How I made my Churn Baby Churn quilt reversible

I'm back to share some progress on my Churn, Baby, Churn Dash quilt. In my last post I showed the fabrics I selected for the churn dashes. I finally got some deadline quilting done and focused again on this quilt. I spent two, one hour sessions making the last 6 churns I needed. 

I posted my progress on Instagram where you can see a different arrangement of these blocks. I first laid them out in the same way I had organized my original piles of churn dash and background fabrics - then I walked away. I came back a couple of times, looked at the photo again and made some changes. I really didn't want the colours to read in any particular way, but I did want to spread out the dark backgrounds and the blue churns. I also noticed that I could lay out the blocks so the squares that formed where the blocks joined would each have one light section. After all that thinking and rearranging it was time to sew them together!

I'd love to show you a nice "beauty" shot of the top pieced together, but it's Fall here and lately we've had a lot of rainy, overcast days. Plus I've been quilting at night so my inside pictures are pretty dark too.

Instead I thought I'd share what the BACK of the quilt looks like:

I'm pretty pleased with this design! It came to me as I was walking home from my local quilt store where I bought the text fabric and blue polka dot fabric. The fabric says Teach Them To Sing Teach Them to  Care Teach Them To Love etc. - some great fabric for a teacher! Click here for a closer look.

I knew I had several two patch units left and I was thinking about ways to incorporate them into the back. I thought about just making a row of them across the quilt and then thought of making it into a cross because my son goes to a Catholic school.

My math skills were put to the test in figuring out how to cut my directional text fabric so I would have enough. Remember I said I thought of this on my way HOME from the quilt store - I definitely didn't have enough of the text fabric. The blue I bought for the binding as it matches with the blue in the Uppercase fabrics. Then I was thinking about how this was a quilt for kids and how when they first start drawing pictures of "outside" they make the classic line of sky at the top. I measured the blue fabric and realized I could make two pieces for the top parts and still have some left for binding!

This quilt is in hurry up mode as we got a letter home late last week saying that NEXT Monday will be the teacher's last day before her maternity leave. Slight panic here as I am working the next few days then have company this weekend and our little town's Fibre Festival too!

Wish me luck!

With Joy,

Sarah V.


p.s. there's still time for YOU to make a Churn, Baby, Churn Dash quilt - you can buy a copy of the pattern at Craftsy ;)

Read more...

Father's Day Challenge Quilt - Process Post

This is where the quilt top started. It almost ended here too! I was really tempted to get out my white fabric and go for it. (I did pull out the white fabric in the end, but I don't have a picture of what I did with it - yet!)

I started to add in the blue and white shirt units to make churn dashes.
Again this looks quite modern with its white spaces and now there are some add visual spacings when you look at the rows - look at the middle row of the quilt to see what I mean.

You might also notice in this photo that I moved my sewing machine out of the way! I realized that I was going to end up taking a picture each step along the way in case I liked it better than my original plan.

I really like this one too! I started to play here. I realized that I had put the blue and white churns in the wrong places and decided to see what else I could do with the red stripes. I only have this many pieces of the red fabric.
Having the different blocks - churns and shooflies- in the corners gives this a modern, but quirky utility feel to the top.

Back to my original plans. The red stripe fabric is really strong visually - you can see the stripes better and it's just a darker colour than the light blue and white shirt fabric. It really helps frame the design and to emphasize the repetition of the churn block. Now the white spaces are equal in size again.

Adding on by filling in the background. The blue helps define the blue and white churns. The black looks out of place - just give me a minute! :)

There. The depth of the design is in place. It's like a double background, I guess.
There's an additional border still to take a photo of because the quilt top was just a little shy of fitting in the space I want to hang it.

Here's  a look at my first top in this design. In this one the focus fabric is behind the corner churns. The matching value of the blue and orange fabrics make them vie for your attention!

It's a rainy day here. A photo of the completed top will have to wait another day. I guess I'll keep going on something else!


Linking up to The Needle and Thread Network today - check out some more creative Canucks!

With Joy,

Sarah Vee

Read more...

Fabric Shopping for the Joy Quilt

This is the third process post for a quilt for my daughter.

The first post introduced the fabrics from her stash.

The second post revealed my design for the quilt so far.

This post is about fabrics I've bought to make the quilt!

The three fabrics on the left I bought at my local quilt shop. The top left fabric I bought half a yard of because I thought the circles echoed the design in the sprite inspiration fabric.

The other two I only bought as fat quarters. The middle one I actually went back a second time for because I wasn't sure if it would blend well enough. Its background is a pale green - you can see the green sprite on the right. I think the greens are leaning more towards a 'modern mint' hue than a lime green that my daughter would like. 

 

I did some online shopping through Sew Mama Sew during their big quarterly sale. I tried to remedy the green dilemma with this fun print from Izzy House. The little dots in it are a pretty good matching coral. The bottom stripe is from one of Sarah Fielke's lines and is a bolder version of the stripe in the trees.

I'm most excited about the bloom fabric at the top left.

I think it's going to be one of my tree top fabrics! You can see in this photo I tried to point out where these two prints will fit in. The wavy stripe is from the same fabric line as the sprite fabric. The bloom print I'm not sure what line it's from, but you can see the background is a brighter white than my sprite fabric. I think that will help it stand out as a tree top and I'm not too concerned about.

My only concern is that my fat quarters from Sew Mama Sew are actual fat quarter cuts of the yard, not cut as fat quarters packaged. It means my fabric is in a long strip, not a squarish rectangle, and I may end up with seam lines in my tree top. Something to work out later on!

I really thought I would have a block or two made by this time. The quilt will be a Christmas present for my daughter. I've got 9 more months to make some magic happen!

With Joy,

Sarah Vee

Read more...

Is Quordle a Word? and FNSI

This series of quilts has been shouting from the back of the closet!

I started this one awhile ago. I played around with some border ideas again, but still the push to quilt it isn't compelling.

I took the photo and put it away as the NEXT quilt almost stitched itself together.

The series of quilts - panels -poems are inspired by the words I put into a wordle, back when making wordles was a new thing to do.

 You can see the wordle in this post. 

You can make one today if you want!

The next quilt - perhaps the first to get finished? features the word BLOOM. . .

I was so tickled when I finally figured this word out! I won't bore you with all my previous attempts at bringing this word to life. Apparently, I needed to let the fabric do the talking!

My favourite idea of blue stems is coming out in this one. I love this fabric from Izzy House.

At first the background was just going to be the Amy Butler print and the almost snake skin pink fabric that my dad bought me. {Cool dad, eh?} Then it needed to be bigger so I pulled out this blue solid I used on my daughter's latest Egyptian purse.

As I was editing the photo I realized the background should be square. A few changes and another click of the digital camera - a new layout to follow.

I love walking in and out of the room when there's something new brewing on my design wall. 

This blooming bouquet is screaming for a BIG 3 dimensional bow at the bottom of the quilt! 

I love getting inspiration on how to FINISH something - makes it much more likely to happen{grin}

What's blooming on your design wall?

With Joy,

Sarah Vee


p.s. still not sure if quordle is a word, but it is what I kept typing as I saved my photos. So this series of quilts is getting labeled with the word quordle so I can find my pictures again!

P.P.S 

As I checked my blog Reader this morning I found my sister's post and got inspired.

 

An opportunity to GIVE - a word prompt on this month's dreamboard!

You'll have to check out my sister's post for details. Friday Night Sew In happens once a month and I finally hit the right Friday. I spent my morning sewing time cutting up fabric to make 2 pillowcases for ConKerr cancer - something this month's FNSI group is joining in on. Of course I challenged myself to make some for teenagers. I think these fabric combos fit the bill.

AND

It looks like this outside my window this morning!

A  GREAT reason to stay in and quilt tonight!

Thanks, sis, for the push.

Sarah Vee

Read more...

Design of the Joy Quilt

This is the second design process post for the Joy Quilt. The first post is here.

This is the theme fabric for the quilt.
I'm using it for color cues as well inspiration for the design.

This is what I've come up with for the design of the quilt. 

The middle will be a panel made up of two trees that echo the design of the ones on the theme fabric. I'm thinking about using a solid burgundy fabric to make a bias applique edge around the trees to highlight them like on the theme fabric. {I'm a little nervous about this idea!}
 The panel will be bordered on all sides by my Joy Framed block, some with an appliqued daisy and the remaining blocks with the theme fabric fussy cut in the centers.

My idea for the background of the panel  has already changed - twice!

Idea #1
First I was thinking to make the whole quilt have a background. I was going to use this Denyse Schmidt dot fabric as the panel background and behind the applique daisies.
I was really trying to think of a modern, stream-lined look for the quilt. Not too many fabrics, large scale geometrics and solids.
I thought about using the fat quarters we already have in the corners of the Joy Framed blocks and the Denyse Schmidt dots as the background.

Idea #2
Then I thought the dots might look too busy behind the trees - take away from them as the middle of the panel. I did a little bit of number scribbling and figured out I could use 7 fat quarters to make enough 6 inch squares to build the background of the panel. Then I would use the dot fabric in the background of the Joy Framed blocks - basically switch the design around. 

Then I asked my daughter what she wanted.

A traditional quilt.
What does she mean by traditional? Scrappy!
 Lots of different fabrics.
Blocks made up of lots of pieces.


The Current Idea!
Buy more fat quarters!  LOL!

The plan now is to make the background AND the corner squares out of fat quarters.
I'm planning to make the stars of the Joy Framed blocks all in solid colors - and that might change to just one or two colors.


My daughter also wants LOTS of the lime green. I think the quilt is starting to look like a pink quilt. Not a bad thing, but - it's definitely different from a lime green quilt. I'm trying to remedy this situation by using some lime green prints on the back. And the applique daisy block centers will probably be lime green too - Kona Solid Zucchini green to be exact!

Oh, and the large rectangle beneath the trees on the panel will be the Amy Butler lime green print. The little triangles are for Prairie Points to make the grass look 3D - another request from my daughter.

One other thing that I'm thinking about changing is having all of the applique daisy blocks at the bottom of the quilt - so the flowers look like they are in the grass instead of scattered around the quilt.

That might change again too!

There are two more things I want to add from a design perspective:

• more blue

• an applique butterfly on the panel similar to the ones in the theme fabric

Next time I'll show you some more of the fat quarters that I've been buying for this quilt.

With Joy,

Sarah Vee

Read more...

Joy Quilt Process Post #1

This is the beginning in a series of post as I start working on a quilt for my daughter.

The fairy sprite fabric above, a mere fat quarter, is our inspiration piece.

Sprites of Tillbrook from Alexander Henry 2008. Pretty much gone from the quilt shops.

Behind it in this photo is some Denyse Schmidt dots which play rather nicely with the fabric.

But I'm getting ahead of myself!

These are the fabrics from my daughter's stash that go with the sprites. Some are from the same line. All are fat quarters.

Here's a few additions from my stash added in. I have about a yard of the large Amy Butler print on the left.  See how nice those corals play together?!

As seems to happen around here, my daughter requested I use one of my block designs.

Joy Framed which was in Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks, volume 3.

{remember it was my husband's idea to use the liberated churn dash block in my Sew Modern Bee quilt!}

In the next process post I'll show what the design is for the quilt right now. 

My daughter knows as well as I do that plans change! Already she has surprised me with how she wants the quilt to look.

Since the quilt is a request for Christmas, I plan to do an update monthly on the 25th. At the beginning you might see a few more as plans have changed a few times since we started looking at these fabrics last week!

With Joy,

Sarah Vee

Read more...

Fat Quarter Fun

My design on the wall has been staring at me for just over a week.

I started out making a block to submit to Quiltmaker for another volume of 100 Blocks.
Not gonna happen next time around!  I will be in the issue coming out really soon though:)

 This was my original plan. Well, there was also some appliqued hearts in the middle of the block.

Then I got interested in all the variations within. When you start turning each quarter you get some interesting blocks.

I can see lots of fun possibilities with using one quarter of this block.

My dilemma? Not enough yardage around to make one quarter of this block 12 inches big!!

Maybe that's hard to believe - and maybe it isn't. If you collect fat quarters then you would know it's hard to make one big block from your selection. If you collect layer cakes and charm squares, you will have to think smaller finished size blocks to create anything - if you want to keep a specific number of fabrics/colours in your blocks. If you collect yardage, then you probably have more than enough!

I am trying to change what fabrics I collect; I want to start using more batiks and solids, and more textured fabrics like stripes. So I am trying to use up what I have while my 'design mind' is already ahead of me and wants those new fabrics, already!:)

So my dilemma and disappointment quickly turned into a new design opportunity which is now steeping on my design wall.

This is what it looks like this morning with the sun streaming in the entranceway windows hidden beneath my design wall {which is also my favourite Christmas tablecloth with flannel backing}. I am cutting my side triangles with older fabrics to make sure I have the size right before I use up my valuable and scarce solid fat quarters. I happened to pick up a guild newsletter at the quilt show I went to earlier this month which had a perfect chart of what size squares to cut to get your side and corner triangles! What a great coincidence.


I am working away at finishing some UFOs before 2012 comes around. This design will get worked on in between stitching down bindings. Eventually I may even have a tutorial for this one.

The longer I keep it up on the wall the less likely I will be to start something new. 

Sound familiar?!?!


Enjoy more design walls today through the linkup at Judy's blog.




Sarah Vee

Read more...

Journey of a Block Design

I am so happy to have a block included in this issue of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks!

Come back TOMORROW for my giveaway post.

Today I thought I'd share how I designed my block.


My block was inspired by the photo above.
In fact, I have a quilt design all mapped out on graph paper too.



This is what my block looks like:




Not much like the photo at all, eh?

So - how did I get to this block? Take a look!

I wanted it to be a scrap friendly block.
I wanted to have lots of fall colours too.

I thought making a pieced background would be fun.

Then I struggled on how to make my flower be the focus of the block.





I liked the green background, but the purple faded out of attention.






My first attempt included a stem, and in fact here the flower does look more like a coneflower than a daisy.




I found a brighter purple for the petals and liked it.

BUT.

I felt the block was missing some "friendly factors":
it wasn't the easiest construction method
value and fabric choices had a strong role to play in the results
{making it not so scrap friendly}
it was a difficult block to set with other blocks - or even itself

So, I took what I did like
- the green background and the flower -
and worked on improving the friendly factors.




This simplified frame improves construction and will set nicely with other blocks.
It's also pretty scrap friendly, or focus fabric friendly.
{You could even SKIP the applique altogether, if you wanted too!}




It also gave the flower petals more room to 'blossom' and so it became more daisy-like. Without the stem, it's a bit more whimsical too.

What do YOU think? Did I find the JOY?

Come back tomorrow to see a quilt top I made featuring my block - and for my giveaway.




Check out Quiltmaker's blog all week as they are the Official Tour Directors and will lead you to designer blogs each day where you will have more chances to win a copy of this magazine.
The tour starts TODAY!


With Joy,
Sarah Vee

Read more...

My Day to EAT Cake!

These are all of the 10 inch fabrics that remain from my Layer Cake.
Block 9 is up and requires a 10 inch light background.




I am really hesitant to use my beige paisley tone on tone because there are 3 more blocks to come. This designer gave us 4 layout options for creating this block. {Last time there was 2!}

Instead of wallowing in indecision, I took a quick look at the 4 layouts in black and white and decided the first layout looked like a churn dash, but the centre fabric looks like it's folded over. I thought one of the paisley prints I have left would work well in the centre. The one above is the first one I laid out.




Then I pulled out this paisley, but it reads too dark to go with the blue I'm trying out for that dark frame.




This fabric definitely won't work because it's not an allover print. The 'folding' illusion would be lost.



I started trying to add more pieces to the layout. The green print I decided on as the background. In this photo I'm trying out the yellow and blue as possibilities for the small triangles that will read as the under side of the folded central fabric.




A blurry photo {sorry} to show how much simpler it would be to go for the beige paisley tone on tone as my background!! Not so much contrast to worry about - it's built in:)

Then I started OVER.

I went back to my pile of fabrics and saw how many coral ones remained. I'm really not sure what the setting plan is for the final quilt, but if the blocks end up in order {1-12} I don't want the last row of the quilt to be the only place coral shows up!

I have started to cut this block, but there's one more change. I went to cut the yellow and found I don't have enough!

You'll have to come back next Tuesday to see what I ended up with for a block:)
{I haven't even thought about my second block from my fat quarters - I'm thinking simple contrast for that one though!}

Today is my BIRTHDAY! The reason I get to EAT CAKE today!!
It's also my 2 year blog anniversary.
My blog has been a great gift to me and has brought me many friendships.
Thanks for being here today:)

I'm not organized enough to be prepared with a giveaway, but I am working on lots of things "behind the seams":)

Stay tuned. Tutorials and giveaways - and blog tours! - are on the way.

With Lots of JOY,

Sarah Vee

Read more...