for you to use some of the leftover foreground fabrics in a scrappy binding, but of course the pattern also has fabric requirements and cutting instructins for traditional binding.

Choosing your fabrics

Here are the details for the fabrics I’ll be using:
Foreground – A Jelly Roll, “Dazzle Dots” by Christa Watson for Benartex Fabrics
Background – Ditzy Dots White/Gray from “Midnight Rhapsody” by Greta Lynn for Benartex Fabrics

I’ll be using high volumes for the foreground and a low volume for the background, but you can definitely flip that. I would warn you to be a little careful with this though. You want to be sure that your low volume prints are not too subtle or too similar to each other so that your quilt doesn’t end up looking like plain squares with big sashing. If the fabric for the foreground is too blendy, the design won’t be noticeable.

I want to talk a little bit about Jelly Rolls and pre-cuts in general. I have a full post on this HERE, but I’ll give you the short version.

For a long time, I shied away from pre-cuts because I didn’t think they were very accurate. It turns out I just didn’t know how to use them. It seems like 2.5″ strips would be the same from brand to brand, but they aren’t. I feel like the thing that is causing the problems in the pinking. Pinking is what gives pre-cuts the zig-zagged edges. It helps keep the fabric from fraying, but the problem is knowing if you should start your 1/4″ seam at the outside of the zig-zag (the peaks) or the inside of the zig-zag (the valleys).

A case could be made for using either as a starting point, but it doesn’t really matter what you want to do. If you want to save yourself some frustration in working with the pinked edges, you need to start your 1/4″ seam where the manufacturer intended. The best way to do this is to measure one of them. So for this 2.5″ strip, you need to check to see if the 2.5″ goes from peak to peak or valley to valley. You can see in the picture below that that jelly roll strip measured 2.5″ from valley to valley. So for that jelly roll, I need to start my 1/4″ seam from the valleys.

Luckily, this is not really something you need to worry about for this pattern. For Dublin Fancy, we needed to figure this out because we sewed pieces from Jelly Roll strips to blocks we cut and squared ourselves. For Dublin Fancy, they wouldn’t have matched up well if the width of our blocks we made with the Jelly Rolls wasn’t accurate.

This isn’t an issure for Partial Dreams. You will be sewing the rectangles cut from the Jelly Roll strips around a square. Since all of the blocks are the same you won’t to worry about the blocks not matching up due to not being on the same page as the manufacturer. What you do have to worry about is being consistent. If you like to start your 1/4″ seam from the peaks do that. If you like to start your 1/4″ seam from the valleys do that. You also don’t have to worry about a full 1/4″ seam vs a scant 1/4″ seam with this one because all of the blocks are the same. So, just pick one and stick with it. Be consistent so that all of your blocks are the same. Depending on your 1/4″ seam and how your Jelly Roll strips are cut, you may end up with your rectangles overhanging a little, but this really isn’t a big deal at all. You can always trim the excess. Just be consistent, and the blocks will turn out fine.

Cutting your pieces

I do have a big cutting mat, and I love it. Big cutting mats are great, but not everyone has one or a space to put it. So, I like to do demo videos showing me cutting on an 18″ x 24″ mat and show how you can work those smaller cutting mats to your advantage. Everyone who wants to be here should get to be part of the quilting community. You don’t have to have a plush space or all of the most expensive tools to make pretty quilts.

You can watch me cutting some strips from Jelly Rolls and read my tips for it on my instagram post HERE. I’ll be posting some things to help you make this quilt on my instagram so follow me to see those.

Get a custom label for your quilt!

I had some labels made for this pattern! If you want a custom Partial Dreams label with your name on it, you can get one! I order all of my labels from Melanie at Souther Charm Quilts/Meander and Make. They are great labels. You can get order your Partial Dreams Quilt label here. Just be sure to select “Partial Dreams Label” to get the one that looks like the label pictured below. Full disclosure: that was an affiliate link meaning I earn commission, but it doesn’t affect the price you pay. Use the coupon code SNUGGLEBUGSTITCHING for 10% off.

Each Week on the Blog

I’ll link to all of the other weeks near the end of each post. I will add each post here as I have them. You can also find this on the Quilt Alongs Page.

Week 1 – You are currently at the Week 1 Post
Week 2 – Make 6 blocks
Week 3 – Make 6 blocks, Accuracy vs Precision
Week 4 – Make 6 blocks
Week 5 – Make 6 blocks, FREE Event Schedule for this year
Week 6 – Make 6 blocks, labeling your quilt
Week 7 – Make 6 blocks
Week 8 – Assemble your quilt top

Prize for this Week

Our prize for this week is going to be a paper copy of my newest pattern, Sew Diamond. I’m super excited about this pattern because the quilt was selected to be part of Benartex’s Be Sew Fabulous display at Bernina Univeristy in June! This one is for US winners only due to shipping costs. If the winner is an international quilt alonger, I will send you the PDF pattern so you don’t miss out on getting a prize.

To be eligible for prizes:

– You must be following me and our sponsors on Instagram and post progress pictures for the week on Instagram by Tuesday at 5:00 PM Central Time. You must tag me @snugglebugstitching in your posts and use the #partialdreamsqal and #partialdreamsquilt.
Here are the accounts you need to be following:
@snugglebugstitching
@southercharmquilts
@benartex_fabrics

-I will announce the winner on Instagram and tag the lucky quilt alonger so that they know they’ve won. The winner will have one week to contact me to claim the prize. Any unclaimed prizes will be forfeited.

That’s all I’ve got for today

As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog!

I hope you enjoyed it.

If you have any questions, please feel free to leave me a comment or email me. I’d love to hear from you!

I’d really appreciate it if you subscribe to my blog and follow me on Instagram too!

Happy quilting!