Sunday, March 17, 2024

Stash Report and Stitching Time 3/17/2024

There's not a whole lot to share for the stash report this week. I did use 3/4 yard for the batch of Sewcialites 2 blocks I made as part of our guild's Block of the Month program. 

Sewcialites 2
3", 6" and 9" blocks

The batik fabrics in these two blocks  are from the Island Batiks line "Limerick", which seems appropriate for St. Patrick's Day.


I received a fabric order last week, but barely had time to even look at it. I will tally up the yardage added and include it in next week's stash report.


2024 STASH TOTALS
Used last week:                     .75 yards
Used year to date:                20.0 yards
Added last week:                    0.0 yards
Added year to date:             17.50 yards
Net used in 2024:              2.50 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 currently away from home for a few days, enjoying a visit with family in Wisconsin. I brought along my usual hand-stitching project and have managed to get in a little stitching time each day.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024: 
3/10 - 3  /16        7 of 7 days
2024 Total        76 of 76 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

Monday, March 11, 2024

Design Wall Monday 3/11/2024

One of the new quilt projects that I started last month was our guild's new block of the month. We considered several BOM options and settled on Sewcialites 2 by Fat Quarter Shop. This originally ran as a weekly block program from October, 2022 until April, 2023. All of the block patterns are still available on the Fat Quarter Shop's website. The illustration below is from the original announcement on their blog.

The plan for the guild is to make two blocks each month. There are 24 different block patterns, so it will take us a full year to get through them all. Participants will share their blocks at the monthly meetings, and their name is entered into a prize drawing each time they complete the assigned blocks.

The block patterns include instructions for blocks in three different sizes, 3", 6" or 9". I've been having some trouble deciding what size to make, so I tried them all. For the 3" blocks, I used all solid colors.

3" blocks

My 6" blocks are made in Christmas colors. I'm not wild about the bright limey green, but I think it would be okay when there are more blocks made.

6" blocks

My first attempt at the 9" blocks features some batiks that I won in a giveaway from Island Batik last year.

9" blocks

I also made a second set of 9" blocks with a navy background and fiery yellows and oranges. These look like they would make a very dramatic quilt.

9" blocks

All of the blocks look like the same size in the photos above because they are all scaled to the maximum for my blog. The next photo lets you really see the difference in the sizes.

Sewcialites 2, Blocks 1 & 2

I'm not really planning to make four different sets of blocks every month, but I will probably do two, maybe even three. The hard part will be deciding which to eliminate. It is unlikely that I will use the FQS setting, shown in the illustration at the top of this post, for most of them, but that decision is a long ways off.

Check out what other quilters are working on this week at Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and at Monday Musings at Songbird Designs. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Stash Report and Stitching Time 3/10/2024

Looking back over the past week's stitching time, garments seem to have become a theme. The current Project Quilt Challenge is all about Wearables--either make something quilted from clothing, add quilting to a piece of clothing, or make an actual garment. I made two placemats using fabrics from old shirts (read more in this post.) I used 1 yard of fabric for the placemats.


I also made a pair of pajama pants last week, using 3 yards of fabric. They were a gift, and unfortunately I didn't get a photo of them. Just last night I was asked to do a couple of minor sewing repairs on clothing for a family member. Like I said, there seems to be a theme.

The good news regarding the stash report is that my usage for the week has finally gotten me back in the black as having used more fabric than has been added for the year. The not-so-good news is that a recent fabric order has finally shipped and should get here next week. 

2024 STASH TOTALS
Used last week:                     4.00 yards
Used year to date:               19.25 yards
Added last week:                     0.0 yards
Added year to date:             17.50 yards
Net used in 2024:              1.75 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. On top of all the garment-related stitching, I spent lots of time cutting for various quilt-along projects. I also finished making the blocks for a baby quilt, and I hope to get the quilt top assembled today.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024: 
3/3 - 3  /9            7 of 7 days
2024 Total        69 of 69 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

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Purple Spinners

It has been a busy week, but I did find some time to make a start on my blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Our color for March is purple, and I started by making some Rail Fence Spinner blocks.


One of the purple blocks was made in November to use up some of the leftover parts from last year's Rail Fence project. The rest of these purple blocks were made this week. Their finished size will be 6".

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

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Project Quilting 15.5: Wearables

The fifth challenge for Season 15 of Project Quilting was announced on Sunday, and the theme this week is "Wearables":
 

PQ 15.5 WEARABLES

For this week’s challenge, we’re working with “wearables” – I want you to either start or end fashionably. Here’s what I mean.
 
One option is to turn clothes into something else. Are you ready to recycle your wedding dress into something new? Is it time to make a special project from t-shirts or old ties? I hear denim makes great rugs!
 
Or, you could quilt-ify something you wear. Try some visible mending and embellish existing pieces, or make a tote or hat or apron.
 
Another option is to use the theme in a quilt. Make a wall hanging about your passion for shoes, or try that Ugly Sweater quilt block pattern.
 
And finally – there’s a special opportunity for you this week! You can make a piece of clothing. Any piece of clothing you sew will qualify this week: pajama pants, an Easter dress, a jacket, a skirt – you can do it all. And for this, I’m making a one-time-only exception to the usual PQ rules about 3-layers or embellished or pieced, etc. This week only, if you whip up a sewn piece of clothing (from a pattern is fine!) you can enter it in PQ! 
(I’m doing this to allow us scaredy-cats a growth opportunity to try apparel sewing.)
 
Now, don’t get carried away breaking the rules – you still have to BEGIN and END your project between 3/3/24 and 3/10/24 (no WIP projects, please), and it still has to be FINISHED. Done means buttoned, bound, hemmed, zipped, snapped or tied with a bow – your project must be finished to qualify.

RULE ONE: your project must be wearable, or have been made from previously worn items, or have another connection to clothes, shoes and fashion accessories.

Making clothing is not a big deal for me. I've been sewing for more than 50 years, but didn't start quilting until 1995. Before that, it was all clothing--mostly for myself at first, later as a career making theatre costumes, which I did for 40+ years. I still make garments occasionally, but most of the time I prefer to stick to quilting. 

For this challenge, I decided to pull out my box of old shirts and shirt fabric scraps. Bonnie Hunter seems to be the queen of using old shirt fabrics, and I've managed to amass a small collection of fabrics. I chose a few to use in two placemats.





Both placemats finished at 13.5" x 18". The dark fabrics in the chains of rectangles on each were also used for the backs. Both of those fabrics were from shirts that used to belong to my husband, but all the rest of the fabrics were from thrift store/garage sale shirts. The quilting is all stitch-in-the-ditch.

These two placemats will join the growing pile that will be donated to Meals on Wheels by our quilt guild. I'm hoping to end up with an even dozen to donate at an upcoming meeting. 

Linking up with:
Project Quilting 15.5 at Persimon Dreams
Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation
Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict


Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Stash Report and Stitching Time 3/3/2024

February was the month of many small red blocks, as shown in my post for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge yesterday (read the post HERE.) 


Some of those blocks have already been counted in earlier stash reports, but many have not. The remaining blocks from February used a total of 1.5 yards of fabric. No new fabric was added to the stash last week.

2024 STASH TOTALS
Used last week:                     1.50 yards
Used year to date:               15.25 yards
Added last week:                     0.0 yards
Added year to date:             17.50 yards
Net added in 2024:            2.25 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. Besides finishing up the red blocks for February, I also cut out and started piecing a new baby quilt for a sewing day along with other guild members.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024: 
2/25 - 3  /2          7 of 7 days
2024 Total        62 of 62 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

Saturday, March 2, 2024

So Many Red Blocks!

February was the month to use our red scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and I certainly went through plenty of red. Now it's time to put away the red scraps and make a start on my purple scraps for March. I don't have anything purple to show yet, so I'm posting a final wrap-up of all my red blocks from the past month. (Some of these have already been shared in earlier posts.)

My first red project to get done in February was the blocks for the RSC 2024 Samper, Hen and Chicks. The small blocks will finish at 3" and the larger ones are 6". I'm planning to make all my blocks for this sampler from batiks.


My next project was the Rail Fence Spinner blocks. I ended up with eight red blocks, plus one green block leftover from January. These are also 6" blocks.


I've been participating in the Project Quilting challenges at Persimon Dreams for the past couple of years. One of our challenges in February was to use "Hourglass" as our inspiration. I made a scrappy, strippy red placemat, which is also my entry in the Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter.


Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts is hosting a Birthday Quilt 2024 quilt along to celebrate her birthday. There is a new pattern for a 6" block posted every week. I am alternating using a dark or a light background each week, and my blocks this month all feature red.



Hollow 9-Patch blocks have been one of my leader and ender projects since the beginning of the year. I ended up with nine 6" blocks in red for February.



The last red project for the month was added to the lineup less than two weeks ago. It is the improv scrappy colorwash blocks inspired by Terry Rowland. You can read more about these in last week's post. I ended up with 36 blocks for the month. They will finish at 3".


I put most of my red blocks up on the design wall together, although the Terry blocks are not included. It makes a wonderfully crazy, scrappy jumble of red!


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

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Stash Report and Stitching Time 2/25/2024

My first two blocks for the Chatsworth Quilt Along were finished just in time for the release of the next two blocks on Thursday. I'm so excited by how these blocks look, and I've already started on Blocks 3 & 4. These two used a total of 3/4 yard of fabric.


My other fabric usage for the week was 1/2 yard for the  placemat made as part of Project Quilting 15.4: Hourglass. You can see it HEREThere were no new fabric additions to the stash last week, but I did place an order that should get here in a week or so.

2024 STASH TOTALS
Used last week:                     1.25 yards
Used year to date:               13.75 yards
Added last week:                     0.0 yards
Added year to date:             17.50 yards
Net added in 2024:             3.75 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've been working away at several different projects, and yesterday I spent part of the afternoon pulling out fabric options for two possible baby quilts.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024: 
2/18 - 2/24          7 of 7 days
2024 Total        55 of 55 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

Saturday, February 24, 2024

A New Scrappy Project

Over the past several years, I've done a few projects inspired by Bonnie Hunter's Leader and Ender challenges. Every summer, Bonnie introduces a new block to be made while working on other projects. If you have the pieces all cut and waiting next to the machine, it's amazing how much you can get done without really trying. For an explanation of how leaders and enders work, check out Bonnie's page HERE.

I've done a couple of leader/ender projects recently with the goal of making one block for every day of the year. I didn't always succeed at that goal, but I've come close. These have included my Square Dance blocks in 2020 (near the bottom of the page,) Bowties in 2021 (HERE and HERE,) and the Rail Fence blocks in 2022 & '23.

I hadn't come up with a plan for a daily block to make this year until about a week ago. I've been seeing photos of some wonderful colorwash quilts made by Terry Rowland of T Row Studios. I haven't been able to find a blog or website for her, but she is active on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. She has a series of three YouTube videos demonstrating how to make this amazing quilt.


The blocks are extremely easy to make and perfect for using up scraps. Each block finishes at only 3" square (although it would be simple enough to make them larger too.) I spent one afternoon cutting up red scraps, our color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and ended up with this. Each little stack will become one block.


Most of my blocks so far have been made as leaders and enders, although I did finish off a couple extras for the photo this morning. Once again, my goal is to average one block every day. Some days I might not get any made, but other days there will be a few.


The block with the white wavy stripes on red really jumps out at me and might not work for the colorwash effect. I'll wait to see how it looks when I have blocks made in more colors. 

I should be able to finish the rest of the red blocks before the end of February. I'd also like to start a set of green blocks, our color from January, but I'm not sure I'll have time to get very far on that this month. The greens might spill over into future months.

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

Tuesday, February 20, 2024

Project Quilting 15.4: Hourglass

The fourth challenge for Season 15 of Project Quilting was announced on Sunday, and the theme this week is "Hourglass":
 

PQ 15.4 HOURGLASS

It’s one of the most common yet foundational of geometric shapes: the hourglass. Just two triangles stacked tip-to-tip. Put them inside a square and it’s a block even beginners can sew. 
 
But it’s also a symbol embued with meaning – representing the passage of time, a reminder of our inevitable mortality. A grim reminder of things lost and … wait, it got real grim all a sudden. 
 
Maybe I should switch subjects.
 
SEX! Yay! That’s better: let’s instead consider the hourglass as an idealization of the womanly form and the lusty virtues of youth. 

Er. Or maybe I should just stop and let you decide where you take this one?

Rule One: you must use an hourglass SHAPE in your project, but you do not have to use the exact hourglass BLOCK.

My version of the hourglass challenge used the traditional block design, but turned it into a rectangle so that it could become a placemat. I began with the triangles along the outer edges, then built them up with strips in a variety of red fabrics, our color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Hourglass placemat, 12.75" x 16.75"

This placemat will join the pile that is accumulating to be donated to Meals on Wheels. Since I used leftover strips and scraps, I'm also entering this for the Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter. I've even got some hearts in there to fit the monthly theme.


The backing fabric was folded around to the front to become the binding.

Linking up with:
Project Quilting 15.4 at Persimon Dreams
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication
Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter
Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts
Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA
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