To-Do Tuesday 9/29/2020

Today is the last Tuesday in September, which means it is time once again for the To-Do Tuesday Weekly Progress Update and Link-up hosted by Roseanne and Sue at Home Sewn By Us. 

To-do list for 9/22 - 9/28

1. Orphan Adoptions--choose winners, pack up and mail away       ✔ done

One orphan has been delivered, and the other two should arrive today.

2. Clean and oil sewing machine                                                  not done

I didn't do this, but I did clean all the threads out of my chair wheels.

3. "Practice What I Preach"--finish quilting                                    progress

I finished the quilting in the inner border, started the outer border, then decided I didn't like it and pulled the stitching out.

4. Spell It With Fabric--sashing/setting, choose border & backing   ✔ done

I cut the sashing and cornerstone pieces, narrowed down the border choices to two, and found a backing fabric that will work. Here are my border options. The butterfly fabric is my first choice, but I'm not sure there is enough.

5. Cleaning sewing room--anything would be an improvement!      ✔ done

This took up a big chunk of my time last week. I cleared away all the piles from one end of my cutting table. The other end is still a mess, but this is huge progress. You can see a couple of photos in yesterday's post.

To-do list for 9/29 - 10/5

1. Glorious Hexagons--finish joining blocks together. This is a project from several years ago that has the blocks all made and partially joined. This photo shows about half of the blocks with the background fabric added.

2. Square Dance blocks--begin making yellow blocks

3. "Practice What I Preach"--figure out quilting design for border

4. Cleaning--finish clearing cutting table

That should be more than enough to keep me busy for the next week. I'll report on my progress and post a new set of goals next Tuesday. I'm linking up with other To-Do Tuesday lists at Home Sewn by Us .

Julie in GA

Design Wall Monday 9/28/2020

Great progress was made on the sewing room clean-up project over the weekend. For months I have been avoiding trying to clear off my cutting table. I have a very bad habit of letting things accumulate all around my cutting mat until that mat is surrounded by piles of papers, scraps, sample blocks, fabric, etc. Here is a photo of a typical pile...

and here is the opposite corner after a similar pile was cleared away. I know it won't stay this neat and tidy for terribly long, but it sure is a treat right now! 

There was lots of junk in the pile that got cleared away, but there were some treasures hiding in there too. I discovered some little 6" star blocks from my first attempt at a Bonnie Hunter mystery. These were made as part of her 2011 mystery Orca Bay. I got this far, then realized that I just didn't have my scrap fabrics organized enough to keep up with the mystery. The blocks were set aside and have been sitting around every since, getting shuffled from place to place. It's time to either sew them up into a little tabletopper or get rid of them!

Another treasure rediscovered was this fabric trivet that I bought many years ago. It measures 6" square.

I liked the look and feel of the trivet, but of course I was very curious about how it was made. Here is the reverse side.

Here is what was underneath the backing fabric. The black square is fusible interfacing.

I peeled off the interfacing, and this is what it covered up. It's rug hooking canvas with strips of fabric woven through. I believe the interfacing was fused onto this to keep the ends of the strips from pulling loose.

I got a scrap of similar canvas and started a sample piece of my own, but didn't get very far. One thing I discovered is that it would be much easier if I'd used solid, batik, or woven stripe fabrics instead of prints because it is difficult to prevent the wrong side of the fabric from showing. Yet another UFO that has been sitting around for years, along with the original trivet being in pieces.

Linking up with:
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Stitching and DeStashing--Week 39, 2020

Last week's Fall 2020 Quilty Orphan Adoption Event  hosted by Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework made a big difference in my stash reduction efforts. I gave away three "orphans" which totalled 10.75 yards of fabric. I also included an extra 2.5 yard piece of yardage in one of the packages, and I used .25 yard for my red Scrappy Bear Paw block. The grand total outgoing for the week was 13.5 yards!

Scrappy Bear Paw, 14" block

2020 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                             13.50 yards

Used year to date:                     163.375 yards

Added last week:                              0.0 yards

Added year to date:                         53.0 yards

Net used year to date            110.375 yards

My stash totals are looking very good for the year, but that's mostly because of the UFOs that have been given away, plus there was a large amount of stash used for mask making earlier in the year. 

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 week included some time for piecing, some for machine quilting, some searching for fabric to back the alphabet quilt, and a day of trying to clean up. Altogether, I got more than 15 minutes every day last week.

15 Minute Challenge:  

9/20 - 9/26               7 of 7 days

2020 Total          261 of 270 days

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

Happy quilting and stay safe everyone!

Julie in GA

Scrappy Rainbow Saturday--Week 39, 2020

It's the last Saturday of our month of stitching up red scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I finished my red Scrappy Bear Paw block a couple days ago.

One of the best things about making scrappy blocks is reminiscing about the different fabrics. For this block I pulled out some very old pieces that had come from my mother's scrap bags. Five years ago this summer, my sister and I made three quilts with those old scraps, one for each of us and one for Mom. Some of the scraps date back decades from making clothing for the whole family. They are full of such wonderful fabric memories!

There were four of the old fabrics included in my Bear Paw block.

I don't remember what was originally made from every one of those old fabrics, but one in particular stands out for me. This print was a dress my mother made for me when I was very young, and I even had a matching dress for my doll! I've always loved this fabric, and I even have the original dress stashed away with some of Mom's scraps that I kept.

The dress is a little faded, but I'm still tickled every time I pull it out. I don't have any children or grandchildren to pass it on to, and it's unlikely I could ever bring myself to cut it up for the fabric. I'll just enjoy the memories when I see it.

I am linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday and with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. I hope you are all staying well and getting lots of quilting done!

Julie in GA 

Design Wall Monday 9/21/2020--A New Project!

Saturday was National Sew a Jelly Roll Day, a day that I really had no plans to participate in, but I did spend some time looking at jelly roll patterns. One of my favorite sources for free quilt patterns is the Fat Quarter Shop website. They have the patterns divided up by type of precuts (jelly roll, layer cake, etc.) and also by fabric manufacturer. 

I looked through the page of jelly roll patterns, and there were a few that I was somewhat interested in, but it wasn't until I got near the bottom of the page that I found THE pattern. You know, the one that jumps out at you and yells "I'm the one! Make me RIGHT NOW!" Well, who was I to argue?

Spell it with Fabric pattern

I can't even tell you why this pattern spoke to me. It was just the right design at the right time. I searched through my fabrics for a big enough piece to use as background, settling on a light grey solid. I didn't have a jelly roll that I was dying to use, so I pulled 2.5" strips out of my strip drawers, using a full rainbow of colors.

I made the first three letters Friday afternoon, then spent much of Saturday cutting background for all the rest of the letters and piecing several of them. On Sunday, I pieced the last of the letters and got them all up on the design wall.

I need to make the filler blocks for the four corners, then decide if I want to set the blocks together as directed in the pattern or go my own way. Their design makes a quilt that finishes at 59" x 68". The letter blocks currently finish at 8" x 10". I'm off to dig through the stash and see what I can find as a possible border fabric.

Linking up with:
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Stitching and DeStashing--Week 38, 2020

The weekly stash report shows movement both in and out. The outgoing includes 1.25 yards for the little Rolling 9-Patch quilt top that I shared in yesterday's post plus 1/4 yard for these two blocks. 

I was looking for a design to make with a jelly roll and decided to give this one a try. The pattern is called Definitely Positive by The Cloth Parcel, and you can find a tutorial for making the blocks HERE. I like her quilt a lot more than my sample blocks--the solid fabrics for the plus signs are a nice contrast with all the prints.

As for additions to the stash, I have 5.5 yards added thanks to a daily flash sale at the Fat Quarter Shop. About a year ago, I bought a layer cake of fabrics called "On the Lighter Side" by Robert Kaufman. I have been using those as the backgrounds on my Scrappy Bear Paw blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge all year. I was very excited to see that the second line, "2019 On the Lighter Side", was on sale, so I scooped up a fat quarter bundle, plus a half yard of an additional light print.

I always seem to be short on fun prints for backgrounds, especially on my rainbow quilts. These will be great additions for that purpose! I think my favorites are the two clothespin prints. 

2020 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                              1.50 yards

Used year to date:                     149.875 yards

Added last week:                             5.50 yards

Added year to date:                         53.0 yards

Net used year to date              96.875 yards

I'm would love to keep my stash totals in the neighborhood of 100 yards net usage for the year, but I'm not sure how realistic that will be. I tend to get carried away during some of the Black Friday and end of the year sales, but who knows if those kind of sales will even happen this year. Better to just keep plugging away at using or giving away some of the stash.

On the topic of giving away fabric, I will have some outgoing yardage soon thanks to the Fall 2020 Quilty Orphan Adoption Event  hosted by Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework. I have three "orphans" available for adoption. It's not too late to check out the offerings and see if there are any UFOs you would like to adopt!

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 spent the first half of the week finishing the Rolling 9-Patch top, made the two sample blocks, and prepared my orphans for adoption. At the end of the week, I started a brand new project--I just couldn't resist trying the cute pattern I found. More on that soon!

15 Minute Challenge:  

9/13 - 9/19               7 of 7 days

2020 Total          254 of 263 days

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

Happy quilting and stay safe everyone!

Julie in GA

Scrappy Rainbow Saturday--Week 38, 2020

For those who don't already know, it's time for the Fall 2020 Quilty Orphan Adoption Event  hosted by Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework. I have three "orphans" up for adoption, and others are also offering up UFOs that they no longer love. Check it out! 

Instead of working on my regular projects for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this week, I got completely distracted by an old UFO. I had pulled out my scrappy Rolling 9-Patch blocks, which happen to feature red, our RSC color of the month. 

These blocks had been started as a way to use up some of the 9-patches left over from Bonnie Hunter's 2017 mystery "On Ringo Lake." I made more blocks, then auditioned possible settings for them. You can see those in Monday's post. After making my decision, I finished making the blocks needed, then joined them all together. 

It was time for borders, and I decided to steal an idea I had seen in a magazine ad. It featured a quilt with borders made from a red and white zipper striped fabric, which I happened to own. I combined that fabric with a narrow border of a black print and plan to use that same black fabric for binding too.

Unfortunately, my first attempt at the border was not a success, as you can see above. I got the border all stitched on, mitered the corners, then put it up on my design wall and discovered that the two side borders were a bit too long, causing ripples and waviness. UGH! It's a good thing this is a small quilt! The next day, I removed those side borders, shortened each by about 1/4 inch, then reapplied them and restitched the miters. I also trimmed the border down to a more appropriate width. My little quilt now measures 27.5" x 34.75".

Rolling 9-Patch, 27.5" x 34.75"

I am linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday and with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. I hope you are all staying well and getting lots of quilting done!

Julie in GA 

Orphan Adoption #3--Fall 2020

This is my third offering for the Fall 2020 Quilty Orphan Adoption Event  hosted by Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework. You can see Orphan #1, the Floral Log Cabin HERE, and Orphan #2, Jacob's Ladder is HERE.

The Orphan Adoption event is held twice a year to help quilters clear out some of the old projects that we will never finish. It's the perfect opportunity to pass along your orphan blocks/projects to someone else who will love and finish them! It's also a great time to acquire a new project or two for yourself.

My last orphan available for adoption is the leftovers from making the Uneven 9-Patch quilt shown above. This pattern is also known as Puss in the Corner. I made the quilt as a sample for a beginning quilting class that I used to teach.

Here are two blocks plus strips sets to make more that are all the same as shown in my sample quilt.

The rest of my scraps/leftovers have the same fabrics, but they aren't all used in the same places in the blocks. These were my first attempt, and I decided to change things around to make the blocks as shown above.

Four complete blocks plus parts for at least six more

One block plus parts for four more and extra pieces

Extra fabrics

I'm including extra of two of the original fabrics (the light and the floral) plus very good substitutes for the pink and the dark green. If you zoom in, you can see that a chunk of each of those original fabrics is sitting on top of the new option--I'd say they are excellent replacements. There's 1/4 yard of the light, 9" x 32" of the floral, 6" x 8" of the original pink and 9" x 38" of the sub, plus 10.5" x 20" of the new green. Those should be enough to get a reasonable number of blocks for a small quilt.

That's my third "orphan" available for adoption--Uneven 9-Patch blocks plus pieces, strip sets and extra fabric. I will ship to the winner anywhere in the U.S. only. One warning--there may be a delay in getting these in the mail. Don't count on receiving your "orphan" immediately. 

Leave a comment to let me know if you would like to adopt this orphan project. Shipping in the U.S. only. Please be sure to include your email address so I can contact the winner. I will choose a random winner next Tuesday, September 22. Get your comment in by noon that day. Be sure to check out the rest of the quilty orphans over at Quilting is more fun than Housework. 

Julie in GA

Orphan Adoption #2--Fall 2020

This is my second offering for the Fall 2020 Quilty Orphan Adoption Event  hosted by Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework. You can see Orphan #1, the Floral Log Cabin HERE, and Orphan #3, Uneven 9-Patch is HERE.

The Orphan Adoption event is held twice a year to help quilters clear out some of the old projects that we will never finish. It's the perfect opportunity to pass along your orphan blocks/projects to someone else who will love and finish them! It's also a great time to acquire a new project or two for yourself.

Four Jacob's Ladder blocks

My second orphan available for adoption is the beginnings of a Jacob's Ladder quilt. I made four blocks, plus started making the parts for at least 20 more blocks. The are half-square triangles and four-patches all stitched and needing to be pressed, plus strip sets for more four-patch units. The finished size of the blocks is 9".

I thought I had more of the floral print that could be included, but it is hiding from me at the moment. If I locate it, I will add that to the package.

That's my second "orphan" available for adoption--four Jacob's Ladder blocks plus the parts to make at least 20 more blocks. I will ship to the winner anywhere in the U.S. only. One warning--there may be a delay in getting these in the mail. Don't count on receiving your "orphan" immediately. 

Leave a comment to let me know if you would like to adopt this orphan project. Shipping in the U.S. only. Please be sure to include your email address so I can contact the winner. I will choose a random winner next Tuesday, September 22. Get your comment in by noon that day. Be sure to check out the rest of the quilty orphans over at Quilting is more fun than Housework. 

Julie in GA

Orphan Adoption #1--Fall 2020

One of my biggest projects over the past couple of months has been attempting to clean up and reorganize my sewing room. It has gotten to the point where I am overwhelmed by how much quilting stuff I have--books, magazines, fabric, scraps, UFOs, etc. Lucky for me, this week it's time for the Fall 2020 Quilty Orphan Adoption Event  hosted by Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework.

The Orphan Adoption event is held twice a year to help quilters clear out some of the old projects that we will never finish. It's the perfect opportunity to pass along your orphan blocks/projects to someone else who will love and finish them! It's also a great time to acquire a new project or two for yourself.

I have multiple offerings up for adoption this fall, and I am going to list them each in a separate post. That makes it easier for me to keep track of who is interested in each item. My other posts can be viewed HERE and HERE.

One reason my sewing room is such a mess is because I'm not good about dealing with the leftovers after I finish a quilt. I generally end up with a box of extra or partial blocks, leftover strip sets and chunks of fabrics. The bigger fabric pieces might make it back into my stash, but I have a hard time deciding what to do with the rest. My first "orphan" came from one of those boxes.

This is the first bed-sized quilt I ever made. It was started in a class in 1995 and finished in 1997. The blocks start with a 9-patch in the center, then build log cabin strips around that. Here is the original pattern, which makes a quilt that finishes at 63" square. I used a different layout of the blocks for my quilt. The pattern will be included with the fabrics below.

1995 was my first year as a quilter, so I didn't have much of a fabric stash. I remember going to JoAnn Fabrics and buying a ton of 1/8 - 1/4 yard pieces of mostly floral prints. There are 3 completed 9-patch blocks, plus the makings for at least 30 - 40 more blocks, probably even more than that.

These are the strips for the log cabin part of the blocks. The three piles on the left are already cut to the needed lengths, all ready to start sewing. The other stacks are full or partial 1.5" strips.

That's my first "orphan" available for adoption--the pattern plus all the pieces and parts to make many blocks. I will ship to the winner anywhere in the U.S. only. One warning--there may be a delay in getting these in the mail. Don't count on receiving your "orphan" immediately. 

Leave a comment to let me know if you would like to adopt this orphan project. Shipping in the U.S. only. Please be sure to include your email address so I can contact the winner. I will choose a random winner next Tuesday, September 22. Get your comment in by noon that day. Be sure to check out the rest of the quilty orphans over at Quilting is more fun than Housework. 

Julie in GA

Dresden Stars quilt finished!

For a couple of weeks now, I've been promising to share my finished Dresden Stars quilt, and today is finally the day! Warning, there are lots of photos in this post.

My Dresden Stars quilt was started in a class with Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts in June, 2013. It was a great class, and she was an absolutely delightful teacher with many wonderful quilts to show us. This is the picture of her pattern with a link to the website.

Dresden Star pattern from Laundry Basket Quilts

I made eight blocks as shown in the pattern, but decided to use only five to make a wallhanging for a specific spot in our living room. My quilt finished at about 50" square.

In finishing this quilt, I used techniques similar to those in Marti Michell's book Machine Quilting in Sections. The book is available from her website or at many online sources. She also had (has?) a Craftsy class on this topic.

The idea is that it is easier to machine quilt on a domestic machine if you aren't wrestling the entire quilt through the machine at once. The book presents different methods for quilting in sections and then joining those sections together. I adapted/combined a couple of her techniques in the finishing of my quilt. I always struggle with machine quilting, and doing it in smaller portions did make things easier for me. 

The center of my quilt was divided diagonally into three sections of blocks, sashing and setting triangles. I laid them out with the batting and backing fabric, including extra on the sides where the borders would be added later. Here are two of the sections laying on the backing fabric with the extra batting showing at the top and right edges.

The separate sections got quilted in the blocks and the setting triangles before they were joined together. I stitched in the ditch around the Dresdens, then echo quilted around them. There's also a couple lines of stitching around the center circles.

After that quilting was done, it was time to join the sections together. The next photos show two sections joined with a contrast strip on the backing side to cover the seams.

After all three sections were joined together, it was time to add the borders. There is a narrow dark gold inner border, and the outer border is a floral print on a deep blue background. The fabrics for the sashing, setting triangles, and borders all came out of my stash.

It was very difficult to get any good photos of the quilting in the borders. I used the floral print as my guide, free motion quilting around the outlines of all of the flowers. You can't tell from this photo, but my stitching was done in red thread.

The crazy backing fabric just makes me smile! I have no idea when or where I got this, but I'm so glad it was waiting in my stash. 

It feels great to have a finish, especially to get an old UFO completed. It is such an unusual combination of fabrics, with many batiks in the Dresdens, an Asian style print in the setting triangles, and a folk art floral for the outer border. Somehow, they all work well together. I'm happy with the results, and best of all, Ed likes it too! This quilt looks great hanging opposite the front door in our living room, greeting us each time we enter!

FYI--it's time for the Fall 2020 Quilty Orphan Adoption Event  hosted by Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework. You can join in and get rid of some UFO's that no longer excite you, or you can enter the giveaways to win other people's UFO's. I have three "orphans" up for adoption there--go ahead and check them out!

Linking up with:

Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

To-Do Tuesday 9/15/2020

It is very hard to believe that September is already half over, although we have been getting some lovely hints of fall in the weather. It is time once again for the To-Do Tuesday Weekly Progress Update and Link-up hosted by Roseanne and Sue at Home Sewn By Us. I accomplished my three main goals last week and hope to have another good week ahead.

To-do list for 9/8 - 9/14

1. Dresden Stars quilt--photos and blog post                               ✔ done

2. Sewing room cleaning--finish going through quilting books       ✔ done

3. RSC Square Dance--make 8 red/orange blocks                        ✔ done

4. Bonus--Make a couple of new grocery bags                                 no

1. Dresden Stars quilt--photos have been taken, the blog post is written, and it will be shared on Thursday.

2. Sewing room cleaning--I finished sorting through all the quilting books and ended up with three boxes full of books to get rid of. Thank you so much to everyone who had suggestions for what to do with them. I contacted a friend who is a member of a large local guild, and she said they would be happy to take them off my hands. Some books will be added to their guild library, and the rest will go into their next book sale. They will also take magazines once I go through those. Yippee!! I had hoped to pass the books directly to other quilters, and it's going to work out exactly that way. I kept a handful of books for future blog giveaways too.

3. RSC Square Dance--I made 16 red/orange blocks, finishing all I needed for September. I showed them in Saturday's post.

4. Grocery bags--nothing done, except pulling out some possible fabrics.

To-do list for 9/15 - 9/21

1. Scrappy Bear Paw--make one red block for Rainbow Scrap Challenge

2. Dresden Stars--clean up leftover fabrics, etc.

3. Start a new hand-stitching project--I haven't had one since I finished the applique on my Orange Peels

4. Rolling 9-Patch--finish top (this is a project I was working on over the weekend)

5. Sewing room cleaning--??? I'm sure I'll find something to do!

That should be more than enough to keep me busy for the next week. I'll report on my progress and post a new set of goals next Tuesday. I'm linking up with other To-Do Tuesday lists at Home Sewn by Us .

Julie in GA