Welcome to Week 5 of the Whirligig sew-along. Are you ready to sew this quilt together? This week we’ll be piecing your quilt top using all your fabulous blocks and adding the border. If you have just joined the SAL… well friend… better late than never I suppose! Be sure to grab the pattern, read up on all the details and choose your fabrics soon so you can catch up and join in the fun! There is also a Facebook Group for those of you that would like a little more interaction! SHARE ON INSTAGRAM Don’t forget to post a pic of your second lot of finished blocks on IG and be sure to the use the #whirligigsal and #ejjwhirligig quilt hashtags to make it easier for others to find your photos. PIECING THE QUILT TOP Now it's finally time to make all your fabulous blocks into a quilt top! Sew the blocks together in rows, and then the rows together. Just remember to press each alternative row of blocks in different directions so the seams nest nicely together.Then add your borders. To get nice flat borders I like to measure through the centre of the quilt to get the correct size, then cut my borders to fit. Sometimes your quilt doesn't end up being the correct size stated in the pattern due to slightly bigger or smaller seam allowance being used. When adding the borders on, I find the centre of the border piece and match it to the centre of the quilt. then pin each end. I also like to add a pin every two inches as well. Then Sew!I have cut and pasted the next bit from my previous sew along because it is all about finishing the quilt and that information doesn't change. It also gives me more time to sew!TOOLS OF THE TRADE As this is the last newsletter, I thought I might talk a little about quilting. I love to use straight lines in all my quilts and I have discovered a few things that might help you too!Firstly, what you'll need:Walking Foot for your machine – you may have to purchase this separately as most machines don't come with one, unless you’re a lucky duck and have bought a quilting edition - sometimes they include these as part of the package. A walking food basically does the same thing as the feed dogs on your machine, except from above. It helps to feed the three layers of your quilt through evenly so that the fabric doesn’t bunch up.40wt Thread - now this is just what I like to quilt with, so if you prefer something else, go for it! I like it because it's a little stronger and it also makes the quilting a bit more of a feature. I like to use Aurifil Thread, 100% cotton.Basting Spray and/or Safety Pins for basting - I like to use both. I don't have a large sewing table to work on so all the help I can get, I take! The safety pins are stainless steel, size 2. There are some fancy curved pins on the market which are great too. The basting spray is called 505 Temporary Adhesive. I like this brand as it has hardly any smell and stays stuck!Hera Marker – A Hera marker is an awesome piece of plastic that allows you to mark your quilt without using a pencil/washout marker. The Hera marker places a fold in the fabric when your quilt top is basted that stays for a good amount of time. I love it because there is no need to wash out line markings afterwards. Just use your quilting ruler to get lovely straight lines. BASTING The first thing you’ll need to do is baste your quilt. Once you have pieced your backing, lay it down with the right side to the floor. Some people baste on their kitchen table, some on the wall and others on their dining room or lounge room floor. It’s totally up to you! I lay my quilt backing on my lounge room floor and tape down the edges to keep the backing taut. Then I layer the batting on top and baste it to the backing using the basting spray. Next, I layer the quilt top, right side up and baste it to the batting and backing. Finally, I plonk myself down in the middle of the quilt and start pinning from the centre out, every 3 inches of so! QUILTING After you’ve basted your quilt, you need to do is increase the stitch length on your machine. I usually sew using a 2.5” length and then up it to 2.8” when quilting. The quilt above has been quilted with quarter inch spaced lines. The best way to explain how I do this is with a diagram.My approach for this quilt was to begin in the middle of the quilt. I quilted the first red line (marked with 1 on the diagram) and then continued sewing the rest of the red lines to the right hand side of the quilt. Then I went back and quilted all of the blue lines in between the red lines. Once all the blue lines were done I went back and did the yellow lines. The idea is that the red lines anchor the quilt. Then you go back and fill in the gaps. If you tried to do the heavy quarter inch quilting from the first row, your quilt would end up distorted and no-one wants that!Just remember, after you’ve completed all the red lines, you need to flip the quilt around, so you’re quilting from the other side and working from the middle to the right, before you go back and do the blue and yellow lines. To get the quilt into position to feed through the sewing machine you need to roll it up. It makes it must easier to handle and to fit through the throat of your sewing machine. See the pictures below.Please note the space at the end of the table, this allows the quilt to hang off the end as it passes through rather than getting bunched up. The other style of straight line quilting I like to do is cross hatching. This is done in the same way as the previous quilt. Start with your anchor lines of quilting and then go back and slowly fill in the gaps.Please note that my lines are not perfect, they never are. I wobble and move around with the best of them, but the wonderful thing about this style of quilting is it doesn't matter. Once it’s all done you notice the effect - not how straight the lines are. If you’re not comfortable quilting using just the force, that's where the fabulous Hera Marker comes in handy. This white piece of plastic creates a fold or indentation on the fabric that lasts for ages. Using your quilting ruler to keep the lines straight, run the Hera Marker along the fabric pushing down firmly. You’ll see that it leaves an indentation on your quilt which you can use as your guide for when you’re quilting. I used it in the quilt below. Just note, I did all the anchor lines first so I could then remove the pins. It makes it much easier to place a ruler on the quilt once the pins are gone. I also mark up with the Hera Marker on the floor. It's a bit hard on the back but unless you have a large table (I don't) the floor is the best option. So that's it my fellow Giggers!I’ve had an amazing time sharing my quilt with you all and a few tips and tricks along the way. I really enjoy being a sew along "hostess with the mostess" and I see more of them in my future. I also love this little community we have created and I hope you keep sharing your EJJ creations on Instagram and in the Facebook group.I would like to say a big thank you to you all. Obviously this would not have been possible without you purchasing the pattern and sharing your photos on Instagram. I am so grateful for all the support and I’m hoping you got just as much as I did out of the sew-along. Stay Safe,Emma x

Whirligig Quilt Sew-Along Week 4 Welcome to Week 4 of the Whirligig sew-along. This week it's time to sew the rest of your blocks but from what I’ve seen in the Facebook Group and on Instagram, some of you have zoomed ahead and have finished all your blocks and even your tops. How did you go? Whatever stage you’re up to, don't worry, I want everyone to enjoy this process and if you want to finish the blocks, go for it! This quilt is pretty simple with a single repeated block, so it does come together quickly!If you have just joined the SAL, welcome! Be sure to grab the pattern, read up on all the details and choose your fabrics soon so you can catch up and join in the fun! SHARE ON INSTAGRAMDon’t forget to post a pic of your second lot of finished blocks on IG and be sure to the use the #whirligigsal and #ejjwhirligigquilt hashtags to make it easier for others to find your photos. PIECING THE BLOCKSThis week we are going to be making the rest of the blocks. YOUR BLOCKS I can't help myself, I just wanted to share some more of the gorgeous blocks that have been popping up on instagram. Maybe they might inspire you to make another one! NEXT WEEKNext week we will be assembling the quilt tops and adding the border. I must admit I'm a little sad that this sew along is nearly over. This 2nd more extreme lockdown that's been happening in Melbourne where I live, has been difficult. My little toddler is fun but I must admit I think both of us are missing other people. What has been saving me is sewing and also this little community we have created. I hope it’s been doing the same for you.Stay safe my sewing friends,Emma x

Whirligig Quilt Sew-Along Week 3 Welcome to Week 3 of the Whirligig sew-along. I hope you guys are having fun making your Half Square Triangles and that you’re ready to get stuck into making these blocks!If you have just joined the SAL, welcome! Be sure to grab the pattern, read up on all the details and choose your fabrics soon so you can catch up and join in the fun! SHARE ON INSTAGRAMDon’t forget to post a pic of your HST's on IG and be sure to the use the #whirligigsal and #ejjwhirligigquilt hashtags to make it easier for others to find your photos. Check out these fabulous quilts that are coming together. Aren't the colours inspiring! PIECING THE BLOCKSThis week we are going to be making half of the blocks. Baby Size: Make 5 BlocksThrow Size: Make 8 BlocksQueen Size: Make 13 BlocksA quick note on pressing your blocks! Some of you will decide to press your seams open, others will press to the side. Obviously, you should find what works best for you! If you press to the side though, like me, you can follow the steps on pages 5 and 6 of the pattern. The arrows indicate which way to press which allows all the seams to nest nicely together. To be honest though, it’s not the end of the world if you have to flip the seam as you’re sewing the blocks together to get them to nest!I like to work on one block at a time for this quilt especially as my blocks are super scrappy. However if you are making a quilt using fat quarters it would be very easy to do some chain piecing if that's your thing.You can see by the photo below I have completed the centre block. I like to get all of these done first, it makes piecing the rest of the block seem quicker somehow! Next week we will be making the 2nd half of the blocks.I must say this sew-along has been a bit of a lifesaver for me this time round. Going into isolation again with an energetic toddler has been a little trying at times but man I love the distraction this SAL gives. I love scrolling through the hashtags, #whirligigsal & #ejjwhirligigquilt and looking at all the wonderful quilts that are getting made. It brings a little sunshine into my day. In the meantime, I do hope you’re enjoying the sew along and the community of fellow quilters that you see on IG and over on Facebook. I really do love seeing all of your quilts come to life!See you next week. Emma x

Whirligig Quilt Sew-Along Week 2Welcome to Week 2 of the Whirligig sew-along. How much fun has it been meeting all the Whirligiggers and seeing all the awesome fabric choices!If you have just joined the SAL, welcome! Be sure to grab the pattern, read up on all the details and choose your fabrics soon so you can catch up and join in the fun! SHARE ON INSTAGRAMDon’t forget to post a pic of your cut fabrics to IG and be sure to the use the #whirligigsal and #ejjwhirligigquilt hashtags to make it easier for others to find your photos.Don't worry if you’re ahead, this is supposed to be fun. If you feel like sewing, go for it. This sew along is all about enjoyment so there are no rules, stick to the schedule or move ahead, do what's right for you.There have been some fabulous fabric combos popping up on Instagram! and in the Facebook group. Some of my favourites are shown below. I can't wait to see these made up into Whirligig quilts. HALF SQUARE TRIANGLES (HSTs)Week 2 is all about Half Square Triangles or HSTs. If you have your own way of making HSTs, go for it, just make sure you trim your blocks to 3.5".If you participated in my first sew along you will notice I have used the same step by step photos. I hope you don't mind, but running around after a toddler and organising a sew along can fill my days pretty quickly. This was a little shortcut that gave me heaps more time!! The half square triangles are used to make up the gigs in the quilt. You’ll need to pair up these fabrics first (if using a scrappy background like I did) to make sure you have enough variety in the blocks. PREPARATIONOnce you’ve paired up your squares, the next thing you need to do is mark the back of half of your squares. I marked the back of my background fabric.One of the best ways to get a straight line on the back of your fabric is to use a sandpaper board underneath. The sandpaper stops the fabric moving, which makes it so much easier to draw the line. How cool is that! I have a fancy sandpaper board but you can just use a sheet of sandpaper from your local hardware store.I like to use a mechanical pencil with a chaco lead to mark my fabrics. The chaco lead marks the fabric easily and is erasable later on.Take one of the fabric squares and mark a diagonal line on the wrong side of the fabric. Repeat for all your pairs!                                   SEWING TIMETake one pair of squares with the marked square on top.Sew either side of the marked line with a ¼” seam.Repeat for all the pairs. CUTTING TIME Now take your rotary cutter, ruler and mat.Cut down the centre of all the blocks on the drawn line from before.Press the blocks. I like to press to the dark fabric, AKA the dark side!                                                TRIMMING TIMEThe blocks you have just made will be a little big, they also might be a little wonky. I suppose it will depend on how much quarantine wine you’ve been drinking! Don't worry, that's where the trimming comes in.Using a square ruler (or a bloc loc ruler if you have one), line up the 45 degree line on your ruler with the seam through the middle of the block. Trim the block down to 3.5" square. Check out the pics below for a visual on how to trim your HSTs.                                                 That's it for Week 1. Next week we will be making half of the blocks. I hope you guys are having fun! How much fun is it checking out all the photos and fabric inspo on the #whirligigsal hashtag! And remember, this sew along is not fast paced, however please zoom ahead if you want to! This sew along is all about you, so please sew at your own pace.I am enjoying watching all your fabulous quilts come together and can't wait to see some photos of finished blocks popping up in my IG feed.Emma x

Whirligig Quilt Sew AlongWeek 1 Welcome to Week 1 of the Whirligig sew along.This week is all about choosing your fabrics and completing the cutting. If you don't have a big fabric stash to dive into, check out the shops selling kits here. I'll be making a scrappy rainbow queen size version using fabric from my stash! I was a little disappointed I didn't use more but that's what you get when you only cut one or two squares from each fabric!! Maybe I'll make another one.... GETTING STARTED Make sure you’ve purchased your pattern. Grab it here. The Whirligig SAL will be taking place on Instagram, so be sure your account is set to public so we can all see your posts using the #whirligigsal and #ejjwhirligigquilt hashtags. There are lots of people participating in this sew along, so let’s start off with introductions! We’d love to see a picture of you in your native quilting habitat and hear a bit about you. If you are still working from home, I know many of you are, I hope this sew along will help you feel a little less isolated and a little more connected. Post a photo of your fabric pull (if you have one yet!) – in this newsletter we’ll talk a bit about fabric choices. If you’ve already decided on your fabric, posting a picture may help to inspire others. Now’s the time to buy up on fabric if it’s not in your stash – support for small businesses has never been more important and most fabric shops are selling online! PLANNING YOUR QUILT: Your first step is to decide what size quilt you are making. The Whirligig Quilt comes in 3 sizes, a baby, a throw and a queen size. The baby size finishes at 51” x 51”, the throw is 66" x 66" and the queen size finishes at 81” x 81”. The next step is to decide on colours! CHOOSING YOUR COLOURS: This week we are concentrating on choosing fabrics and cutting all the squares needed for this quilt. The original quilt is made up of 4 colour groups. You may choose to make your quilt from solids or prints or a combination of both. You may also decide to go raid your scrap basket and go completely scrappy or choose 4 main fabrics in each colour. The beauty of this quilt is that you don’t have to go out and buy more fabric (or better still, stay in and order online) – you can raid your stash and make a gorgeous quilt! For my original quilt, the one using my Melba fabrics I used pink, aqua, green and mustard with a dark grey background. The fabrics are not perfectly matched in these colour groups and that's what I love about this quilt. The pop of orange in the green block really makes the quilt interesting and allows the colours to sing. If you have a good look at the quilt you see that there are four gigs in each Whirligig. (I'm not sure that gig is a word but hopefully you get what I mean.) I like to choose four colours for each block and then repeat this block. The repeated blocks look so good when put together.Another great way to work out if the colours you’re thinking of using will work well in this quilt, is to use the colouring page from the pattern and have a play around with the colour placement. INSPIRATION I wanted to put together some different looks to inspire you all. Below are just some simple colour combinations that I think will look great. All of these can be achieved with different scales of prints, pattens and colour. MY QUILTI really want to show you the plan for my scrappy rainbow version of this quilt. I will keep the same colours in each gig and also the placement, but my plan is to use lots and lots of different fabrics. Please check the very orderly first image below. I really struggle with total scrappy quilts so mine are very organised. However if you are into the whole scrappy thing, I have added a few extra layouts to give you some inspiration! CUTTING TIPS This quilt is made up of squares and HST's, so you’re basically cutting out heaps of squares! Change that blade on your rotary cutting and get those fabrics ironed, then brace yourself for lots of cutting. Follow the cutting out instructions for the size quilt you are planning to make in the pattern.Here are some quick calculations for the number of squares needed for a scrappy quilt.I have broken it down into 1 Block, 9 Blocks (Baby), 16 Blocks (Throw) and 25 Blocks (Queen).1 Block8 - 3.5" squares (prints)4 - 4" squares (prints)4 - 4" squares (background)4 - 3.5" x 6.5" rectangles (background) 9 Blocks72 - 3.5" squares (prints)36 - 4" squares (prints)36 - 4" squares (background)36 - 3.5" x 6.5" rectangles (background) 16 Blocks128 - 3.5" squares (prints)64 - 4" squares (prints)64 - 4" squares (background)64 - 3.5" x 6.5" rectangles (background) 25 Blocks200 - 3.5" squares (prints)100 - 4" squares (prints)100 - 4" squares (background)100 - 3.5" x 6.5" rectangles (background) NOTE: If you are planning on making a scrappy quilt you might like to to make a template for the centre triangle. The instructions tell you to cut a 4 1/4" square and then cross cut it twice to make 4 triangles. If you are doing a scrappy version you probably won't want 4 triangles from the same fabric. I made a template using the same technique except drawing the 4 1/4" square onto templastic and cutting the triangle out. Then I just traced this onto fabric and cut it out with scissors. To create the more organised rainbow scrappy look of my quilt, check out the diagrams below. I've broken it down into colours to make it easier to work out the amounts required. *PLEASE NOTE* The pattern calls for you to cut larger squares from all the fabrics and the background fabric to make Half Square Triangles (HSTs). Lots of quilters like to cut their HSTs bigger and then trim them down to size. Just remember when you’re trimming that your unfinished HSTs need to be 3.5” square. If you have any questions, you can always email me! Thanks so much for coming on this fun ride with me. The world continues to be a strange place and I hope this sew along brings you some joy from your home and a sense of community as we all continue to physically distance ourselves. Stay safe and let’s have some fun!Emma x

Welcome Welcome to the Whirligig Quilt Sew Along! I’m so glad you have decided to join me for my second ever sew along. I had so much fun with the Wake Me Up sew along that I couldn't wait to do it again. In a strange coincidence I have ended up in lockdown again. During the first sew along it was the whole of Australia, however this time it's just Melbourne, which is where I live. Whether you are in lockdown or not, I hope this sew along will help you feel connected and not so isolated. I know it helped me last time that's for sure!I designed the Whirligig quilt five years ago to help promote the release of my fabric range Melba. This range was all things Melbourne and it's still a favourite of mine, I mean look at those Magpies and train tickets, so Melbourne. The reason I am pointing out these prints is because I wanted to show you how versatile the pattern is. It works with large and small prints, stripes and spots and because the quilt is fat quarter friendly, you can dive into those long hoarded special fabrics! The Whirligig Quilt pattern comes in three sizes, Baby, Throw and Queen. The Baby quilt is fat eight friendly and the larger two use fat quarters. This quilt is great for showcasing a range of fabrics or mixing it up and creating your own style. Swapping out the light background for a dark fabric can also make the quilt look more dramatic and if you want to use it as your everyday quilt, it's great to hide pet hair!          If you haven't decided yet what fabrics you’re going to use, wait for the Week 1 Newsletter which will be out soon. I’ll show you some mock ups I’ve created to give you some ideas including my super scrappy rainbow version. Rainbow Eeeeekkk! If you haven't purchased the pattern – grab it here now. HOW TO JOIN IN THE FUN:Follow along on Instagram using the hashtags #whirligigsal and #ejjwhirligigquilt to post your progress photos. You can start today by sharing the “Count Me In” button above and introducing yourself! You’ll receive a weekly newsletter sharing what’s in store for the week and all my tips and tricks.If Instagram isn't your thing, I have also created a facebook page for my sew alongs. You can join here. SUPPLIES: There are some fabulous shops in Australia and US who have been making kits.Australia The Next Stitch, QueenslandThe Quilt Shop, Eltham, VictoriaGj's Discount Fabrics, Melbourne, VictoriaFabric Pixie, Goonellabah, NSWMillrose Quilting and Gallery, Ballan, VictoriaRed Heart Designs, Dandenong, VictoriaUSSew Unique Threads, MichiganPink Door Fabrics Please click on the shop name to take you directly to their website. If no kits show up please contact them directly via phone or email.I am looking forward to meeting you all and I can't wait to get started!Emma x