Welcome to Day 1 of the Sweet Shoppe Quilt-Along!! I’m so happy that you’re joining us for the fun!
The inspiration for this year’s quilt-along is Christmas candy—candy canes, peppermints, anything sugary and sweet, as long as it’s red, green and white.
These are the fabrics that I chose for my Sweet Shoppe quilt. The green isn’t quite a mint green, but I just love yellowy-green right now and I couldn’t help myself!
Just in case you missed my last post, here’s a complete list of what you’ll need for this year’s Quilt-Along:
- 3 fat quarters – red prints
- 3 fat quarters – green prints (you can get away with 2 fat quarters and 1 fat eighth)
- ⅛ yard gray print
- 1½ yard white fabric for background (I’m using a solid)
- ⅓ yard fabric for binding
- 1⅔ yard fabric for backing
- 26″ x 60″ piece of batting
I’ll be posting every Monday, Wednesday and Friday between now and Christmas and we’ll wrap up on the 22nd—no pun intended! I’ll reveal a different block or component with each post and we’ll work on assembling the quilt during the last week. Some of the pieces we’ll be working with are small, but this project is suitable for most quilters.
So, without further ado, let’s get started!
Day 1: Cutting
Argh, all that build up and we still have to start with cutting!
We’ll be doing different cuts with each fabric this year, so you may want to label them up front. The fabrics will be pretty evenly distributed throughout the project, so don’t worry about this step. But if you do have favorites, you may want to label your favorite reds – red #2 and red #3, and your favorite green – green #3. This will make sense as we go along.
Here’s how I labeled my fabrics:
Cutting:
Red Print #1
2 squares, 5″ x 5″
2 squares, 3½” x 3½”
10 squares, 3″ x 3″
Red Print #2
2 squares, 5″ x 5″
5 squares, 4″ x 4″
4 squares, 3½” x 3½”
4 rectangles, 1½” x 3½”
Red Print #3
4 squares, 5″ x 5″
4 squares, 3½” x 3½”
4 rectangles, 1½” x 3½”
Green Print #1
7 squares, 3½” x 3½”
1 square, 5″ x 5″
Green Print #2
1 square, 5″ x 5″
5 squares, 4″ x 4″
2 squares, 3½” x 3½”
Green Print #3
3 squares, 5″ x 5″
4 squares, 3½” x 3½”
4 rectangles, 1½” x 3½”
Gray Print
1 strip, ¾” x 42″
1 rectangle, ¾” x 3½”
White Solid
13 squares, 5″ x 5″
10 squares, 4″ x 4″
5 squares, 3½” x 3½”
168 squares, 1½” x 1½” (yikes!)
2 strips, 1⅞” x 42″
2 rectangles, 1⅞” x 3½”
When it comes time for assembly, we’ll be cutting a bit more from the white solid so make sure to set it safely aside.
At the end of your cutting session, you should end up with something this:
Cutting, not so much fun, but seeing these happy little stacks of patches all ready to go, now that’s fun!!
That’s it for Day 1! And by the way, I’ll be posting pics on Instagram and Facebook throughout the quilt-along @jendalyquilts. If you’d like to share photos of your work in progress, use the #sweetshoppeqal —I’d love to see what you’re doing!
Good luck, enjoy your weekend and I’ll see you back here Monday for Day 2 and some actual piecing!
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Thank you!
The December/January 2018 issue; mug rug, you have a gingerbread man with 3/8" or 9mm peppermint swirl buttons. where can I get these, I have checked everywhere. Thanks Beverly
Picked up my fabric today and they had what you are using. The best compliment is a copy cat-so i have 4 maybe 5 of the same red/greens. 🙂 i hope i can keep up. Thanks!
My pleasure, Jackie!
The buttons are from Just Another Button Company and available online. They are called the "tiny peppermint swirl." JABC has the best buttons!
Hi Monica – That's amazing that you were able to find most of the same fabrics!! How fun! So glad you're joining us!
Just found you and your QAL. Yippee! Will do this for next Christmas. Thank you.
Glad you found us! I'll have a complete pattern for this project available in my Etsy shop after Christmas if you prefer to be able to download it all at once. 🙂