30's Kaleidoscope Quilt Top

As regular readers may have noticed, I've really been pushing to make progress on some of my many rainbow quilts this year. I started participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2013, usually working on multiple projects each year, but I was always more successful at starting new projects and making blocks throughout the year than at getting all of the blocks joined together and finishing the quilts. It's time for that to change!

Last week's main accomplishment toward that goal was joining together a set of blocks that were made in 2021. This is the top for my 30's Kaleidoscope Quilt.

30's Kaleidoscope quilt top

61" x 73"

I made one kaleidoscope block from every 30's reproduction fabric I had, and my sister sent me pieces of some of her 30's fabrics to include too. When I got through them all, I had a total of 190 blocks! I used 99 of them in this quilt, and the rest are waiting in a box.

Making the blocks wasn't too difficult, but joining them together was a tedious process with lots of pinning necessary. It was worth it though, because I am thrilled with the way it turned out. I almost wish I had used more of the blocks and made a bed-sized quilt instead, but it's too late for that now.

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 Stash and Stitching Time 8/16/2026

My Stash Report for the past week shows almost 2 yards of fabric used, which was the backing and binding for my recently finished Rail Fence Stairsteps quilt. 

Rail Fence Stairsteps, 38.5" x 46.5"

No new fabric was added to the stash, although I did try. I'm in the process of planning a quilt for a guild challenge, and I don't have the right colors in my stash. I visited one local quilt shop, but they didn't have what I wanted either. The search continues...

2026 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 1.875 yards

Used year to date:           114.50 yards

Added last week:                   0.0 yards

Added year to date:         119.25 yards

Net added in 2026:          4.75 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. The majority of my quilting time this week was spent researching, planning, and making sample blocks for an upcoming guild challenge.

15 Minute Challenge 2026

8/9 - 8/15               7 of 7 days

2026 Total        225 of 227 days

Success rate               99. 1%   

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

Rail Fence Stairsteps is Finished!

Another quilt top from my large collection of rainbow quilts in the to-be-quilted closet has been finished! This is my Rail Fence Stairsteps quilt.

Rail Fence Stairsteps, 38.5" x 46.5"

The blocks for this quilt were made as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2022 and 2023. I ended up with over 300 blocks, which were turned into two quilt tops. This quilt top was assembled in November, 2023, and it has been hanging around waiting to be finished ever since. 

Most of the rest of the blocks made in 2022-23 were used in the Rail Fence Zigzag quilt, which was finished in early July of this year.

Rail Fence Zigzag, 37.25" x 38.75"

The quilting is gentle curves that follow each color down the stairs, with tighter curves through the light rectangles.

I used the same tie-dye look flannel fabric as the Rail Fence Zigzag quilt to back this quilt, and finished it off with a bright turquoise binding.

This is my 12th finished quilt for 2026, which ties my record for finishes from 2025, and I still have several months left to go in the year!

I'm  linking up with:

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (TGIFF) at Rebecca Grace Quilting 

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

 Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Sunday Stash and Stitching 8/9/2026

It was a fairly typical week in my sewing room, with progress being made on multiple different projects. That included adding the binding to a guild community service quilt, making the pieced sections for the April and May blocks of my 2026 Temperature Quilt, and trying to figure out a plan for a challenge quilt.

The only change to my stash numbers was thanks to the completion of my recent placemats project. I finished off three sets of placemats, most of them made from orphan blocks and other leftovers from older quilts, using 3.625 yards from the stash.

This last set of placemats was made from a panel and additional fabric from our guild's community service stash. It didn't change my stash totals at all, but they did get finished this week along with the rest. All of the placemats will be donated to Meals on Wheels.

2026 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 3.625 yards

Used year to date:         112.625 yards

Added last week:                   0.0 yards

Added year to date:         119.25 yards

Net added in 2026:        6.625 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. As stated at the top of the post, I've been working on several different projects, and I definitely spent more than 15 minutes quilting every day this week.

15 Minute Challenge 2026

8/2 - 8/8                 7 of 7 days

2026 Total        218 of 220 days

Success rate             99.09 %   

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

Sunday Stash and Stitching 8/2/2026

I started to put together my stash report post a week ago, but an early morning appointment to donate blood at the Red Cross kept me from finishing it, and I just never got back to it that day. Because of that, today's report covers the last two weeks.

I've been working on several different projects during that time, but I haven't done so well at taking photos and writing blog posts for some of them. The usage I can report is 3.25 yards for a set of 12 placemats that used blocks made as part of a Super Bowl Mystery in 2021. 

The placemats were backed with this cute print from Piece O' Cake, with a date of 2001 on the selvage. Time to use that up!

I've been making some progress on my 2026 Temperature Quilt, and I was starting to worry about running out of some colors. That meant another fabric order, with 6 yards total added to the stash. These fabrics are all from the Glaze and Glaze 2 lines by Libs Elliott for Andover.

2026 STASH TOTALS

Used last two weeks:           3.25 yards

Used year to date:             109.0 yards

Added last two weeks:           6.0 yards

Added year to date:         119.25 yards

Net added in 2026:        10.25 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. I've had a hard time staying focused on any of my quilting projects lately, but I did finish one small quilt (photos/blog post coming soon,) plus I've been working on all of those placemats. 

15 Minute Challenge 2026

7/19 - 7/25             7 of 7 days

7/26 - 8/1               7 of 7 days

2026 Total        211 of 213 days

Success rate             99.06 %   

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

Placemat Prep

In anticipation of an upcoming Community Service sewing day for our guild, I spent much of my quilting time last week piecing together some placemat tops. The finished placemats will be donated by the guild to the local chapter of Meals of Wheels for distribution to their clients.

The photo above shows just a few of the placemats I've been making. There are more copies of each design, with a total of 19 placemat tops at this time. My starting point for all of these was my box of orphan/leftover and sample blocks. It's funny to see them up on the wall together and realize that they all feature green and orange as main colors. I guess that's a combination I've always liked. Or maybe it's just the color combo I was in the mood to play with last week.

The Ohio Stars placemats were made from sample blocks for a quilt made in 2002 when I was teaching quilting classes. The Ohio Stars quilt was the third in a series of beginning classes, this one featuring quarter-square triangles and setting blocks on point. It took some serious digging through my closet of quilts to locate it, but here is the finished quilt.

Ohio Stars, 47" x 58.5"

The next set of placemats originated from a Super Bowl Sunday mystery quilt-along in 2021. You can read more about that in this post. It was a late decision on my part to join the mystery, and I pulled fabrics quickly from my stash. I wasn't thrilled with the final result, so the blocks were stashed away until they got pulled out last week. I have twelve placemats with these blocks. I especially like the two with the striped fabric running horizontally in the borders, but most have the stripe running vertically.

Most of the fabrics in the above set of placemats were leftover from a quilt I call Boston Fiesta, one of my all-time favorites. I discovered a few leftover blocks from that quilt, plus extra pieces to make even more blocks. I was able to put together a total of twelve blocks, which were turned into three placemat tops.

The Boston Fiesta quilt was started in 2005, but it wasn't finished until 2022. You can read more about it in this post.

Boston Fiesta, 60" x 74"

Most of these placemat tops have been basted to batting. The next step will be to stitch them to backing fabrics, right sides together, then turn right side out and finish them off with some quilting. I still have plenty of work left to do before they are finished.

I'm  linking up with:

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Sunday Stash and Stitching 7/19/2026

I didn't expect to add any new fabric to the stash this week, but plans changed when I won the guild's monthly drawing. The prize included this beautiful batik jelly roll plus a coordinating 3-yard piece. I have many ideas on how I might use these beauties! 5.75 yards added, and no usage to report for the week.

Batik jelly roll and yardage

2026 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                   0.0 yards

Used year to date:          105.75 yards

Added last week:                5.75 yards

Added year to date:         113.25 yards

Net added in 2026:            7.5 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. We had guests at the beginning of the week, and the rest of the week was spent prepping for, then taking, a quilted jacket workshop. I hope to share some photos of my newest project soon.

15 Minute Challenge 2026

7/12 - 7/18             7 of 7 days

2026 Total        197 of 199 days

Success rate               99.0 %   

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

Sunday Stash & Stitching 7/12/2026

My stash totals for the year moved a little closer to even with the completion of the Rainbow Rail Fence Zigzag quilt. I used 1.5 yards for the backing and binding of this quilt. The fabric used in the top was all counted in earlier stash reports.

Rainbow Rail Fence Zigzag

Rainbow Rail Fence Zigzag back

2026 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                   1.50 yards

Used year to date:            105.75 yards

Added last week:                    0.0 yards

Added year to date:             107.5 yards

Net added in 2026:            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. The beginning of the week was spent finishing the Rail Fence quilt, then I started working on the April block for my 2026 Temperature Quilt.

15 Minute Challenge 2026

7/5 - 7/11               7 of 7 days

2026 Total        190 of 192 days

Success rate               98.9 %   

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

Another Rainbow UFO Finished!

Our assignment for July in the guild's UFO Challenge was #6. That meant I needed to quilt and bind my Rainbow Rail Fence, and it was another successful month. Here is my finished Rail Fence Zigzag quilt.

Rail Fence Zigzag

37.25" x 38.75" after washing

The blocks for this quilt were made as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2022 and 2023. The quilt top was assembled in 2023, then it was deposited in the quilt closet. This UFO Challenge finally motivated me to get it done! 

I got rather carried away with my quilting on this little quilt. I did loops in the light rectangles, waves in the colors, and lots of feathers in the grey border and setting triangles. I love quilting feathers!

The backing fabric is a fun tie-dye looking swirl design. I have a second Rail Fence quilt ready to be quilted with the same backing, and I might try quilting from the back following those swirls.

I'm  linking up with:

 Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

2026 Temperature Quilt

It has been a few months since I made any progress on my 2026 Temperature Quilt, but I pulled out the fabrics last week and made my block for March. The little safety pin near the top marks the first of the month. Just 3 more blocks to make, and I'll be caught up!

The design I'm making is Jo Avery's Sea Urchin pattern, which is included in her online Supernova class at The Thread House Academy. The wedges in the outer ring represent the daily high temperatures, and the inner ring is the daily lows. The warmest temperature in March was 83 degrees, and the coolest was 29.

It's fun to see how the colors have changed over the first three months of this year. I'm eager to get more of the blocks made. There should be lots of red and hot pink showing up by the time I get to the June block.

You can find more details about my temperature quilt project for 2026 in THIS POST.

I'm  linking up with:

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA