Design Wall Monday 8/28/17

There was plenty of progress on the Ring Cycles quilt over the past week. I had hoped to finish making all the different units I needed for it, but didn't quite get them all done on Sunday. I'll probably wait until I have a finished top before I share any more photos--you can see the most recent in THIS POST.

Instead, I will share an old project that I started in 2013 as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This is my Scrap Hexies quilt. 

For close to a year and a half, I have been joining my hexie stars and snowflakes together. The photo above shows two panels on the left side, and on the right side two other panels have been stitched together. Next I will be stitching the two panels on the left to each other, then the two halves can become one. Progress is very slow because I only work on this occasionally while "watching" television, but I would love to finish getting the center of the quilt assembled. After that I will have to figure out what to do with the borders!

When it is finished, the quilt will hang horizontally as shown below. The grey fabric that you can see around and between the panels is the flannel of my design wall, not a part of this quilt.

I'm linking up to Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework, Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt, and Moving It Forward at Em's Scrapbag. Check out all of them for tons of amazing quilting inspiration! 

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Design Wall

Since it is getting late in the day on Sunday, I am going to combine my Sunday Stash Report and Design Wall Monday posts into one. The stash report didn't seem to warrant it's own blog post since there are no changes to report--no fabric in or out this week. Lots of stitching going on, but no usage to count today.

2017 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:               0.0 yards

Used year to date:        62.50 yards

Added last week:              0.0 yards
Added year to date:        8.25 yards

Net used year to date:  54.25 yards

I am continuing to join Kate at Life in Pieces in tracking how many days each week I manage to get in at least 15 minutes of quilting time. I'm back to stitching every single day and hope to continue that way through rest of the month.

15 Minute Challenge:  
8/13 - 8/19                 7 of 7 days

2017 Total          225 of 231 days

The Ring Cycles project continues to grow on my design wall. I finished 6 more of the basic hexie ring units, plus figured out the piecing for the corner and end units, which I am doing a little differently than the pattern. All the white triangles that you see in the photo are spaces where my design wall flannel is showing through. They will be filled with the same grey background fabric as the rest of the quilt. Progress on this quilt is slow, but I'm loving the way it looks, and that helps keep me motivated.

Ring Cycles, pattern by Lessa Siegele, available on Craftsy

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate, and add your own report so we can keep the linky going. I'm also linking up to Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework, Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt, and Moving It Forward at Em's Scrapbag. Check out all of them for tons of amazing quilting inspiration! 

Julie in GA

Return of the Rings

One of the projects I started last year as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge was Ring Cycles, a pattern by Lessa Siegele that is available on Craftsy. Here is a photo of one of the versions included with the pattern. I love the circular movement of this design.

Ring Cycles, pattern by Lessa Siegele, available on Craftsy

The design is a variation of the Jack's Chain pattern made from nine-patch blocks combined with hexagons and 60-degree triangles to create the circular patterns. Last year I made around 200 9-patch blocks and 50 or so 8-patch versions of the blocks. That was the easy part--when I started joining the blocks to the hexagons and triangles, I discovered that joining the parts together is a much slower process. I got frustrated by it and tucked everything away in a box.

 A couple weeks ago, a friend showed me some sets of Marti Michell's Perfect Patchwork Templates that she was using. One of the sets was for hexagons and triangles with 3" finished sides, the exact size I need for this project. The templates have holes at the corners that work great for marking the ends of seams. Those marks let me know where I need to stop and backstitch at the beginning and end of every seam, making my seams come out much more accurately. That was exactly what I needed to get back on track with this project.

Previously, I had four of the hexagon units constructed. After working on more parts for almost a week, I managed to complete 10 more hexagon units and a few of the partial side units. I haven't decided which way I will orient the rows. I can either end up with a straight column of blocks running top to bottom like the first photo below, or the straight row could run horizontally like the second photo. That decision won't happen anytime soon. For now I will continue making the different units needed for the design. The photos show less than half of the total number of blocks for my quilt.

Vertical rows

Horizontal rows

I am linking up to Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt, and Moving It Forward at Em's Scrapbag. Check out all of them for tons of amazing quilting inspiration! 

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Slow Stitching Sunday

No fabric in or out on the stash report for the last week. I've been doing plenty of cutting and stitching, but haven't gotten anything far enough along to count the fabric as used. Maybe next week I can get some blocks finished and do the math to figure out my usage. 

2017 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:               0.0 yards

Used year to date:        62.50 yards

Added last week:              0.0 yards
Added year to date:         8.25 yards

Net used year to date:  54.25 yards

I am continuing to join Kate at Life in Pieces in tracking how many days each week I manage to get in at least 15 minutes of quilting time. I'm back to stitching every single day and hope to continue that way through rest of the month.

15 Minute Challenge:  
8/6 - 8/12                 7 of 7 days

2017 Total          218 of 224 days

I try to always keep a hand-stitching project ready to go. My usual time to stitch is on my train ride to work in the mornings, but there are also days when I do some stitching at home in the evening. My current project is from a class with Edyta Sitar in 2013, the Dresden Star. I have eight star blocks pieced and have started appliqueing them to the background squares. Each will also get a blue circle appliqued to the center.

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate, and add your own report so we can keep this linky going. I'm also linking up to Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts and Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework.

Julie in GA

Finally Finished

There are some quilts that have a deadline or specific reason to be finished (gifts, quilt show entries, etc.) and they generally get done in a timely manner. Then there are the quilts that are started with no specific goal or plan for their future. Those are the quilts that might hang around unfinished in my sewing room, sometimes for a very long time.

That was the case with my Woven Ribbons quilt. I remember exactly when and where I bought the pattern and fabrics for this quilt, a smallish quilt shop (since closed) in St. Paul, Minnesota in the summer of 2004. I thoroughly enjoyed piecing the quilt and was very happy with the fabric choices and the way the top turned out. I'm not sure exactly when I had it quilted, probably 2007 or 2008, and it has been hanging around needing binding ever since.

Woven Ribbons
42" x 49.5"

I had put this quilt on my 2017 UFO Challenge list, and it's number came up in June. I pulled the quilt out and had it hanging on the closet door, but the binding still didn't get finished. Sometime in July I saw it hanging there and realized "I know exactly the person who would love this quilt." It was a friend at work who was moving away to a new job in South Dakota. That was the motivation I needed! Within a few days, the quilt had a binding and hanging sleeve. My friend did indeed love it--in fact, she was wearing the same colors that are in the quilt on the day I gave it to her. 

Just a couple days ago I got a message from her with this photo of the Woven Ribbons quilt hanging in their front stairs. She let me know how much they love the quilt, which tells me that giving it to her was the perfect choice. I think the quilt looks right at home in their stairway!

Strangely enough, now I am missing that quilt and thinking about making another one with different fabrics! 

Linking up to:  Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
                      Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts
                      

Julie in GA

Moda Blockheads

I've been playing catch-up with the Moda Blockheads BOW. I spent some time yesterday cutting pieces for several blocks and stitching up a couple of them. I've managed to complete 15 pieced blocks so far, but none of the applique blocks yet. You can see all the block designs in THIS POST.

Moda Blockheads
6" blocks

I am linking up to Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt, and Moving It Forward at Em's Scrapbag. Check out all of them for tons of amazing quilting inspiration! 

Julie in GA

Stash Report Sunday 8/6/17

It has been awhile since I added up the fabric usage on my Moda Blockheads blocks. This is a block-of-the-week program with six different designers taking turns contributing 6" block patterns. You can see all the different block designs HERE. The program started in early March, but I didn't decide to jump in until June, so I have been playing catch-up ever since. There have been 22 different block designs shared so far, plus several alternate blocks. I have completed 13 blocks, plus I have a few more cut out and ready to stitch. Here are my newest blocks, which used 1/2 yard of fabric.

2017 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:               0.5 yards

Used year to date:        62.50 yards

Added last week:              0.0 yards
Added year to date:         8.25 yards

Net used year to date:  54.25 yards

I am continuing to join Kate at Life in Pieces in tracking how many days each week I manage to get in at least 15 minutes of quilting time. For the first time in several weeks, I missed a day of quilting, mostly because we won free tickets to a game at the new Braves stadium. Best of all, the Braves won! Definitely worth missing out on my quilting time for that day!

15 Minute Challenge:  
7/30 - 8/5                 6 of 7 days

2017 Total          211 of 217 days

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate, and add your own report so we can keep this linky going.

Julie in GA

Scrappy Striped Squares

Last month our color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge was blue, and for August we are working with light neutrals. It was a lucky bit of serendipity that I had pulled out my shirt stripe blocks, because they contain plenty of blue stripes plus lots of white/cream/light fabrics. I spent one weekend cutting tons of triangles from shirt parts, and have been putting them together into blocks since then.

Right now the design wall is filled with 6" and 9" blocks. I still have more 6" blocks to finish off, plus lots of little 3" blocks. They will be joined together in a random manner rather than in rows by size. You can see that some of the blocks are each made from a single fabric, and other blocks combine two fabrics. Here are couple of my favorite 9" blocks. Each of them uses both sides of a single fabric, giving a subtle difference in lighter/darker stripes. (It's a little easier to see what I mean in the grey block rather than the light blue/peach block.)

I am linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday and at Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. Be sure to check out all of the wonderful projects that everyone is sharing! 

Julie in GA