Secret Lives of Colour quilt a long

 This is my first blog post about this quilt along! I guess I have only shared photos over on Instagram, which doesn't really help me track projects and progress. I'm still behind, but this is where I'm at today :)

This is where I started - with the Canadian version of the book by Kassia St. Clair and some of the fat quarters of Anna Maria Horner fabrics that I bought last year. These are my background fabrics!

The quilt along is another fun quilting adventure thought up and delightfully executed by Pat Sloan. I have really enjoyed the process so far. Pat chose three different very light colours for her background fabrics - and I didn't! In fact, I have decided to use a variety of Anna Maria Horner fabrics. I started with some from the Love Always collection and have since purchased more fat quarters from different lines after deciding this extra challenge of using large print fabrics for the background is really fun. 

Skip ahead a bit and here are the first two rows complete. All the blocks are shoo fly blocks and vary in three different sizes. I have started in each row to reverse one block so that the colour is the background. 

This is the beginning of the third row. Pat has made a brilliant layout, which combined with using the shoo fly block, basically made me have to join this quilt along!

It is free - the book is not and it's the guide for the choosing colours for the blocks - but the instructions are free from Pat. You can find the details here: Secret Lives of Color sew along Pat also includes the sew along in her daily videos so it is possible to go through her videos for the colours - but the book makes it handy to match fabrics to the coloured edges of the book.

At this point I am looking ahead to blue fabrics as that's the colour after purple. I need this purple fabric for a block though, but have to use it to make binding for this quilt first! 

What quilt along are you enjoying right now?

With Joy,

Sarah V.

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Churn Baby Churn Quilt Along into October

This is me not showing you a completed Churn Baby Churn Dash quilt! Life got busy, I got distracted and then I decided to work on another project with a deadline first. Here is my bin of churn dash fabrics, covered with the new Quilt Sampler magazine and some selvage squares.

If you read my newsletter you'll know that I was bribing myself with the new Quilt Sampler magazine - get something done and I could get the magazine. Needless to say I got my reward and was not disappointed with the stores inside of it. The cover quilt is calling my name! 

Subscribe to my newsletter and find out what my next carrot is - look for another newsletter soon! But, back to the churn dashes. 

In the last post I showed you several different choices for the churn dash fabrics. Here are my choices for the quilt I'm making for my son's teacher:

My choices for the churn dash fabrics are a mix of light, bright and dark. This way I can play with contrast between the background fabrics too. I like a quilt that dances!

MAKING TIP: Use a photo like this to keep you organized as you sew your blocks together. I refer back to mine often!

The next challenge is to decide on two background fabrics for each churn dash block. 

For this bright green I chose two black background prints. The contrast between the churn and the background will be the most obvious. I love the size of the graphics on the Uppercase fabrics because they work so well for different size blocks. 

Choosing two light background fabrics also offers strong contrast between the churn dash and the background. The two fabrics will read the same when you look at the quilt from a distance, but offer some delightful eye candy up close to the quilt.

The  number print is full of fun colours so I decided to play off two of the colours with my choice of background prints. Blue and orange are complimentary colours - which means they play nice together! 

Here are my first three finished Churn, Baby, Churn blocks. You can see by looking at where the blocks touch that the secondary pattern is going to be fun to look at too.

Churn, Baby, Churn baby quilt pattern available at Craftsy

It's not too late to join me in making your own Churn, Baby, Churn quilt. I'm going to pick out three more blocks to finish today - they really do go together quickly! My son's teacher will be done at school in November which means I need to get this top together and quilted as soon as possible. 

With Joy,

Sarah V.

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Quilt Along for Churn Baby Churn baby quilt

I'm making a baby quilt for my son's teacher with my Churn, Baby, Churn baby quilt pattern. This is my first quilt along post for the project - and you're invited to join me!

Churn, Baby, Churn baby quilt pattern

The pattern uses a 10 inch squares pack - or layer cake - to make the churn dashes and backgrounds - no other fabric yardage needed for the front!

I get discouraged by patterns that are designed to use with precuts but then need me to add yardage. So this was a personal design challenge and I like the results. The scrappy effect of using two different fabrics behind each churn dash leaves lots of potential for playing with the colours in a fabric line. 

This is the second year my son has had this teacher - and it will be her third boy. When my son came home with the news I knew I finally had a happy reason to cut into my Uppercase fabric fat quarter bundle :)

Because the pattern is written for 10 inch squares - and then cutting those squares into 5 inch squares - I decided to cut my fabrics so my making would look like what you would make if you followed the pattern. Of course, you could also cut up a fat quarter bundle like I did to make this quilt.

 Here's a post for that:

How to make your own 10 inch squares

Now the fun part: deciding which fabrics will be the churn dashes!

I went through and took photos of three different options to show you how versatile the pattern is and also, the kind of fabric line that will make your Churn, Baby, Churn baby quilt happy too. I'm sure you've noticed that some fabric collections have lots of variety when it comes to colours, and others have very few different ones. The results will show in your quilt. Take a look at these examples and see which one you like more than the others. (None are wrong or right - just notice what you like!)

From my Uppercase fabrics I chose 12 different ones that read as light. They're not in any particular order here - meaning I might move them around in the quilt - but these would be my choices if I was making 12 light churn dashes.

Here are the 12 light churn dash fabrics paired with two background fabrics each. 

I would chose light churn dashes if I was hanging this quilt - it gives a more subtle look to the quilt and would be easy on the eyes for a long period of time.
At least that's what I think ;)

Here are my choices for twelve dark churn dashes. The number fabric is not part of the Uppercase line - but definitely inspired me to make this quilt for my son's teacher. She has done a great job nurturing his love of mathematics and I think this is a fun way to say thank you.

Here are my quick choices for backgrounds for the dark churns. I think this one would be very graphic and visually striking. I think the dark churn dashes would almost vibrate against some of these background pair choices I made! 

Then I had to go bright! If this quilt was for ME, I think I would choose to make my churn dashes with these bright prints. I hesitate to call it a feminine palette because I don't think that's how they end up looking when you add the dark backgrounds. Take a look:

See? Again it's a very dynamic, graphic effect. This one might feel busier than the dark churn dash one because of the bright fabrics vying for your eye on top of the backgrounds that are a mix of light, dark, and bright. Definitely a fun mix!


Which one do you like best?

Remember, fabrics make a quilt, but your fabric choices make it YOUR quilt!

If you're quilting along - yay! - take some time to play with your fabric and decide on which ones will be the churn dashes, then the backgrounds. 



  I love this part at the beginning of making a quilt.

 Thinking about who the quilt is for, 

what fabrics to use,

 what the quilt is celebrating/commemorating,

 and how I want the recipient to feel is

 probably my favourite part of the process.

 My next favourite part is seeing the fabric choices coming together in the right pattern!

The current pattern cover features this quilt :)

Second post in this quilt along is here

Here's a post with the quilt finished and photos of the back and the quilting -

Finished Uppercase Churn Baby Churn quilt

With Joy,

Sarah V.

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Drowning in my Lady of the Lake - Quilt Along, Anyone?

Okay, maybe I shouldn't be so dramatic. I am so close to a finish.
Some of my friends over at Pat Sloan's Quilt Mashup Forum even made blocks for me.




Enough that I will have another row in my quilt.




Enough so that I didn't have to do much at all to get this 11 year project that much closer to completion.



Enough so that I only had to make a few half square triangles to put this set of blocks together.
And that's it!


I have one more set of blocks to put together.


I have 2 rows of panels completely quilted and joined together.


A third is almost ready. The fourth is almost ready to be basted. The fifth is waiting in the wings.


I am cheering myself on with this post.
So many ideas are trying not so patiently to take me away from this project - again.

I am seriously thinking about a QUILT ALONG
- almost a challenge/artsy quilt along.

{My idea machine has tentatively called it My Hurry UP and WAIT Quilt Along. ahem}

But-the-ideas-are- flowing-so-fast-that- I -have-nothing- to-really-show-you.
I just wanted to tell you that I'm excited about it!

Would you Join Me?
Wanna Know More?

Leave me a comment and we'll see how quickly I can get this
Lady Quilted and on to
the Next Joyful Adventure:)

Sarah Vee

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