2025 Temperature Quilt Finished!

It has been about a year and a half since I first started planning my first temperature quilt, and as of today, it is finished! That's not a bad turn-around time for me, but I've been very excited (and therefore motivated) about completing this quilt. This is my finished 2025 Temperature Quilt for College Park, GA.

2025 Temperature Quilt

57.5" x 76"

It all started in November, 2024, with a presentation by Jo Avery of the UK about temperature quilts. She inspired several members of our guild, the Common Threads Quilters Guild of Newnan, GA, to begin our own versions of temperature quilts. 

For my quilt, I came up with an easy-to-piece block design and selected a group of fabrics from the Glaze and Glaze II lines by Libs Elliott for Andover. The photo above shows my fabric palette, and below is a close-up of some blocks. The finished blocks measure 3".

I tracked the high and low temperatures all through 2025 and tried to stay caught up on making my blocks. There were a couple times that I fell behind by a month or more, but I was fairly close most of the year. The color of the diamond in each block represents the high temperature for that day, and the background color is the low temp. The dates run from left to right in horizontal rows. Even though we did a good bit of traveling in 2025, I used the temperatures for College Park in all of my blocks.

It isn't easy to come up with a layout that uses 365 blocks. When I decided to set my blocks on point, I realized that it would work out if I added just a few extra blocks. There are three blocks with hand appliqued circles on them. They represent the temperatures for my husband's birthdate, our wedding day, and my birthdate.

I had originally planned to include the legend for the colors and their temperature ranges in the border of the quilt, but decided to keep the focus of the quilt front on the piecing and the flow of colors. I made a panel for the back of the quilt with that information.

My temperature quilt was quilted by Kris Townsend Davis in a feather meander pattern with Brassy Yellow Variegated Thread. I love the movement of the quilting design, and the variegated thread worked out beautifully.

There were over a dozen members of the guild who worked on their temperature quilts together throughout 2025. We all shared our progress at the April, 2026 guild meeting. Several quilts were completely finished and others are still in progress. Our group coordinator, Sharon Hendrix, kept us all inspired and motivated. A couple weeks after showing the quilts at the guild meeting, Sharon shared the very exciting news that our quilts are going to be displayed at the Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum in Carrollton, GA, from November, 2027 until February, 2028. It will be such an honor to have our quilts exhibited there!

I've already started a new temperature quilt for 2026. This time I'm using Jo Avery's Sea Urchin design, which is included in her online Supernova class at The Thread House Academy. My sister Karen is also making the same pattern with temperatures for Madison, WI. Below is my February block for that quilt, and you can read more about the new project HERE. I'm enjoying continuing to track our daily temps in fabric.

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

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (TGIFF) at Slice of Pi Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Sunday Stash and Stitching 5/3/2026

Just when it seems that my stash report might be getting close to even on the yardage used vs. yardage added tally, something happens to throw it off balance again. This time it started with a fabric sale held by our quilt guild. The guild had received an enormous fabric donation from a quilter's estate several months ago. A large amount of the donated fabric went to the guild's community service projects, but there was still a great deal more, and the board decided to hold a fabric sale. 

A preview sale/trial run was held for board members recently, with fabric being sold for $4/yard. I bought a total of 12.5 yards At that price, I could have easily bought much more, but my fabric shelves are very full already. Besides, I will have another chance to shop when we hold the sale for the full guild in June. Maybe I can figure out some quilt backing plans before that sale.

Just days after the guild fabric sale, we went to Paducah for the AQS show, one of my favorite quilting events of the year. Naturally, a visit to Hancock's of Paducah was included and some fabric was purchased. One new fabric is this wide back that will be perfect for one of my rainbow quilt tops.

A couple of the quilts at the AQS show that really intrigued me were variations on One-Block Wonder quilts which were made from panels. Here are two of them from the show.

"On the Lily Pond" by Christine Gillespie

"In the Woods" by Annie Boschert

Hancock's has many different panels in stock, and I chose this one for my future version of the OBW panel quilt. I bought 7 copies of the panel--one will be used whole in the quilt, and the other 6 will be used for the surrounding kaleidoscope-style blocks.

At least I can report a little bit of fabric used too. My most recent UFO finish, the Pinwheels Christmas Tree, used 2 yards for the backing and binding.

Pinwheels Christmas Tree, 39" x 46"

2026 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                     2.0 yards

Used year to date:               35.0 yards

Added last week:                 22.5 yards

Added year to date:            66.25 yards

Net added in 2026:         31.25 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. Between having guests recently followed immediately by the trip to Paducah and other stops, there hasn't been a lot of time for quilting in the last two weeks. Having a hand stitching project ready to go is the only thing that kept me on track with getting in my 15 minutes every day.

15 Minute Challenge 2026

4/19 - 4/25             7 of 7 days

4/26 - 5/2               7 of 7 days

2026 Total        121 of 122 days

Success rate               99.2 %   

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 UFO Finished!

Our quilt guild's UFO (UnFinished Object) Challenge has been a great motivator this year, helping me clear out some old projects. Our assignment for April was UFO #2, and for me that meant finishing my Pinwheels Christmas Tree Quilt. It feels great to have this finished long before the Christmas season, and I know exactly where I will hang it when the holidays get here.

Pinwheels Christmas Tree, 39" x 46"

My quilt was inspired by a friend's quilt that was displayed in our guild's Christmas market booth in past years. This is Martha's Pinwheel Christmas Tree quilt.

Martha's quilt

I changed up the design a little bit, alternating the direction that the pinwheels spin from row to row, plus the star is different. My favorite part is the cute background fabric of Christmas lights, which had been in my stash for many years.

The backing fabric is a "Peanuts" Christmas print, which had also been in the stash for quite awhile. I managed to do some ruler quilting in the border, adding scallops all the way around.

I'm 3 for 3 on the UFO Challenge so far this year, and I hope to continue that way for the rest of the challenge. My project for May is a small one, so I'm hoping to get it done quickly and have time to work on some other UFOs.

Linking up with:

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (TGIFF) at Quilted Delights

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Sunday Stash and Stitching 4/19/2026

My weekly stash report shows a decent amount of fabric used for the week, and no new fabric was added to the stash last week. Maybe I'll actually get back to even before too long.

The fabric used last week was 2.75 yards for a new pair of pajama pants. I had a very old pair made from Milwaukee Brewers fabric (my favorite baseball team,) and they were so worn I was afraid they were about to fall apart in the washer. Here are the old pair along with the new ones. Yes, they really did fade that much!

2026 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                   2.75 yards

Used year to date:               33.0 yards

Added last week:                   0.0 yards

Added year to date:            43.75 yards

Net added in 2026:         10.75 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 busy getting ready for guests plus an upcoming trip, but I still managed to find at least a little time to sew or quilt every day.

15 Minute Challenge 2026

4/12 - 4/18             7 of 7 days

2026 Total        107 of 108 days

Success rate                 99 %   

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 4/12/2026

The weekly stash report is showing some movement on the fabric used side, even though quilting time was in short supply last week. The majority of my sewing time was spent on some simple tote bags that our quilt guild gives to the church where the guild meets to be included in the shoebox gifts they put together for children over the holidays. 

I made 10 bags using fabrics from my stash, 5 yards total. The adorable whale prints were a prize in a long-ago giveaway.

Unfortunately, I didn't have enough webbing to add the handles to several of the bags. I hope to get more from our community service chair next week.

I also made 11 bags from home decor fabrics that had been given to me (not counted as part of my stash.) Again, several of them still need handles.

My other sewing project for the week was to make myself a new apron. I got used to wearing an apron at work, and I still find it useful while sewing at home. It has plenty of pockets, including a good spot to hold my phone while I listen to audiobooks, plus a leather sheath to keep a small scissors handy for clipping threads. 3/4 yard of fabric used.

No new fabric was added to the stash last week.

2026 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                   5.75 yards

Used year to date:              30.25 yards

Added last week:                   0.0 yards

Added year to date:            43.75 yards

Net added in 2026:           13.5 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. I'm happy to have made good progress on the tote bags, and they were an easy project to pick up for short periods of sewing time.

15 Minute Challenge 2026

4/5 - 4/11               7 of 7 days

2026 Total        100 of 101 days

Success rate                 99 %   

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 4/5/2026

It's finally time for some yardage to be counted in the used column on my Stash Report for the past week. My Lighthouse Inn quilt was finished a couple weeks ago, and I can now report 5.625 yards used for the backing, binding and hanging sleeve. You can read more about this quilt and see additional photos in THIS POST.

Lighthouse Inn, 56.5" x 81"

No fabric was added to the stash last week.

2026 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 5.625 yards

Used year to date:               24.5 yards

Added last week:                   0.0 yards

Added year to date:            43.75 yards

Net added in 2026:         19.25 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 worked on a variety of quilts last week, including piecing the quilt top for a community service project, plus finishing my monthly UFO for our guild challenge.

15 Minute Challenge 2026

3/29 - 4/4               7 of 7 days

2026 Total            93 of 94 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

Lighthouse Inn Finished!

My main quilting goal since the beginning of this year has been to finish some quilts before the end of March, the entry deadline for a local quilt show. The first of those quilts to be completed was Lighthouse Inn, a 2024 mystery quilt designed by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr of Modern Quilt Studio.

Lighthouse Inn, 56.5" x 81"

Lighthouse Inn was a mystery quilt-along unlike any other I have done before (and I've made plenty of mystery quilts!) We made blocks in a variety of sizes and designs for four weeks, then cut them all in half diagonally and joined a light half with a dark half to produce a whole new set of blocks. The blocks ranged in size from 3.5" up to 7.25", increasing in 1/4" increments. Here are my blocks before the background/sashing was added.

Choosing a quilting design for this quilt was difficult, but I went with a modern-looking design of interlocking boxes. I believe it is called Square Dance. Unfortunately, the pollen outside is so nasty that all my photos had to be taken indoors.

I found the perfect fabric for the quilt back, with spots of pink, orange, yellow and light blue on navy. I might need to order some more of this fabric for the background of a future quilt.

If you are interested in seeing other versions of the Lighthouse Inn Mystery Quilt, you can check them out at the Lighthouse Inn Virtual Exhibition page at Modern Quilt Studio. Their mysteries are always fun and challenging. I'm so glad to have finished my version on Lighthouse Inn, and it is currently hanging in a prominent spot in our house.

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

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Sunday Stash and Stitching 3/29/2026

My Stash Report has taken a dangerous turn in recent weeks, with far too much fabric being added. I have been working hard on finishing up a few quilts for an upcoming quilt show, which will help balance out the numbers eventually. However, I'm not counting any of those fabrics as used until I share each finished quilt in a blog post.

The additions to the stash included 2 fat quarter bundles plus a few extra yards of Kaffe Collective fabrics, 11.5 yards total. These fabrics are so much fun, but I struggle with figuring out how to use them.

I also bought two bundles of remnants, most of them batiks, which added up to 6.5 yards after I gave a few pieces away on the free table at our guild meeting. The black fabric at the top of the photo is a 5-yard piece that was on deep discount, which should work nicely as a background someday. I also bought one charm pack (.75 yard, not shown.)

Total additions to the stash: 23.75 yards. No fabric used last week.

2026 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                     0.0 yards

Used year to date:            18.875 yards

Added last week:                23.75 yards

Added year to date:            43.75 yards

Net added in 2026:      24.875 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 quilting time. My report covers the last two weeks because I was in Wisconsin visiting family last Sunday. For the first time all year, I had one day with no time spent quilting, but I more than made up for that as I raced the clock to meet the entry deadline for the quilt show.

15 Minute Challenge 2026

3/15 - 3/28          13 of 14 days

2026 Total            86 of 87 days

Success rate               98.8 %   

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

2026 Temperature Quilt, Version 2

Back in January I shared a post about my plans for a 2026 Temperature Quilt. I had such a good time making my 2025 Temperature Quilt that I was eager to start a new one. I decided at that time to keep it easy and started to piece a Herringbone Quilt. This section represents the highs and lows for the first 9 days of 2026.

Well, that plan didn't last long. Just a day or two after that blog post, I was talking to my sister Karen, who is also a quilter. She was considering making a temperature quilt, and we discovered that we were both very intrigued by a design by Jo Avery. The next photo is Jo's 2022 Sea Urchin temperature quilt.

I discovered that Jo teaches an online workshop that includes the Sea Urchin design, her Supernova class at The Thread House Academy. We both got signed up for the class and began our separate versions of this amazing quilt.

I'm using most of the same fabrics for my Sea Urchin quilt as last year's temperature quilt which are  Glaze and Glaze II by Libs Elliott for Andover Fabrics. Here's my color palette for the 2026 quilt. The hot pink diamond at the bottom center represents the hottest temps, over 100 degrees, and they go down in increments of 3 degrees, with the grey for the lowest temps. The black solid will be my background.

Jo's method for making this design involves drawing it out on light-weight non-fusible interfacing, which becomes the foundation for the piecing and is not removed from the blocks. The fact that the shapes are a little wonky and vary in size makes it easier to deal with the fact that the  number of days varies from month to month. Here is the pieced area of my January block from both the right and wrong sides.

The last steps for finishing the January block were adding the black background around the outside and at the center. I machine pieced the outer background to the foundation-pieced section, then hand appliqued the center. 

This is my block for January, 2026. The tiny safety pin in the top  segment marks January 1st, and the days move clockwise around the block. The outer wedges represent the daily high temperatures, and the inner wedges are the lows.

I have the foundation piecing done for the February block and need to get the four quadrants of it joined together before I can add the background. Karen and I are going to get together this weekend, and I can't wait to see how different our blocks look. My block represents the temperatures for the Atlanta airport, our nearest weather station, and hers will be for Madison, WI. We are not using the same fabrics, but our colors are similar.

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

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA