Star Pulse is a Finished Quilt!

Star Pulse started as a quilt-along and pattern by Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl. The quilt-along ran from November 2023 until June of 2024. My quilt top was made in June 2024 with the intention of entering it into a challenge at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, but it didn't get quilted in time to be entered. This year it was added to my list for the guild's UFO Challenge, and now I can present my finished Star Pulse quilt!

Star Pulse, 41.5" square

Yvonne's pattern makes a quilt that finishes at either 60" square or 60" x 72". The rules for the quilt challenge required that it finish at 30" x 40". For my original quilt top, I made the units in the quilt half the size of Yvonne's pattern and adjusted the rows at the top and bottom to get it to the right size.

Star Pulse quilt top 2024

30" x 40"

When I pulled this quilt top out for finishing earlier this summer, I decided that I would like it better if it were extended at the sides to complete the design. I'm so glad that I took the time to make that change because I'm much happier with the way it looks now.

Star Pulse quilt top before quilting

My quilting is very simple, and for the most part it barely shows. I would have stitched in the ditch next to the red, but that didn't work because my seams were all pressed open as suggested in the pattern. Instead, I quilted very close to the red bands, then added a triple star quilted in red at the center of the quilt. 

I had marked the center star with a blue wash-out marker, and it hasn't been washed away completely yet, just spritzed with a spray bottle. Unfortunately, spraying to remove the blue marks made the red dye run in a few spots. You can see traces of it in the music note fabric right next to the red. I'm very frustrated by that because I tested the fabrics before  making the quilting, and there wasn't any bleeding on the sample piece. I'll need to work on soaking that out later.

Backing fabric

That's one more finished project crossed off my UFO Challenge list. You can find more information about Yvonne's Star Pulse Quilt Along at her website, or go straight to her store to buy the pattern.

Linking up with:

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 8/3/2025

My stash report doesn't show any changes for the past week. Most of my quilting time was spent on quilt guild projects with fabric that did not come from my stash. I also worked on quilting a small quilt, but all of the fabric used in that project has already been reported.

July 2025, Temperature Quilt blocks

I did spend some time yesterday getting caught up on making blocks for my temperature quilt. When I put them up on the wall together, it was quite a surprise  to see how little variation there had been in temperatures for the month of July. The diamonds in the blocks indicate the high temperature for each day, and they varied from 86 degrees up to 99 just a few days ago. Each color represents a 3 degree range of temperature. 

The background in each block indicates the low temp for that day, and the lack of variety there is especially striking. Except for the one block in the top row with the greenish-yellow background, there are only two other fabrics for the lows. The yellow is for lows of 73-75 degrees, and the deep orange shows lows of 76-78 degrees. It was a very warm month, but we are now getting a dramatic change for the next several days, with forecasts for our high temps in the mid 70's. 

I'll add up the yardage used for these blocks at a later date, probably combining it with the temperature blocks from another month or two.

2025 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                  0.0 yards

Used year to date:         46.125 yards

Added last week:                0.0 yards

Added year to date:           56.5 yards

Net added in 2025:    10.375 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. Along with the temperature blocks, I machine quilted a small quilt plus enjoyed a guild sewing day working on a community service project. It was another 7-for-7 week!

15 Minute Challenge for 2025

7/27 - 8/2                7 of 7 days

2025 Total         213 of 214 days

Success rate                99.5 %   

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 7/27/2025

My stash report is currently headed in the wrong direction, with the addition of some new fabric but no usage to report for this week. I've spent plenty of time sewing, but most of it used fabric that had either already been counted in an earlier stash report, or the fabric used didn't come from my stash, like a new guild project.

The fabrics added to the stash were purchased to supplement what I already have been using for my temperature quilt. I was worried about running out of some colors before the end of the year. I might not need all of them, but I'd rather have extra than run short. The fabric line is "Glaze" by Libs Elliott for Andover. 5.5 yards added to the stash.

2025 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                  0.0 yards

Used year to date:         46.125 yards

Added last week:                5.5 yards

Added year to date:           56.5 yards

Net added in 2025:    10.375 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 finished joining blocks together for a small quilt top at the beginning of the week. After that, most of my quilting time was centered on an upcoming guild project, making library tote bags. 

My first challenge was figuring out how to use a friend's overlock machine, because she is going to be out of town for our sewing day next week. Unfortunately, I broke a needle on my first attempt, which delayed progress for a couple days. I was able to get the machine running properly by the end of the week and finished off a couple of tote bags. I also cut out 30-35 more bags for our upcoming sewing day, all from fabric that had been donated.

15 Minute Challenge for 2025

7/20 - 7/26              7 of 7 days

2025 Total         206 of 207 days

Success rate                99.5 %   

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

Design Wall Monday

The main design wall in my sewing room has the blocks for a project that originated almost three years ago when I won a container full of triangle cut-offs at our guild auction. I blogged about this project for the first time HERE. I stitched the pieces into half-square triangles as my leader and ender project for many months, then later joined the HSTs into groups of four to make pinwheel blocks. Each pinwheel block was trimmed down to 3" square (2.5" finished size.) Here's one group of blocks made in 2023.

Earlier this year I made the last pinwheel blocks, ending up with a total of close to 370 blocks. I sorted them into groups by color, then arranged them on the wall in concentric rings. The colors blend together more than I anticipated (except for the light/cream blocks,) but I like the way they work together. This layout used 340 blocks, set 17 across and 20 high.

I started stitching the blocks together over the weekend. Getting all those triangle points to match where the blocks come together is challenging, and getting the seams to lay flat when I press them isn't easy either. I started with the lower half of the quilt, dividing it into four groups. Each group is 10 blocks high, and most are 4 blocks wide, but one of them has 5 across.

When the blocks had been assembled into the four groups, it was time to join the sections to one another. The lower half of the quilt is together!

I hope to have enough time in the next few days to get the rest of these little pinwheels joined together. This quilt top is one of the projects on my list for the guild's UFO Challenge, which has really helped motivate me to get it done!

I'm  linking up with:

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 7/20/2025

There was plenty of quilting action happening around here this week, yet my stash report shows no changes. I did finish quilting and binding one quilt, the Quarter Log Cabins (you can see it HERE,) but it was made with fabrics from our quilt guild's Community Service stash. I also blogged about my Scrappy Colorwash "Terry" quilt top, but all of the fabrics in that top had been counted in earlier stash reports. I'll include a photo of it again just because I hate having a blog post with no photos. (Okay, also because I'm really happy with how it turned out.)

2025 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                  0.0 yards

Used year to date:         46.125 yards

Added last week:                0.0 yards

Added year to date:           51.0 yards

Net added in 2025:      4.875 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. After finishing the Quarter Log Cabins quilt, I got caught up with the blocks for my Temperature Quilt, then switched over to making more blocks for the Jane Stickle sampler quilt. It's too hot to be outside much, and I spent many happy hours in my quilting room this week.

15 Minute Challenge for 2025

7/13 - 7/19              7 of 7 days

2025 Total         199 of 200 days

Success rate                99.5 %   

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

Scrappy Colorwash "Terry" Quilt Top

My plan this year for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge was to start fewer new projects and concentrate on finishing up the old ones. That has meant fewer blog posts, but this week I'm happy to share the finished top for my Scrappy Colorwash "Terry" Quilt.

Scrappy Colorwash "Terry" Quilt

60" x 81"

I began making the scrappy little 3" blocks for this quilt early last year, inspired by Terry Rowland's amazing colorwash quilts, which are featured in her series of three YouTube videos. That's why I keep referring to it as my "Terry" quilt. Terry doesn't have a blog or website, but she is active on Facebook and Instagram. 

At the beginning of this project, I made a set of blocks each month based on the RSC color of the month. I started out making 35 - 40 per month, but then one month I got totally carried away and made 62 pink blocks. I maxed out at 72 orange blocks last August, and for some reason, it all came to a stop right there for almost six months. 

Early this year I pulled out all of the blocks, counted them, and made a list of how many more to make to get the numbers closer to even for each color group. Between February and May of this year, I made about 170 more blocks, bringing my total up to around 560.

After that, it was time to figure out the layout. My blocks were sorted into color groups. I started with the darkest blues and purples at the very bottom and worked my way up the design wall. My original plan had been to set the blocks into 26 rows with 20 blocks across, but by the time I got near the top of the quilt, I had too many blocks left in the warm colors and ended up with a 27th row. That meant I used a total of 540 blocks in this quilt top.

This is one of those quilts that makes me so happy with the range of quilt fabrics included. I believe that the main fabric in each block is different, although I know that there are repeats in the block centers. The fabrics used are a glorious, colorful representation of my 30 years as a quilter.

Indoor photo

View from the back (quilt top is hanging over the deck railing)

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

Quarter Log Cabins is Finished!

Just in time for tomorrow's quilt guild meeting, my Quarter Log Cabins quilt is finished!

Quarter Log Cabins

53.5" x 63"

Our quilt guild is making throw quilts to be donated to the local chapter of Meals on Wheels. The quilts will be distributed in the fall to clients who are in need of comfort and warmth. 

I received the fabrics for this quilt from the guild's head of community service projects. The design I chose to make is the Quarter Log Cabin pattern from the Sew Can She website. Caroline at Sew Can She offers a huge selection of free patterns on her site, including several of the popular 3-yard patterns. My quilt is a little bigger than the pattern because I had a larger piece of the red print and made my outer border wider.

I got a little carried away with my machine quilting and ended up wishing I'd done something looser and simpler, but it turned out well. I stippled through the logs in the blocks, did a couple wavy lines in the narrow light border, switchbacks in the navy border, and large swirls in the outer red border. I had just enough of the navy print to use for the binding.

The backing fabric is similar to the red print on the quilt front, but a little lighter/duller in color. 

Finishing this quilt was one of the projects on my list for the guild's UFO challenge, and it feels great to be able to cross another item off that list!

Linking up with:

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 7/13/2025

My quilting time this week was mostly focused on two different projects. One was to quilt a Log Cabin quilt that was made as a community service project for our guild. I hope to finish the quilting and binding on that before our next meeting on Thursday.

My other project for the week was to make myself a new purse. The purse I've been using for almost two years is one I made myself, and it was getting faded and worn out. Here's a photo from when it was new.

I decided to use the same pattern again, making very minor changes to it. The pattern is Daytripper II from byannie.com.

This time around, I used a black spotted batik for the outside of the bag. I'm hoping that the tight weave of the batik will hold up a little better than the Jinny Beyer border stripe did. The zipper across the front is at the top of a large outer pocket, and I added a hidden smaller pocket inside there.

The lining is another batik, this time in grey. You can see the inside pocket, which is just the right size for my cell phone. This version of the purse was my first time using Soft and Stable as the inside structure, which gave some good support to the bag. My previous one had Quilter's Dream black polyester batting in it, which was much softer.

I used 1.25 yards of fabric for the new purse, and there were no new additions to the stash this week.

2025 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                1.25 yards

Used year to date:         46.125 yards

Added last week:                0.0 yards

Added year to date:           51.0 yards

Net added in 2025:      4.875 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. The combination of making the new purse and quilting the Log Cabin quilt added up to well over 15 minutes of stitching time every day.

15 Minute Challenge for 2025

7/6 - 7/12                7 of 7 days

2025 Total         192 of 193 days

Success rate                99.5 %   

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

Jane Stickle Update for Design Wall Monday

Most of my quilting time over the last week or so has been focused on my Jane Stickle Sampler blocks. I spent several days prepping a stack of applique blocks, which will become my travel project for an upcoming trip. I still plan to prep more of the applique. I'm always surprised at how long it takes to do all that prep, but it does make the stitching go much more quickly.

After that, I was ready for some piecing. I cut fabrics for more than a dozen blocks, most of them fairly simple. There were also a few complicated block patterns that required foundation piecing. I was able to finish a total of 15 blocks over the holiday weekend.

Top row: H13, C13, D7, D5

2nd row: E9, D13, F3, F7

3rd row: D1, D9, D6, C12

4th row: E4, F4, D12

I couldn't resist putting the new blocks up on the design wall along with all of the previously finished blocks. I have a total of 52 blocks done, out of the 169 blocks needed for the center of the quilt. They were done in a little less than four months, which would give me an average of around three per week. 

There are 117 blocks still to make for the quilt center. If I continue at the same pace, it would take me 39 weeks (9 months) to get them all done.  After that there's still the 56 triangular blocks for the borders. Better to not dwell on those numbers too much, just keep plugging away and enjoy the process.

I'm  linking up with:

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 7/6/2025

I didn't think I had any stash changes to report this week, but I changed my mind after looking back at my recent blog posts. A few days ago I shared a mid-year update on my Temperature Quilt, and I've decided to report the fabric used up to this point too.

The photo shows all of my blocks through the end of June. The diamond shape in each block represents the high temperature for that day, and the background is the low. You can see more posts about this project HERE. 

I calculated that I've used about 3.5 yards on the blocks for the first half of the year. I'm getting a little concerned about running out of some colors, especially the yellows, because I've already used up more than half of them. I might need to order more fabric just to be sure I'll have enough to take me through the end of the year. 

2025 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                  3.5 yards

Used year to date:         44.875 yards

Added last week:                0.0 yards

Added year to date:           51.0 yards

Net added in 2025:      6.125 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. My primary quilting focus this week was the Temperature Quilt, plus prepping applique blocks for my Jane Stickle sampler.

15 Minute Challenge for 2025

6/29 - 7/5                7 of 7 days

2025 Total         185 of 186 days

Success rate                99.5 %   

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

Temperature Quilt 2025--The First Six Months

The end of the first half of 2025 seems like the perfect time for a little update on my temperature quilt. Here are all the blocks through the end of June.

I've done well at keeping up with making my blocks, never getting much more than a week behind. Yesterday I was able to get more groups of blocks joined together. I've been putting blocks together into sets of 16 for the center area of the quilt and smaller groups along the sides. Here's another photo, minus the blocks that haven't been joined together yet.

You may have noticed a couple of blocks that are different shapes than the rest. I need a total of 368 blocks for the layout I'm doing, which meant adding three extras to the total for a regular year. Those extra blocks will represent my husband's birthdate (the circle near the upper right,) our wedding day (the heart near the bottom left,) and my birthdate later in the year. 

It has been so much fun to see how this quilt has changed as the year goes along. I know there will be plenty more of the yellows, oranges and reds for these hot summer days in Georgia before we get back into the cooler colors in the fall.

I'm linking up with:

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA