Friday Finish

My first Buttercup bag. Fun to play with fabric prints.




A very easy pattern.The instructions call for a magnetic snap, but I don't have one. It rides so high up under your elbow that I'm not worried about anything falling out or someone trying to get into it.



It's very small - it is made out of a fat quarter. It's great for when I just need my wallet and keys and have no pockets. Or need to look pretty. And don't need to carry life support for a 2 year old (diapers, snacks, kleenex, books, more snacks)


I can see many more Buttercup bags in my future.

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

Read more...

Three Titles for Thursday

I was in Quilt Book Lover Nirvana yesterday for about an hour.

The local quilting guild brought in a book seller to display his wares. A fantastic lot! I browsed while he pulled historical quilting books for me to look at. These are the ones I know I buy as resources. For colour combinations and border inspirations. And for the stories about the quilts and their makers.

This book I plan to read from front to back to discover her quilt story. I know she has a new book out. I figured $5 for the old one was a good deal.

He had several books that were authored or co-authored by Rachel Pellman. This is the only one I came home with as I had never seen it before. And it has quilts like this in it -

This is the book I've started to look at

I have seen a Welsh quilting book advertised in Quiltmania but thought it was too costly to purchase and ship. This one looks very promising.

This is what's inside


This is the quilting design for the following quilt:


I love it! There seems to be alot of PAISLEYs in the quilting designs too which is something I enjoy quilting on my tablerunner.

With Joy,

Sarah Vee

Read more...

Bunny Border Bump

The top is assembled.
Now the big dilemma (or the fun part?!) has begun.
Deciding on borders.

My original border idea

(Now the sun rises and my design wall gets an interesting lighting effect - try to ignore it like I do! I couldn't wait until tomorrow to share my design angst - I mean, Joy!)

Border Idea #1


Idea 1 Reversed becomes Idea #2



Idea #3 take out Red and Make outside Blue wider

Idea #4 Take out Black strip and replace with Red

Are we at #5 Already!?! Just one thick Blue Border



#6 Wide Blue with Thin outer Red

Idea #7 Thin inner Red with Wide outer Blue

I think it's trying to decide what to do in the corners that is making me hesitate. That and the fact I have very little of this red fabric. And have totally committed my black floral strip to this skinny size. I think I'll continue the strips around OR put pinwheels (or four patches) in the corners.

Enough Already!

So while suffering through this maze of bunny border madness I found this fabric and started something new!


Care to weigh in on my dilemma? Do you really like one of my ideas - or not like one?

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

Read more...

Tah Dah: Denim Purse

I finished the denim purse.



It looks better in use.

I broke my purple needle. My first broken needle in 13 years of quilting.
My seam ripper and I also had the chance to bond in the making of this purse.
Warning - graphic stitches to follow!

This is where I broke the needle. See the back seam? There is still no topstitching there as it's just not happening with my machine.

This denim has quite a bit of stretch thanks to spandex. While I didn't follow any pattern to make this purse (which is fairly obvious!), I did take notes and use others' ideas to make it work. The strap on the purse and the idea to do pleats (which are NOT a good idea on denim!!) came from Rae's buttercup bag pattern. I was intending to make this bag - even cut out the pattern. But my denim pieces were too small.

Some more yucky stitches. I put in a recessed zipper using Jane's tutorial again. The lining material is from one of my husband's old dress shirts. The top edge really needed to be stitched down as it kept sitting above the purse line. But there's some pretty thick denim seams here. Hence the yucky stitches. I did manage to get the front of the purse edge sewn down without much trouble.


The Birthday Girl is happy with it. She took it for a test run and I had to refasten the strap. We'll see how it holds up.

Fun, but time to get back to the Bunnies!

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

Read more...

Playing with My Purple Needle

Surprise! My design wall is still hopping with bunnies. I've sewn a few more blocks together and made some quilting decisions. Now I just need to finish up some other things to focus on this quilt. Is Easter really only 2 weeks away?!




The first pair of jeans have been cut up. Size 7 girls with lots of neat embroidery.

This is where the purple needle comes into play. It's the first time I've ever used my denim needle! I've already sewn a handle for this purse - the bottom strip of denim you can see here. The piece on the right is a pant leg opened up with one seam cut off. I figure it's better not to sew over any extra seams if I can help it. There's quite a bit of spandex in these jeans. Here's hoping I can get this finished - by tomorrow!


I need to cut one more pile of triangles to finish these pieces. The sewing will have to wait until I change my needle back.

Check out the quilters through Judy's link while I drink some more coffee.

Cheers to the end of March Break! Bring on the Birthday(Tuesday) and Easter - I can take it!!!
After coffee.

With Joy,

Sarah Vee

Read more...