Today’s the day!!! I’m so excited to finally be at the final step, and from what I gather over social media, you are too! Today we are going to assemble our quilt tops.

Before I get into that, I want to show you this week’s featured quilt using a gorgeous array of Liberty fabrics from DuckaDilly. They were so kind to send over the following fat sixteenth packs {Classic Revivals in Pink, Classic Revivals in Blue, Classic Revivals in Brights, and a variety of reds and yellows found HERE}, and I added in just a couple of other prints. The greys you see are all that I had on hand in my selection of Liberty, and you can see I added in a super awesome Boston print because, well, Bostons.

I envisioned a soft grey garden trellis with bursts of colorful flowers peeking through. I must confess that the final product isn’t quite the same as I envisioned, which I attribute to it being so low volume.  If you have followed me for any significant amount of time, you likely know my general style is more bold and saturated. So while the final top is not exactly what my vision was, I do think the quilt is quite lovely, soft, and feminine. Hindsight tells me I could have done those stunning florals justice by using a solid chambray rather than the grey Liberties. It’s altogether different than any version that’s been made to this point, which further exemplifies the myriad of ways the Shift pattern can be made. 

So my approach to this quilt was to play up the background and let the foreground (the x’s) stay muted. I’m telling you, you can make this quilt in whatever way you dream up, and the pattern will take on a whole new interpretation. I love that! It keeps the pattern from becoming stale or boring.

Onto this week’s work! Shift is assembled in vertical rows. The most efficient way to do this is to chain piece a vertical row (sew pieces 1&2, 3&4, 5&6, and so on. Then go back and sew the two part pieces into four part pieces (then eight, and so on) until you have completed your row. Once you have sewn the row together, press all the seams in a single direction, then repeat with the second row, only press those seams in the opposite direction.

I like working on two row sections at a time, so I’ll make two rows, press them, then sew them together before moving on go the next two rows. Seeing the progress build in two row bits is great motivation to keep on going, not to mention, crawling babies and running children can’t really mess up assembled rows. :)

So make your rows, then sew them together. And that’s about it! This top comes together SO quickly. It makes for a terribly gratifying time of sewing. The pattern looks complex, but it is surprisingly simple to make. I love that! I mean, who doesn’t love when someone says about a dish, “this is so delicious! You must have been baking for hours!” when in fact it took a small amount of time. That’s the Shift quilt.

Its not too late for you to join the sew along. You have until November 28 to finish your top (or tops, if you are making more than one). At that time, I will host a link up here, and the following Monday, December 5, a winner will be chosen for our super awesome grand prize! ALSO> if you are on social media, please use #shiftquilt and #shiftalong to post any progress on your quilt. I know more of you are participating than posting on there, and it just makes my whole day when I see your work in progress! You can also feel free to tag me @thefooshe.

A huge thank you to DuckaDilly for your gorgeous variety of Liberty for this quilt!

Happy sewing!

-Meredith