Quilting Closeups on My Quilty Barn and Mini Spools Quilt

We had a couple of hours of Autumn sunshine today. Long enough for me to grab my camera and take a few photos of the quilting on my latest finish, my Quilty Barns and Mini Spools Quilt.

You might be able to see that I quilted through the middle of the spools to make two rows of quilting. For the border I wanted to add some curves but not have to mark them! What can I say, I love the look but if I have to work too hard to get it, I avoid trying.

I am always thinking back to all of the Mennonite quilts I saw when I first started quilting. While I am no where near the level of quilter, I do resort to using simple motifs made from everyday things when I think about quilt designs. I know they would have used curves - probably leaves or wreaths - to fill in the space of the border. My choices are not so ornate (or as brilliantly executed - but I did it!)

The half orange peel like curves are done in white thread, the second round of curves (might I even call them swag-like?) are done in variegated thread.

This photo shows the decorative stitch I used to machine sew the binding on. This stitch is so much easier for me than blanket stitch on my machine because I can leave the bulk of the quilt outside of the harp (that gap in the middle of the machine). I used the funky variegated thread that came with the box of Pat Sloan Aurifil thread that I won awhile ago :) It has orange and purple, white and a little bit of lime green in it. I also used it for the lines I quilted inside the spools!


This should be the last closeup look at my Quilty Barns and Mini Spools quilt for this year! It's hanging happily in my dining room until next month when it will be replaced with my Advent calendar quilt :)


What inspires your quilting designs?


With Joy,

Sarah V

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The First and a Finish

Halloween is over for another year, but not before we had some fun decorating!

And NO SNOW! 

It did end up raining quite a bit, but since the trick or treaters started really early (like 5 o'clock!) we turned the lights out by 8 anyway.


Before Halloween night was over I did have a quilt finish making it my second one for the month!

My Quilty Barns and Mini Spools quilt! I machine quilted it this month and did the binding by machine too. Halloween night I sat on the couch and handstitched the hanging sleeve down while waiting to hand out candy.

Between my two quilting finishes I folded my stash!
The top row has piles of Tula Pink (jelly roll and fat quarters), Christmas, Bari. J. with Tim Holtz and some Mary Engelbreit, and the final pile is Cotton and Steel.
The bottom row has two piles of fat quarters, Harvest Joy picks, and pieces that are a yard/meter or more.

I do have a bit more fabric, but not much. The rest is set aside with specific projects or backings that were bought for specific projects.

Folding my fabric became a *thing* that preoccupied me while I was finishing my first quilt this month (one you'll get to see next year!) 

I promised myself that when the quilt was finished I would take the time to fold my fabric.
I extra procrastinated by perusing Pinterest for pretty directions too.


I used the folding method from Rachel at In Color Order that she shows in this video:
In Color Order Fabric Folding Tutorial

I'm so glad I did. It is calming to look at these fabrics all folded, neat and ready. I have even run my hand along the folded fronts as I walked by once. Or twice.


How do you organize your stash?


With Joy,

Sarah V

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Catch Up and Quilt On!

I'm behind in posting. Maybe I've been doing too much?!!

This is my attempt at catching up:)

Thanksgiving Sunday was so beautiful here that we ate outside! My hosta started to turn yellow - this is the view of it I see when leaning forward in my adirondack chair on the front porch.

Late last month I visited a new little quilt shop to me in Little Current - The Needle Box. Of course I found some goodies to bring home! She had the panel made up in a really cute bag with embroidery on it - I couldn't resist (it was on sale too!) I love the crow fabric - that one practically flew into my hands ;) And the skull and crossbones has a really different look to it than most other Halloween novelty fabrics I've seen. I'm participating in a Birthday Block exchange next year and two quilters are requesting Halloween themed blocks - now I have some!

This beautiful broken star would be me in a quilt!

I had the absolute pleasure to go to a quilt show by myself! I loved it, it's been awhile. What I realized was that quilt shows have always been a kind of reflecting mirror for me. I tend to gravitate to quilts that I'm ready to learn from and quilts that affirm my experiences and likes as a quilter. 

Taking the time to read the tags, the stories, really fills me up. 
Makes me want to be a quilter forever.
To Keep making more stories in bright happy colours!

I'll share more photos in another post sometime soon ;)

And I bought just enough to make me happy  - things that I would love to make but really can't make time for: a wool handstitched candlemat and a fabric bowl! The bowl is halloween fabrics - I'll have to take a better photo of it. Plus my second license plate from the Row by Row this year. And another panel - it seems I am on a panel kick right now. Hmm. Wonder how long it will take to use them!

I have been quilting! I am actually working on finishing two quilts right now, one of which is my Quilty Barns and mini spools wall hanging. I was hoping to get it done in time for this year's Quilt Blogger's Festival but my other quilt I'm working on is on a deadline which is rapidly approaching. Gotta put the blinders on and quilt only one. quilt. at. a. time. - wish me luck!

Two links for you before I go:
I use this online converter to change my edited photos that were taken on my ipad mini and show up sideways or upside down! The converter changes my photos that I edited to the right orientation into gifs that I can then use here and the photos display the right way. Yay!

And, a reward project for me! Once I'm finished making all the big quilts I love switching to  a tiny block project and Temecula Quilts is doing a Christmas mini again. Details are here, but they are already sold out of kits. That's okay, I love to play with my stash for these anyway ;)

Back to kindergarten tomorrow!




What are you quilting this fall?

With Joy,
Sarah V.

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Thankful for a Finished Quilt Top

I'm home for two weeks on practicum and sneaking in some quilting in my own space!

I'm happy to call my Quilty Barn and mini spool quilt top a finish for now.  It's hanging in my dining room and adding a punch of colour to compliment the beautiful fall leaves outside.


Thankful for home. Thankful for family.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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End of September Update

I got my September Aurifil block finished just in time. Some of the flowers at my parent's house are still blooming so I thought this was a fun place to take a picture.

I enjoyed making this block. {Can you see the shoo fly?}
Part of what made making this block so fun, was that I WON last month's prize at the Aurifil flickr page!

  Yes, I won the BIG box of Pat Sloan's thread!!

 Inside the box - quilter's candy! Beautiful thread including a variegated spool {bottom right}

 Not a great picture, but a great find! I got this whole kit of fabrics, from a Holly Holderman Lakehouse Goods line, and the pattern for $4.00 at a local thrift store. It was still tied up with the ribbon from a quilt store with the price - $48.99. Not just a great deal, but I love these fabrics. The black is a print which will make it's way into my Halloween 1904 quilt. I might even use the orange and pink gingham. Maybe!

 My final photo shows how many mini spools I have made for the final quilty barn block. I need to cut the rest of the mini spools still. 


Now it's October! Enjoy some early Fall Quilting!

Sarah Vee

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Mini Spool and Quilty Barn Update

YIKES! I thought today was the last day to link up at Bonnie Hunter's post about the mini spool leader-ender challenge.

It was yesterday. :(

I'm so close to done!

I do have a few more spools done but my camera battery died right after I took this photo.
I'm finished all my scrap making projects so now it's safe to cut down my fabric bits to 1 1/2 inch strips and make some more spools!

Check out the link up at Bonnie's here- leader-ender spool review


With Joy,
Sarah Vee

p.s. Lori Holt {Bee in My Bonnet} is still going strong with barn and farm blocks!
IF you're interested (wink)

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Quilty Barns and Mini Spools Update

I have been doing a little bit of sewing between all the out of the house working. 
This barn is finally complete.

Now I have 2 barns with mini spools! I do have one more barn made but I need to catch up on my spools. I'm glad I have gone so slow with this project as Lori at Bee in My Bonnet has introduced a Barn Door Quilt block - with a silo!!
You can see her block here and later this week she will be posting a tutorial for it too.
Yippee! She even made it the same size as these quilty barns. 
I think my final block will be one of the Barn Door blocks.

I already have a few more plans for this quilt; adding my Glorious Autumn Blocks to the bottom. 
We'll see what happens!


With Joy,
Sarah Vee

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Quilty Barn + Mini Spools

Equals a Happy Quilt!

My plan is to stop at 4 barns (!) and make them into a wallhanging for my diningroom, sashing them with my Bonnie Hunter mini spools.

Here's my second barn.

Do you think I can stop myself at four?!

Check out Nanette's Quilty Barn top here.

With Joy,

Sarah Vee

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