Tuesday Cake - Blocks & Coffee

I finished my second Block 8 for the Layer Cake Quilt Along

The seams are not perfect on this one. I find that pressing the layer cake pieces actually distorts them a bit. My second excuse?
I've been making liberated churn dashes:)

One more 15.5 inch unfinished churn. Tonight I plan to sew the final set of 4 smaller churns together.




Valentine Post Script: I did get to enjoy this tablerunner that I finished after Valentine's last year. I made a couple quick blocks from a patten in a Fons and Porter magazine{sorry I didn't make note of which one}, then spent too long quilting it. You can click on the photo to make it bigger and admire all the hearts and paisleys:)




Better than flowers! We are enjoying this bag of dark, fair trade coffee. With lots of little chocolates that my husband received at school {seems he's a favourite teacher!}



With Joy,
Sarah Vee

p.s. You can still get in on my Pay It Forward. {You don't have to make something BIG - or even quilty - just pay it forward;)} Click to this post to leave your comment.

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Back to Cake - Block 8

It's time for Block 8 of the Layer Cake Quilt Along hosted at Moose on the Porch Quilts.

It took me longer to choose and cut my fabrics than to make the block this time.


As you can see on the pattern printout, there are two layouts for the block shown. I'm sure you could play around and make more, but I decided I would do one of each. For my fat quarter quilt I decided to do Layout 1. In the photo above I was still deciding which of the dot prints I wanted to use. There is a lot of green running through my background print, so I went with the more purple one.

Next was to cut out my background squares from this busy, large, random print. In this photo, if you look at the fabric to the left of the ruler and count by 5 along the grid of my cutting mat, you can see that I would end up with 5 inch squares that looked quite different from each other.


Turning the fabric the other direction, I now end up with 5 inch squares that have larger motifs in them. These squares will be cut in half in the quilt.

The centre of the block will be cut in 4 so I really wanted the original square of fabric to be full of colours and little of the beige background. In the photo above, this is the blue/purple ornament that I thought I wanted in the centre. It would match my other fabric really well.


But then I glanced to my left and saw the other corner of the fabric. Look at all of the little circles! Cutting this square smaller would make it look like another print.

Here is the block completed. Can you see where the smaller motifs ended up?
I'm really glad I took the time to play with my print to see what it could offer me in terms of adding to the design. This has been a challenging fabric line with so many prints and some of the directional stripes, which I avoided in this block!

Here are my planned fabrics for the second Block 8 done with my layer cake of Prayer Flags by April Cornell. I'm planning to do the second layout and use 3 fabrics.

This block will wait until next week as I have a lot of quilting to do!

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

p.s. Please don't use my measurements indicated with my photos to cut your block!! These measurements are the ones I *think* about while cutting, not the actual sizes of the squares. The 5 inch squares I mention are actually *cut* at 4.5. The 4.5 square I label in the photo is actually *cut* at 5, becomes 4.5 inches in the block before it is cut again. Sorry! I don't mean to confuse you, I was just sharing my cutting process for this block:)

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Cake to Go

When I finish my Christmas gift making this week, the next thing on my list is making my Block 4s. I do have the fabrics picked out!

Two gifts I made include my test blocks for the Quilt Along.




I made one into a small bag for a niece. It will be filled with books.




I made a second, larger one too. I used a lot of the construction method of making the Green Bag Lady bags.




You could make extra blocks into bags quite easily. To make the larger one, I added 2 1/2 inch strips to each side.


Happy Holidays!

With Joy,
Sarah Vee.

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Cake Talk Tuesday - Block One

Last Tuesday, Nov. 2nd, was the start of the Layer Cake Quilt Along hosted by Konda at Moose on the Porch Quilts. Click on the photo above and it will take you to the very first post with the information about fabric requirements.


The first designer was Gene Black. He called his block Alabama Spinner.
Click here to go to the post with his information and block instructions.


I debated briefly whether I should use a dark green with the light blue in this block. But, as you can see in this photo, there really isn't that much contrast between them - and Gene stressed the importance of contrast.


I went back through the blue pile again because blue is the most plentiful colourway in my layer cake. You can click here to go to my post about my fabric choices for the quilt along. I discovered that there are different shades of blue in the mix and felt the combination in the photo above was a strong enough contrast.



I really like how the block turned out. You can see there is an extra yellow bonus stripe on my light blue print. It is a print with a border and I read over the cutting and assembly instructions a few times to make sure the 10"square would work.



I did lay out the block with the yellow on the outside edge.
I felt it was a distraction from the spinning motion of the star, so I put the yellow to the inside.




I also made a second block using my fat quarter collection. I really like the effect of the stripy fabric in the star. I think, though, now that it's altogether, I would change the position of the small print and the black print. I think the smaller print isn't small enough, but isn't that part of the challenge and fun?!
I should also mention that Gene's block includes an optional applique circle in the middle square. I haven't decided if I will add it to either block yet.





Check out the Layer Cake Quilt Along flickr group to see all the great blocks. It's a great way to learn about value and contrast - without sacrificing your own fabric!:)
Make Gene's block and post a photo of it at the group site before the next block comes out November 16th to be in the running for a prize!

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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