Which Way Should I Stripe?

I finished adding the orange sashing and inner border. Now onto the striped outer border!

Here's the top edge of the quilt. The corner squares mark the fact that I'm making small baskets to go in the corners, with the stripe fabric as the background colour. The outer border finishes at 6 inches - just like the baskets.
Now, which way should the stripe go? Across like this photo - top photo #1?

Or this one - top photo #2.

Then there's also the side borders to consider.

Side photo #1

Side photo #2

I have an idea of what I like. Of course, now I'm concerned that I cut my stripe squares for the baskets the "right" way so that the stripes continue to flow.

Do you have a preference? Would you even use the stripe?! I like it and haven't really tried anything else again. . .

It's Design Wall Monday so you can check out lots more quilts through Judy's links.

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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A Partial Finish

Remember these quilt blocks?

This is the Mystery Basket quilt I found through Megan at Will Work for Fabric.
Here is her completed top.
I discuss my different block arrangement a bit here.

I have been working at sewing the sashing in.
This is what I ended up with at the partial seam assembly:

Almost 2 inches too long. I took out the sashing you can see between the two face down blocks. At this point I was glad it was a partial seam - less unstitching to do!



Here's the completed centre. It still looks uneven in this photo, but after I folded it in half to check for squareness there was actually very little to trim. The large purple basket in the bottom row wasn''t quite square.

I hope to sneak some more time today to add the orange 2 1/2 inch inner border. Then I can play with the stripe fabric you can see in the first photo - I'm hoping it will work out as the final 6 inch border.

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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Busy 'til the Bobbin Ran Out!

I'm in a creative swing right now and my table is pretty much in a shrinking state of cutting space! But I really like what's happening, so I'm leaving the mess alone.

I have been working again at this quilt. It is finished in my mind's eye. I am having a lot of fun discovering new techniques as each idea gets ready to come alive in fabric.



These fabric piles are for {from the top}- letters - sky - sun - and leftovers that might still help out.




I ran out of bobbin thread into my last sun ray. It can wait. I am so happy with how it looks so far. Of course, the middle circle isn't attached yet, so it may not end up looking like this at all!

I did start adding the orange sashing to the Mystery Basket quilt top. You can see my blocks set out in last week's design wall post.

I'm pretty confident that I have enough orange to do the sashing. Not too sure if I have enough for the inner border. We'll see when I get there!

I took alot of process shots while working this week. {Especially of my letters and the sun rays!} I planning some photo posts with a little bit of commentary over the next week or so. I took the "Process Pledge" this week, finally. I read about it during the Blogger's Quilt Festival, but never took any real action on it. Now, I have! You'll see more step by step posts, thinking posts - and some mistakes even {aka 'design challenges"!} - as I share my process for some of my projects.

Check out more design walls through the links at Judy's blog.

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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Getting Back Into Baskets

My design wall this morning shows my completed July String blocks and lots of squares.


The squares will be made into some basket blocks to complete the Mystery Basket quilt I've been working on. You can click on the link to see the planned layout. I need to make one more basket like the ones above to complete the layout. I've decided (for now) to make 4 more to put in the outside border corners as well.


The yardage required for the blocks was a mystery to me too so not all of my blocks have the same background fabric. I switched the placement of the two larger blocks to separate the purple ones. It looked a little top heavy.

This stripe fabric was the fabric I bought and set aside thinking I'd used it for sashing, but it disappears in the busyness. It also reads a little 'pink' in person.

Here's some other fabrics I'm auditioning. I think I will use the tone on tone orange for the sashing {hoping I have enough of it! ah, mysteries!} My daughter and I thought the green floral to the left would make a good border.

Yes, but now I'm reconsidering the stripe fabric from the last photo for the outer border. Beside the sashing it should look good.

The dark blue fabric with houses on it didn't get any votes this time around. It's still sitting waiting for its quilt to show up!


I was also on a roll with my Season of Grace BOM quilt top. Here are fabrics and orphan Christmas blocks laid out to make the backing. Some of this fabric has been waiting a LONG time for its quilt to show up! Most are from Granny's stash {my husband's maternal grandmother whose leftovers I inherited}. The top blue fabric I"ve had for a long time. The floral strip at the top will be the hanging sleeve.


All I did here was rearrange the blocks so I wouldn't have too many seams on the outside edge. Just because? Or to make me think it will go together smoother and be easier to handstitch a binding onto?

Can you tell I've been away from my sewing space for awhile! I jumped right back in!

See what's up on the Design Walls through Judy's links. Stay tuned for some more busyness tomorrow:)

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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Fun Quilting Projects

First June string block. I need to finish last week's still.




The last Mystery Basket block. It's 18 1/2 inches square unfinished. I'm getting anxious to see the setting plan and how well my blocks fit together.



A fun experiment. I used a liberated method of drawing the churn dash with my rotary cutter. Then I used the background as foundation to string piece the shapes. I'm thinking about trying some more traditional blocks this way to make a liberated sampler quilt - using my fabric I won from Vicki as sashing.

Hope you're having fun with your quilting projects!

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

P.S. Congrats to CARMEL who won the selvages and coaster!

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Designing on the Wall

This was my design wall Friday night. My husband had plans to be away overnight so I started on some projects. I didn't get much done Friday night, but the rest of the weekend things progressed. The basket blocks at the top are for June's Block Lotto.

I finished my 2nd last block for the Basket Mystery quilt. Instructions for piecing the top should come out later this month.

This is my last block for the project. Printing out the design in black and white lets me see the designer's value placement. This helps me choose my colours as I usually don't use the same type of fabrics as the example. {I did originally have the blue and green centers reversed to match the example - but I like it better this way.}


Then I put my choices up on the design wall and walk away for awhile. Walking in and out of the room throughout the day I can see how I respond to the colours. In this case, I liked it, but something wasn't quite right.

Better. I had repeated the yellow in 2 flowers, but not the third. Now that I added it in I feel like the flowers go together better. This is just about all of the original yellow background fabric I have left!

Here's hoping the design wall helps me put the blocks together into a cohesive quilt top!

Check out some more design walls at Judy's blog.

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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Spring to Finish Design Wall

Here's my Design Wall for this Monday Morning :

I am starting to work on making a flock of geese blocks for the borders of a quilt. This is one of the projects on my Spring to Finish list. I also have several selvages cut at 6 inches and 5 foundation piece ready for them. I'm planning to get something 'extra' done this week.

Check out Judy's links to other Monday Design Wall quilters.

My Midway Point 'Spring to Finish' Finishes :

Four String Blocks finished.

I am making one of these each week for the entire year. My sister is doing the same thing - but differently! I'm counting each block as a finish because I can - and because I need to stay caught up to actually make this quilt THIS year!

Sew Modern Bee Block

May is the first month of the Canadian Sew Modern Bee. This block is for Marianne. I made a bonus block for her too (but it doesn't count as a finish).

Mystery Basket Block

I finished a mystery basket block too. It measures 18 1/2 inches square. I was supposed to do 2 blocks, but the last block hasn't been posted yet. So - this counts as a finish!

Total Finishes So Far = 6

Finishes to Go = 5
{Of Course I Left the Biggest Ones until the End!}

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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First May Monday Design Wall

This is what my Design Wall looked like Sunday night. I finished a Mystery Basket block and put together my April string blocks. My first string block for May is off to the far left accumulating strings.




Start of a new week - start of a new block! These will be blocks for May's Block Lotto. I don't have very bright lime green right now, but I think this green will work. Glad to be using up these black and white prints, which I believe have been in my stash since the late 90's when I did a black and white fabric swap online.

Check out some other design walls through Judy's link.

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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Thursday 3 - Sticking to the List

Finished String Block for 4th week in April

18 1/2 inches Mystery Basket Block finished
{including stitched down ric rac stems}

I'm doing really well on sticking to my Spring to Finish list.

You can keep track of my progress in my sidebar .------->

Other projects on the list are moving along as fabric was washed and ironed.
Part of my ability to stay focused is this -


Keeping my table clean! I'm working quicker and with fewer distractions.

Let's see what I can get finished next!

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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Designing or Cheating?

I'm seriously considering changing my blog name to " Sew Joy with ORANGE!"
You'll see why below. . .


I have a full design wall this week. Mostly to meet all of my Spring to Finish goals.

Top Left: String Block. This will be this week's block. I usually put my foundation up and then add strings from projects I'm working on for the week on top. The purple is my foundation so I only need one more strip this week.

Bottom Left: Carrots and Tops. These are for my Bunny Lady quilt. I have one border almost stitched on. This is enough carrots for one more border. 2 to go.



Top Right: Wonky Shoofly. I joined the Block Lotto! I could no longer resist this block. Shoofly was one of the first blocks I made as a quilter. It holds a sentimental place in my heart. Add orange and I'm really smiling!



Bottom Right: Mystery Basket. This is where I feel like I'm cheating! The background for this block is supposed to be all yellow. But - I ran out. Who knew there would be 18 1/2 inch unfinished blocks in the sampler?! {It's a mystery, right}



I started to worry last month that my background fabric was dwindling. I had a yard and a half, but, well, obviously that wasn't enough. I did start to add in some orange blocks just in case I needed to do some creative blending. Now we'll just have to wait and see.

Check out some other design walls through Judy's link.

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

ps. did you see all the orange? In every. single. project! Perhaps it's time to spin the colour wheel - or to really focus on orange. Do you have a favourite go-to colour?

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Pretty Ways to Avoid Bias

Did I really just use the word "pretty"?!

Here are the ways I found around making handles for the March Mystery Basket blocks.

ric rac and buttons

various buttons

medium size black ric rac

lace trim

Someday I will have to learn how to make a bias handle on a basket block.

Just not for this quilt!

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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Friday Finishes

A Mystery Basket Block. This one measures 10 1/2 inches unfinished.


My daughter's Butterfly Sunshine wallhanging. It measures 26 1/2 inches square unfinished. When she has some time this weekend we will decide on what fabric to use for binding and if she has any quilting preferences. Within reason!

It's snowing today. I think Spring will be that much sweeter the SECOND time around!

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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