Get It Done--June/July 2013

It's hard to believe that the year is half over! Where has the time gone? I have found that Judy's Getting It Done Challenge has helped keep me focused on sticking to my goals each month, which has led to more steady progress on my projects. Every once in a while I get caught up in trying something new, or I decide to switch over to something quick and easy that wasn't on my list. However, I am very happy to be keeping up on both of my BOM projects. One of my goals for the whole year was to finish more projects than I start. I'm not sure I will reach that goal, but I have definitely been finishing more of my old projects lately.

Here's how I did on my goals for June, followed by my list for July.

JUNE GOALS

1.  Dancing Stars--make 8-10 blocks in this month's color (yellow) for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.   6/24--17 blocks done

2.  Scrappy Sampler BOM--make this month's set of blocks.  Done 6/14

3.  Bind Woven Ribbons quilt. Binding is made but not attached to quilt

4.  Finish Storm at Sea hanging sleeve, prep for quilt show.  Done 6/3

5.  Quilt and bind one more top.  Not done

Other June projects:
1.  Yellow & blue 9-patch--made quilt top.
2.  Stack & Whack Aliens--finished quilt top.
3.  Turning Leaves quilt--make & attach binding, begin hand stitching.
4.  Dresden Stars--class with Edyta Sitar, 4 blocks constructed


JULY GOALS

1.  Dancing Stars--make 8-10 blocks in this month's color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.   

2.  Scrappy Sampler BOM--make this month's set of blocks.

3.  Turning Leaves quilt--finish binding.

4.  Quilt and bind one more top.

5.  Make pillowcases and placemats for guild charity drive.

See how well other quilters did at reaching their goals this month and what they hope to accomplish in the month ahead at Patchwork Times.

Julie in GA

Stash Report Sunday 6/30/13

For awhile there it looked like the numbers for my Stash Report would be headed in the right direction this week. I had finished 19 Dancing Stars blocks for the month, using a total of 2.75 yards. The binding and hanging sleeve on my Turning Leaves quilt were done, using 3/4 yard, and I made a quick 9-patch baby quilt which used another 2 yards for the top. Altogether, 5.5 yards used. Not too bad.

Then I got a call on Thursday asking if I still wanted to take the class with Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts on Saturday. I had been on the waiting list before then. I jumped at the chance and spent a delightful day seeing some of Edyta's quilts, learning to make her Dresden Stars pattern, and hanging out with other quilters all day--what could be better! Here is my photo of the pattern we were making. You can see the full pattern here.

We all received a kit of fabrics and acrylic templates for cutting our pieces. This made it very easy to get started on the sewing of our blocks. I had never made any kind of Dresden Plate variation before and was pleasantly surprised at how well it went together. I think this says a lot about the quality of Edyta's products and her teaching. She roamed the room constantly, talking each of us through any questions or problems we might encounter. It was a wonderful day all around! I highly recommend taking her classes if you get the chance, and also that you check out her website and online store.

The only downside to taking the class is the additions to my stash, but I can't be too unhappy to have gotten these beautiful fabrics. The lower part of this photo shows the fabrics from the class kit that we received, which was enough to make all 8 blocks needed for this quilt. Across the top are the beautiful batik fat 8ths that I bought from Edyta.  I couldn't resist such luscious colors--I know you all understand.

Used this week:    5.5 yards
Used year to date:  50 yards    (I am so happy to have reached 50 yards used! I am right on track for reaching my goal of using 100 yards this year.)

Added this week:   7.25 yards

Added year to date: 41.75 yards

Net year to date:  8.25 yards used 

Check out more stash reports at Patchwork Times.

Julie in GA

Sunshiny Stars

My collection of yellow and gold Dancing Stars blocks has increased by a few more this week. Why is it that my collection of yellow and gold scrap strips doesn't seem to have gotten any smaller? I knew that I had plenty of yellow scraps, but this is even more than I realized!

Here is my complete collection of blocks for this month. I didn't have enough time to put up blocks of all the different colors together, but I will try to get them up sometime in the next week and take a few photos.

I started to clear away that pile of 2-1/2" yellow strips the other day, but first I used several of them to make some quick and easy 9-patch blocks. Blue and yellow has always been one of my favorite color combinations. This just needs a border or two (one option is up on the right side) and I will have a baby quilt top done. Maybe it was the news that my niece and her husband had their first baby on Monday. Welcome to the family Matthew!

I am linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013, where you can see all sorts of wonderful ways that other quilters have been using their yellow scraps this month. It's never too late to join the fun! The Dancing Stars pattern is available as a free download at Amy's Creative Side.


Julie in GA

15 Minute Challenge 6/25/13

I read this morning that Christmas is exactly 6 months from today. Where has this year gone? I find it hard to believe the year is almost half over! Maybe next week I will go back through my 15 Minute Challenge posts and total up the number of days I have found time to sew. I know that this challenge has motivated me to make more of an attempt to do something every day, even if it is only for a small chunk of time. Sometimes just getting started is the hardest part. Once I get going in the sewing room, it can be hard to make me stop!

Today I am reporting my sewing time for two weeks because I missed posting last week. We had gone to Wisconsin for a week of visiting my family. I did take along my hand-stitching kit to keep working on Dancing Stars blocks, so I still managed to get in some quilting almost every day. This is the kit I took with me on our trip.

June 11 - 17
Tuesday--Scrappy Sampler
Wednesday--Scrappy Sampler
Thursday--Scrappy Sampler, quilt show preview
Friday--Scrappy Sampler
Saturday--none
Sunday--Dancing Stars
Monday--Dancing Stars

June 18 - 25
Tuesday--Dancing Stars
Wednesday--Dancing Stars
Thursday--Dancing Stars
Friday--quilt show in Chicago!
Saturday--none
Sunday--Dancing Stars
Monday--Dancing Stars, Turning Leaves & Woven Ribbons bindings


Check out the 15 Minute Challenge posts at Life in Pieces to see how others are finding time for their creative pursuits. 


Julie in GA

Design Wall Monday 6/24/13

My design wall doesn't have much on it since we were out of town all last week. I did take along my Dancing Stars project for hand piecing when there was time, and I managed to finish four more blocks yesterday.

I am making these blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013. I love looking at all the different projects there every Saturday. This link will take you to the most recent posts, and there are great ideas to see there every week.

As usual, I will be linking up to Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday.  Check out all the amazing inspiration there. 

Julie in GA

Stash Report Sunday 6/23/13

Cue the music. "Summertime and the shopping is easy" should be my theme song this week. We spent the week in Wisconsin visiting my mother and other family. The time there included visits to at least 3 quilt shops plus the big quilt show in Chicago. No surprise that there are additions to my stash!

Many are familiar with the PBS show "Sewing with Nancy" and the Nancy's Notions catalog, but you may not know about their retail store. It is located in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, which is about 15 miles from my mother's house. I found several red and white prints there that needed to come home with me. I also bought a couple of "grab bags" of remnant pieces including some lovely Paula Nadelstern prints.

When we got back home yesterday, I discovered a package in the mail containing this lovely charm pack. It was from Sarah who hosted the Hands2Help challenge. This may be the beginning of another quilt for next year's challange.

I did have a hand stitching project with me while we were out of town, but did not get enough done to report any yardage used.

Used this week:    0 yards
Used year to date:  44.5 yards    

Added this week:   10.25 yards

Added year to date: 34.5 yards

Net year to date:   10 yards used 

Check out more stash reports at Patchwork Times.

Julie in GA

Design Wall Monday 6/17/13

I have been stitching away on my Scrappy Sampler BOM blocks. My best chance of staying caught up on these is to make the blocks right away after our monthly meeting. We met just over a week ago, and the eight blocks for June are finished! This month the patterns were the Square in a Square blocks and the Sawtooth Stars, all finishing at 8". Next month we make four Log Cabin blocks to fill in the corners, then there are 10" blocks going around all.

Click here, then click on the picture to see a very different version in bright batiks.

As usual, I will be linking up to Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday.  Check out all the great inspiration there. 

Julie in GA

Stash Report Sunday 6/16/13

Fabric used this week was for this month's Scrappy Sampler BOM blocks.
No fabric added this week. Unfortunately, no time to chat today.

Used this week:    .75 yards
Used year to date:  44.5 yards    

Added this week:   0 yards

Added year to date: 24.25 yards

Net year to date:   20.25 yards used 

Check out more stash reports at Patchwork Times.

Julie in GA

Golden stars are dancing

My goal for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge has been to make 8-10 Dancing Stars blocks every month , which would be enough to add up to the 98 total needed for a throw quilt. This month I realized that there aren't going to be enough additional colors left to add that will really fit in with my stars. I expect to make stars in red and also in teal/turquoise in coming months. I don't think I will want to include colors like grey or brown in this collection, but I might give them a try and see how they look with all the other brighter colors.

That is the rather lengthy reason why I have been making extra blocks this month. I decided to count yellow-orange as an additional color group. I have 13 yellow or yellow-orange stars finished so far, and another 6 or so prepped for stitching. Yellow is one of my favorite colors in quilting, and it was no problem finding enough scraps and strips to make all these blocks.

I am linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013, where you can see all sorts of wonderful ways that other quilters have been using their yellow scraps this month. It's never too late to join the fun! The Dancing Stars pattern is available as a free download at Amy's Creative Side.


Julie in GA

Quilt Show ribbon

Last night was the awards ceremony and preview for the East Cobb Quilters' Guild quilt show "Georgia Celebrates Quilts 2013." They always have a wonderful show, and this year was no exception.

I have two quilts hanging in the show, my Storm at Sea quilt (now named "Eleven Year Storm" because that is how long it took me to finish it) and my "Blazing Hidden Nine-Patch" which got an honorable mention ribbon.

It was quite an adventure at the preview because of the thunderstorms that were moving into the area. We dodged a few raindrops as we moved from the auditorium where the awards ceremony was held to the show preview. We could see the sky outside growing extremely dark and threatening as we started moving through the quilt show. About half the lights in the hall went out for awhile, but they did come back on eventually. The lightening display on the drive home was unbelievable!

The Best of Show winner was "Crimson Radiance" by Charlotte McRanie and Shannon Baker-Couvillion.  It is incredibly beautiful! My photo doesn't do justice to the wonderful color gradations or the fabulous machine quilting. Congratulations to them both.

For anyone in the Atlanta area this weekend, this is a wonderful quilt show, well worth a trip. It is at the Cobb County Civic Center, 548 S. Marietta Parkway SE, Marietta, GA.  The hours are 10 - 6 Friday and Saturday, 10 - 5 Sunday.

Julie in GA

15 Minute Challenge 6/10/13

It has felt really good to have plenty of time for sewing lately. I keep plugging away at my two on-going projects (Dancing Stars and Scrappy Sampler BOM.) I am determined to not fall behind on those. The rest of the time, there are plenty of other projects here waiting to be worked on.

Saturday turned out to be a fabulous full day of quilting. We had our Scrappy Sampler BOM meeting in the morning. That afternoon I took a free-motion quilting class (check yesterday's post for a photo of my sample.) My husband was away working when I got home that evening, so I just kept on sewing, finishing up a few more of my Dancing Stars blocks.

June 4 - 10, 2013
Tuesday--Stack & Whack Aliens
Wednesday--Stack & Whack Aliens
Thursday--Dancing Stars
Friday--Dancing Stars
Saturday--Scrappy Sampler, machine quilting class, Dancing Stars
Sunday--Scrappy Sampler
Monday--Scrappy Sampler


Check out the 15 Minute Challenge posts at Life in Pieces to see how others are finding time for their creative pursuits. 


Julie in GA

Design Wall Monday 6/10/13

I was fortunate to be able to take a machine quilting class with Taffy at Intown Quilters in Decatur on Saturday. For any quilters in the Atlanta area, I highly recommend her quilting classes. We worked on samples of many different free motion designs. Here are my sample pieces.

I already knew how to do free motion quilting, but don't enjoy it very much. This class has inspired me to make another attempt and try to finish up some of my unquilted tops. I have hung up this Chinese Coins quilt to figure out how I want to quilt it.

This is one of my oldest UFOs. I made the top in 1998! Back then my machine quilting skills were practically non-existent, and I didn't want to ruin the quilt with my bad quilting. Every once in a while I pull it out to think about a quilting design, but then end up putting it back into the closet. Maybe it will actually get finished this summer--only 15 years after the top was made!

As usual, I will be linking up to Patchwork Times for Design Wall Monday.  Check out all the great inspiration there. 

Julie in GA

Stash Report Sunday 6/9/13

Fabric used this week--I added the borders and pieced the back for the Stack & Whack Aliens blocks that I found in my UFO collection. I was thinking about donating this quilt somewhere, but my husband really liked it. I guess it will be his once it gets quilted.

Fabric added--I won this beautiful gradient pack of hand-dyed fabric from Vicki Welsh. 

My goals for the year are to use 100 yards total and to use more than I buy. Right now I am on track for both as long as I keep chipping away at it.

Used this week:    4.5 yards
Used year to date:  43.75 yards    

Added this week:   1.25 yard 

Added year to date: 24.25 yards

Net year to date:   19.5 yards used 

Check out more stash reports at Patchwork Times.

Julie in GA

Dancing Stars in yellow

My Dancing Stars for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge are accumulating steadily. When I was working on the orange stars back in March, I kept pulling out fabrics that were somewhere between yellow and orange or a combo of the two colors. I didn't use those fabrics back then, but this month I have decided to include yellow-orange in my current group of stars.  Nine done so far this month. I have lots more yellow fabric scraps. I will keep going with these stars for a bit, then maybe I will make something else later in the month.

I am linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013, where you can see all sorts of wonderful ways that other quilters have been using their scraps this month. It's never too late to join the fun! The Dancing Stars pattern is available as a free download at Amy's Creative Side.


Julie in GA

Finished Friday--Alien Invasion!

On my recent excavations through my collection on UFOs and unquilted tops, I found this set of Stack & Whack blocks. There were 11 finished blocks, with eight of them already stitched together for the center of the quilt. Amazingly enough, the fabrics for the border were packed away with the blocks. All I had to do was join the borders to the center and I had this great quilt top.

Here is a closer shot of the creatures on the main fabric, plus the fabric I pulled from my stash for the back--so cute! I usually keep pretty good records about when I worked on a project, but I haven't found any info on how old this one is or where/when I got the fabric.

Here is a shot of the finished back. The backing fabric I had pulled wasn't big enough alone, but with the addition of the leftover blocks, plus pieces of the border and main fabrics, it was perfect! There is even enough of the blue to use for a binding.

This project has now made the move from the UFO collection to the "Ready for Quilting" closet. Today I am linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict and to Link a Finish Friday at Richard and Tanya Quilts. Check out both places to see more finishes and exciting projects.


Julie in GA

15 Minute Challenge 6/4/13

For some reason I have been having trouble keeping the days of the week straight recently. I totally missed posting for Design Wall Monday yesterday. Of course, that may be because I spent the whole day on call for jury duty. I didn't get chosen for a jury, but it was a very long, tedious day. Even there, I did manage to do a little hand stitching on my Dancing Stars block.

I finished quilting and binding the Flag wallhanging last week. I have also been getting labels on a few quilts, especially two that are entered in a local show next week.  I am so looking forward to seeing all the entries!

Kate's post for the 15 Minute Challenge today talks about "collecting inspiration." Quilt shows are such a wonderful source of inspiration for me. I love seeing quilts with color combos I would never have considered or patterns that I want to get right up close to figure out how they were pieced. I love to take lots of photos so I can go back and revisit the quilts whenever my inspiration needs a kick-start.

Having some time off from work has made it much easier for me to find time to quilt every day. I just need to start spending more time sewing and less time on the computer!

May 28 - June 4
Tuesday--Flag quilt
Wednesday--Flag quilt
Thursday--Flag quilt (finished!), Dancing Stars
Friday--Dancing Stars
Saturday--Storm at Sea hanging sleeve, label 3 quilts
Sunday--Dancing Stars
Monday--Dancing Stars


Check out the 15 Minute Challenge posts at Life in Pieces to see how others are finding time for their creative pursuits. 


Julie in GA

Stash Report Sunday 6/2/13

I am so excited by my one fabric purchase this week.  Just a few days ago, my husband and I had a conversation about state flags, which then led to national flags. That gave me the idea that flags of different nations would make a very interesting quilt. I'm sure someone has done it before, but I haven't seen one.  Then I was at Joann's on Saturday and found this great map panel.

I am imagining this as the center of the quilt with rows of flags above and below it. For a smaller quilt it could be the map on one side and the flags on the other. I think it would be a fabulous kid's quilt.

My fabric used this week was for the binding on the Zigzag quilt and the back and binding for the flag wallhanging.

Used this week:    2 yards
Used year to date:  39.25 yards    

Added this week:   1 yard 

Added year to date: 23 yards

Net year to date:   16.25 yards used 

Check out more stash reports at Patchwork Times.

Julie in GA

Sunny June stars

It's a new month which means a new color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I was very happy that our color choice is yellow, one of my favorite colors for quilts. It is so warm and cheery, plus I have a ton of yellow scraps from previous projects.

I made five yellow Dancing Stars blocks this week, plus finished two more blue stars from May. Total number of stars at this point is 60! Those yellow stars are really going to pop on this quilt.

I am linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013, where you can see all sorts of wonderful ways that other quilters have been using their scraps this month. It's never too late to join the fun! The Dancing Stars pattern is available as a free download at Amy's Creative Side.


Julie in GA