This post is part of the Dear Dottie Sew-Along! See all posts.

Almost finished! Let’s get our quilt tops ready for the Dear Dottie Showecase next Monday. I’m looking forward to celebrating yours!

Are you sewing-along? Make sure you follow @FencelineFabrics, @StitchedinColor, and @TheMakingsofJoy in order to be eligible to win prizes.

To enter to win, just share your progress pictures, wherever you are in the process, on Instagram with #DearDottieQuilt. You’ll see there’s a whole community sewing-along, some just getting started!

Week 5: Join Quilt Top

How is your Dear Dottie coming along? Today I cut and sewed some random blocks still needed for my throw-sized Dear Dottie quilt. I’m happy to report that the quilt used all my holiday scraps, just as I had hoped. Making use of light, dark and colorful scraps turns out to be quite inclusive!

Now my Dear Dottie blocks are arranged on my design wall, as per the pattern. Though it’s not necessary to follow the. quilt block map from the pattern, of course. I may end up swapping some blocks before sewing them together. Or - even more likely - some will get swapped by accident as I sew the blocks together.

Here I’m sewing a dark dot with a light value background. Notice that I’m using a variety of aqua fabrics for my light value. Icy aqua makes a lot of sense for my wintery holiday quilt. All of my dark dots are made up of dark gray fabrics. I fussy-cut Northcott Winterland Forest so as to capture different animals - fun!

My first quartet of dark dots: both white background and light background. Trimming up the blocks to a perfect square is one of my favorite parts. Following the pattern, it’s easy to center the dots and feel satisfied with each tidy block.

Foxes, mittens and snowflakes - oh my! Aren’t we lucky to sew with all the pretty fabrics these days?

p.s. Are you still unsatisfied with your curved piecing skills, or would you like to go farther into fabulously curvy territory? Consider treating yourself this holiday to my Curves coursebook. This 216 pdf includes all 14 projects from my best-selling Curves class, with step-by-step photo and video tutorials for the beginner curves sewist. The course takes you gradually from the most basic curves through improv curve sewing and lays the foundation for drafting your own curved patchwork patterns. In fact, some of my students have gone on to do just that!

This Week’s Prize

On Friday, November 29th I’ll select a random winner from among everyone who has posted to the Dear Dottie hashtag this week. Someone will win the NAVY & GOLD FAT EIGHTH BUNDLE with HANDMADE WALNUT DOUBLE SIDED SEAM RIPPER and 2 SPOOLS of Cotton + Steel Sulky thread.

Don’t be shy! Just add #DearDottieQuilt to your Instagram photo caption and you’ll automatically be in the running. Here are two recent additions to our hashtag stream:

Don’t forget to follow @FencelineFabrics to be eligible. They’re providing all of the prizes for our sew-along! And we’re thankful.