SewCanShe Crazy Quilt Block Sewalong {week 1}

Now it begins…Our Crazy Quilt Block Sewalong! I have to tell you that I have been sewing in preparation for this for the past couple of weeks, and I have had a blast. Sewing scraps together in a crazy way is pure pleasure sewing.

I love being surprised by patterns and shapes that come together a little bit at a time. For more examples of crazy quilting (besides my own and our official tutorial), please see our {Sewalong Announcement Post} or simply do a web search for ‘crazy quilting.’

Heather from The Sewing Loft has written an awesome crazy quilting tutorial for a foundation-pieced block so once it is done, there are tons of things you can do with it. Her tutorial {found here} is our official ‘instructions.’

But crazy quilting is truly an art form for which there are no boundaries, so if you want to do it another way, feel free!

My blog post today will tell you about our sewalong rules, give you an *optional* assignment for this week, and tell you about the fabulous prizes from our sweet sponsors.

Okay, I know you want rules and you want me to be clear about them, because I’ve already received lots of emails from people who want to know what they are. Here we go…

1. I’m not going to tell you what to make, except that we want it to include crazy quilting. Love to make tote bags? make a crazy one. Need a baby quilt? do it. Clothing item? yes, please! Whatever you can think of, if you sew your scraps together using any crazy quilting technique, show us. A lot of crazy quilting contains embellishment, and that is an option too. It’s what you want!
2. You may enter as many crazy quilted projects as you like, but only one photo per project. I know that this is limiting, so if you want to put together a photo collage, that will count as one photo. Picasa and picmonkey.com can help you make an easy collage. 
3. Whenever you are ready, you may upload your entry photo to our special sewalong flickr group {here}. The deadline for posting your entry photo(s) is May 18th 2013, 10pm Eastern.
4. After all of the entries have been received, our judges will choose the winners based on creativity, technique, and overall project awesomeness. You can read more about the prizes and sponsors below.

Each week during the Sewalong, I’ll give you an easy assignment to help keep you on track. These assignments are optional of course (you can complete your whole project in one day, if you wish), but they will also give us something fun to talk about on the Sewalong facebook event page.

So this week’s assignment is: Show us you Pile of Scrap! Yes, take a picture of it, and post it to the facebook event page {here}.

I can’t wait to see all the piles of scrap!

Moving on…

We have 7 fabulous prizes to giveaway. Check this out:

First Prize:

A $50 Gift Certificate to Fat Quarter Shop and a Pattern Bundle Pack from The Sewing Loft!

Six other winners will each receive one of the following fabric or a pdf pattern prizes. I’m not going to name categories for these other prizes yet (because I want to see what you make), but I can imagine that the categories will be something like purses, quilts, clothing, etc. And for sure a prize for the craziest item of all!

Here are the other Sponsors and their prizes…

Fabricworm has donated a half yard set of the new Elk Grove collection from Birch Fabrics.

Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop is providing a 5 pattern pack.

Create Kids Couture is also giving a 5 pattern pack.

Lemon Tree Fabrics has donated  a $50 gift certificate. Yum!

Fishsticks Designs is giving a 5 pattern bundle.

And finally, Fabric Tree is giving a $35 gift certificate. What a lot of amazing prizes!

So get out that pile of scrap and take a picture for our {facebook event page}! Let’s all get together and share the fun of sewing the same thing at the same time. Use  that facebook page to post your questions, comments, and along-the-way photos. The flickr entry pool is for final photos only, and I might not be able to answer everyone’s emails in a timely manner, so ask on the fb page first. 🙂

Can’t wait to see what you make!

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