One Monthly Goal--January 2025

The beginning of a new year is a big time for making resolutions and setting goals. I'm joining in with the One Monthly Goal link-up, hosted by Anne-Marie at Stories from the Sewing Room.

It was very easy to decide on my goal this month because I had promised to make a quilt-as-you-go style baby quilt to show at our next guild meeting. We are having a community service sewing day at the end of the month, and this is one of the options to make. I've pulled out a couple groups of fabric as options for my quilt. Both photos include a flannel that would be used for the quilt back (the blue and white dots in the 1st photo, and the multi-color circles on light green in the second.)

I've made a few baby quilts in the past using this same quilt-as-you-go technique. The design is based on the Quick Strippie pattern at maryquilts.com. She also has another version that is even easier: Quicker Strippie. I recommend you check out her website for tons of free patterns, and her blog, Making Scrap Quilts from Stash,  for endless inspiration.

Here are a couple of the baby quilts I've made before based on Mary's pattern. The  QAYG variation was my way to speed up the construction even more. The pattern is extremely flexible and a great way to use novelty prints.

Rainbow Strippy baby quilt, 2015

36" x 42.5"

One Fish, Two Fish baby quilt, 2017

38" x 41.5"

I'm linking up with the One Monthly Goal party at Stories from the Sewing Room. Check it out to see what other quilters are hoping to accomplish this month! I'm also linking up with Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter.

Happy quilting!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 1/5/2025

This week's stash report crosses over from the end of 2024 to the beginning of 2025. In my case, there's nothing to report yet for stash usage or additions in 2025, so my stash report will focus on the final totals from 2024.

I've been finishing up some blocks for the guild's BOM challenge. We are using the Sewcialites 2 pattern from Fat Quarter Shop. The pattern includes instructions for three different sizes of blocks, 3", 6" & 9". I started out by making all three sizes, but that didn't last very long. Two recent additions to the collection were blocks #11 & 12 in the 9" size, using 3/8 yard of fabric.

I decided to concentrate on finishing off my set of 3" blocks. I used 5/8 yard of fabric to make blocks #11 - 24 plus an extra block of my own choice. Here are all 25 blocks together, in no particular order.

Soon I'll be working on figuring out how to turn this set of tiny little blocks into a finished quilt. Our deadline for the final reveal is March.

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                      1.0 yards

Used year to date:               137.0 yards

Added last week:                     0.0 yards

Added year to date:           117.25 yards

Net used in 2024:            19.75 yards

My final stash numbers for 2024 fit right in with my annual goals to use, donate or give away at least 100 yards of fabric and to use more fabric than I add to the stash. Maybe I can get up to 150 yards used this year?

Kate's 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces has us tracking how many days each week we get in at least 15 minutes of quilting time. It has been a very good year for getting in my daily time, with only five days missed all year, and those days were all when we were traveling. I'm looking forward to another year of tracking my days of quilting.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024

12/29 - 12/31           3 of 3 days

2024 Total         361 of 366 days

Success rate               98.6 %   

The new year has gotten off to a good start for quilting time. It's unlikely I will ever have a 100% success rate for a whole year, but I'm very happy with my total for 2024, and I hope to come close to the same this year.

15 Minute Challenge for 2025

1/1 - 1/4                  4 of 4 days

2024 Total                4 of 4 days

Success rate                100 %   

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces. Thanks so much to Donna and Kate for continuing to host these link-ups. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

2024 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Review

It's the first Saturday of 2025, and I haven't yet figured out a plan for my 2025 Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects. Before I worry about that, I'm going to look back at my projects for the RSC in 2024. It was my 12th year of participating in the RSC, and I have to start off by thanking Angela for continuing to host the challenge every year. I am also grateful for the encouragement and inspiration every week from the other quilters who participate in the RSC.

My RSC projects for 2024 included new projects plus a couple that carried over from previous years. That combination of new and old will also continue into 2025. For this wrap-up post, I'm going to start with the projects that were new in 2024, then work back through the older ones.

In looking back at my records from last year, I was somewhat surprised to discover that I started three new RSC projects in the very first week of the year. The first was the Birthday Quilt 2024 from Laundry Basket Quilts, a block-of-the-week series of patterns. I made my blocks using the RSC colors and alternating between light and dark backgrounds. After eight months, I decided to stop making more blocks, framed all the ones that were already made, and joined them together into a small quilt top in October.

LBQ Birthday Blocks

40" x 56"

Another sampler quilt was also started that first week of 2024. This one was the Hen & Chicks sampler, designed by our RSC hostess Angela. Each month I made four 6" blocks and four matching 3" blocks. You can see how Angela joined her blocks in this post. I decided to go with a different type of setting, and got all my blocks joined together into a top before the end of the year. 

RSC 2024 Hen & Chicks Sampler

41.5" x 55.5"

The third new project that was started in the first week of the year was Hollow 9-Patch. I used 2.5" squares to make 6" blocks in the RSC color each month. These were great to have as a leader/ender project. I ended up with about 80 blocks by November, and I have been working on getting them joined together. The blocks and sashing on the left half are stitched together, and the rest are joined into columns.

The last new RSC project for 2024 was started in February. That was the "Terry" blocks, inspired by Terry Rowland's colorwash quilts, featured in her series of three YouTube videos. These scrappy little blocks will finish at 3". I have approximately 400 blocks made, and I need to go back and make some in colors I missed, plus add more to a few of the other colors. Here all are of the pink blocks from last May.

One of my 2024 RSC projects was a carry over from 2023. I had been making Rail Fence blocks all that year, and by the end of the year I had two quilt tops (see them in this post), plus an assortment of leftover blocks. I discovered that joining four blocks together made a pinwheel-type design. That led to making many more rail fence blocks, and by the end of the year I had one quilt top and one finished baby quilt.

Rail Fence Spinners #1, quilt top

42.5" x 54.5"

Rail Fence Spinners baby quilt

39.5" x 48"

I have one quilt top from 2024 that features our color of the month from July, which was the aqua/turquoise/teal family. I was inspired by a herringbone design from a Kleenex box, and used that inspiration plus a stack of blue-green fabric scraps to make a little baby quilt. I hoping to revisit the herringbone design this year.

Herringbone quilt top, 33" x 39.5"

One RSC project from 2023 was finished in 2024. I had taken a class in June, 2023, A Maze Zing with Candace Hassen. The original pattern produced blocks that finish at 16" x 24", but I scaled mine down a bit to 13.5" x 19.5". I made blocks using the RSC colors for several months in 2023, then finished them all off as placemats toward the end of 2024.

A Maze Zing blocks (before quilting)

My plans for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2025 are still undecided, although I am determined to finish some of the many rainbow quilt tops hanging in the closet. It feels good to see that most of my 2024 RSC projects are either finished tops or very close to that point. I'll finish up the Hollow 9-Patches soon, and get back to the Terry blocks at some point. I look forward to another year of colorful, scrappy adventures!

Be sure to check out all of the wonderful scrappy projects at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge every Saturday, and at Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

30's Pinwheels--First Finish of 2025!

One of my top quilting goals for 2025 is to finish more quilts. Like many other quilters, I am much better at starting quilt projects than finishing. To tell the truth, I don't really enjoy doing the machine quilting, and I certainly can't afford to have everything I make long-armed. That has resulted in a closet full of unquilted quilt tops, and this year is the time to do something about it.

One theory I've read about ways to reduce your number of UFOs is to start with the ones that need the least work to be completed. This little quilt was an easy choice from that perspective. The top had been finished back in May, 2016, and it was quilted later that same year. I even went ahead and made the binding back then too, but for some reason, it never got bound, until now. This is 30's Pinwheels Baby Quilt #2.

30's Pinwheels Baby Quilt #2

39" square

Here's a closer look at some of the fabrics in the current finish. I wish I had more of that diagonal plaid, but it's quite old. Actually, most of my stash of 30's fabrics is at least 20 years old, with the majority of fabrics purchased between 2000 and 2005.

For a bit of style contrast, I used a fun tie-dye swirl print flannel for the backing. That's another fabric I would use again and again if I had more.

This little quilt is a companion to another baby quilt that was finished early in 2016. At the time I made enough pinwheel blocks for both quilts, one of which got finished right away and given to a new great niece (now 8 years old!) I couldn't find any photos of that first quilt finished, but here are all the blocks for it on my design wall. The plaid in the large pinwheels is the same design as the border fabric in the new quilt, but the colors are different (more pastel, pink instead of red.) 

30's Pinwheels baby quilt #1, 2016

When I was checking my box of 30's fabrics to see what I had left of the border/sashing/setting fabrics, I made an amazing find--two Ziploc bags with still more 30's pinwheel blocks. According to a note in with the blocks, there are close to 150 of them! I looked back at past blog posts and discovered that I made them as leaders and enders at various times between 2018 and 2020. What a treasure trove to discover! I am envisioning several more pinwheel baby quilts to come.

Stacks of pinwheel blocks

Linking up with:

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting!

Julie in GA

Best of 2024--End of Year Review

For the tenth straight year, Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs is hosting the Best of 2024 Linky Party, a chance to link up our top blog posts from the past year. Cheryl suggested some ways to choose our best posts such as most views, most comments, best tutorials, and favorite finishes. I'm going to include several of her suggestions, plus throw in a couple of my own. Each listing has a link back to my original blog post.

1. Most views: Jabberwocky

The blocks for this quilt were made throughout 2023 as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and I got them all joined together in late January, 2024. The block pattern is by Judy Martin in The Block Book. The book is out of print, but you can still find copies online.

Jabberwocky, block pattern by Judy Martin

65" x 76.75"

2a. Most comments: Orange Peel Rainbow

The applique blocks for this quilt were stitched as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge all through 2019 and up to the summer of 2020.  The blocks were joined together in August, 2020. The quilt top waited patiently until spring of 2024, when I added a border, then finished it for entry into a local quilt show. This is also my favorite finished quilt of 2024.

Orange Peel Rainbow

39.5" x 51.5"

3. Favorite mystery: Lighthouse Inn Modern Mystery Quiltalong

This was my second mystery quilt by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr of Modern Quilt Studio, and they are masters at keeping you guessing while you make the blocks. I love the way my colors in this quilt worked together with the navy background, and the gradation of block sizes makes for an intriguing design.

Lighthouse Inn quilt top

57.5" x 82"

4. Favorite self-designed quilt: Herringbone

While cleaning off my cutting table one day in July, I ran across a portion of an old Kleenex box that I had saved as a quilt design inspiration. That led to my making a small, scrappy herringbone quilt from a wide range of turquoise, teal and aqua scraps. I would have made it larger, but ran out of the light contrast fabric.

Herringbone quilt top

33" x 39.5"

I might still add a border to this little quilt top, and I'm also thinking about making it again with the ends of the strips cut at a different angle. This is a design that I can envision making in multiple variations.

5. Project of the year: Placemats Parade

2024 turned out to be the year of the placemat for me. I started out by making placemats for all the different Project Quilting challenges at the beginning of the year. Those were followed by 22 placemats made for our guild's Christmas market, then many others to be donated by the guild to Meals on Wheels. The final total number of placemats made in 2024 came to 80!

Piles of placemats

Those are some of my quilting highlights from the past year. I'm still thinking about plans and goals for 2025, but I'd be willing to bet that placemats will appear again. My top goal is to start fewer new projects and get more of the old ones finished. 

Thanks to Cheryl for giving us all the opportunity to share our favorite posts and projects from the past year. I'm joining up with her "Best of 2024" linky party.

Happy quilting and Happy New Year to all!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 12/29/2024

We are just a couple days from the end of 2024, and I've had a good year with my stash report goals. Every year my general goal is to use more fabric from the stash than I add to it. Unless something changes dramatically in the next few days, my total usage for the year will be close to the same as the last two years, around 135 - 140 yards used. Even better is the fact that the yardage added for the year will be significantly less than recent years (15 - 30 yards less than 2023 or 2022.)

There was some stash usage over the past week. The largest amount, 2.75 yards of this fun chili pepper print, was used to make a pair of pajama pants as a Christmas gift. 

I used another 1.5 yards for the sashing and borders on the Hen & Chicks Sampler that I shared in yesterday's post. I also used 1 yard for more placemats, the three made as a gift for my mother, plus this one that I made yesterday.

The block in this placemat was made almost exactly one year ago as a sample for a possible Rainbow Scrap Challenge project. I didn't enjoy piecing the block and abandoned the idea for the RSC. I'm glad to get the block out of the box of orphan blocks and piecing leftovers. This bring my total number of placemats made this year to an even 80!

The total fabric used for the week totals 5.25 yards, and there was no new fabric added to the stash this week. Next week's post will include the final numbers for 2024 plus the beginning of 2025.

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                    5.25 yards

Used year to date:               136.0 yards

Added last week:                     0.0 yards

Added year to date:           117.25 yards

Net used in 2024:            18.75 yards

Kate's 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces has us tracking how many days each week we get in at least 15 minutes of quilting time. I'm trying to finish assembling some of my collections of blocks from Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects into finished tops before the end of the year, and I was very happy to complete the Hen & Chicks Sampler top this week. I'd love to get one more done before the year is over!

15 Minute Challenge for 2024

12/22 - 12/28           7 of 7 days

2024 Total         358 of 363 days

Success rate               98.6 %   

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces. Thanks so much to Donna and Kate for continuing to host these link-ups. 

Happy quilting everyone, and Happy New Year!

Julie in GA

Hen & Chicks Sampler

It's the last ScrapHappy Saturday of 2024, and I'm cutting it close to the end of the year, but I did manage to finish assembling the top for one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects this week. This is my RSC 2024 Hen and Chicks Sampler quilt!

RSC 2024 Hen & Chicks Sampler

41.5" x 55.5"

Every month our RSC hostess Angela posted patterns for four different blocks, including instructions for multiple block sizes. Like her, I made all of the blocks in both 6" and 3" finished sizes, ending the year with 40 blocks in each size. I used the same batik background for all of the blocks, and all of the other fabrics used were also batiks.

I'm always trying to figure out different ways to put sampler quilt blocks together. For this one, I decided to do a medallion type setting. I added sashing of the background fabric between the blocks for a little separation, plus borders of the same fabric between each round. There was a lot math involved, and eventually I just started putting the center together and adjusting to make the outer rounds fit.

I might still add a narrow border of the background around the outside, but maybe not because I don't want it to get any bigger. I'm planning a scrappy batik binding to finish it off.

Some of those little 3" blocks were quite challenging to piece accurately, but everything turned out well in the end. I especially like the bright colors on the mostly white background, giving this a fresh feeling of springtime. My setting used all but one of the 6" blocks, and I also had four of the 3" blocks left at the end.

Be sure to check out all of the wonderful scrappy projects at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge every Saturday and Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Placemats Parade

Finishing quilts has never been one of my greatest strengths. Like so many other quilters, I'm much better at starting new projects. However, over the past couple of years, I've discovered one type of quilt project that I am much more successful at completing, and that is placemats. I love making placemats! Each one is like a little mini quilt, the perfect place to try out design ideas or color combos or quilting designs. 

The most recent set of placemats to be made were a gift for my mother's 90th birthday. I've had a bin full of Mom's old fabric scraps, some dating back to the the 1950's and 60's, ever since my sister and I used those fabrics to make three scrappy quilts together back in 2015 (read more about those quilts HERE and HERE.) There was one small bundle of strips in the bin that I knew were left from a log cabin quilt Mom had made back in the late 60's or early 1970's.

Mom's log cabin quilt

The colors and prints in the fabrics are so typical of that time. The blocks in the quilt are very large, close to 18" square. My favorite fabric is the green one with orange flowers and chickens. (Click on the photo below for a closer look.)

Those leftover strips, plus a few other fabrics in similar colors from the bin of old scraps, were combined to make three strippy placemats. I finished them off with a batik fabric for the backs.

Those are probably the last placemats I will make this year. They brought my total for the year up to almost 80 placemats. I wasn't kidding at the beginning of this post when I said that I love making them! Here are some of the others that I made this year, with links to previous blog posts for most of them.

Project Quilting, Season 15

Stack and Whack Pinwheels (for guild Christmas market)

more Stack & Whack Pinwheels

more Stack & Whack Pinwheels

Strippy Quilt as You Go

More QAYG

Even more QAYG

Orphan block placemats

Mini Bowties

Dresden Star orphan blocks

A Maze Zing x 14

Other than the Stack & Whack Pinwheel sets for the Christmas market and the set for my mother, all of the rest were donated to Meals on Wheels through two different quilt guilds. 

Linking up with:

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA