Romance Garden Blog Tour - Triangle Pursuit quilt

 Welcome to my day on the Romance Garden Blog Tour.

The fabric featured is a signature line for Sherry Shish of Powered by Quilting. This was the perfect bright batik fabrics to sew with over the gray days of winter. Take a look at the beautiful prints!

My pattern I'm featuring has small half square triangles. These four bright green and bold pink have medium scale images and work great as a dominant part of the design.

There are four different squares in the quilt top and I went with these 4 smaller scale prints. The rich purples are so beautiful.

There are two large half square triangles that give the quilt top movement. It was these next two large scale prints that helped me decide which of my patterns to showcase with this fabric. Look at the beautiful butterflies and dragonflies.

The design really works in this pattern based on contrast with the background. While I went to an Island batik basic, I did choose one with delicate hints of color. It's called Almond.

 Here is my quilt. It's called Triangle Pursuit. 

The fabrics just glow! And look at the beautiful quilting I had done by Melissa @lakesidelongarmer. A perfect contrast to the the angles in the piecing.

I am so thrilled with how these fabrics show off my pattern. You can find the Triangle Pursuit pattern in my shop. 

Triangle Pursuit

Here are the designer links for the blog tour again

March 1 - Sherry at www.poweredbyquilting.com

and Leanne at  Devoted Quilter 

March 2 - Kate at https://www.katiemaequilts.com/blog

March 3 - Jen at Dizzyquilter.com

March 4 - Elizabeth at https://www.epidastudio.com/blog

March 5 - Sally at www.sallyssewingcircle.com

March 6 - Brianna at https://www.quirkyb.com

March 7 - Jennifer at https://www.inquiringquilter.com

March 8 - Anja at https://anjaquilts.blogspot.com/

March 9 - Tammy at tamarinis.typepad.com

March 10 - Kathryn at Dragonfly's Quilting Design Studio

March 11 - HERE at Sew Joy Creations

March 12 - tour finishes with Sherry at www.poweredbyquilting.com

Remember to enter the giveaway at Sherry's blog - giveaway post.

I hope you have been inspired by this beautiful fabric line and these amazing designers. I am definitely in the mood for Spring!

With Joy,

Sarah V.

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Works in Progress for this year

 

I Made A Lists - with Lists in it

One thing I've done with my quilting time this year is organize it into types of projects to work on. These categories are keeping me focused so that when I have time, I know what to work on. 

Reduced overwhelm = More Joy

These are my categories. Yours might vary depending on what is important to you this year. I'm focusing on finishing!

~ Pattern Releases

~ To Be Quilted by Longarmer

~ To Be Quilted by Me

~ Works in Progress

~ Business Projects

Inside each category are where the quilts go. I have tried to limit myself to 3 in each category (but some have up to 6). Already I'm finding that I still gravitate to the piecing activities and at this rate my Works in Progress are going to be done by Spring! LOL! 

 

Works in Progress

I decided to focus on two projects that are fairly recent starts and one new one. I am making all three of these quilts for me which may be why progress has been slow.

Sew Day 2020 Weekly challenge quilt

I have shared about this quilt before. It was designed by Darlene D'eon as a mystery in 2020. I have been working on this quilt at my guild sew days and still have the border star rows to complete. All of the pieces are cut and ready. This one will be my focus at sew days starting next month.

I recently took time to assemble all of the bear paw blocks into the main quilt top.

Quilted Witch

The Quilted Witch is a pattern by Lori Holt. I fell in love with the witch's patchwork skirt and the small quilt blocks floating in the background. Pat Sloan is currently finishing this as a sew along with an alternative layout - no witch - and I have stalled. This will be the next project and hopefully done in time to enjoy this fall.

I have completed the blocks up to and including the small churn dashes.

I also purchased this cute dot fabric as more background fabric.

Secret Lives of Color

This quilt was a sew along with Pat Sloan in 2022. The idea is to select fabrics from your stash that match the colors in the book, Secret Lives of Color by Kassia St. Clair. 

I took it one step farther and used Anna Maria Horner fabrics as my backgrounds. I changed them throughout the quilt to contrast with the colors. I have enjoyed every stitch of this project! I have finished the top now and will share another photo soon.

I'm looking forward to sharing more from my different categories too as the year progresses.

With Joy,

Sarah V.

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Romance Garden Blog Tour

 Welcome to March and a blog hop. This one features a new signature line for Sherry Shish of Powered by Quilting called Romance Garden.

You can head to Sherry's blog for the kick off post - Kick Off Post and Giveaway

I will be having a turn on the blog tour so be sure to come back for that! In the meantime please visit these other blogging designers to see how they have used this beautiful bright batik collection:

March 1 - Sherry at www.poweredbyquilting.com

and Leanne at  Devoted Quilter 

March 2 - Kate at https://www.katiemaequilts.com/blog

March 3 - Jen at Dizzyquilter.com

March 4 - Elizabeth at https://www.epidastudio.com/blog

March 5 - Sally at www.sallyssewingcircle.com

March 6 - Brianna at https://www.quirkyb.com

March 7 - Jennifer at https://www.inquiringquilter.com

March 8 - Anja at https://anjaquilts.blogspot.com/

March 9 - Tammy at tamarinis.typepad.com

March 10 - Kathryn at Dragonfly's Quilting Design Studio

March 11 - HERE at Sew Joy Creations

March 12 - tour finishes with Sherry at www.poweredbyquilting.com

Enjoy the tour! I can't wait to share my quilt with you.

With Joy,

Sarah V.

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Packing my Bags for a Sew Day - I made a list!

 

The first sew day of the year is here! Last time I went I forgot a few things so I made myself a list. See if you would pack what I pack :)

Of course you need a a few nice bags to put things in.

I made this one wide mouth bag that fits my 6 1/2 " ruler perfectly.

Things to go in the bag:

6 1/2" ruler (Creative Grid)

bloc loc rulers ( 2 1/2" and 4 1/2")

pencil

sewing pins in pincushion inside scrap cutting bag

quilting pins

Clover seam ripper

rotary cutter

embroidery scissors

machine power cord

Things to go in bigger bag:

cutting mat (this time 12 x 18)

ruler for drawing lines (this can go in a project bin)

project bin with more than one project in it 

AND projects have been checked over to include pattern/instructions and fabrics needed

All of this fit in a tote bag I quilted using all kinds of fun stitches.

You can find the tutorial posts for this bag over at QUILTsocial - PFAFF quilt expression 720

Also

sewing machine in working order (with extra bobbins, presser feet and thread)

Separate bag:

lunch

mug

water bottle (filled)

warm socks

slip off shoes - I quilt in sock feet

money for rent

I have enjoyed making bags to use for trekking my stuff to sew days. At some point I would like a bag with a more boxed bottom and one with a zipper. For now these work!

What else do you put in your sew day bags?

With Joy,

Sarah V.

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Pat Sloan 10 year FB group anniversary block

 I could have also called this post - First Squirrel of 2024! LOL

I made a change in my sewing room - I moved my cutting table in front of the patio doors and now I can stand at my design wall! It feels wonderful.

I watched Pat Sloan's video today and it is her 10th anniversary of her group on Facebook. Yay Pat! I met a great group of quilters that I still chat with on her previous Quilt Mashup forum. And Pat being Pat, she designed a quilt block to celebrate. 

And me being me, I jumped right in!

I decided to challenge myself using my little stack of Alison Glass fabrics for this one large block.

I fussy cut a circle print for the middle of the star block.

Then I fussy cut this strip of fabric to take the floral print area to make squares for the star points.

I had to use every last piece of this fabric to make enough squares! I pieced 3 bits together to make one square.  

Here is my center block. Pat used a stripe where my turquoise blue is and that's how I started; I put the stripe print as the corners then had difficulty figuring out what would work for the background. I went for a coffee break and decided I would switch the stripe print to the background print. It works so much better! 

So, taking breaks when making fabric placement decisions is a good idea!

I was able to use this leftover backing strip to make the border squares - I've been waiting for the right project for this fabric!

 

I decided to use 6 different fabrics for the alternating squares to make this a really fun rainbow effect.

Here's a photo of me using my design wall to plan out the placement of the squares. I'm smiling!

But I noticed the beautiful burgundy fabric looks really dull in this photo.

So I went and got a lamp! It's feeling good, bright and cozy in here now.

Here's a photo with the lamp on. Better. 

Here's my finished block. I'm so happy that I took the time to make this block. I'm also planning to quilt this to have it finished for my January guild meeting - because I really don't want to make any UFOs this year!

You can find Pat's anniversary block on her blog post - Month long Celebration

Have you found a 'squirrel' yet this year?

With Joy,

Sarah V.

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