To-Do Tuesday 3/29/2022

Good morning and welcome to another To-Do Tuesday! It's time to review how I did on my previous list, then come up with a new set of goals for the week ahead. The Tuesday To-Do List link-up is hosted by Linda at Texas Quilt Gal.

My last Tuesday To-Do List went very well, with all five goals completed. I would love to have another successful week like that!

To-Do List for 3/22/22 - 3/28/22

1. Boston Fiesta--finish basting binding    ✔done

The Boston Fiesta binding is basted to the back of the quilt, which made it possible to finish task #2.

2. Quilt show--take photos, submit entries by Friday   ✔done

I submitted entry forms and photos for three different quilts, including Boston Fiesta, to an upcoming local quilt show.

3. Hearts Applique--stitch at least two yellow/gold blocks  ✔done

I have completed six yellow or gold hearts.

4. Rail Fence--make yellow/gold blocks    ✔done

I made 36 Rail Fence blocks, which you can see in THIS POST.

5. Stella Nova kit--more samples             ✔done

My second Stella Nova sample ended up turning into a wonderful little quilt top, which you can see HERE.

The main plan for the next week of quilting time is to finish up my yellow and gold blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, then start working on some pink blocks, our color for April.

 

To-Do List for 3/29 - 4/4/22

1. Rail Fence--cutting for pink blocks

2. Hearts Applique--finish last two yellow/gold blocks

3. Scrappy Heart--make 1 pink block

4. Florida Fishies baby quilt--start quilting

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 Texas Quilt Gal.

Happy quilting!

Julie in GA 

Stella Nova on the Design Wall

After assembling the center starburst portion of my Stella Nova sample, it was time to figure out how to finish off the outside corners. My first choice would have been to continue the black background fabric all the way to the edges of the quilt.

That choice would be very striking and dramatic. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough of the black fabric. The black in the pieced area was a chunk pulled from my solids bin, and it had no identifying marks or notes on it. I know that using a different piece of black for the corners is likely to be obvious where the two meet up, so I started digging through my stash for other options. I pulled out several possibilities, then held auditions on the design wall and chose my favorite. It's an old Debbie Mumm print that I bought many years ago.

The other challenge was to figure out the shape for those corner pieces. I drew out one quarter of the quilt design on a large sheet of graph paper, and that showed me what to cut from my fabric. I needed eight of the pieces, four cut right side up and four reversed. The upper right corner shows the shapes that I had to cut.

After all that, I was able to cut the wedge shapes from my corner fabric and get it stitched to the center of the quilt. Here is my little Stella Nova quilt top which I am calling Autumn Starburst.

Autumn Starburst, 37" square

Linking up with:

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 3/27/2022

Like last week, today's stash report shows more fabric coming in than going out. There were several projects that I worked on during the week, but none of them used up much fabric. I added a small border to my Feathered Star Round Robin quilt and the binding to Boston Fiesta. I also made 36 Rail Fence blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. You can see those blocks in yesterday's post HERE.

The project that used the largest amount of fabric, plus filled the majority of my time last week, was a sample of the Stella Nova pattern. Stella Nova is a kit and pattern that I bought recently (shared in last week's stash report post.) The pattern instructions were rather confusing for me, so I decided to make a partial sample with some scrap fabrics to be sure I could figure it out. Here's my reduced Stella Nova in autumn colors.

My sample piece measures about 34" across and is made up of 3 rounds of diamonds. Those black strips between all the diamonds start out as 1" cut strips. The original Stella Nova pattern has 7 rounds of diamonds, plus additional corner sections. The pattern instructions say to cut 58(!) strips of the black, 1" x width of fabric. If only I had an AccuQuilt cutter! This is a very intimidating project, and I'm not sure that I'm up for it right now. I'll keep you posted.

The additions to the stash this week came from a wonderful scrap package that I won in a giveaway from Preeti. If you aren't familiar with her blog (sewpreetiquilts), you should definitely check it out. She is amazingly creative and productive, plus she always has great stories to go along with her quilts.

Anyway, I received a mailer stuffed full of scraps and chunks, mostly light/low volume prints or batiks. Here's a photo of the beautiful batiks. Several of them are fat quarter or quarter yard pieces.

The total weight of the scraps was about 2 pounds. I am counting that as 6 yards added to the stash, approximately 3 yards per pound.

2022 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:            3.25 yards

Used year to date:        20.5 yards

Added last week:            6.0 yards

Added year to date:      28.5 yards

Net added in 2022      8.0 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 stitching time. As you might guess from the list of projects in the stash report, I definitely spent more than 15 minutes stitching every day last week.

15 Minute Challenge for 2022: 

3/20 - 3/26         7 of 7 days

2022 Total       85 of 85 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 Yellow Fences

My yellow and gold Rail Fence blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge kept getting pushed back each week in favor of other projects. Since today is the last Saturday of the month, I knew I needed to get them finished and posted. They are such easy blocks and really took very little time once I made myself work on them.

I ended up with 36 yellow/gold blocks. They will each finish at 3" square. I considered joining them together into one big (18") yellow and gold block. That would be the easier way to go, but of course, I'm going to take the more complicated approach!

My plan is to run the colors diagonally through the quilt. We've only used three colors so far this year, but I already love the look of them together! It will be even better when there are more colors to add. This photo shows 108 blocks, which would measure only 27" x 36" if they were all joined together. I'm going to need a lot more blocks for a 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.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

To-Do Tuesday 3/22/2022

Good morning and welcome to another To-Do Tuesday! It's time to review how I did on my previous list, then come up with a new set of goals for the week ahead. The Tuesday To-Do List link-up is hosted by Linda at Texas Quilt Gal.

My last Tuesday To-Do List was from two weeks ago. Despite having a short list, I still didn't manage to complete all of my tasks (but I did work on several other projects!) 

To-Do List for 3/8/22 - 3/14/22

1. Charm Baskets--begin making yellow/gold blocks   ✔done

I ended up with 26 cute little basket blocks this month.

2. Hearts Applique--stitch at least two yellow/gold blocks   ✔done

Four yellow and gold appliqued hearts have been stitched.

3. Rail Fence--cut yellow/gold pieces            not done

Are you wondering what I was doing instead of finishing off my list? Well, I spent four days in Wisconsin visiting family, and had a wonderful time. While there, I finished the stitching on a redwork Santa piece that I started last spring. The embroidered area measures about 7" square.

I also made an entry for the last Project Quilting Challenge of 2022 (read more about that HERE) and I added the final border to my Feathered Star quilt for the Stay at Home Round Robin (posted HERE.) I've spent some time over the past couple of days trying out some samples for a new quilt pattern/kit that I bought recently.

My most important goal for the next week involves taking photos and submitting my entries for a local quilt show by Friday. Before that can happen, I need to finish basting the binding to the back of one quilt that I'm planning to enter. My other plans for the week are more flexible.

 

To-Do List for 3/22/22 - 3/28/22

1. Boston Fiesta--finish basting binding

2. Quilt show--take photos, submit entries by Friday

3. Hearts Applique--stitch at least two yellow/gold blocks 

4. Rail Fence--make yellow/gold blocks

5. Stella Nova kit--more samples

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 Texas Quilt Gal.

Happy quilting!

Julie in GA 

Stay at Home Round Robin 2022 Finale

We've come to the end of the 2022 Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR). This wonderful event was hosted by Gail of Quilting Gail, with contributions from several of her quilting friends. This week is the time for all participants to link-up their finished quilt or top.

My SAHRR quilt was a two-year project. I started it as part of the 2021 SAHRR, but got stuck and stopped working on it halfway through. Here's what I had when I pulled it out again this year.

SAHRR 2021

I removed the outer borders and kept the Feathered Star center block, the piano keys border and the flying geese. Our border prompts for this year were curves, diamonds, stars, signature blocks, applique and shoo-fly blocks. (If you click on any of the highlighted links, you will be taken to blog posts featuring my version of each prompt.) I followed all of the prompts except the last, choosing to skip the shoo-fly blocks. I added a small border of the background fabric to give it a little breathing room around the outside. I ended up with a quilt top that currently measures 39.5" square.

Feathered Star Round Robin 2022

39.5" square

Once this is quilted, I will finish it with a binding of either burgundy or dark teal. I enjoyed the challenge of following the border prompts that we were given each week, and I look forward to the next time (SAHRR 2023?)

You can check out more versions of the SAHRR at Quilting Gail. I'm also linking up with Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt and Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 3/20/2022

I missed a week on the stash report because I was out of town last weekend, enjoying a visit with family in Wisconsin. Surprisingly enough, we didn't visit any quilt shops while I was there, even though my sister is also a quilter. However, we did go to a quilter's estate sale one afternoon. I was able to show some restraint and only bought one piece of fabric there.

The main stash addition happened after I returned home. I received a kit that I ordered from Keepsake Quilting during a recent sale. I got 12 yards of fabrics, most in the kit plus additional yardage of one of them.

The batiks are from the "Black and Hue" line by Anthology Fabrics. The black on the right end is a solid. They are all meant to be used together to make the Stella Nova quilt, pictured in the following photo. Don't fall in love with it because it doesn't seem to be available anymore. This may be one of the rare times that I actually make a quilt as designed for the kit, rather than changing things up as I usually do.

There was a little bit of usage over the past two weeks, although nowhere near as much as the stash additions. I used 1 yard for the yellow and gold Charm Basket blocks, shared in THIS POST. I also used another yard for the two Flying Geese projects shared in yesterday's post HERE.

2022 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:              2.0 yards

Used year to date:      17.25 yards

Added last week:        12.75 yards

Added year to date:      22.5 yards

Net added in 2022     5.25 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 stitching time. Despite being away from home for four days, I still got my 15 minutes every day by working on an embroidery project while I was gone. 

15 Minute Challenge for 2022: 

3/6 - 3/19       14 of 14 days

2022 Total       78 of 78 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

Project Quilting 13.6--Flying Geese

I'm very happy to have completed another Project Quilting challenge, especially since this is the final challenge for 2022. The theme this week is Flying Geese, and our entries need to include a minimum of five flying geese units.

I got a late start on this week's challenge because I was in Wisconsin visiting family early in the week. I considered many different designs with flying geese in them, and decided to make a small Christmas quilt. By Friday afternoon, I had pieced together 48 geese into this little quilt top. The geese are 2" x 4" finished size.

I got as far as auditioning border fabrics before I realized that it would be very hard for me to get this piece quilted and finished by the deadline at noon on Sunday. I'd rather take my time before I decide on the border and finishing details rather than rushing through it.

My next attempt and official entry for the challenge is this potholder. The block design goes by multiple names including Dutchman's Puzzle or Flying Dutchman. 

Linking up with:

Project Quilting 13.6 at Persimon Dreams

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

A Tisket, A Tasket

A batch of yellow baskets! That's what I managed to get done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge  this week. I ended up with 26 basket blocks in a wide variety of yellow and gold prints. These little cuties will finish at 4".

Charm Baskets

pattern by Laundry Basket Quilts

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.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

To-Do Tuesday 3/8/2022

Good morning and welcome to another To-Do Tuesday! It's time to review how I did on my previous list, then come up with a new set of goals for the week ahead. The Tuesday To-Do List link-up is hosted by Linda at Texas Quilt Gal.

Last week was not a good one for getting through my list, with too many other things going on that kept me from quilting. 

To-Do List for 3/1/22 - 3/7/22

1. Fishies baby quilt--begin quilting   not done

Nothing has been done on this quilt since the layers were pin basted for quilting.

2. Hearts Applique--prep yellow/gold blocks   ✔done

I don't have any blocks finished, but I've prepped several and gotten one partially stitched.

3. Rail Fence--begin making yellow/gold blocks   not done

4. Feathered Star SAHRR--continue making Shoo Fly blocks  not done/change of plans

I've decided to leave the Shoo Fly blocks off my Feathered Star quilt, so in a way, this step has been done.

5. One Monthly Goal--choose a project for March   ✔done

My One Monthly Goal for March was decided, and I blogged about it HERE.

My last couple of to-do lists included mentions of a secret project, which I can finally share with you. This is Interwoven, which I made as a gift for my husband's birthday. The colors were chosen to work with a recently renovated black-and-white bathroom.

Interwoven, 22" square

My quilting plans for the upcoming week are focused on my projects for the  Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

 

To-Do List for 3/8/22 - 3/14/22

1. Charm Baskets--begin making yellow/gold blocks

2. Hearts Applique--stitch at least two yellow/gold blocks 

3. Rail Fence--cut yellow/gold pieces

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 Texas Quilt Gal.

Happy quilting!

Julie in GA 

One Monthly Goal (OMG)--March 2022

It's time for me to get back to choosing a One Monthly Goal and linking up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts. It took me a few days to decide on my choice for March, but eventually I figured it out.

My Boston Fiesta quilt was started in 2005. I bought the fabrics for this quilt while I was working in Boston for several weeks. I figured out a plan for the design, but didn't get very far on the piecing at that time. The quilt top wasn't finished until ten years later, in 2015.

Boston Fiesta quilt top, 60" x 74"

These photos show the completed quilt top and backing for it before quilting. The quilting was finished a few years ago, but I never got around to adding the binding.

Boston Fiesta backing

My One Monthly Goal for March is to add the binding to this quilt, plus a hanging sleeve and label. There is a local quilt show this summer, and the entry deadline is March 25th. That will help motivate me to get this quilt finished!

You can see what other quilters are hoping to get done this month at the One Monthly Goal link-up at Elm Street Quilts. I'm also linking up with Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt and Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Stash Report and Stitching Time 3/6/2022

This week's stash report shows movement both in and out of the stash. The addition to the stash came from a pack of fat quarters, all in different shades of purple, thanks to the new Solid Fat Quarter Club at the Fat Quarter Shop. I've been interested in working with solids more, and this seemed like a good way to get a wide variety of colors.

As for the stash usage, I can finally share a recent secret project. This is the wallhanging that I made for my guy Ed's birthday. It is a variation of a pattern called Interwoven, and it finished at 22" square. I used 1.625 yards of fabric for the top, backing and binding of this quilt. 

Interwoven, 22" square

Interwoven was made to hang in a bathroom that we renovated last summer. The bathroom is all done in black and white tile.

2022 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:          1.625 yards

Used year to date:      15.25 yards

Added last week:          3.00 yards

Added year to date:      9.75 yards

Net used in 2022      5.50 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 stitching time. We had a busy week, and it was a challenge to get my 15 minutes every day, but I managed to squeeze it in, sometimes late in the day.

15 Minute Challenge for 2022: 

2/27 - 3/5           7 of 7 days

2022 Total       64 of 64 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 Yellow Hearts

Quilting time has been more limited than usual this week, with too many other plans and projects filling our days. The main time-filler has been getting ready to host two different gatherings for Ed's birthday this weekend, one for family, the other for friends and neighbors. Fortunately, we are expecting to have beautiful weather both Saturday and Sunday.

I did manage to squeeze in a little stitching time and pulled out my yellow 2.5" squares to make this month's Scrappy Heart block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The finished size of this block will be 12".

That brings me to three finished blocks for this project so far. 

I also found some time to prep my first batch of appliqued heart blocks. These are made with 5" background squares, and the hearts start from 3.5" squares. My first yellow block is half-way stitched.

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.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA