Scrappy Rainbow Saturday--Week 35, 2019

Long hours at work have definitely taken a toll on my quilting productivity this month. Fortunately, I was able to keep up with two of my projects for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month, producing groups of blocks in light and medium blues.

I had lots of fun making the different Tiny Tuesday blocks this month. I liked the 1/4 Log Cabin blocks so much that I am considering that design as an option for next year's RSC project.

The Orange Peel blocks keep getting worked on during the morning train commute. I might still have a couple more light blue blocks yet to finish.

I couldn't resist putting a few groups of the Orange Peel blocks up on the wall together.

I hope to spend the rest of this afternoon working on another scrappy project that includes plenty of bright blues. This is the center of my version of Kevin the Quilter's summer mystery. My next step is a border of yellow 4-patches to go around this part.

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

Julie in GA

Scrappy Mystery for Design Wall Monday

Last Thursday, Kevin the Quilter revealed the final layout of his Simply Sensational Summer Scrap quilt mystery. The hundreds of squares and 4-patches are getting joined together into a wonderful scrappy mosaic quilt.

I had to work over part of the weekend, which seriously cut into my sewing time, but I still made a good start at sewing together my blue and yellow units.  I managed to construct the center square, the first border, and the corner triangles. This still has more borders coming, all of them made from a scrappy mix of squares.

When I started, I was afraid that some of my blues were too light and would pop out too much, but I am very happy with the way the colors are working together. The Milwaukee Brewers logo was the inspiration for my color choices, and it might need to get worked into the design of my quilt--maybe an applique in the center square?

I'm linking up with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework, Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Moving it Forward at Em's Scrapbag and Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stitching and DeStashing--Week 34, 2019

It's a good news/bad news kind of stash report this week. The good news--no new fabric added to the stash for the week! The bad news--no fabric being counted as outgoing either. Maybe there will be some progress next week!

2019 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                            0.0 yards

Used year to date:                     35.75 yards
Added last week:                           0.0 yards

Added year to date:                   44.25 yards
Net stashed year to date:          8.5 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. It was a very busy week at work, which makes my stolen moments for quilting time even more important. I've been bouncing around between a few different projects, but I did get in some quilting time every single day!

15 Minute Challenge:  

8/18 - 8/24              7 of 7 days

2019 Total         220 of 236 days

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

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Scrappy Rainbow Saturday--Week 34, 2019

I've been doing well this year at keeping up with making the weekly Tiny Tuesday blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The part of that project that I haven't kept up with at all is framing the blocks. Now that we are almost 2/3 of the way through the year, it seems like I should choose a frame fabric and get that part done, instead of waiting until the end to do them all.

All along, I've been thinking that a light/medium grey tone-on-tone would be a good choice for the frame fabric. A recent sale at Connecting Threads included several different grey fabrics. I bought 3 yards of one print to use with these blocks, plus 1/2 yard pieces of a couple of other greys. Now it's time to decide which fabric I like best.

The lighter grey fabric on the right is the one I had been planning to use. Unfortunately, I like the darker fabric on the left better. I only have 1/2 yard of that one, so will have to buy more before I can frame these blocks. I'll find another use for the 3 yards of the lighter fabric, maybe as the background on a mystery project.

I am linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday and with Oh Scrap! 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

Stitching and DeStashing--Week 33, 2019

This week's stash report shows more movement than usual, both with fabric coming in and going out of the stash. Unfortunately, the amount that came in was more than the amount used.

My usage for the week was 6 yards for the Shirt Stripe Boxes quilt top. I showed the blocks in the process of being joined together in yesterday's post. The new fabric added to the stash was 9 yards that I ordered from Connecting Threads on a recent sale. One piece was intended to be the framing for my Tiny Tuesday blocks, but I'm not sure I like the way they look with it. Here are a few of my blocks laid out on the new piece of fabric.

The following photo is another new piece of fabric, similar color to the first. If I choose this fabric to use with the Tiny Tuesday blocks, I would need to buy more of it. I will need to think about this (and maybe test them out in better light, instead of laid out on my cutting table in a dimly-lit room.)

2019 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                            6.0 yards

Used year to date:                     35.75 yards
Added last week:                           9.0 yards

Added year to date:                   44.25 yards
Net stashed year to date:          8.5 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. It was another busy week, but I managed to spend some time quilting every single day. Most of that time was hand stitching on my morning train commute, but I also spent some time at the sewing machine on a couple of evenings getting the Shirt Stripe Boxes joined together.

15 Minute Challenge:  

8/11 - 8/17              7 of 7 days

2019 Total         213 of 229 days

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

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Scrappy Stripey Saturday

Our colors for August at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge are light and medium blues. I'm don't need more blue blocks for most of my current Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects, so I pulled out an older project. These are my Shirt Stripe Boxes, based on a project with the same name from Kaffe Fassett's book Passionate Patchwork. They are all made from recycled shirt fabrics. This project was started in July of 2017.

I made my blocks in 9", 6", and 3" finished sizes. On the wall at this point are all of the large and medium blocks, plus a few of the smallest squares. The units along the right side have been joined into 15" x 21" groups. I will continue joining the rest of the blocks into similar groups, then sew those units together into a top that should measure 60" x 84". 

I enjoyed making the blocks for this quilt, trying to get the stripes to line up well and playing with my collection of shirt fabrics. Unfortunately, I'm not crazy about how the blocks are looking when they are joined together. I like it, but I don't love it. I will keep plugging away until I have a finished top, and maybe it will be a happy surprise when it is done.

I am linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday and with Oh Scrap! 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

Stitching and Stashing--Week 32, 2019

The past week was a very busy one, including another short trip to New York for work. The travel time definitely cut into my quilting time, but I did get to make a quick visit to Gotham Quilts in New York. The good news is that I managed to limit the damages there to two fat quarter pieces. I'm dreaming of getting more of the light print (a Tula Pink fabric) to use as the background for a future Rainbow Scrap Challenge project.

The not so good news is that I kept thinking about a packet of 10" squares that I saw there and ended up ordering it online. This is "On the Lighter Side" from Kaufman Fabrics. I can't decide which print is my favorite--maybe the yellow fried eggs or the blue paper airplanes. These are also possibilities for future rainbow quilts. Total added to the stash--3 yards. No fabric out this week.

2019 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                            0.0 yards

Used year to date:                     29.75 yards
Added last week:                           3.0 yards

Added year to date:                   35.25 yards
Net stashed year to date:          5.5 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. The very busy week led to me missing one day, but I still managed 6 out of 7, and I am happy with that.

15 Minute Challenge:  

8/4 - 8/10                6 of 7 days

2019 Total         206 of 222 days

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

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Kevin's Mystery

Back in late June, Kevin the Quilter announced that he was going to be hosting a new mystery project, his Simply Sensational Summer Scrap Quilt. He promised the sewing would be easy, with the clues being posted one month apart. It is all based on squares in your choice of size, and you only need to choose two colors to work with.

The first clue was posted at the end of June, and I resisted joining in for several weeks (too many other projects hanging around my sewing room.) Then one weekend near the end of July, I was putting away some pre-cut squares and realized that I had a plethora of 2" squares in blues--that was the beginning. I started by sewing my blues into pairs, which later become 4-patches--over 180 of them!

Blue 2-patches, sorted light/dark

Blue 4-patches in stacks of 10, plus extra squares at the right

My original plan was to use yellow as the second color, but I was also considering white/cream/beige as the alternate. When I asked my husband his opinion, he pointed to the logo on my Milwaukee Brewers sweatshirt and asked "How can you doubt that yellow is the right choice?"

I proceeded to pull out all the yellow 2" squares I could find, plus cut many more from strips and stash. Here is the collection of golden goodness.

130+ yellow 4-patches in stacks of 10

The next clue won't be posted until the end of this month, and it is very hard waiting to find out what we will be making with all of these parts. I will have to be patient, but it isn't easy!

It's not too late to join the fun, and it really is as easy as Kevin promised. You can find his intro post HERE, the first clue HERE and the second clue HERE.

I'm linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday, Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework, Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Moving it Forward at Em's Scrapbag and Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stitching and DeStashing--Week 31, 2019

Most of my quilting time over the past week was spent making 4-patches as part of Kevin the Quilter's summer mystery. I'm not ready to add up the fabric used on those yet, but I will count the multi-color flannel that I bought a week ago as used since it has been layered and pinned with the quilt top, ready for quilting.

2019 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                          .1.50 yards

Used year to date:                     29.75 yards
Added last week:                           0.0 yards

Added year to date:                   32.25 yards
Net stashed year to date:          2.5 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've been cranking out the 4-patch units, plus working on my Orange Peel blocks. I'm 7 for 7 again, and moving projects forward every day!

15 Minute Challenge:  

7/28 - 8/3                7 of 7 days

2019 Total         200 of 215 days

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

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA