Free-Motion Quilting Goal Success!

I have been a semi-regular participant in the One Monthly Goal link-ups at Elm Street Quilts over the past few years, with a success rate of around 50%. For August, instead of a project-based goal like joining a group of blocks into a finished quilt top, I decided to concentrate on improving my skills, specifically free-motion quilting.

I bought a Juki J-150QVP machine a couple months ago, and in an attempt to become more comfortable with free-motion quilting on it, my One Monthly goal for August was to spend at least 15 minutes every single day doing some free-motion quilting. If I missed a day, I needed to make up that time within the next three days (my personal challenge, my rules!) There were only two days all month with no FMQ, both happening last week when we had houseguests, but I did make up those days since then.

The first quilt to be finished was this Rainbow LeMoyne baby quilt at the beginning of the month. It had been partially quilted on my old Singer machine earlier in the year, but finishing it was much easier with the new Juki.

The next FMQ project was to finish the quilting on this green Crossroads quilt. The top for this quilt was made in 2014, and I had already done some stitch-in-the-ditch quilting around the green rectangles in the blocks. I added FMQ designs in the white background squares and the borders. You can read more about this quilt in this post.

While I prepped the next quilt, my fill-in FMQ project was quilting a couple of little hearts. These were started in a Zoom class I took with Mel Beach back in May called Crazy in Love with Free-Motion Quilting. They both need to have the quilting threads buried and the outer edges finished off somehow. Each heart measures about 7" wide x 5.5" high. It's hard to see the stitching on the upper heart because the thread color blends in too much, but the bright tangerine thread on the lower heart shows up very nicely!

The last FMQ project for March has been this orange and green Diagonal Squares quilt. There are ten different fabrics in this quilt, and each fabric is being quilted with a different color thread and a different quilting design. The photo above shows the full quilt top before any quilting. It measures 40.5" x 48.5".

I've been working on this quilt gradually, spending one or two days on each fabric. Eight of the ten fabrics have been completed, all except the light green with yellow and the green and orange mosaic print, both near the upper right in the above photo. The border around the quilt, which has that same mosaic print, will be the last area to be quilted. I'd hoped to have this quilt finished by the end of the month, but it just didn't happen.

Most of my quilting designs on these blocks has been following the prints in the fabrics. This yellow and orange batik turned out especially well!

I'm feeling much more comfortable with free-motion quilting on my new machine, and my One Monthly Goal really motivated me to keep working at it. I'm thinking I might even try to continue the personal challenge for another month!

Linking up with:

One Monthly Goal at Elm Creek Quilts

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

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 8/28/2022

The stash report for the past week doesn't show any usage or additions, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been quilting. I'm nearly finished making  the Snail's Trail blocks that I showed in Monday's post. I've also been doing a little bit of hand applique, finishing two bright blue heart blocks during a Zoom quilt guild meeting.

2022 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                0.0 yards

Used year to date:       89.125 yards

Added last week:              0.0 yards

Added year to date:       86.25 yards

Net used in 2022       2.875 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. Kate hasn't been able to blog lately because of computer issues, but I'm going to continue posting my numbers here. I was able to get in at least 15 minutes every day, even with house guests here for a couple of those days.

15 Minute Challenge for 2022: 

8/21 - 8/27           7 of 7 days

2022 Total      234 of 239 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

Another New/Old Project

My design walls are still empty today, but I do have some blocks to share. I pulled out the pieces from an old UFO, a mini Snail's Trail quilt. These blocks are foundation paper pieced. The paper on the backs means they won't stick to my flannel design wall, which is why you are getting a photo of them on the cutting table.

The plan is to make a total of 64 blocks and set them 8 x 8. The palest yellow at the upper left will be the center of the quilt, shading out to the orange and rust fabrics around the outer edges. The blocks finish at only 3.5", so this will be a very small quilt. I have about 20 blocks left to make, then I can get them trimmed down and joined together.

Check out what other quilters are working on this week at Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Stash Report and Stitching Time 8/21/2022

My stash report for the past week shows a little bit used and even more added. The usage was for an orange Scrappy Heart block and for the applique hearts blocks that I have completed over the past few months. Here are both types of blocks together (a repeat photo from yesterday's post.) The orange heart block will finish at 12", and the little purple heart blocks currently measure 5"; they will get trimmed to 4.5".

The stash addition for the week was the latest shipment from the solids club at Fat Quarter Shop. The colors for this club have been based on birthstones, and this month's stone was one I'm not familiar with: peridot. Judging from the fabrics, it must be a yellowish green stone.

2022 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                .75 yards

Used year to date:       89.125 yards

Added last week:              3.0 yards

Added year to date:       86.25 yards

Net used in 2022       2.875 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. Kate hasn't been able to blog lately because of computer issues, but I'm going to continue posting my numbers here. This week I had well over 15 minutes every day with a combination of piecing, quilting and hand applique. I also attended a quilt guild meeting on Thursday.

15 Minute Challenge for 2022: 

8/14 - 8/20           7 of 7 days

2022 Total      227 of 232 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

Orange Medallion Quilt Top & Other Projects

The orange scraps have been flying in my sewing room this week! First up was finishing the Orange HST's Medallion quilt top.

41.25" x 54.25"

There are some favorite orange fabrics that seem to appear in every scrappy project I make. This citrus print is very old (late 1990's?), and I still love using it!

You can't go wrong with polka dots!

There are several pinwheel blocks left over, which will probably end up being used in the quilt backing.

After that was done, I pulled out my 2.5" squares and triangles to make an orange Scrappy Heart block (12" finished size.)

The other rainbow project for the week was to catch up on my applique hearts blocks, finishing up the last of the purple hearts for July. I already have enough orange blocks that were stitched last year. (Why is purple such a hard color to photograph?!)

Here you can get an idea of the different scale of the two types of hearts.

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 

August Finish #2--Crossroads

My focus on machine quilting this month is paying off, with another quilt completely finished. It is extremely rare for me to finish two quilts in the same month (and there's still plenty of August left to go!) This is Crossroads in Green.

Crossroads in Green

Finished size after washing 44" x 56"

The top for this quilt was made in the summer of 2014 as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. At that time I had been seeing many other quilters making the pattern and really liked the look of it. Some call the pattern Crossroads, but the more traditional name seems to be Patience Corner (or Corners.) The blocks are very easy to make, using only two different shapes. Here is a single block so you can get an idea about how it goes together.

The finished size of my blocks is 12". I might have made more for a bigger quilt, but I was running low on the background fabric. If you are interested in the block pattern, you can find a tutorial for making the blocks in three different sizes HERE.

I pieced the back for my quilt from two chunks of green fabrics. This was also done in August, 2014. I got it all layered and pin basted and started quilting. concentrating on stitch-in-the-ditch around the green rectangles in the blocks. After that I was stuck on how to quilt the rest of it, so the quilt was stashed in the closet of unfinished quilt tops until I pulled it out earlier this month.

For the quilting in the background squares, I drew an X from corner to corner of each square with blue wash-out marker and used that as a guide for orange peel curves. I didn't draw the curved lines, just tried to make the curves approximately the same distance from the guidelines.

The wishbone quilting in the white inner border also had markings to helped keep it spaced evenly. I marked dots 1" apart and 1/4" from each edge of the border. When I did the quilting, I aimed to loop around each dot as the quilting went back and forth between the top and bottom. Next time I'll try doing it without any markings.

The scrappy green outer border has two "parallel" wavy lines of quilting. Instead of marking guidelines, I used masking tape and stitched next to that.

It's always fun to see what the quilting looks like on the back. The darker green backing fabric was also used for the binding.

That's my second free-motion quilting completion for the month. My goal is to spend at least 15 minutes every day working on my FMQ skills, and so far I have been successful with that goal. Quilt #3 is under the needle, and there are plenty more to choose from after that one is finished!

Linking up with:

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy 

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Quilting on the Diagonal

My design walls are sadly empty today, but I do have a new project under the needle on the quilting machine. I made this little quilt top way back in 2015, and it has been hanging in the closet along with a piece of flannel backing ever since. It's time to get it quilted up and finished!

Diagonal Squares, 40.5" x 48.5"

My plan for the quilting is to do a different design on each fabric. I was even able to pull out enough thread colors so that each fabric gets it's own coordinating thread.

The threads on orange spools, both large and small, are all Aurifil. The white spools are from a set of rainbow colors that I got when Craftsy used to sell fabrics and notions. The two brands of thread seem to be close enough to the same weight and work well in my machine.

I started with quilting the darkest orange chain of squares. My quilting is following the design in the fabric. Each square measures 4".

I finished off that set of squares and need to decide which fabric to do next. I'm trying to spend 30-60 minutes each day working on machine quilting. Progress is slow but steady.

Check out what other quilters are working on this week at Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Stash Report and Stitching Time 8/14/2022

It was a good week for stash usage, with 2.5 yards used for the Orange HSTs Medallion quilt top. I shared an in-process photo in yesterday's post, and the top was finished later in the day. I also used 3/8 yard for the binding on a recently finished small quilt. I don't have photos of either finish, but here's a sneak peek of a corner of the Orange HSTs Medallion top.

2022 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:            2.875 yards

Used year to date:       88.375 yards

Added last week:              0.0 yards

Added year to date:       83.25 yards

Net used in 2022       5.125 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. Kate hasn't been able to blog lately because of computer issues, but I'm going to continue posting my numbers here. I've been splitting my time between free-motion quilting and piecing, and between the two, I've been getting well over 15 minutes every day.

15 Minute Challenge for 2022: 

8/7 - 8/13             7 of 7 days

2022 Total      220 of 225 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 Orange Medallion

For some reason, none of my regular projects for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge have seen any progress yet this month. Instead, the majority of my piecing time has been spent playing with a collection of leftover orange (our color of the month for the RSC) half-square triangles. I shared the beginnings of this project in Monday's post.

My center block was made as a sample for a 2021 Rainbow Scrap Challenge project. The pattern is Sew Colorful Stars, and it is available from the Fat Quarter Shop HERE. Some of my scrappy triangles were made into 16 Friendship Star blocks, which now encircle the center block. This portion now measures about 38" square.

The rest of the sets of orange triangles were all made into pinwheel blocks. My current plan is to add a row of pinwheels across the bottom and top along with more of the orange/white border fabric. The goal is to get it to a size that works as a baby 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 

Orange Triangles

My piecing projects have been sadly neglected this month because I have been focused on spending more time free-motion quilting and finishing quilts. Over the weekend I felt the need to pull out some mindless piecing for when I need a break from the FMQ action.

I discovered a baggie of leftover orange half-square triangles, some of them already pieced and many others cut out. Here's the whole collection after being stitched and pressed. All of the HSTs are stacked up in matching sets of four.

The next question was what to do with all of those triangles. I found this block that had been made as a sample for a Rainbow Scrap Project almost two years ago. The finished size of this block is 20", and the triangles are the same size as the new ones I made.

I'm thinking about using that big block as the center of a medallion style quilt and making other types of blocks with the remaining triangles to surround it. So far I've thought of making Friendship Stars and Pinwheels, but I'm sure there are plenty of other options too.

Check out what other quilters are working on this week at Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Stash Report and Stitching Time 8/7/2022

My stash report for the past week shows some good movement in the used direction, and no change on the fabric added side. I used 3/8 yard for the binding on the Rainbow LeMoyne row quilt, shared HERE. The larger amount used was 5-1/8 yards for the blocks, sashing and cornerstones of my Granny's Stars quilt top. I have all of them joined together into rows, but I'm holding off until I have a better idea about how I'm going to quilt this before I sew the rows together. Here's the first row that was assembled.

2022 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                5.5 yards

Used year to date:          85.5 yards

Added last week:              0.0 yards

Added year to date:       83.25 yards

Net used in 2022         2.25 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. Kate hasn't been able to blog lately because of computer issues, but I'm going to continue posting my numbers here. After getting the Granny's Stars blocks joined into rows, I've spent the majority of my time concentrating on free-motion quilting. I need to pull out one of my piecing projects for breaks from FMQ.

15 Minute Challenge for 2022: 

7/31 - 8/6             7 of 7 days

2022 Total      213 of 218 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

One Monthly Goal--August 2022

It has been a few months since I posted a One Monthly Goal, and I think it's time to set a new one. Rather than the usual project goal (like finish putting a group of blocks together into a top), I'm going with more of a process goal this time around.

I bought a Juki J-150QVP machine a couple months ago, and I am determined to spend more time getting comfortable with free-motion quilting on it. My One Monthly goal for August is to spend at least 15 minutes every single day doing some free-motion quilting. If I miss a day, I will need to make up that time within the next three days (my personal challenge, my rules!)

I've gotten off to a good start toward my goal by finishing up the quilting on a baby quilt that had been partially quilted for several months. This is my Rainbow LeMoyne Row Quilt. You can read more about it and see plenty of photos in yesterday's post.

For now, it's time for me to see what other quilt tops and backs are ready to get layered, then get back to the quilting machine! I'm linking up with the One Monthly Goal party at Elm Street Quilts.

Happy quilting!

Julie in GA

First Finish for August

I'm making a determined effort this month to spend more time getting comfortable with free motion quilting on my new Juki machine. My first finished project is this Rainbow LeMoyne Row Quilt.

Rainbow LeMoyne Row Quilt

37.5" x 42.75"

The blocks in this quilt were made in 2014 as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I made 6" LeMoyne Star blocks throughout the year, and ended up with about 75 of them by the end of the year. Most were used to make two earlier quilt tops, which you can see HERE and HERE. Both of those tops are still unquilted.

Last December I ran across the remaining LeMoyne Star blocks and decided to make them into a row quilt alternating the light and dark backgrounds. I started quilting it in January of this year, but set it aside halfway through. I finally finished the last quilting a couple days ago, added the binding, and washed it up. 

Here's the back of the quilt, featuring bright, fun animal prints. I've had these fabrics in my stash since 1999! 

You can get a closer look at the background and sashing fabrics in this  shot.

The blocks are quilted with continuous curves on the star diamonds. The background areas are filled with spirals, and the sashing has "parallel" wavy lines.

Most of the quilting is easier to see on the quilt back.

I have no plans for who will get this little quilt, but I sure am glad to have it finished! It's time for me to choose another top that's ready to be quilted.

Linking up with:

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA