Fab Farm Sew Along – Making the Top

Welcome to Making the Top of the Fab Farm Sew Along. Its hard to believe but we are finally ready to put the quilt together. There are a few layouts in the book and really, you can arrange your quilt anyway you like. I’ll share my layout (the same as the picture below) and the small change I made to my quilt, which I think is a good one. Lastly, welcome to my grandniece, Maeve, who arrived yesterday as I finished the binding on her quilt – a week late – maybe she needed the quilt to be done?

Cutting the Sashing and Borders

If like me you waited, the instructions for cutting the fabric for sashing and borders for the small quilt is on page 3 and the large quilt is on page 9. My change was to increase the size of the sashing and border strips. As I was only making the smaller quilt, I had plenty of leftover background and it would still fit on a the backing that I had.

Here is what I did: I decided to make my sashing 2 1/2″ rather than the 1 1/2″. I also made the Border strips 3 1/2″ rather than 2 1/2″. This just gives a little more spaces between the blocks and makes the quilt top finish a tiny bit bigger.

Making The Quilt Top

You can see the large quilt is made of 4 of the small quilts. The construction is consistent no matter what version you make. The first two blocks in each row get a sashing piece. Then the rows are joined together. If you look for the chicken above, you will see that it is in all 3 positions in its rows. I did not figure out how many options, but you definitely have some.

Hint #1: Check your block sizes (if you haven’t already)

I found my blocks were reasonably close in size and only one or two needed some minor adjusments.

Hint #2: Add sashing to the bottom of the blocks once you have laid them out the way you want.

As I added sashing, I acted like it was a border and measured through the center of the assembled vertical row. It all worked out splendidly. Repeat the same process for the borders.

Hint #3: Treat vertical sashing as though it is a border, by measuring through the center.

Hint #4: Add an extra pin or clip at the top and bottom of a row to help stabilize the seam.

When I work on long seams, I like all the help I can get. This extra clip or pin on the horizontal seam gives you a way to keep some stability as you remove the one on the seam you are sewing. I do this on the top and bottom of seams.

I won’t go into my quilting choices, but will save that for the final parade of quilts posts. As you will see, I used a cloud motif, and I was very pleased with that.

The Finished Top

This quilt was so much fun to make and I am so glad that it is ready for the little one, when she comes home.

I love this backing that I found, sheep, rabbits, bees, flowers, trees, chickens and birds – so many wonderful things for darling Maeve to look at. Also, I bought this when shopping with my bee sister Rose of Something Rosemade and that ads to the fun of the backing.

Linky Party

The linky party is open for all the blocks, so, please link up any block you would like here.

The Schedule

Here’s the schedule including co-hosts. You can begin at any time and find the posts here or on this page.

Date	Block
Monday, April 3, 2023	Fabric Selection
Monday, April 24, 2023	Block 1 Strawberry
Monday, May 1, 2023	Block 2 Horse
Monday, May 8, 2023	Block 3 Goat
Monday, May 15, 2023	Block 4 Cow
Monday, May 22, 2023	Block 5 Chicken Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts co-host
Monday, May 29, 2023	Block 6 Bee
Monday, June 5, 2023	Block 7 Pig Nancy @ Grace and Peace Quilting co-host
Monday, June 12, 2023	Block 8 Sheep
Monday, June 19, 2023	Block 9 & 10 Sunflowers
Monday, June 26, 2023	Assembling the Top
Monday, July 17, 2023	Parade of Quilts

Patterns and Kits Available

I am listing some links for patterns and kits. They are affiliate links, so a little comes to me (no additional cost to you) to support the costs of running the blog.

• Amazon: Fab Farm pattern*
• Annie’s: Fab Farm Pattern*
• Fat Quarter Shop: Fab Farm Pattern*
• Fat Quarter Shop: Fab Farm Quilt Kit* (currently scheduled for July)

Coming Up on My Blog

Fab Farm SAL – Assembling Fab Farm (6/26)
Rainbow Neighbourhood Finish
Fab Farm Quilt Top Party (7/16)
Tips and Tutorials on the 22nd (7/22)
Diatom Finish

Linking Up

Monday Musings
Midweek Makers
Favorite Finish Monthly Linkup

Fabric Stash

In the negative zone with this quilt! 
Fabric in this month: 0.5 (two fat quarters for a little project)
Fabric out this month: 4.5
Fabric in this year: 38.75
Fabric out this year: 45.75
NET Fabric: -7.0 yards!

Disclaimer: *Links with asterisk indicate an affiliate link. Your price is not any different, but a small percentage of the sale will go to supporting my blog.