April 2018 One Monthly Goal Success!

It's the last day of April, which means it is time to report on my One Monthly Goal progress. Here is the pattern I have been working on this month.

My plan was to make a version of this pattern as a wall hanging for our living room at my husband's suggestion last month. He doesn't know that I immediately jumped on this idea and am hoping to get it finished in time for our anniversary in May. The color scheme has been switched around to blues and tans. I had started making blocks at the beginning of April, and my One Monthly Goal was to finish making the rest of the blocks and get them all joined together.

Not only are the blocks all joined together, I have made a good start on the machine quilting. I am keeping it simple, with all seams stitched in the ditch. I'm optimistic that I will be able to get it totally finished in the next three weeks in time to give it to hubby, the idea man. (He doesn't read my blog very often, so I hope he doesn't see this post!)

I'm joining the One Monthly Goal link-up at Elm Street Quilts. I'm also 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.  Be sure to check out all of the wonderful projects that everyone is sharing! 

Julie in GA

15 Minutes and Stash Report Sunday 4/29/18

Another week, another stash report, and another 1/2 yard of stash fabric used. This time it was for seventeen pinwheel blocks from my 30's fabrics in yellows. Once again, no new fabric added, but I sure was tempted by the "Captiva" flash sale at Connecting Threads. Fortunately, I got too busy to place an order the first day, then forgot all about it until too late. I guess it wasn't meant to be.

2018 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 0.50 yards

Used year to date:            19.25 yards

Added last week:                 0.0 yards
Added year to date:            5.50 yards
Net used year to date:   13.75 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. Work has gotten extremely busy, including working Saturday, but I still managed to find time to quilt every day. I need it for my sanity!

15 Minute Challenge:  
4/22 - 4/28             7 of 7 days
2018 Total       114 of 118 days

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate, and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge at Life in Pieces.

Julie in GA

Scrap Happy Yellows

It is nearly the end of our month of using yellow scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and it has been a wonderfully productive month. Last weekend I finished my second Scraptastic Star block in yellow and gold. Here are both blocks together.

Scraptastic Stars, Pattern by Melissa Corry

I was enjoying the sunshiny brightness of my yellow scraps, so I decided to put all the blocks from this month up on the design wall together.  This nighttime photo doesn't do the colors justice.

Besides the two Scraptastic Star blocks, I ended up with seventeen 4" pinwheels made from 30's fabrics, one Have Faith block (upper center), four 4X Star blocks for the Squared Away sampler (bottom left with grey background) and two Spinning Boxes blocks (bottom right). Total number of yellow blocks is 26. I'm ready to find out our next monthly color!

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

Design Wall Monday 4/23/18

This may be a very dull design wall to look at, but I find it exciting because it is a wonderful sign of forward progress. These strips are for the backing of the Sister's Choice blocks that I shared in last week's post. I am going to be quilting my blocks in rows, then joining the rows together. 

The second row from the left is already layered with batting, and the quilting has been started. Here is a view of the back of one block from that row.

And here is the quilted block from the front side. I still need to figure out how I am going to quilt the background areas around the stars.

I'm 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

15 Minutes and Stash Report Sunday

For the second week in a row, my stash usage for the week was 1/2 yard. This time the fabric was used to make two yellow/gold Scraptastic Star blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. No fabric was added to the stash! I'm working on quilting two different projects and look forward to reporting some bigger numbers in the outgoing total soon.

2018 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 0.50 yards

Used year to date:            18.75 yards

Added last week:                 0.0 yards
Added year to date:            5.50 yards
Net used year to date:   13.25 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. It was another good week with quilting time every single day!

15 Minute Challenge:  
4/15 - 4/21             7 of 7 days
2018 Total       107 of 111 days

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate, and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge at Life in Pieces.

Julie in GA

Yellow Scraptastic Star

Yellow is one of my favorite colors for quilting, and I am very happy that it is our April color (along with gold) for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I had no trouble pulling out enough different 2.5" squares for my first yellow Scraptastic Star block.

Scraptastic Star, 16" block made from 2.5" squares
Pattern by Melissa Corry

I still need to make another of these blocks in yellow and gold using 2" squares. That should be manageable before the end of the month, and then we all wait to see what the color is for next month.

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

Design Wall Monday 4/16/18

My current project is these Sister's Choice blocks. They are being joined together with sashing and border pieces in preparation for quilting. My plan is to quilt them in sections, then join those sections together. I'm hoping that working on smaller sections will make the quilting easier for me to handle.

I'm 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

15 Minutes and Stash Report Sunday 4/15/18

It was another week with a small amount of stash usage and no fabric added. My usage was 1/2 yard for four Squared Away sampler blocks and one trial block using Jamie's "Have Faith" pattern, which she shared at the Hands 2 Help Challenge last weekend.

2018 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 0.50 yards

Used year to date:            18.25 yards

Added last week:                 0.0 yards
Added year to date:            5.50 yards
Net used year to date:   12.75 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. It was a good week with quilting time every single day!

15 Minute Challenge:  
4/8 - 4/14              7 of 7 days
2018 Total       100 of 104 days

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate, and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge at Life in Pieces.

Julie in GA

Squared Away in Yellow and Gold

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge colors for April are yellow and gold, and my RSC project for the past week has been the Squared Away sampler blocks. Our block this month, as chosen by Mari at The Academic Quilter, is the 4X Star.

I have been making my blocks to finish at 7.5". I was so pleased with the way the colors looked against my grey background print, that I made four blocks for this month. I look forward to adding more warm colors to the mix.

4X Stars
RSC Squared Away sampler

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

15 Minutes, Slow Stitching and Stash Report Sunday 4/8/18

My Slow Stitching project for the week has been my Scrap Hexies quilt, which was started in 2013 as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Yesterday was the monthly English paper piecing club at the LQS, where I have been working on getting this all sewn together. 

This is a photo of that project from last year. I have completed stitching the top two sections together, and now there is just the center seam to finish. After that I will applique the whole thing to one of my black-on-white prints for a border. Maybe this will actually become a finished quilt top this year!

My stash numbers for the week are headed in the wrong direction! That is one of the disadvantages of spending the morning at a quilt shop. I took a break halfway through the morning, and discovered these two Blueberry Park prints in the clearance section, 2.375 yards total. I wish I'd had the chartreuse one a couple weeks ago to use for my light/lime green Scraptastic Star in March.

2018 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 0.25 yards

Used year to date:            17.75 yards

Added last week:              2.375 yards
Added year to date:            5.50 yards
Net used year to date:   12.25 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 had a decent week, 6 out of 7 days. The only day I missed was Monday when we spent the day at August National, the home of the Masters. It was a glorious, sunny day, and the azaleas have never looked better!

August National, 13th hole

15 Minute Challenge:  
4/1 - 4/7               6 of 7 days
2018 Total          93 of 97 days

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate, and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge at Life in Pieces and Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts.

Julie in GA

RSC Spinning Boxes

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge colors for April are yellow and gold, and I have plenty of scraps in those colors! This week I made two yellow/gold Spinning Boxes blocks to add to my small collection. I should probably go back and make another light blue block and a purple block; that way I can end up with two for each month.

I still like the way the blocks look set on-point, but that would mean coming up with something for setting triangles, maybe pieced triangles? There's lots of time before I need to decide about that.

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

April 2018 One Monthly Goal

It's time to decide on my One Monthly Goal for April, and this month it's an easy decision. A few weeks ago, my husband mentioned that it would be nice to have a small quilt to put up over the mantel in our living room. He was especially interested in a 3D or optical illusion look. After showing him images of several options, we agreed on this design.

I pulled fabrics (not the colors shown) and have been working on the blocks. My goal for April is to finish making blocks and get them all joined together into a top. I might be able to start the quilting, which would be a big bonus! I will report back at the end of the month and let you see how it turned out . I am joining the One Monthly Goal link-up for April at Elm Street Quilts. Check it out to see what others are hoping to get done this month!

Julie in GA

Design Wall Monday 4/2/18

After being out of town for a couple of days late last week, I felt the need to spend some time in my sewing room on Sunday (in between the loads of laundry!) The April color assignment for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is to use our yellow and gold scraps, so I decided to work with those colors.

I was able to make the rectangular units for two Spinning Boxes blocks (tutorial available HERE.) The blocks are easy to make, so I should be able to finish these off tomorrow.

My original plan was to make one block with the brighter yellow units in the top row and a second block from the more golden units below, but I feel like there isn't enough contrast in the top set--I might need to switch things around a bit.

I'm 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

15 Minutes, Slow Stitching and a Stash Report

My goodness, what a crazy, busy week it has been. And suddenly it is April--how did that happen?!! I spent the last 2+ days in New York City doing fittings for an upcoming show. It was a whirlwind trip filled with lots of work and a little time for fun. I've been home less than 12 hours and am trying to get back to normal life--unpacking, laundry, etc. The trip influenced all of my reports for this week.

The stash report shows both usage and additions. The usage was for the bright green Scraptastic Stars (see them HERE) that I made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge--1/2 yard used. One of the fun parts of my trip was a quick visit to Gotham Quilts, where I bought a total of 1 yard of assorted fabrics. I love buying fabric souvenirs when I travel--check out the orange subway map print!

2018 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 0.5 yards

Used year to date:            17.5 yards

Added last week:                1.0 yards
Added year to date:         3.125 yards
Net used year to date:   14.375 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 quilting time suffered this week because of travel, only 5 days out of 7. It was still a good week, and I will work at getting back to quilting every day next week.

15 Minute Challenge:  
3/25 - 3/31            5 of 7 days
2018 Total          87 of 90 days

I took along a hand applique project in case there were any chunks of free time when I could do some stitching. I finished stitching down the center circle on this Dresden Star block, and have started appliquing the outer points on the last of my eight blocks. 

Dresden Star block
pattern by Edyta Sitar

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate, and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge at Life in Pieces and Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.

Julie in GA