Using a panel to create a Thank You Quilt

I'm sure I'm not the only quilter who has a list in her head about the quilts she wants/needs to make for others. When we moved last year the ongoing joke was that my quilting room needed to be much bigger as it seemed to be the location for the majority of the boxes being unloaded and moved into the house. Hmmmm. In the end the talk amongst my husband's friends (the movers) was that it would seem like they each deserved a quilt!

Thinking about making a quilt for three different men made has kept my brain busy. When I walked into my local quilt shop last month and saw this panel I knew it was perfect for one of those quilts!

This panel is called, Woodland Wonders, by Studio E. It reminds me of the decorative rugs from the 70s that people would put on the wall - especially the green/blue tinged sky. I bought the panel and put it up on my design wall so I could look at the color palette and think some more.

Then I started pulling from my stash.

I found a Banyan batik blue that has flecks of green in it. The blue does a good job of framing the scene bringing out the blues in the panel and complementing the other colours. I also found a meter of grey fabric and decided it would work well as a background colour.

My next idea came about because most of my stash fabrics that I found to go with the colours in the panel were small - less than a fat quarter and most just strips and bits. That led me to think about making small blocks with a mix of colours. 

I love this little block! I like how it let me use up really small pieces of fabric and how I had to get creative and add more sections to the block to use the fabrics I had.

The photo above shows how I had to stop myself from making the blocks before I planned more of the quilt. It didn't make sense to cut small pieces before I had all of my larger pieces. I decided at this point that I would make the small framed pinwheels and set them on point around the panel using the grey fabric and then make larger pinwheel blocks to go around next.

I cut the bigger pieces from my stash into 3 1/2" squares and then I had more of a variety of scraps to create the mini pinwheels. 

Here's some progress! You can see that I changed my mind about making all the blocks in the first border framed mini pinwheels. To be honest, I thought that was a lot of work and would actually take away from the panel. I played a bit more with that blue Banyan batik and set the blocks between blue and grey setting triangles and put just a plain square of fabric in between some of them.

Back to it!

Remember the Online Quilters Meet and Greet is still happening! Lots of quilters have visited here (waving hi!) and you can keep visiting and entering the giveaway all month.

Click on the image above to go visiting :)

You can enter the giveaway once from each of the blogs you visit - and it's a treat filled giveaway! Enjoy!

With Joy,

Sarah V.

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Quilters Meet and Greet

Welcome! Today's the day!

Click on the image above to be taken to the long list of quilters to meet:)

I'm so happy Benita reached out to include me in this year's meet and greet. I've been blogging for ten years this year and know that blogging has been a big part of my development as a quilter.

You can read more about my story here

Feel free to look around as I have tutorials and patterns too :)

One of my more successful patterns was created from a quilt bee that I joined online. My beemates followed my tutorial to create liberated churn dash blocks and then I made the BIG blocks and put the quilt together. 

I also relied on the friendship of other bloggers to promote my Eat with JOY placemats. You can still visit our Placemat Party by starting here! Blogging has helped me meet quilters from around the world and to be inspired by people I will only ever meet online.

And sometimes we do meet! I've been quilting with an online group of friends for years now and even got to meet up with one and have her quilt one of my quilts! Quilters are the best :)

Now I even blogger for others! I've been fortunate to make connections with all kinds of people because of my blogging. I am currently creating projects over at QUILTsocial using the PFAFF quilt expression 720. Lucky me!

You can see my latest project, a quilted banner, here.

The online world has changed a lot since I started blogging, but the desire to connect with another quilter's story remains and blogs still fill that need. I hope that if you have a blog you'll share it in the comments so I can come and visit you!

Enter the Giveaway!

Thanks again to Benita, there's a Great Grand Prize for visiting the blogs on this tour! 

Head over to Victoriana Quilt Designs enter or 

click on the image above to be taken to the page to enter.

Good Luck!

Thanks for visiting,

With Joy,

Sarah V.

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Sit'n Sip a Little Longer!

I'm trying to be optimistic about the end of summer, but it's coming too quickly for my liking! The end of summer also means that my daughter is heading back to university. And my son starts grade 7 this year - talk about time going quickly!

Anyway, what's really happening here is that the 23rd is my half-birthday. Yep, I'll be 45 and a half! So maybe to help me cope  celebrate I put my Sit'n Sip pattern on sale at half price for the weekend. See what I did there ;)

Sit'n Sip pattern

regular $5.00 on sale for $2.50

from Aug. 22 - 27, 2019

Click here to buy

I made this pattern for Marian's rowalong last year. I really like it. I haven't quilted it yet, but I will be - it fits in with my new home and summer by the pool vibe. Actually it's kind of neat because we ended up with a view of trees that we weren't expecting when we moved here.

Marian is hosting another rowalong this year based on fairytales and stories. I didn't jump on board this year but will definitely be checking it out.

I will be part of Benita's Quilter's Meet and Greet that starts September 3rd. She put up a post announcing the Great Grand Prize and let's just say that I'm glad I can enter too :)

Check out her post here.

Thanks for reading and remember to pick up my half-birthday deal!

With Joy,

Sarah V.

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Quilted Sewing Room Banner

Finally! I have thought about making myself a banner for my sewing space for a long time. And once I got the PFAFF quilt expression 720 to review, I set some big quilting goals for myself that I ended up not quite chasing as full time work and hesitation filled up a majority of my quilting time.

But now I've done it and I'm really happy with it!

I made one for my posts over at QUILTsocial this past week and I even did some free motion quilting! Of course, I used Pat Sloan's machine quilting book to help me too :)

User Friendly free motion quilting with PFAFF quilt expression 720

The quilt expression 720 is completely set up to help even a novice like me get the hang of free motion quilting - but it also lets me pretend by having built in stippling stitches. 

Free motion the easy way with the PFAFF quilt expression 720

You can check out all of my posts that will lead you through the steps to make your own banner.

Make a Quilted Banner for your sewing space

I even found another seven letter word that would work - TWINKLE!

I think QUILTERs like seven letter words ;)


With Joy,

Sarah V.

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Summer Sewing Scene

I guess this is more of a review post than I'd planned! Suddenly it's the middle of August! The temperatures have cooled a bit this week so I am doing more writing than I have been. It's our first summer in our new house with a pool! But I have been quilting too.

Before school was out I finished making this quilted tote bag. It's large enough to take to sew days or pack a quilt in for show and tell at quilt guild, but also to take to quilt shows and hide your new goodies inside of it! The free pattern is hosted over at QUILTsocial and features the wonderful PFAFF quilt expression 720. You can check out the posts to see all of the fun quilty stitches I used that are built into this machine. 

Quilted Tote Bag

And this is the view I'm tempted with when I'm sewing! It has been a very warm summer here (up until this week) and I have been enjoying doing a bit of quilting then spending time soaking up the sun and swimming. I feel like a kid again! What a wonderful thing we did picking this house :)

I've even tried growing geraniums for the first time. I think they get too much sun here though and would probably like to be somewhere a bit cooler. But, I still have blooms! I might try another type of flower here next year.

My latest project for QUILTsocial is very colorful and something that I've put off making for myself for too long. No longer! Take a peek at this week's posts and I'll share more photos here again soon.

I'm pleased to let you know that Benita invited me to join her Quilters Meet and Greet that happens on September 3rd. Come back here to read more about me and find links to several other quilters participating. There is a big prize too! Benita is the quilter behind Victoriana Quilt Designs, a membership site with quilt patterns and resources. You can also read her blog, Benita Skinner's Creative Space.

I think we're almost caught up now! I'll share some quilt progress in my next post after I finish some binding and a cup of coffee pool side :)

Hope you are enjoying summer too!

With Joy,

Sarah V.

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