Design Wall Monday 2/6/2023

My design wall has been seeing plenty of action over the past week, with several different projects making appearances there. You can see most of them in yesterday's post. 

Much of yesterday morning was spent auditioning fabrics for the borders of our quilt guild's block of the month. This project is based on a free pattern from the National Quilt Museum (scroll down the page until you get to 2020 Quilt Along.)

Here is my center block with the first two borders. It should measure 17-1/2" at this point (I haven't checked.)

Up next it gets a 1" plain border, followed by a wide border with flying geese randomly scattered through it. After that comes another narrow border, then one more wide border with stars. The pattern shows it with dark backgrounds at the center, light for the middle wide border, and dark again for the outer. I don't have enough of any lighter fabrics that work for the middle border, so I'm thinking about keeping all of them on the darker side. Here are some of the combinations I considered.

The next photo gives an idea of the contrast I'm trying to achieve. By keeping the borders so dark, the piecing on them will show up well.

These fiery hot colors seem to be a theme for me lately. The Pickle Dish arcs below are another current project. The color choices must be my reaction to the cold, grey weather.

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

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Stash Report and Stitching Time 2/5/2023

Anyone who read my most recent To-Do Tuesday post knows that I have a very long list of quilt projects that I'm working through. I made some good progress this week, although none of the projects used a large amount of fabric. Here's a photo of my design wall with most of the week's projects on it.

Shown in this photo are the Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR) at top left, a pink placemat for Project Quilting 14.3 (top right,) two pink 16-Patch Stars blocks (bottom left,) and the center of the quilt guild's Block of the Month (bottom right.)

The project not shown in the first photo is the Pickle Dish quilt. I made eight more arcs last week. They don't like to stick to the flannel of the design wall because they have paper on the back, but I got a photo of them laid out flat.

Altogether, those projects combined used a total of 2.625 yards of fabric, all from my stash, and there was no new fabric added!

2023 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 2.625 yards

Used year to date:            12.875 yards

Added last week:                   0.0 yards

Added year to date:               2.0 yards

Net used in 2023           10.875 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 stitching time. I keep plugging away at my many different projects and am enjoying the variety of challenges that they present. We had a fair amount of rain last week, which made spending the day in my sewing room even more appealing!

15 Minute Challenge for 2023: 

1/29 - 2/4            7 of 7 days

2023 Total        35 of 35 days

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Scrappy Pink Saturday

February is the month to use our pink scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I already had some of my pink scraps out from making pink placemats for two different Project Quilting Challenges, "Pink Tint" and "54-40 or Fight."

For my Rainbow Scraps Challenge projects, I started out this month with an easy one and made two 16-Patch Stars blocks.

My blocks are being made from 3.5" squares and will finish at 12" each. The pinks look good with the deep blues from January.

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

SAHRR Week Three

It is week three for the Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR), and our prompt for the second border comes from Wendy at Pieceful Thoughts of my Quilting Life. She has chosen stars for the next addition. I had left the corners empty at the ends of my spools border, and I've added the stars there. 

I added the striped fabric to each side of the spools border to bring it up to the same size as my stars. Now I'm wondering how those corners would look with the stripe around the outside edges of the stars instead of the white. This border may get revised before the next addition.

I'll be linking up with the rest of the SAHRR quilters, hosted by Wendy at Pieceful Thoughts of my Quilting Life. I'm also linking up with Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Happy quilting!

Julie in GA

Project Quilting 14.3 - "54-40 or Fight"

The theme for the third challenge of the current season of Project Quilting, hosted by Kim of Persimon Dreams and Trish of Quilt Chicken, is the traditional block "54-40 or Fight." I'm continuing to make placemats for as many of these challenges as possible.

My new placemat used some of the same fabrics as appeared in the "Pink Tint" placemat. Unfortunately, I didn't measure before making this one, and they ended up being different widths (but I'm not changing either of them.)

The next Project Quilting challenge will be posted at noon CST on Sunday, February 12th. What could you make in one week? Come join the fun! Check out all the other projects at this week's link-up HERE.

Happy quilting!

Julie in GA

To-Do Tuesday 1/31/2023

I'm feeling good about continuing with the Tuesday to-do lists. They definitely help keep me on track, especially when I have way too many projects happening like right now. It's time to share how I did on last week's list, then figure out what I'd like to get done this week. The To-Do Tuesday link-up is hosted by Carol at Quilt Schmilt: For the Love of Fabric.

I completed four tasks from the last list plus half of one other. I consider that a successful week! 

To-Do List for 1/24 - 1/30/23

1. Rail Fence--finish blue blocks   ✔done 

2. Stay at Home Round Robin--add spool blocks  ✔done 

3. ABC Table Scraps Challenge--make scrappy blue placemat  ✔done 

4. Irish Chain and Log Cabin placemats--finish  ✔done 

5. Quilt guild BOM--add next step    not done

6. Pickle Dish--piece 8 arcs    half done  4 arcs pieced, 8 more started

The list for next week is impossibly long. I definitely have too many projects either in progress or in the planning stages. I consider this a list of options for the next week rather than thinking I'll complete everything on the list.

To-Do List for 1/31 - 2/6/23

1. Project Quilting 14.3: make something including or inspired by the "54-40 or Fight" block by Sunday at noon

2. Stay at Home Round Robin--add star blocks

3. Rainbow Scrap Challenge--start one set of pink blocks

4. Ring Around the Stars--add hanging sleeve and label

5. Quilt guild BOM--add next step 

6. Pickle Dish--piece 8 arcs

7. Storm at Sea Heart--prep for quilting

8. Clean and oil both machines--this should be at the top of the list!

9. Dust Off a Quilt Book blog hop--start looking for ideas

10. One Monthly Goal--figure out my goal for February

It's a very lengthy list, but I'm hoping it will motivate me to stay focused. I'll report on my progress next Tuesday, and post a new set of goals too. I'm linking up with other To-Do Tuesday lists at Quilt Schmilt.

 

Happy quilting!

Julie in GA 

Design Wall Monday 1/30/2023

There wasn't much quilting happening here yesterday because we spent the afternoon at the opera, a 50's film noir version of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Great voices and interesting design choices, but it's not my new favorite. I'm glad we got to see it, even though Atlanta traffic makes getting there a challenge.

Before we left, I spent some time in the morning auditioning new background options for the Pickle Dish quilt that was started in a class recently. The photo shows the two arcs that I made in the class laying on the new background color that I'm considering. The strips near the bottom are going to become the next sets of arcs, and the stripe along the side is a possible border.

This photo shows my original fabric pull, with strips for the arcs sitting on my originally planned yellow background. This would make a pretty and very cheery quilt. The same colors on the purple background would be much more dramatic, but I'm not sure that's what I'm going for since it is planned to be a baby quilt.

I'll need to ponder that for a bit. Another factor that may sway my decision is the fact that I don't know if there is enough of the purple and might have to buy something. However, I can keep making arcs, even if the background isn't decided yet. However, I can keep making arcs, even if the background isn't decided yet. 

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

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Weekly Reports

It was a very busy quilting week, with many different projects passing through my sewing machine. The first one I'm going to share was the last thing I worked on, having been completed late last night. This is the center and first border of my Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR) quilt.

Our prompt for the week was to add spools for the first border. I made 3" blocks in a variety of blues, then stitched them together into groups of four. They haven't been attached to the center block yet. I'm hoping the next prompt will be something that will work in the corners of this first border.

I'll be linking up with the rest of the SAHRR quilters, hosted by Roseanne and Sue this week at Homesewn by Us.

I've been on a binge of making placemats lately, and those filled much of my quilting time last week. These will all be donated to Meals on Wheels through the quilt guild.

Most of these placemats had already been pieced earlier and just needed to be finished this week. The pink one was made for the Project Quilting 14.2 Challenge. I made the red one to test out quilting designs for my Ring Around the Stars quilt. The Irish Chain (top left) and blue/brown ones began with leftover pieces and orphan blocks from old projects. The blue string mat was the only one started and finished this week.

The placemats are proving to be a good way of working through some stash. I used almost 2 yards from the stash on those, plus 1/2 yard to bind the Ring Around the Stars quilt and another 1/2 yard for the Rail Fence blocks shared in yesterday's post. Total used for the week was 2.875 yards, and no new fabric was added to the stash.

2023 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 2.875 yards

Used year to date:              10.25 yards

Added last week:                   0.0 yards

Added year to date:               2.0 yards

Net used in 2023              8.25 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 stitching time. The variety of different projects over the past week has left my sewing room a huge mess that needs to be addressed soon, but I have definitely gotten more than 15 minutes of quilting time every day.

15 Minute Challenge for 2023: 

1/22 - 1/28          7 of 7 days

2023 Total        28 of 28 days

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces. I'm also joining the link-up for the SAHRR at Home Sewn by Us.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

January Table Scraps Challenge and RSC

It's the last Saturday of the month, which means it is time to link up my progress on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. One project for this year was started in 2022 but abandoned after four months. I'm hoping to finish it up in 2023. Here are my Rail Fence blocks in blues. Each block will finish at 3".

Along with my continuing participation in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, this year I decided to join in with the  2023 Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter. Each month we will use the RSC color of the month, and the Table Scraps Challenge will assign some letters of the alphabet for inspiration. Here's the description from The Joyful Quilter:

"You are encouraged to use each month's letters in whatever form they lead. Your interpretation of what to do with them is NOT limited to using the actual letter in your project!  Although, you are welcome to do that (by using them in spelling out a word or some such), you may also relate the letters to a color, quilting technique or project type.  Interpreting an item that begins with one of the letters is appropriate for a challenge entry, as well.  (Example A = Apple)"

Our assigned letters for January are C, R and J. The RSC color for the month is bright and dark blue. My plan was to come up with color names starting with C, R or J to feature in my projects. That proved to be quite easy in some cases and almost impossible in the other. The other part of the plan was to focus on making placemats.

Here are some of the names of blue colors that I found for those letters:

C: cobalt, copen, cornflower, cadet, cerulean, carolina, celestial

R: robin's egg, royal, regatta, RISD blue, riviera 

J: blue Jay, Jordy blue

There were a few colors I'd never heard of before, like RISD blue. Apparently, the Rhode Island School of Design recently changed their colors/logo to this very bright, almost electric blue. Unfortunately, I didn't have any fabric in that color.

Carolina blue (for the University of North Carolina) was familiar to me.

I even had some fabric that is a pretty good match for Carolina blue. I combined it with some brown prints for this placemat. You might notice how the swirly print on the blue fabric inspired the quilting in the corners of the placemat.

Early in the month, I made a couple of placemats with leftover strips and pieces from an Irish Chain quilt made many years ago. One of the fabrics features royal blue.

My favorite blue placemat for the month is this very simple string mat. I made this using a sew-and-flip technique onto the batting and backing, which meant no quilting needed at the end. I tried to include as many blues from my list as possible.

I love the fabric on the back of this one too.

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

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Ring Around the Stars is Finished!

It was down to the wire, but I managed to finish "Ring Around the Stars," my entry for the East Cobb Quilt Guild's Ruby Challenge celebrating the 40th anniversary of the guild.

Ring Around the Stars, 55" square

Getting good outdoor photos was a challenge thanks to breezy conditions plus occasional appearances by the sun. 

It's difficult to see the quilting in many places. The stars were stitched in the ditch with white thread, and all the other quilting was done in red thread. I haven't washed the quilt yet and hope that the quilting will show up better after that happens.

The back of the quilt features a pieced strip showing all 40 fabrics used for the quilt top. One of the rules for the challenge was to include 40 of something--40 blocks, 40 flying geese, 40 fabrics, etc.

I was surprised by how well the quilting shows on the back from a distance. That certainly wasn't true up close, with the red quilting thread becoming almost invisible on the busy backing fabric.

This is one of the better views of the quilting. The curved lines that go from star to star were marked with chalk, but the rest of the quilting was all done freehand. Feathers everywhere!

Finishing this quilt was also my One Monthly Goal for January. Success at my first OMG of the year sure feels good!

The guild meetings featuring the challenge quilts are Thursday night and Friday morning. Afterwards, all guild members will get to vote on-line for their favorites. I believe there are going to be over 100 entries (from a guild with around 300 members.) That statement was incorrect--there were a total of 19 entries. I can't wait to see everyone's interpretation of the theme. We also get to find out the theme for next year's challenge. Hopefully I won't wait until November to start on that one!

Updated Saturday, 1/28/2023--my entry got an honorable mention in the challenge voting. You can see all the entries HERE.

Linking up with:

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

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

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA