Two Color Challenge Quilt Tops

As we near the end of the year, I've been concentrating on moving some on-going projects forward. The latest had me joining the blocks I've been making all year as part of the 2024 Monthly Color Challenge from Patterns by Jen. I now have two finished tops to share!

Jen's colors for the 2024 blocks were inspired by tropical fish. I mostly followed her color suggestions, although I did change things up a bit toward the end of the year. The theme of tropical fish led me to make one set of blocks with dark blue backgrounds to represent the water. That became top #1.

Jen's 2024 Color Challenge

Top #1, 36.5" x 48.5"

The blocks in top #2 each use a lighter and darker version of the block colors. Jen's patterns made 12" blocks, and they all went together very easily.

Jen's 2024 Color Challenge

Top #2, 36.5" x 48.5"

Jen has been hosting these color challenge quilt-alongs for several years, and I believe she is planning to continue into 2025. It's a true block-of-the-month, with one block per month (at least in past years.) The block pattern is free for the month it is posted, then available for $1 each after that. You can sign up HERE  to have the blocks emailed to you at the beginning of each month (scroll down to the end of the post.)

I've been digging through my stash for possible backing fabrics for these two tops. It would be great to get them quilted and donated before next year's color challenge begins.

Linking up with:

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Rainbow Scrap Challenge at soscrappy

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Planning my Temperature Quilt

One of the quilt guilds I belong to recently hosted a Zoom presentation by Jo Avery of the UK on Temperature Quilts. Jo has made several temperature quilts, and she shared all sorts of information and photos of her own quilts, plus those made by many other quilters. Check out her website HERE to see some of them.

Ever since her lecture was scheduled, I've been seriously thinking about making a temperature quilt myself. We even decided to use it as a guild challenge. I've been doing lots of research and planning, one of my favorite parts of quiltmaking. I have purchased a group of fabrics for my quilt, Glaze and Glaze II by Libs Elliott for Andover. I have over 30 different colors, and a few of them will not be included. I also have grey and black as background options. This is my current gradation.

The other decision to be made before January is choosing a block. I've been considering many different designs over the past month or so. I want it to be a block that is easy to make, but not too boring. I don't expect to make my blocks every day; I will probably save up the temperature information and make blocks once a week, or maybe even further apart.

Patty at Elm Street Quilts has made multiple temperature quilts. She shares lots of inspiration and information on how to get started at her page. One of my favorites was her quilt for 2021 (see it HERE.) I decided to try making a few sample blocks.

These blocks certainly met the requirement of being easy to construct. Mine were made with scrap fabrics and a single background instead of varying that fabric too. I like the way they look in Patty's quilt, but they don't really hit the mark for me.

I've seen several temperature quilts made with applique blocks, including circles and orange peels. I love the look of them, but I knew that making a hand appliqued block every day was more than I could handle, and I'm not really set up to do machine applique. Then I discovered this design.

The design is called Wildflower, and it is a free pattern at Andover fabrics. The fabrics in this design are the original Glaze line by Libs Elliott. I like the way those tilted diamonds sort of resemble orange peel blocks, but with straight lines instead of curves. The blocks in the pattern finish at 7", and they are foundation pieced. I needed to scale them down to less than half that size, plus I hoped to avoid the foundation piecing. 

I drew out a smaller-scale block and played around with how to cut the pieces. These were my first sample blocks for this design.

You might notice that the top left diamond is smaller than the others. I'd started by making the other three, then decided to set the diamond back from the corners of the block a bit more. The next samples were made with stash fabrics to approximate the colors I would have used for January 1 - 4, 2024.

Yes, I think that's going to be my block! The design will give my quilt the motion I'm hoping for, with those diamonds tilting up and down. It's interesting how the different color combinations work out some with high contrast and some very low. The blocks will finish at 3". I need to press up my fabrics and maybe do a little precutting, but other than that, I'm ready to get started on my 2025 Temperature Quilt!

Linking up with:

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Stash Report and Stitching Time 12/15/2024

As usual, the month of December is speeding by, and now we are only 10 days away from Christmas! I didn't post a Stash Report last week because we were traveling, a trip to Wisconsin to celebrate my mother's 90th birthday. We were able to enjoy plenty of family time, including meeting the most recent additions to the family, two great nieces. It was a great trip, even though Ed and I both managed to get sick at different times. We are home now and working on final preparations for Christmas.

My stash usage for the week was 2.25 yards, which was the fabric used for the backing and binding on the baby quilt for one of those new great nieces. I shared photos of the quilt (and one of the baby) in THIS POST. As usual when we drive to Wisconsin, I got to make a stop at Hancock's of Paducah. I bought a few pieces of fabric, but I am not sure where they are hiding right now, so I will wait and share those in next week's post.

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                     2.25 yards

Used year to date:               130.0 yards

Added last week:                     0.0 yards

Added year to date:           111.25 yards

Net used in 2024:            18.75 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's always hard to find that time while away from home, but I surprised myself by getting in some stitching every day that we were gone. For the past couple of years, my appliqued hearts blocks have been my go-to hand stitching project while traveling, and they continue to fill that role now. I finished the four blocks shown below during our trip, bringing my total number of heart blocks to over 100. I've been working on other projects since we got home, and have managed to spend some time on quilting every day.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024

12/1 - 12/14          14 of 14 days

2024 Total          344 of 349 days

Success rate               98.57 %   

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces. Thanks so much to Donna and Kate for continuing to host these link-ups. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Rail Fence Spinners Finished!

There have been a couple of recent finishes that I waited to share here because they were gifts. Well, the gifts have been presented, so it's finally time to reveal one of the finishes (I'll save the other for another day.)

Back in early November I finished a project that had been in the works all year. This is the Rail Fence Spinners quilt, which has been presented to our new great-niece Quinn.

Rail Fence Spinners

39.5" x 48"

The blocks for this quilt were made each month based on the assigned color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. By the end of the year, I had 80 blocks, which were enough for two baby quilts. The other quilt top was shared in an earlier blog post HERE.

I love the way the grey print worked for the setting triangles and border. It has little spots of bright colors at the intersections of the white lines, which worked perfectly with the rainbow of scraps in the blocks.

The fabric used for the inner border and binding is a batik, and that was the one problem child of this quilt. When I washed the quilt after it was finished, the dark pink color in that fabric ran and stained some of the light background fabrics. Fortunately, I knew about a tutorial by fabric dyer Vicki Welsh with a process for correcting that problem. I tried her method and it worked! I recommend all quilters bookmark her tutorial.

For the back I used a pretty flannel with a rainbow of colors. Flannel is my favorite choice for backing baby quilts. This was a wide back piece that I got at JoAnn's a year or two ago.

We were in Wisconsin visiting my family last weekend, and that is when I finally gifted this quilt and met the newest member of the family. To top off the post, here's a photo of Quinn on her new quilt. I hope the quilt helps keep her cozy and warm in the Wisconsin winter.

Linking up with:

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Rainbow Scrap Challenge at soscrappy

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 12/1/2024

It's hard to believe that it is December already, and we are headed into the holiday rush. It seems like I am never prepared for this time of year, although I should be used to it by now. We enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving with Ed's family, and it was a nice break to not be doing all the cooking. Before long we will be visiting my family in Wisconsin, which will include meeting the most recent addition to the family, a new great niece. If only the weather would warm up a bit before we go! 

My quilting time this week has been spent on secret projects that can't be revealed just yet. The one thing that I can share is the latest addition to the stash. I got some more colors of the Glaze line by Libs Elliott to use in the temperature quilt I'm planning to make next year. These will join the other fabrics I shared in an earlier post HERE. Total yardage added was 6.5 yards.

I now have over 30 different colors available for my temperature quilt, definitely more than I will need. The black is an option for my background/setting fabric (I also have a grey choice.) It's time for me to make a decision on the pattern I will make and to assign colors to my temperature ranges.

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                      0.0 yards

Used year to date:             127.75 yards

Added last week:                     6.5 yards

Added year to date:           111.25 yards

Net used in 2024:              16.5 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's been harder to fit in time for quilting this week around Thanksgiving and decorating for Christmas, but I did get at least 15 minutes every day, although some days it wasn't much more than that.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024

11/24 - 11/30            7 of 7 days

2024 Total          330 of 335 days

Success rate                 98.5 %   

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces. Thanks so much to Donna and Kate for continuing to host these link-ups. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 11/24/2024

Last week's marathon of finishing placemats before our guild meeting on Thursday is finally over! I ended up with a total of 35 placemats to turn in, which will all be donated to Meals on Wheels. This is what they looked like all stacked up together.

I wish I had included a ruler in that photo to measure the height of the stack of placemats. I would guess it was probably about 3" high. Here they are all spread out in groups on my sewing machine table.

The pile at the lower left were the easiest to make, done quilt-as-you-go style. The sets at the lower right were all made from orphan blocks, Dresden Stars on top and tiny bowties underneath. You can see all of those placemats in earlier posts here, here and here.

The placemats at the top of that photo are the ones I was finishing this week. They were started in a class I took in June, 2023 with Candace Hassen. Our class with Candace was her A Maze Zing pattern. There were two versions, one with a single giant block and the other with multiple smaller blocks. The version with smaller blocks is called Hoopla, but the piecing method is the same. I made the smaller blocks, with the idea from the very beginning that they would work well as placemats. All of the placemat tops were pieced in 2023 as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and the yardage used this week was for all the backings, 3.5 yards total.

No new fabric was added to the stash last week.

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                    3.50 yards

Used year to date:             127.75 yards

Added last week:                     0.0 yards

Added year to date:           104.75 yards

Net used in 2024:              23.0 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 quilting time. The placemat marathon is over for now, and I've been struggling to figure out what to work on next. Of course I should concentrate on cleaning up before I do anything else!  I managed to get my 15 minutes every day this week.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024

11/17 - 11/23            7 of 7 days

2024 Total          323 of 328 days

Success rate               98.47 %   

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces. Thanks so much to Donna and Kate for continuing to host these link-ups. I'm also linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 11/17/2024

My sewing room has turned into a placemat factory lately, and I have been happily making more and more of them. Our guild collects placemats throughout the year for donation to Meals on Wheels, but the main push is before the holidays when they distribute new placemats to all of their clients. The latest group to be finished were made from some orphan Dresden Star blocks.

These blocks were leftover from my Dresden Star quilt which was started in a class with Edyta Sitar in 2013. The original pattern was for a quilt with eight blocks, but I ended up using only five of them in my quilt, finished in 2020. The Dresden Star pattern is still available at Laundry Basket Quilts.

Dresden Star quilt, 50" x 50"

Besides the fabric used for the side borders and backing on the Dresden placemats, my other usage for the week went toward my RSC Hen & Chicks Sampler blocks, which were shared HERE. The total fabric used for the week was 1-3/8 yards, and no new fabric was added to the stash.

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                  1.375 yards

Used year to date:             124.25 yards

Added last week:                     0.0 yards

Added year to date:           104.75 yards

Net used in 2024:              19.5 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 have another big group of placemats that I've been finishing, with the goal of turning them in at our guild meeting on Thursday. That has meant plenty of quilting time every day over the past week.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024

11/10 - 11/16            7 of 7 days

2024 Total          316 of 321 days

Success rate               98.44 %   

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces. Thanks so much to Donna and Kate for continuing to host these link-ups.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 11/10/2024

There has been plenty of quilting going on around here this week, but I don't have any fabric used to share in the stash report. Some fabric was used, but I either haven't added up the amount yet (my RSC Hen & Chicks blocks) or I haven't taken any photos yet (a finished baby quilt.) 

What I do have to show today is a beautiful rainbow group of fabrics that I received this week. Our quilt guild is talking about doing a temperature quilt challenge next year, and I have been researching patterns and fabric lines. Then one day a sale on this gorgeous rainbow line of fabric appeared in my inbox.

Most of the fabrics shown are from the Glaze II line by Libs Elliott for Andover. Fat quarter bundles were marked way down at Quilt in a Day, (and they are still on sale as of today.) I also added a few more colors from the original Glaze collection, and I'm still thinking about getting a couple more. Total added to the stash this week was 16 yards.

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                      0.0 yards

Used year to date:           122.875 yards

Added last week:                   16.0 yards

Added year to date:           104.75 yards

Net used in 2024:          18.125 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 quilting time. It felt so good to finish the last blocks for the RSC sampler, and I'm hoping to get some other BOM blocks made this week.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024

11/3 - 11/9                7 of 7 days

2024 Total          309 of 314 days

Success rate                 98.4 %   

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces. Thanks so much to Donna and Kate for continuing to host these link-ups.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Brown Hen & Chicks Blocks

One of my projects for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year has been the Hen & Chicks Sampler, designed by our RSC hostess Angela. I've been following along all year, although I'd fallen behind over the last couple of months. Today I finally finished the last set of blocks, #37 - 40, all made with brown batiks.

The next challenge will be figuring out how I want to set all of my blocks together. I have 40 blocks that finish at 3" and 40 that will be 6". I've been considering some options for how to use them together.

Be sure to check out all of the wonderful scrappy projects at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge every Saturday and Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 11/3/2024

The last week seemed like a busy one, but I can't even figure out why at this moment. Maybe I just need to wake up a little and have some more coffee first!

I do know that most of my quilting time was spent on making more placemats for our guild's community service project. All of the placemats we are making will be donated to Meals on Wheels. I made another set in blue and brown, using a combination of fabrics from the guild and some from my stash.

Up next was a set made completely from guild fabrics, all of them featuring red.

Working on projects made from guild fabrics meant not much change to my stash for the week. I did use 1.25 yards of my own fabrics for the blue and brown placemats.

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                    1.25 yards

Used year to date:           122.875 yards

Added last week:                    0.0 yards

Added year to date:             88.75 yards

Net used in 2024:          34.125 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 quilting time. I've stalled out on most of my on-going projects, but have spent plenty of time making placemats. I also finished the quilting on a baby quilt yesterday and just need to add the binding to it..

15 Minute Challenge for 2024

10/27 - 11/2              7 of 7 days

2024 Total          302 of 307 days

Success rate               98.37 %   

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces. Thanks so much to Donna and Kate for continuing to host these link-ups.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 10/27/2024

Placemats were my main quilting focus for the past week. Our guild had a community service sewing day to make placemats for Meals on Wheels on Thursday. The community service stash of fabric provided the blue and brown fabrics that I used for this group. None of these fabrics came from my stash, but I'm planning to pull some of my own blue and brown fabrics to make more.

After that, I finished off a set of placemat tops that had been assembled in August. The little bowtie blocks finish at 2" each, and many of them were made in 1999! The second photo shows the two different backing fabrics used to finish the placemats, and those fabrics also date back to at least 1999. I used 7/8 yard for the backings.

My other project for the week was joining the Birthday Blocks from Laundry Basket Quilts into a finished quilt top, which was shared in yesterday's post. The yardage used in making the blocks was already counted, but I used an additional 1.25 yards for framing the blocks.

Altogether, I used just over 2 yards of fabric last week, and there were no new fabric additions to the stash.

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                  2.125 yards

Used year to date:           121.625 yards

Added last week:                    0.0 yards

Added year to date:             88.75 yards

Net used in 2024:          32.875 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 quilting time. I've enjoyed making placemats and plan to continue with more of those, plus I need to get back to quilting one of the Rail Fence Spinners quilts.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024

10/20 - 10/26            7 of 7 days

2024 Total          295 of 300 days

Success rate               98.33 %   

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces. Thanks so much to Donna and Kate for continuing to host these link-ups.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA