Beginers Quilt Along

 Lori Over at "Bee in my Bonnet" is doing a row quilt along for beginners that I decided to join in. Last night I pulled the fabric that I think I will be using so I could get a fresh start this morning. I have added her blog to the right side of my page. I have had so many comments from ladies who would like to take up quilting I wanted to pass this information on. She has some great get starter tips and lots of  tutorials on her blog, check her out. 

MONEY saving tip!! If you are new to quilting or sewing you probably don't have a stash of fabric on hand. Call around to some of your sewing or quilting friends and see if they would like to help you out. Quilters are such sweet ladies and are happy to share their stash!!!! (So they can make room for more, shhh don't tell)

 I got started on the first row this morning bright and early as in 5:00 AM, what was I thinking!! Her technique for piecing 1 1/2 inch squares is the best by far I have ever seen.

 However I was making myself a bit crazy with all the tiny pieces but mostly standing on my feet for all the ironing was more than I could take so I am only about a 1/4 way finished with my first row. My other problem might be I was a little distracted this morning.

 You see Tyler started Kindergarten this morning...... I was doing pretty good keeping the tears back until I looked over at DD#1 who's lips were quivering. She was smart enough to wear sunglasses to hide the tears, me not so much. I should known to wear waterproof mascara on days like today. GRRR

 Papaw and I are so lucky to live close enough to our Grands that we can share in special days like this. Believe me we know how blessed we are and thank God for each day we have with them.

 OK, that's enough the water works have started again!!! 

While I think Lori's tutorial is wonderful I personally started quilting with 5 inch squares. To me they are small enough to not overwhelm anyone but big enough to understand what you are doing. I have had the charm pack shown above for awhile now "Happy H"owl"-O-ween" by Moda. Today I needed a fast fun something to do to overcome this whole growing up thing with the Grands. A  Halloween lap quilt might just be the ticket. Lena put me in the fall mood with her oh so cute Halloween wreath a must see and do one of these days!

 Want to do a quilt along with what I hope might be a bit easier to start with before joining in with Lori's row along? First off go to this site and check out the video "Pinwheel Quilt" . She calls for a print charm pack along with a solid charm pack. Of course I can't seem to follow what I should do plus the fact that I didn't have a solid charm pack on hand so I went with some Halloween fabric from my stash. It took around 1 yard  of fabric to cut into 5 inch squares to use as the contrast with the printed charm pack. (Not that anyone cares but my hubby is driving me bonkers today, if he walks in here one more time he is gonna go back on mopping duty) Lets move on. I have all 42 of my squares sewn up like the video shows. Now on to the cutting.

For today I might only do one block as there is again a lot of standing at the ironing board pressing seams. I like the way the stash fabric is still Halloweeny but adds enough contrast to make the pinwheel pop. Seeing that it cost me nothing is a big plus!!!

Are you overwhelmed enough yet? So here is how I will work my "Pinwheel" quilt along.

This week I will make up all the pinwheels.

Next week I will add  sashing to make the quilt large enough to be a lap quilt. 

The following week will be adding borders if need be to enlarge the quilt even more.

Last will be sandwiching and quilting the quilt.

If you want to play along leave a comment on my blog so we can all follow your progress.

This might be a money saving tip for you. Here in the US most of the big box fabric stores are running great Labor Day sales. You should be able to pick up fabric, batting and thread at great prices. Cutting mats and rotary cutters are on sale at 1/2 off as well. You may have to go to a quilt shop for Charm pack, they run around $10.00 each. My goal is to get this quilt done WAY before Halloween and keep the price as low as I can go.

Now I need to get off so I can see what is so stinkin important hubby needs me for. He is off for the next 5 DAY'S. Prayers are needed for us both!!!!!