Garland Quilt Sew Along : Week 1 – Pick Fabric

In Week 1 of the Garland quilt sew along we pick fabric. This is the BEST quilt pattern for new sewists because picking fabric is fool proof and you can use whatever you have on hand!

Welcome, Quiltketeers, to another year of sew alongs! This is the Garland quilt sew along and I'm so glad you're here. I have a good feeling about all the quilts you're going to make in 2023. I also know about a few surprises coming your way in the next two months, which makes me even more excited for you! Eeeeek!

In this quick four-week sew along we will cut, sew and assemble a Garland throw quilt. You are welcome to make any size you like, however the schedule is written with a throw quilt in mind.

Garland is the scrappy companion pattern to Maypole — so you'll be working with tiny pieces of fabric (great for your itty bitty cast offs) and large pieces of yardage (to balance out those scraps). Check out lots more Garland photos and helpful tips in this blog post, Garland Quilt Pattern – Use ALL The Scraps!

What's a Sew Along?

I'm so glad you asked! Here at Suzy Quilts we like to follow up a pattern release with a multi-week community sew along to give you an opportunity to make a quilt with the designer of the quilt — me, Suzy!

I'll go over extra examples, break down the steps even further, and give you a chance to ask questions that come up along the way. These sew alongs are supplementary to the pattern, so even though we cover a lot, we don't cover everything. You do still need the pattern.

Trending patterns!

I know that life can get busy and you can't follow along with every sew along we offer (which is four per year!) These sew alongs stay on the blog forever and are easy to find so you can follow along at your own pace. Just pop over to the Sew Along tab where you can surf past sew alongs.

Some quick take-aways:

  • NO Sign-up: You do not need to sign up for Suzy Quilts sew alongs. You simply sew along with us! 
  • Sewing questions: You've got questions, we've got answers! The best place to ask your technical sewing questions Suzy Quilts Patterns Facebook group. The main purpose of sew alongs is to answer questions that pop up during the quilt-making process so don't ever worry about asking a "stupid" question. They don't exist!
  • Prizes: Aside from having a beautiful finished quilt top, you also can win weekly prizes by using #GarlandQuiltSA in the comments of your posts on Instagram. More details on that are at the bottom of this post.
  • Discounts: Get 25% off longarm quilting on your Garland quilt from SunRae Designs, Trace Creek Quilting and Thai Charm now through the end of March 2023. You must mention this deal when filling out their info forms.
The Garland quilt pattern is beginner friendly and uses all sizes of precut fabric! suzyquilts.com

The Garland quilt above was made by Sarah Holst of Sara Made and quilted by Lilo of Trace Creek Quilting. You can get this quilt kit for a limited time!

Garland Sew Along Schedule

  • Week 1, January 6: Pick fabric and gather supplies
    Sponsor: Cottoneer - 1/2 yd. bundle of Trellis woven fabric by Fableism
    IG LIVE - @suzyquilts: Thursday, Jan. 12 @ 2pm Central - We will discuss fabric selection + Q&A. If you have specific questions you want covered, post them in the blog comments below.
  • Week 2, January 13: Cut fabric
    Sponsor: Sewing Arts Center - $100 gift certificate
  • Week 3, January 20: Sew improv strips
    Sponsor: SunRae Designs - Free longarm quilting for one Garland quilt
    IG LIVE - @suzyquilts: Wednesday, Jan. 25 @ 2pm Central - I will do an improv strip sewing demo + Q&A. If you have specific questions you want covered, post them in the blog comments below.
  • Week 4, January 27: Trim improv strips and assemble the quilt top
    Sponsor: Trace Creek Quilting - Free longarm quilting for one Garland quilt

Garland Quilt Supplies

Garland Fabric Requirements

Download a PDF of the Garland Fabric requirements here. As I mentioned before, you can use any pre-cut with this pattern. If the Fabric Requirements look long, it's not because you need tons of fabric, it's because there are options.

For example, to make the improv strips in the Throw size, you can use either fat quarters OR a layer cake OR 2 jelly rolls OR a bunch of scraps.

The Garland quilt pattern is perfect for precuts and scraps of fabric. It is a fast, beginner-friendly quilt pattern! suzyquilts.com #quilt
Garland quilt pattern fabric requirements
DIY Holiday Felt Garlands: The holiday Garland quilt featured on the front of the pattern, made using scrappy and solid strips in reds, greens, and a neutral. #sewingdiy suzyquilts.com

If You Are New to Quilting...

I'm so glad you're here! This is a fantastic pattern for you and a sew along is the perfect way to explore, learn and grow your quilting skills. I have more resources for you that are helpful and quick to read.

In Week 1 of the Garland quilt sew along we pick fabric. This is the BEST quilt pattern for new sewists because picking fabric is fool proof and you can use whatever you have on hand!

Week 1 Assignment: Pick Fabric

People, people, PEOPLE! I can't wait to jump into picking fabric for the Garland quilt because this is one of those patterns that just WORKS. Like somehow it magically makes all of your weird scraps and funky fabrics fit together into one joyous piece of cuddly art!

How is this possible? It's the pattern's built in balance. Balance is so important in a composition. Balance is what makes our eyes wonder around, corner to corner, taking it all in. Rather than hone in on one spot, balance is what gives us that sense of wholeness and peace.

Tip #1: Make it sing!

The balance in the Garland quilt comes from large swathes of fabric juxtaposed by wonky little bits of fabric. Large strips of fabric are restful and calming and the little wonky bits make this quilt SING!

I remember when I was first learning to quilt over 20 years ago I was at a fabric shop with my quilt mentor, Brenda Winkelmeyer. She was guiding me around the store, quilt pattern in hand, helping me pick fabric for my next project. I had selected a lovely assortment. It was safe. It would have been fine. She looked at me and said, "These fabrics are beautiful, but what can we add to make them sing?"

By that she meant let's add some sparkle, something jumpy and fun — something that would crack a smile and bring the whole quilt together. These "singing" fabrics don't need to be loud or overly eye catching. Just think of them as a cherry on top. Something special for you. This could be a little bit of fussy cutting or even some extra strips sewn into the binding that add a bit of pizzazz. 

The Garland quilt naturally sings because of those wonky strips. Maybe you want to lean into that and pick a fabric or two you normally wouldn't. Only a small part of it will be seen.

As we pick fabric this week I want you to feel really confident that your selection will make a beautifully balanced quilt. I also want you to challenge yourself a little bit by asking, "What fabrics can I add to make it sing?"

Tip #2: Go easy on yourself. Go monochromatic.

In typical fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants fashion, I picked out my Garland fabric two days ago. The holidays were incredibly busy and I was watching toddlers and juggling visiting guests nonstop. I decided to go easy on myself for this sew along and use a formula that I know always works — monochrome.

In Week 1 of the Garland sew along we pick fabric. I picked 5 monochromatic fabrics as my base for the quilt. suzyquilts.com

I used the confines of my stash to pick five base colors all in the same color family. Neutrals can jump into any family, so they don't really count.

Tip #3: For Colors 1-5 use at least 50% solid fabric.

No matter the quilt pattern, I recommend maintaining at least a 50% ratio of solid to patterned fabric. This is not a hard rule, and if you're a prints-all-day kinda quilter, power to you. However, if you are new to quilting and still finding for your sea legs, apply this ratio to assure that your quilt doesn't feel overly busy.

For my Colors 1-5, I picked 3 solids and 2 "patterns" — one wide window pane (Trellis by Fableism) and one floral woven by Anna Graham. 

Tip #4: Improv strips = party time.

It's party time! I went monochromatic with my big pieces of fabric (Colors 1-5) because I knew they would coordinate with everything. Like, literally every single FQ or layer cake or jelly roll or scrap I have. Here are some examples:

In Week 1 of the Garland sew along we pick fabric. I picked 5 monochromatic fabrics as my base for the quilt. suzyquilts.com

Rainbow bright! These improv strips will be small, so a helpful way to visualize them is laying them out like I do above. By going basic with the large pieces of fabric, I can make the improv strips really pop with bright colors!

As I mentioned before, Garland is designed to be balanced, so you don't need to worry about these improv strip fabrics being too loud or too different than your Color 1-5 fabrics.

In Week 1 of the Garland sew along we pick fabric. I picked 5 monochromatic fabrics as my base for the quilt. suzyquilts.com

Opposites attract! My large fabric strips come from the green/blue family, so on the color wheel, what's the opposite of green? Red! Later on you'll see that the fabric pull I landed on leaned more into the blue shade of those large strips and I picked the opposite of that. Do you know what the color opposite of blue is? 😉

Color Wheel
In Week 1 of the Garland sew along we pick fabric. I picked 5 monochromatic fabrics as my base for the quilt. suzyquilts.com

Grab a pre-made bundle! The pattern has instructions on how to use fat quarters, layer cakes and jelly rolls, so grab any bundle you like. I literally just pulled out this bundle by Elizabeth Chappell from my stash without even thinking if it would coordinate or not.

These exact teal greens aren't found anywhere in this FQ bundle, but somehow they still work together. Why? Because our brains visualize and categorize the entire wonky strip (or fabric bundle as it is) as one thing. Imagine you are looking at a garland hanging on a mantle. You see it and your brain calls it one thing — a garland. It doesn't dissect each little part and call it 20 different things. That's the magic of balance in a composition. We're literally tricking our brains!

In Week 1 of the Garland sew along we pick fabric. I picked 5 monochromatic fabrics as my base for the quilt. suzyquilts.com

The 50% solids ratio doesn't apply to these wonky strips because they are balanced so well by the large Color 1-5 strips. Here's an example of a baby Garland quilt I made using a bundle of Bonnie Christine fat quarters. (FYI I got distracted and sewed the blocks together differently than the pattern. Just ignore that part. ha!)

The Garland quilt pattern is perfect for precuts and scraps of fabric. It is a fast, beginner-friendly quilt pattern! suzyquilts.com #quilt

My Garland Sew Along Fabric

As I mentioned before, I leaned into the opposite of green/blue when picking my improv strip fabrics. Did you look at the color wheel to see what that is? It's red/orange. Finding that shade in my stash was a great jumping off point. From there I found other warm colors I like.

Personally, it's hard for me to not use shades of burnt sienna and muted ochre. They make my heart sing! I found a mix of tiny prints (Liberty floral) and large patterns (plaid) as well as light and dark.

In Week 1 of the Garland sew along we pick fabric. I picked 5 monochromatic fabrics as my base for the quilt. suzyquilts.com

I could have taken these red/orange shades exclusively and run with them, but I ran out of fabric in my stash! Time to pivot. I knew getting back into those green/blue hues would coordinate well, so I found anything I could find in my stash that I thought would work.

In Week 1 of the Garland sew along we pick fabric. I picked 5 monochromatic fabrics as my base for the quilt. suzyquilts.com

Yummm... 🙂 Oh my heart is singing BIG TIME. I wonder if I could find a fabric or two that bridged the gap between these two color families...

In Week 1 of the Garland sew along we pick fabric. I picked 5 monochromatic fabrics as my base for the quilt. suzyquilts.com

Oh hello fabulous floral and mustard/pistachio plaid. Welcome to the party! You are exactly what I needed!! (Floral - Wild Floral Sunlight by Art Gallery Fabrics; Plaid - Arcade Woven in Chameleon by Fableism)

Remember Tip#1 was find a way to make your quilt sing? That poppy red floral cut up into small bits and dancing around this quilt is going to do just that. I can't wait to cut these up and sew them together!

In Week 1 of the Garland sew along we pick fabric. I picked 5 monochromatic fabrics as my base for the quilt. suzyquilts.com

Week 1 Sponsor & Prize

Kicking off our sew along is Cottoneer Fabrics with a 1/2 yd bundle of Trellis cotton woven fabrics by Fableism!! Yeehaw! You may have noticed that my Color 3 fabric in my Garland sew along quilt is a Trellis fabric. I'm also using a lot of the Sprout solid wovens and Arcade plaid wovens from Fableism. They are such beautiful fabrics!

How to Win

  • Post a pic to Instagram. The photo prompt for Instagram this week is to post an introduction pic or a picture of your fabric. Use #GarlandQuiltSA in the caption.
  • You must have a public Instagram profile to participate.
  • Each photo posted is an entry and you can enter as many times as you want in a single week. Once the week is over, those posts do not count in the next week's giveaway. Every week we start fresh.
  • Your photo must be posted between Friday, January 6 and Friday, January 13, (so freaky!). The winner will be picked randomly from all qualifying posts and announced at approximately 4:00 p.m. on the 13th. Good luck!

17 thoughts on “Garland Quilt Sew Along : Week 1 – Pick Fabric

  1. C.M. says:

    I absolutely love the fabric colors, Suzy! I may have to keep that palette in mind for another quilt in the future 😉

  2. Laura says:

    Question for fabric selection IG live…to wash or not prewash fabrics. The most asked quilting question of all time!!!

    • Suzy Williams says:

      I don’t recommend washing anything smaller than a 1/2 yd. because you’ll lose too much to fraying. If you are using scraps that are already prewashed, that’s great! Go ahead and prewash your yardage too. It’s OK to mix prewashed and non-prewashed fabrics in this pattern. They will be so well mixed together you won’t have any areas of warping due to shrinkage.

      • Leah M says:

        This is a question I had too! Whether it’s okay to mix pre washed and non-pre washed scraps! I was unsure but read somewhere that jelly rolls and the like fray terribly so I’ve been unsure how to proceed with my fabric choices but this answers my question! I just un-assembled some of my (almost!) 5yr old’s Matilda Jane Platinum dresses from when she was a toddler (this is when they still made handmade, one of a kind or limited run dresses, so the fabric is just beautiful!) and she only wore these for pictures so it’d be a shame to waste such gorgeous fabric! I have some larger pieces set aside for a quilt I’m doing for her but the sashes, pockets and other smaller bits seemed like they’d be perfect to mix into this quilt! It’s going to be a family-cuddly kinda quilt so I like the idea of being able to show her where bits of her baby dresses are mixed in the quilt top! That’s where my fabric selection started but then I wondered how do you prewash everything else from a scarp pile?! So this helped saved my brain haha! Awesome!

  3. Gail Finlayson says:

    Is it really necessary to wash the fabrics for the improv strips before cutting?

    How do I access the video if I miss it on Instagram aqt the specified time?

    • Laura Hopper says:

      Hi Carol! The Instagram Live will happen on Thursday at 2pm Central. If you head to @suzyquilts at that time, you’ll be able to click Suzy’s profile picture and the Live video will automatically open! It will also be embedded in this blog post after it ends for anyone who misses it live 🙂

  4. Leah M says:

    This post is probably the best one I’ve read to date for the way *my* brain works.. I’m sure a lot of wonderful quilters explain this really well but this is the first time I’ve read/learned about using color theory to select fabric and gone “Omg! I GET THAT, she makes total sense!!” Pick a fabric that sings.. something to pop! The part about choosing a bridging print when mixing up so many opposing colors is very helpful! This made using my color wheel more effectively just click for me! I’m not kidding when I say I’ve read numerous color theory books, watched videos.. lots of videos! haha! and I do get it with painting- but for some reason applying what I know to picking fabric has been really overwhelming! I really struggle to just pick a pile of random fabric on my own! Maybe because there are so many wonderful prints out there? Or maybe the multi-colors initially through me off? I’m not sure but I gave up and have just bought the premade bundles so far. It works but then I am left with these really pretty straggler fat quarters that just sit, not to mention all the scraps! This QAL initially seemed to fit some of my quilting goals for 2023- learn how to use color better and use up what I have on hand/learn to use more scraps. So I figured why not? If anything I get a beautiful quilt. Wow. I’m kinda shocked I’m WELL on my way to exceeding that learning goal in the very first week! I’m so glad I signed up! Great information!

  5. C.M. says:

    Hi Suzy! Just watched the live video and I was wondering where I could find the fabrics for the light blue/dark mustard winter quilt shown in it (it think it was the second to last one presented). Thanks!

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