Texas Roadtrip QAL

Find all downloads in one place here!

Cristina at Pretty Little Quilts and I are hosting a virtual roadtrip QAL highlighting all the fantastic things that Texas has to offer all while making a fun quilt as your souvenir! While we know not every quilter lives in Texas, we hope that this will still be a fun experience for everyone, even if you are just reading along! At each "pit stop" along the way, a fantastic quilter will blog a tutorial to a block that represents their city and also provide some fun tourist information and any local quilt shops in the area. To get an idea of how the quilt will look, check out Cristina's quilt here! The difference between Cristina's quilt and the quilt we are making is that we will have a bunch of fantastic cities represented with their own custom designed blocks. Yay!
So here is how this is going to work: We have divided Texas into 4 quadrants and before we travel through that quadrant, we will post a printable pattern that shows the layout and cutting needed to complete that quadrant (similar to Cristina's tutorial linked above). Then every few days we will visit a city in that quadrant where you will get the details for the on how to make the block that represents that city. We will hit the "road" on June 1st with the first printable pattern for the Dallas, Fort Worth, and Tyler quadrant, and then on June 2nd we will visit the Big D with Ashley from Urban Spools and so on (see schedule below)! There will be giveaways along the way and then we will have a bunch of giveaways at the end for the final link-up (August 17th).
June 1 - Quadrant 1 pattern post - Download

June 2 - Dallas - Ashley at Urban Spools

June 5 - Tyler - Colleen guest blogger at Pretty Little Quilts

June 12 - Fort Worth - Lindsey and Jodie at Fort Worth Fabric Studio

June 15 - Quadrant 2 pattern post - Download

June 16 - Amarillo - Aoife at thREDhead

June 19 - Lubbock - Jada (guest blogger) at My Fabric Relish

June 22 - Quadrant 3 pattern post - Download

June 23 - El Paso - Jennie at Porch Swing Quilts

June 26 - Midland/Odessa - Donna at Donna's Lavender Nest

June 30 - Big Bend - Cristina at Pretty Little Quilts

July 6 - Quadrant 4 pattern post -Download

July 7 - Houston - Teresa at Third Floor Quilts

July 10 - Beaumont - Taryn at Pixels to Patchwork

July 14 - Austin - Amanda at What the Bobbin

July 17 - College Station - Hilary at Young Texan Mama

July 21 - San Antonio - Ellyn at Ellyn's Place

July 24 - Hill Country - Lissa at Moda Lissa

July 28 - Rio Grande Valley - Melissa at My Fabric Relish
Surprise City - Corpus Christi - Melissa at My Fabric Relish

Quilt Cutting Requirements - download

Fabric requirements: This quilt is designed to be scrappy and designed using a 2.5 x 2.5 inch grid layout with the represented city blocks measuring either 8.5" x 8.5" or 6.5" x 6.5". So start gathering your scraps, leftover jelly rolls, charm packs, layer cakes, and candy packs. You will need an assortment of sizes ranging from 2.5"x2.5", 2.5"x4.5", 4.5"x 4.5", 6.5"x 6.5" and so forth. You can even throw in some orphan blocks you have laying around! The printable pattern we provide will give suggestions on cutting and laying out your fabric for piecing. You will also need background fabric for the area surrounding Texas and we recommend getting 3 yards. The finished size of the quilt will be 66" x 66", but can be made larger by adding a wider border.

August 17th - Final link-up and giveaways!

What is a QAL without free goodies? Cristina and I reached out to some of our favorite shops and companies that we felt represented Texas! Did you know that Moda is in Dallas and literally only a few blocks from me? Maybe one day they will invite me over for sweet tea and browse their warehouse (hint hint hehe)? Fat Quarter Shop is located in a fun and fast-growing city just a bit south of Austin called Buda? Fort Worth Fabric Studio is well, in fabulous Forth Worth, and has a great selection of fabrics, notions and awesome bundles! Urban Spools is in the heart of Dallas and offers sewing classes, longarm services, and a great selection of fun modern fabrics. Then there's Donna's Lavender Nest and Lily Rose Quilts, which are both fantastic online quilt shops located in Texas! Lastly, Aurifil, which isn't technically in Texas, but we just love them so much that we had to include them! We want to thank these wonderful sponsors for their generosity to help make this QAL successful!

Be sure to join the Flickr group to share all your work and grab a button for your blog!

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<a href="http://www.myfabricrelish.blogspot.com/2014/05/deep-in-heart-of-texas-roadtrip.html" title="Untitled by Melissa Eubanks, on Flickr"><img alt="Untitled" height="150" src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7459/13938339306_af8347b888_q.jpg" width="150" /></a> </div>

Lastly, we would like to recognize the original inspiration for this quilt. Cristina was first inspired to make her Texas quilt when she came across this beautiful quilt by Dana Michaelsen and quilted by Angela Walters. I searched the all over the internet to find contact information for Michaelsen and even reached out to Angela Walters and had no luck. We were hoping to get Michaelsen's blessing for our QAL, but we will do the next best thing and give credit where credit is due! Thanks so much Dana for creating such a beautiful quilt that lit a fire under Cristina and I to host our first QAL all while sharing our love for Texas!