Week 2 of our quilt along starts today! We’re going to be making 6 blocks today. This is where you’ll get to practice those partial seams. I actually wrote this pattern to be an easy way to practice partial seams. I talk a little bit about that 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.
Last week I talked about where to start your 1/4″ seam from pinked jelly roll strips (or any pinked precut) and scant 1/4″ seams vs regular 1/4″ seams. You can read about that in the Week 1 Post. TLDR: These things absolutely matter for some quilts, but not for this one. Since each block has the same number of seams, and all of the seams are going in the same directions, your block will turn out fine as long as you are consistent. I pay attention to both of those things when I have to, but sometimes it’s nice to work with a pattern where consistency is all you need.
Block Construction
A partial seam just means that you sew part of a seam and then sew some other stuff and come back and finish the incomplete seam later. But, why would you need to do this? We’ll look at one of the scarier examples first because they are a little more obvious on those. Let’s take a look at my Sarah Elizabeth quilt that the lovely Cleo is modeling/photobombing. Check out the small green square near the top left corner. You can’t sew it completely to the block underneath it because then how would you sew the other big floral print to the right of it? No matter where you start, this is an issue. The answer to this little conundrum is partial seams. I do have a post where I go over partial seams with a puzzle style t-shirt quilt for the example. You can check that out HERE.
So, that was the more intimidating kind of partial seams. They aren’t the best place to start practicing these. I’m going to go ahead and confess that my first experience with partial seams was t-shirt quilts. I suppose that all turned out okay, but trust me when I tell you there are better places to start. Let’s look at how my Partial Dreams blocks together.
I also have a guest post on the Quilter’s Candy Blog where I go over this block step by step. You can also see this in action on my instargram post HERE.
Pressing
For someone who says they aren’t a stickler for pressing, I end up talking about it a lot. The irony of this is not lost on me, but people always ask about it so here we are. When I say I’m not a stickler for pressing, I’m not saying I don’t think pressing is important. I just don’t care if you use “my” method or not. Open seams, nested seams, or any mix of the two are all fine. The important thing is that you do what works best for YOU and gets YOU the best results. After you finish your gorgeous quilt, whoever gets it isn’t going to know or care how you pressed your seams. You can see examples of both pressing methods pictured below.
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 – Gather Fabris & Cut Pieces
Week 2 – You are currently at the Week 2 post
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
The prize for this week is going to be a PDF pattern. You can pick any one of my Ninja Star Patterns that have went out so far. This is part of my current block of the month subscription so they aren’t available to purchase individually at this time.
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!
I’m really enjoying this qal. For Mother’s Day, my son made me a thread cutter which is coming going to come in handy when chain piecing. Thank you for doing this.
That was such a thoughtful gift from your son for Mother’s Day! I’m so glad you are enjoying the quilt along, and thank you as well for participating. Quilt Along-ers are the most important part of the Quilt Along!