Design Wall Monday 2/29/16

After sharing my pink and brown Shooting Stars blocks with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday, I got so many lovely comments about the blocks that I felt the need to make some more blocks to go with them. Here is the newest addition to the collection. You can see the other blocks HERE.

"Shooting Stars" is the name we were given for this pattern in the class I took back in 2010. Another RSC participant, Libby in TN, showed photos of two quilts she is making that use the same block, but her version is called "Wink and a Smile." She said it is an out-of-print pattern by Lisa Christensen.

I discovered that I had saved a photo of another version of this block on my Pinterest account. It is linked to a tutorial at Anyone Can Quilt with detailed instructions for how to make the block.

I have a whole stack of pink and brown fabrics, enough to make a huge quilt of these stars, but I'm not sure I want another pink and brown quilt. What I really want to do with this pattern is make it in red, white & blue as a Quilt of Valor, but that idea will have to wait until another day.

I am sharing with Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times and Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt.

Julie in GA

Stash Report Sunday 2/28/16

There hasn't been a whole lot of quilting going on for me recently, but I have continued to use my stash gradually. The best part is that no new fabric was added this week. 

I made two Shooting Stars blocks in pink & brown for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge using 1/2 yard of fabric. You can see my blocks HERE. I also used 3/4 yard making still more 9-patch blocks for my Ring Cycles quilt.

STASH TOTALS: 
Used this week:             1.25 yards     

Used year to date:      15.625 yards

Stashed this week:              0 yards

Stashed year to date:    10.25 yards 

 Net year to date:     5.375 yards used

I am joining Kate at Life in Pieces in tracking the number of days each week that I spend at least 15 minutes quilting. The more days  I quilt, the more quilts I can get done and the more fabric used. 

15 Minute Challenge:  

February 21 - 27          7 for 7 days

February total            25 for 27 days

350 Block Challenge at Prairie Moon Quilts:

This week's block total:    47

Check out more stash reports at Patchwork Times.  

Julie in GA

RSC Brown and Pink

There hasn't been much opportunity for quilting lately, plus I just couldn't get excited about working with my brown scraps this month. However, I didn't want to completely miss out on linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, so I made two more pink and brown Shooting Stars blocks to go with the two that were already finished.

These blocks are quite large, finishing at 14" before they get the tilted frames. I already have one pink and brown bed quilt and don't really want another one. Maybe I will make more of these blocks and turn them into a donation quilt.

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. 

Julie in GA

Design Wall Monday

The quilt that has been filling most of my quilting time lately is the Glorious Hexagons quilt. This is a new block of the month group at a local quilt shop. The blocks in the quilt are English paper pieced using patterns from the book The New Hexagon by Katja Marek. Each month we receive the pre-cut paper pieces to make 28 blocks--that's one block almost every day! Here is one of the inspiration quilts.

Garden Hexagons by Liza Prior Lucy

Liza's quilt measures 90" square and has 247 blocks in it. The fabrics she used are all from the Kaffe Fassett Collective.The hexagon blocks all finish at 3" along each side. The number of pieces in each block vary from one to 24. I started out doing traditional EPP for my first couple of blocks, and quickly realized that I will never be able to hand stitch quickly enough to finish 28 blocks each month.

This is my first batch of blocks. I'm thinking that the one near the bottom with the red triangle might be too dark to fit in with the rest, but I will wait and see what else joins the collection. So far I have made four blocks with EPP. Four of the other blocks are each cut from a single fabric. Instead of doing all the blocks with English paper piecing, I have been machine piecing some of the easier blocks. I even found a couple of leftover Stack & Whack blocks from old projects that have been cut down to match the size of the rest of the blocks. I hope to figure out a way to join my hexagon blocks together by machine too.

I am sharing my hexagons with Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times and Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt.

Julie in GA

Stash Report Sunday 2/21/16

Most of my quilting time over the past week was spent prepping and hand stitching blocks for one of my new projects, the Glorious Hexagons quilt. I have been having a great time playing with many of my older fabrics that were left from the days of making Stack & Whack quilts. It is such fun to fussy cut the prints and produce kaleidoscopic effects.

These hexagon blocks finish at 3" along the outside edges. One challenge I am facing is how to calculate my stash usage for the blocks. There is a wide range of number of pieces in each block, from only one piece up to 24. The blocks above have 6 pieces (right block) and 12 pieces (left.) For stash calculations, I decided to come up with an average amount of fabric used. I have a set of six triangles cut (like the pieces in the block on the right) that I laid out in a line and measured. The numbers added up to 1/4 yard used for every six blocks made. So far I have made 15 blocks, which comes out to 5/8 yard used.

I also used 3/8 yard making more 9-patch blocks for my Ring Cycles quilt.

STASH TOTALS: 
Used this week:               1.0 yards     

Used year to date:      14.375 yards

Stashed this week:              0 yards

Stashed year to date:    10.25 yards 

 Net year to date:     4.125 yards used

I am joining Kate at Life in Pieces in tracking the number of days each week that I spend at least 15 minutes quilting. The more days  I quilt, the more quilts I can get done and the more fabric used. 

15 Minute Challenge:  

February 14 - 20          7 for 7 days

February total            18 for 20 days

350 Block Challenge at Prairie Moon Quilts:

This week's block total:    38

Check out more design walls at Patchwork Times.  

Julie in GA

Stash Report Sunday 2/14/16

Edited Mon., 2/15--I didn't get to link up for Stash Report Sunday yesterday, so this is going to be my Design Wall Monday post instead. 

Have you heard about the 365 Challenge, The Ultimate Sampler? It is a sampler quilt that is made by constructing one block every day. The project is headed up by Kathryn Kerr of Australia, and she posts the instructions for a new block every single day. Most of the blocks finish at either 3" or 6". At the end of the year, there will be 365 blocks, making a 90" square quilt. Here's the general layout planned for the quilt. Amazing, right?

I first heard about this challenge right around the beginning of the year, which is when the first blocks were posted. I was very tempted to join in, but managed to resist for a whole month, partly because I couldn't come up with a color scheme I wanted to use. Then it was February and I could resist no longer. I decided to go with blue and orange/rust/gold. Yesterday I finished making all of the blocks from January. These blocks all finish at 3".

I'm not used to working in such a small scale as these blocks use. Several of them include pieces that finish at only 1/2"! This will be a good test of my piecing accuracy. Here is one block with 1/2" squares in it. Those are some seriously small pieces!

I used approximately 5/8 yard of fabric on my sampler blocks for January. This week I also used 1/2 yard for a set of blocks for the RSC 2016 Sampler Quilt. You can see those blocks in yesterday's post. No additions to my stash this week.

STASH TOTALS: 
Used this week:            1.125 yards     

Used year to date:      13.375 yards

Stashed this week:              0 yards

Stashed year to date:    10.25 yards 

 Net year to date:     3.125 yards used

I am joining Kate at Life in Pieces in tracking the number of days each week that I spend at least 15 minutes quilting. The more days  I quilt, the more quilts I can get done and the more fabric used. 

15 Minute Challenge:  

February 7 - 13            6 for 7 days

February total            11 for 13 days

350 Block Challenge at Prairie Moon Quilts:

This week's block total:    24

Check out more design walls at Patchwork Times.  

Julie in GA

Brown and Pink Blocks

There hasn't been much going on in my sewing room this week, but I did manage to finish my set of brown and pink "Patience Corners" blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2016 Sampler. The blocks measure 6" finished size.

I desperately need to spend some time cleaning up in the sewing room before I attempt to work on any other quilt projects. The cutting table has reached critical mass, and it is impossible to do any cutting without moving other fabrics/pieces out of the way. 

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. 

Julie in GA

Stash Report Sunday 2/7/16

I have started a new hand-stitching project, the Glorious Hexagons quilt. This is a new block of the month group at Intown Quilters, one of my favorite local quilt shops. The two quilts below are our inspiration for this BOM. The Garden Hexagons was made by Liza Prior Lucy, and the Carnival Hexagons was made by Kim McLean. They have published a booklet/pattern for their quilts, but most of the blocks in these quilts are pieced using patterns from the book The New Hexagon by Katja Marek. Each hexagon measures 3" along the finished edges.

Garden Hexagons		Carnival Hexagons

The fabric at the right side of the next photo is going to be one of the featured prints in my Glorious Hexagons quilt. I found it in my stash, probably purchased back in the days when I used to do lots of Stack & Whack quilts. The date on the selvage says 1998! I felt the need to add at least one more large-scale print for my blocks and purchased the floral print at the top left. This floral is not at all the type of print I usually buy, but I hope it will work well for the fussy-cutting in this quilt. The yellow print at the bottom is a Kaffe Fassett fabric that I just couldn't leave behind.

I did have some usage this week too--1.375 yards for the borders on Allietare, the Bonnie Hunter 2015 mystery quilt. You can see photos of my finished top in yesterday's post.

STASH TOTALS: 
Used this week:             1.375 yards     

Used year to date:         12.25 yards

Stashed this week:          2.75 yards

Stashed year to date:    10.25 yards 

 Net year to date:      2.0 yards used

I am joining Kate at Life in Pieces in tracking the number of days each week that I spend at least 15 minutes quilting. The more days  I quilt, the more quilts I can get done and the more fabric used. I ended up with a perfect record for January, 31 for 31 days. Unfortunately, I have already missed one day this month.

15 Minute Challenge:  

February 1 - 6            5 for 6 days

January total              5 for 6 days

350 Block Challenge at Prairie Moon Quilts:

This week's block total:    27

Check out more stash reports at Patchwork Times.  

Julie in GA

Allietare Mystery TOP DONE!!

All last week Bonnie Hunter has been hosting a link up for quilters to share photos of their versions of her Allietare mystery quilt. It has been so much fun to check out all the different variations and color combinations. Some people even have their quilts totally quilted and finished!

I finished assembling the top of my Allietare quilt a couple days ago, but today was my first chance to get any decent photos of it. The poorly-lit, through-the-doorway shots just wouldn't do for this beauty! I managed to rig up a way to hang the quilt top off the railing of our deck in order to get some outdoor photos.

My version of Allietare was planned as a Quilt of Valor. Changing the color scheme was easy, just a switch of Bonnie's grey and black to light blue and dark blue. Instead of making the full size of the original quilt (82" x 96"), I made 2/3 - 3/4 of each unit in the directions. Bonnie's quilt has 30 of the star blocks and 20 of the alternate blocks, mine has 20 stars and 12 alternates. The numbers worked out very well, and I ended up with very few extra parts. My quilt top measures  67" x 81".

This closer photo will give you a better look at my fabric choices. One of my few regrets is that I wish I had used more brighter blues and fewer navy blues, but that is a minor point. My quilt was made entirely from stash fabrics including many shirt scraps in the lights and the light blues. I even mitered the corners on the striped outer border!

I had so much fun making this quilt, and it may be my most successful mystery quilt ever! There is a very strong chance that I will decide to keep this quilt and make something else for Quilts of Valor. (I don't feel too guilty about that because I just delivered three other QOV tops and backs today.)

I am sharing with the Allietare mystery link-up over at Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog. I am also linking up with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework and Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Julie in GA

One Monthly Goal--February 2016

Heidi at Red Letter Quilts is hosting OMG (One Monthly Goal). The idea is that each participant sets a quilt-related goal and posts it on their blog or on Flickr at the beginning of the month. Once the goal is achieved, they link up another post before the end of the month sharing their accomplishment. Everyone who meets their goal and posts for both linkups is eligible for prizes!

Sometimes that public declaration of a goal is just the motivation I need to keep me focused on a project rather than flitting around to try out new ideas. I was successful on my January goal, so let's see how it goes this month.

My February goal seems like it should be easy, but it has been hanging around and nagging at me for several months with very little progress being made. This is the center of my "Tell It to the Stars" quilt, which was a BOM mystery by Judy Laquidara in 2014.

I kept up with making the blocks all year (2 per month), but then got totally bogged down on the borders. All that's left is finishing the pieced border, then adding two more plain borders. Like I said, it seems easy, but just hasn't gotten finished. I've worked on it occasionally over the past year, but never completed the quilt. Now's the time to get 'er done!!

I'm heading over to the February link-up for OMG at Red Letter Quilts to see what everyone else hopes to get done this month!

Julie in GA

Nine-Patch Monday

My latest quilting obsession has been the humble nine-patch. One of my chosen projects for the 2016 Rainbow Scrap Challenge is the amazing pattern "Ring Cycles" by Lessa Siegele. Here is my favorite version from her quilt pattern.

Ring Cycles" by Lessa Siegele, available from Craftsy

My version of the quilt will be a reversal of the colors above, a light background with blocks in blues, teals, greens and purples. I found a great background fabric, Chromadots from Blank Quilting. I knew I didn't want a solid background, but it couldn't be too distracting either. Here's the background with some of the first few blue blocks.

So far I have made about 140 blocks, approximately half of what is needed for the quilt. I couldn't resist putting a batch of blocks up on the wall to see how the design is coming together. It's so exciting to see the rings begin to show up (even though this doesn't include the background fabric except in the 9P blocks.)

I will be sharing with the following linky parties.:

Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Scraptastic Tuesday at Mrs Sew and Sow
WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced

Julie in GA