The Northern Lights Sew A Long starts on March 8

I’ve ben wanting to start this for months! This will be fun!

A quick update on this project, which has been ‘marinating’ since I first saw it last fall. This is a gorgeous quilt, and it’s something quite unusual from the design team at Sew Kind of Wonderful. Rather than using their curved cutting technique, this one uses the half rectangle cuts (among other things) that their Quick Straight Ruler is so good at. The purple circle at the bottom of the pattern tells you that this is a QSR pattern; and it’s the second pattern I’ve made. This is also the same ruler that gave us the Diamond Daze pattern. At 70” square, with a modern vibe (to me), this is one that I hope students will enjoy making for a long time.

It’s a big project, and for this one, I’ve broken the pattern into a Sew A Long format that will last for several (at present, I’m planning for 5) months. I’ll be using the pattern as written, but I’ll be walking students through the steps gradually via a Private Facebook group, a monthly live session (recorded and posted in said group where I walk students through the material for the month, and answer any questions that may come up. You don’t have to have purchased the ruler or the pattern through me (although both are available on my website if you’re interested), but there will be an option via the website to purchase the Sew A Long content - a one time purchase of $50 opens on my website on Wednesday, February 5th. The first session will be at 9 AM EST on Saturday, 3/8/2025. The clocks spring ahead that weekend.

That’s a lot of details in one paragraph…but if you’re going to put this much effort into the quilt, I want to make sure you are successful.

Here’s the fabric pull for the sample. I used a lot of the colors from the front cover, although my background (top left) is a good deal lighter than the cover photo shows.

Because this is a stash quilt, it’s a who’s who of solids and tone on tone colors.

There is also a Blue and white variation shown on the back cover, although the pattern doesn’t give a specific breakdown of colors and tones for that quilt. I’ve emailed the design team to see if there is any additional information on that, because I know several of you who are doing this are going to be doing the blue and white. It’s always a classic combination, and if I can get any more details for you, I will.

Truthfully, this batch of fabric needs to be washed, dried and then ironed before I get out the cutting instructions.

I’ll be posting some interim photos of the progress along the way, and next week, I’m planning on doing a video showing how to cut with the QSR ruler. It looks easy, but there are a few tricks to it.

More coming soon - gotta go prep for a class!