Falling Back Into Routine - Design Wall Monday

Summer is rapidly winding down here. My husband is back to school today!
As the fall schedules fill up, I find myself taking stock of all the UFOs waiting for me.
Design Wall Monday hosted by Judy at Patchwork Times is a great way to keep on track. Nothing like going back through old posts to see all those UFOs!

This past week I went back to finish up the final two blocks of the Layer Cake Quilt Along hosted by Konda at Moose on the Porch Quilts.
I want to at least get my Christmas version of this quilt assembled this year. I bought an extra jelly roll of the Prayer Flag fabric that I plan to use to make my other quilt a bit bigger. I'm thinking a piano key border. . .


This is the last block I had finished. Way back here.




Block 11 by Vanessa Wilson, The Crafty Gemini. This block is straight, it's just hanging on my design wall over top the window beneath so things float on this spot. Can you see my unplanned mistake? I'm leaving it!




This is block 12 by Joan Lucchese, the Cali Quilter.

I played with colour placement and my stripes in the Christmas version.






Also up on the design wall is my Follow Your Bliss makealong project. It's slow going right now. Hopefully I will get a chunk of time soon so I can work out the next part.


I've got big plans for this fall too. I really want to finish up my UFOs so NEXT year I can focus on quilting them. I have a couple I'd like done for Christmas and then I can work at getting some more done next year. Of course, I'm still designing new things and finding new things I want to make all the time!

Design Wall Mondays are great inspiration - to finish up and/or to start something new! Be sure to check out the great projects through the links at Judy's blog. Check out Judy's wall too:)


With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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Two Cake Blocks

I fell behind a week in my Layer Cake posting.

Here is Block 10 done in Prayer Flag by April Cornell.

Here is Block 10 done in Bejeweled by Susie Robins.
I think this block would look really good with 4 set together with the leaves joined in the centre. You could make a nice Christmas cactus table topper.




I had enough days off this past week to get one Block 11 done!
It`s a bit tricky to get the different sections to fit. Some seams need to be pressed open - others need to be pressed together.
I also used one whole blue layer cake square and some extra because I fussy cut to keep the motif going in the same direction. The pieces can be cut from one square if directionality is not an issue.




These are all the layer cake squares and scraps that I have left. I intentionally used some scraps for one of the colours in Block 11 to keep 4 whole layer cake squares for the last block.




I had lots of fun making this pillow cover with some of my layer cake scraps! I made this coordinating pillow cover as part of the Book-a-Round I participated in for Kay Mackenzie`s new applique book.



Today is the last day of the tour. Visit Kay`s blog for more info.

Maybe I will make an applique sampler quilt someday soon.


With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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Pieces of Cake - Block 10

Here are all of my pieces cut out for Block 10 of the Layer Cake Quilt Along.
You can see how other quilters have made up their flowers over at the flickr pool.

I tried to use some leftover fabrics and decided to use two different yellows for my background. At this point, I don't have much choice!
I'm also being adventurous and using blue for my leaves.






My home computer died over the weekend.
I was looking through the few photos that I still have on my current camera card and found this one of some new spools of thread I received for my birthday. They are the Sulky brand. I realized they would work really well with this layer cake of Prayer Flag by April Cornell!
Now I'm one step closer to ready for the final quilt:)


With Joy,

Sarah Vee

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Catching up on Cake Talk

Block 10 of the Layer Cake Quilt Along will be LIVE on the Moose on the Porch Quilts today!

Here's how my Block 9s turned out. . .



This was my initial layout plan for Block 9 of the Layer Cake Quilt Along.
As you can see, there was not enough contrast between the coral prints to make the layout work.
You can see how I arrived at my fabric selections for this block in my previous cake post here.



I switched the coral bricks out for green ones. This layout still doesn't work - the illusion of the corners folding in doesn't work because the yellow is too strong.




I decided to go with layout number 4 instead! I'm happy with it and like the shoo-fly that reveals itself in the coral print, and the turquoise square.





Layout 1 didn't work out for my Christmas fat quarter block either. Instead I ended up with layout option 2. The green ovals is my background print. It only works because it is a smaller scale than the black print with the large ornaments. If I had had more green solid left I might have been able to achieve layout 1.



Can you tell I really liked layout 1?! You can see some great examples of it at the Layer Cake Quilt Along flickr pool.



With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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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

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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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Celebrate with Cake!

FOLLOWERS TAKE NOTE!:
I've taken the 'big' step and got my own domain name.
My blog is now located at http://www.sewjoycreations.com/
Your links to sewjoy.blogspot.com will still work,
BUT, you might want to update!:)

BIGGER plans are in the works too. I'm planning on getting smaller:) and more focused at creating with colour. I hope you'll stick around and play too!



My little one is almost back up to full speed which means my sewing time will be limited again, but for a better reason! Ha! Seriously, I missed his busyness.

I finished sewing together my first Block 7 for the Layer Cake Quilt Along today. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The pressing instructions really made it go together smoothly.

I even got my second Block 7 cut out today! I was excited to get to use a stripe in the outside border:) I still might switch around the two larger triangles to see if I want the green as the main focus 'wheel', but usually, my first gut instinct about where to put the busy print is right!;)





Take time to celebrate today. I'll share more joy tomorrow!

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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Play/Pause

Why "Play/Pause" this morning? My son has been down and out with a fever for the last 4 days and nights - and I have been awake for them all!
I have been staring at the buttons on the music player beside his bed more than I've been staring at my stash:) The "Play/Pause" button struck me as funny last night. I think that's where my quilting got stuck this week!

My design wall has the 6 cupcake pillow front waiting for me. It is my second Birthday Quilt Challenge project for the year.

Beneath the cupcakes is my cut out Block 7 for the Layer Cake Quilt Along. It's been like that since "Before the Fever". Hopefully it will be sewn together before Judy hosts another Design Wall Monday.

I have managed to finish the stitching on my first Birthday Quilt Challenge project of the year. I really enjoyed it! Only a peek for now because I still have to bind it and mail it off to the birthday boy - belatedly:( There just might be a little something extra in the package to make up for the lateness. . .

The "Pause" this week
gave me time to think about
why I quilt what I quilt
and how I want to
spend
my time and talents this year.

The "Play" part is just beginning!

Check out more Design Walls through the links at Judy's blog today.

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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Cake Talk - Test Kitchen

It's already time for some more cake! Block 7 is up at Moose on the Porch Quilts.


This time before I started picking out fabrics for the block, I looked at my photo of the first 6 blocks to see which colours I haven't used as focus fabrics yet.

I have only one beige tone on tone layer cake piece left, which means I am going to have to get creative with my background fabrics. For this block I went for a light, but busy print for the background triangles. Before I cut into the fabrics, I did some folding and laying out the fabrics to see if they would play nice together.




Here is what it looks like all cut out. I like how I can change the direction of the outer border print. I kept changing my mind about the corner treatment and I think I'm happy with the coral in the corners. I can still change my mind as I sew it together!


With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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Cake Talk - Halfway Done

The Layer Cake Quilt Along with Moose on the Porch Quilts is half way done.

My fat quarter Block 6

{fabric is Bejeweled by Susie Robbins}

I like that I got to use some of my busiest prints in this block and it still looks good. It really helps that this mix of fabrics has lots of solid reading prints.

My Layer Cake Block 6

{fabric is Prayer Flag by April Cornell}

I reversed this block's orientation to make the center units look like prayer flags. I used up lots of strips cut from blocks that I've already made for this one. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Here are what my first 6 blocks look like together
{remember they will have sashing when made into a quilt top]

Prayer Flag First Six Blocks

Bejeweled First Six Blocks

I'm really looking forward to both of these quilts!
It's not too late to join in the fun. Click over to Moose on the Porch Quilts to find all of the block patterns.


With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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Cake for Breakfast

Here is my second Block 5 completed. I think the design really comes through with more solid looking fabrics. You can see my Prayer Flag one here.

I might be late posting, but I have started to work on Block 6!

Part of my inspiration for fabric choices in this block is the actual card I received with my layer cake where the fabrics are hanging like prayer flags. I took a cue from that and decided to use lots of pieces - including scraps from blocks I've already made. Also the fact that I couldn't cut all of my background fabric from one layer cake{!}, means that there's lots going on!
Once sewn I will actually place this block upside down so the dark colours are at the top - like flags.
The corner squares are leftover bonus triangles from Block 4. I still have more too:)


Here's my design wall this morning with some of the first Block 6 sewn {but not pressed} and the fabrics cut for my second one.



With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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