Announcing the Mystery Sew Red Sew-a-long!

Now that the Royal Baby Quilt Sew-a-long has wrapped up, we are excited to announce a project that we've had in the works for quite some time: a Mystery Sew Red Sew-a-long!

Jimmy Beans Wool is hosting a "block of the month" style Mystery Sew Red Sew-a-long in which the finished product is a red-themed quilt to raise awareness of heart disease in women. Your favorite designers from the Sew Red book will will be submitting block designs of different shapes and sizes, and we'll be releasing block instructions every few weeks. Since the blocks won't all have the exact same dimensions, quilters who participate in this sew-a-long will likely choose to assemble them in different configurations. This is where the mystery comes in… no one will know what the finished quilt will look like until the very end!

Every few weeks from now through April 2014, we will release the fabric requirements and the instructions for a block in the quilt. Some are really easy and a few are more advanced, with most blocks falling in the intermediate skill range. So, no matter your skill level, there are blocks for you! If you don't feel up to the task of the more advanced blocks, you can always repeat some of the easy ones so you still get a good sized quilt!

Kristen's cowl design from Sew Red

We will be kicking off the Mystery Sew Red Sew-a-long next week with a block from Jimmy Beans' own Kristen Ashbaugh-Helmreich on her personal blog-- Marinade Designs. But don't worry! We'll be sure to post links to her blog (and each of the others) here as well.  Stayed tuned for blocks from Kay Whitt of Serendipity Studio, the talented sisters Barb and Mary from Me and My Sister, Amy Butler, David Butler (also known as Parson Gray), Kaari Meng of French General, SUEDE (of Project Runway fame), and many more! (We don't want to spoil the surprise!)

Once the Mystery Sew Red Sew-a-long ends in April 2014, we will assemble our quilt from the original blocks from the designers themselves. At this time, we will also start to accept donated, finished quilts from sew-a-long participants (that's you!). If you choose to donate your finished quilt to our cause, it will go on tour with our master quilt throughout the U.S. and will be featured at various quilt shows from June 2014 through February 2015. Once the quilt have finished touring the country and raising heart-disease awareness, they will be donated to a hospital or charity focusing on heart disease, and our master quilt will be auctioned off.

We sincerely hope you'll join us in crafting to help raise awareness of the number one killer of women in the U.S., heart disease, and the Stitch Red campaign!

Did you know that 1 in 4 American women have heart disease? Join us in "Sticking it to Heart Disease!" by checking out our Stitch Red campaign!! You could save a life, maybe even yours!