Jane Stickle Progress Report

It has been more than three months since the last update on my Jane Stickle Sampler blocks. I've been prepping applique parts for another trip, and I realized  that the most recent blocks hadn't been shared.

The twenty blocks in this photo were all made since the middle of July. 

Top row: B1, E5, E2, E8, J12

2nd row: E10, C5, E12, E6, C11

3rd row: C6, F2, B9, G4, E7

4th row: L13, F12, D3, E1, G9

It was time once again to put all the blocks up on the design wall together. The current number of finished blocks is 72, out of the 169 blocks needed for the center of the quilt. It has taken me about seven months to make the blocks, averaging almost 2.5 blocks per week. The photo below shows the blocks in the same placement as the original quilt.

I wanted to get a better look at how the colors were working together, so I moved some of the blocks to fill in as many empty spots as possible in the upper part of the layout but keeping the colors in the right places. I'm happy with the placement of the different colors. There are six different colors of Grunge (plus the background.) 

Some weeks I get a lot done on this quilt, and other weeks it doesn't get touched at all. I don't want this project to drag on forever, but I'm trying to enjoy the process and not push too hard to meet any deadlines or block quotas. There's no telling how long it will take.

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

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 10/12/2025

It has been a good week in the quilting room, with progress happening on multiple projects. I've continued to focus on my list of goals for the guild's UFO Challenge, and two more were completed and shared on the blog this week. Up first was the finished Around the Twist quilt. I used almost 2 yards for the backing and binding of this quilt.

Around the Twist, 37" x 42"

Around the Twist back

My other UFO completion for the week was assembling the top of my Hearts Applique quilt. This project was started in 2021, and the fabric used to make blocks in 2021 and 2022 was reported during those years. The current fabric usage includes the last sets of blocks plus the border fabric, 1/2 yard used total.

Hearts Applique quilt top, 38.125" x 45.25"

2025 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:               2.375 yards

Used year to date:         54.375 yards

Added last week:                 0.0 yards

Added year to date:        62.375 yards

Net added in 2025:          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 quilting time. I looked through my list of projects from the past week and discovered that I had worked on 6 different ones, plus I did some cleaning up in the sewing room and wrote a newsletter for the quilt guild. No wonder I've been feeling so scattered. Maybe next week will be a little more focused.

15 Minute Challenge for 2025

10/5 - 10/11             7 of 7 days

2025 Total         281 of 284 days

Success rate               98.9 %   

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

Hearts Applique 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 very happy to share the finished top for my Hearts Applique Quilt.

Hearts Applique quilt top

38.125" x 45.25"

The heart blocks were an on-again, off-again project for several years. They were started sometime in 2021 as part of the RSC. I used to do a lot more hand applique when I was working, getting most of my hand stitching time during my daily train commutes. Since my retirement in 2020, hand applique has mostly become my travel project that I take along when we are going to be away from home.

I had around 100 blocks finished earlier this year and tried out the above layout in February. I decided against it because there was too much background showing, plus it was going to be a rather awkward size. I also didn't have enough of the same background fabric to fill the empty spaces. The blocks went back into a box until last month. 

Hearts, Content by Laundry Basket Quilts

I was inspired by a quilt design by Laundry Basket Quilts with columns that step down by half a block in alternate columns. This quilt has lots more blocks in it (248) than I had, but I knew I could use that layout in a smaller quilt. The other thing I liked about the LBQ quilt was how the hearts really fill the blocks, keeping the emphasis on the wash of colors.

My blocks were stitched on 5" squares of background, then trimmed them down to 4.5" after the applique was done. I ended up trimming them all again, this time to 4" unfinished. That made a big difference in the amount of background showing.

I pulled out a very old Daisy Kingdom stripe with hearts and flowers in it for the border. It finishes off the outer edges nicely, but isn't too dark and heavy.

Finishing this quilt top completes one more of the goals on my list for our guild's UFO Challenge. Maybe getting it quilted and finished will go on my list for next year.

Linking up with:

Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs

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

Around the Twist Baby Quilt Finished!

I've been doing plenty of quilting lately, but haven't kept up as well with the blogging. I finally managed to get some outdoor photos of a few recent finishes last week, so now is the time to start sharing them. The first is my  Around the Twist baby quilt. 

Around the Twist

37" x 42"

Here's a closer look at the fun fabrics in the quilt top. The animal print at the center of the rings is very old, probably mid-late 1990's. I also used the green print for the binding.

The perfect backing fabric was just waiting in my stash. I'd gotten it at Hancock's of Paducah sometime within the last year or so.

For the quilting, I did something I've wanted to try for many years which was to quilt it from the back following the designs in the backing fabric. Maybe I need to get closer for you to see it. You can click on any of the photos for a larger view.

I used a bright yellow thread for the quilting on both sides of the quilt. It took a little while to get my rhythm and figure out how to move from one area to another, but it was great fun to do. Let's get in there even closer.

This isn't the first time I've made the Around the Twist design. I made a similar baby quilt a couple years ago, and I also made a miniature version back in 1995, my first year as a quilter. That one needs to have the quilting redone. The Around the Twist pattern is from the book Template-Free Quiltimaking by Trudie Hughes, published in 1986. It looks like you might still be able to find the book online.

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

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday at Quilted Delights

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 10/5/2025

It seems like I should have more to share for the stash report this week, but it just wasn't a very productive week. Maybe next week will be better. I can report 1.75 yards used for the pieces I made in the Drafting Complex Curves class with Audrey Esarey a week ago (read more about that HERE.) No new fabric was added to the stash this week.

Exploring Complex Curves, 24.5" square

I've been looking back at my yearly stash totals from previous years, and I'm not happy to see how far I am lagging behind on usage for this year. I've been finishing more quilts than usual this year, which is a very good thing, but several of them were tops that were already pieced and the fabrics used had been counted in earlier stash reports. Maybe there will be some more finishes before the end of the year that use up a significant amount of yardage. 

2025 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 1.75 yards

Used year to date:             52.0 yards

Added last week:                 0.0 yards

Added year to date:        62.375 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. There were a couple of days this past week with very little time for quilting, but I did squeeze in at least 15 minutes each day. Next week is looking quieter, and I'm hoping there will be a day or two that I can devote to quilting.

15 Minute Challenge for 2025

9/28 - 10/4              7 of 7 days

2025 Total         274 of 277 days

Success rate               98.9 %   

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 9/29/2025

There is a brand new project up on my design wall this week! This is my Exploring Complex Curves quilt top. I think it looks like planets and the moon in the night sky.

Exploring Complex Curves, 24.5" square

I'm not terribly up to date on what's happening in the modern quilt world, but I did go to QuiltCon when it was here in Atlanta in 2023, and that's when I first saw some of Audrey Esarey's works. Let me tell you, they knocked me out! My favorite was her quilt Aura No.1, which took 1st place in the Minimalist Design category. 

Aura No.1, 2022 by Audrey Esarey

The simplicity of this quilt blew my mind. Audrey explained in her presentation to the guild that there are only two seams in this quilt, one on each side of the light blue ring which is pieced, not appliqued, to the purple background. It looks like the background is four squares pieced together, but it is actually a single piece of fabric, and the different colors of her quilting stitching are what make the color change. You can see many more of her amazing quilts on the gallery page of her website Cotton and Bourbon.

I had the very good fortune to get a spot in one of Audrey's workshops over the weekend. Our class was called Drafting Complex Curves. We learned how to draft our own patterns with curves, followed by some piecing of curves. We began by drafting a Drunkard's Path block, and then we pieced that block in fabric. No more need to buy acrylic templates for this kind of block.

Drunkard's Path block, 6.5" square

The next exercise was making a larger piece with curves. We had the choice of doing the Quick Curves exercise... 

Quick Curves exercise, 13" x 17"

or we could start with the larger Exploring Complex Curves piece. Since I already had a fair amount of experience with sewing curves, I dove right into the larger project, which is the piece shown at the top of this post. I made the Quick Curves block the next day, and added borders to get it to the right size for a placemat.

Here are all three of my pieces together.

The workshop was very informative and a lot of fun. Audrey is an excellent teacher who really makes both the drafting and the piecing part of dealing with curves manageable. I hope to be able to take more classes with her in the future. She has a wide variety of quilt patterns available on her website Cotton and Bourbon, and she teaches some of her patterns as virtual classes. I urge you to check out her amazing quilts!

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 

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

Stash Report and Stitching Time 9/28/2025

For the first time this month, my stash report finally includes some fabric used! It's not a large amount, 2 yards for my finished Mondo Bag, but it feels good to have a finished project that was totally made from my stash. 

In the good news/bad news category, I had a chance to do a little shopping at Hancock's of Paducah last week. It's always fun to get in there and see what's new, but it's usually bad news for my stash report. 

Fortunately, I was able to restrain myself and ended up with only 4 yards added to the stash. The two turquoise pieces look very similar, but they are different fabrics. The bright dots fabric was bought to replace a similar piece that was recently used up.

2025 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                   2.0 yards

Used year to date:            50.25 yards

Added last week:                 4.0 yards

Added year to date:        62.375 yards

Net added in 2025:    12.125 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. The visit to Hancock's last week was part of a long weekend trip to St. Louis, which cut into my quilting time a bit. There was one day during that time away from home that I didn't do any quilting.

15 Minute Challenge for 2025

9/14 - 9/27           13 of 14 days

2025 Total         267 of 270 days

Success rate              98.89 %   

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

Mondo Bag Finished!

I have a finish! This is my Mondo bag, which was started a couple weeks ago in a guild workshop led by Martha, one of our members. Most of my fabrics were leftovers from a previous project, all of them batiks. This photo gives a hint of how big this bag is--it is hanging in front of a louvered panel that measures 15" across. The body of the bag is made from 192 squares that were cut at 2.5".

The lining  was cut from stash yardage of a dark blue mottled batik. I included two contrast pockets inside plus a key clip. The lining color is lighter in the photo than in real life because I had to use a flash for the interior photo. 

Here's a closer look at the batiks used for the outside of the bag.

I've already got a few things loaded up in my new bag, ready to take it to our next guild meeting on Thursday. I keep thinking about other color combinations that I could put together for the next one!

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

Stash Report and Stitching Time 9/14/2025

Once again, there were no changes to my stash numbers for the past week. I finished the Mondo bag that I shared in last week's post, but I'm holding off on reporting the fabric used until I get some photos and write up my blog post about it. I didn't buy any new fabric last week, but I did get a new pattern for an upcoming class that I hope to attend.

This is Mobius Radial by Audrey Esarey, a well-known modern quilter. Check out her website HERE. I'm on the waitlist for the workshop at the end of the month, and I really hope there will be an opening for me. If not, I'll just have to make it on my own at home.

2025 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                   0.0 yards

Used year to date:            48.25 yards

Added last week:                 0.0 yards

Added year to date:        58.375 yards

Net added in 2025:    10.125 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 worked on a wide variety of projects last week, including finishing the Mondo bag, making a batch of blocks for my Temperature quilt, and starting the machine quilting on a kid's quilt.

15 Minute Challenge for 2025

9/7 - 9/13                7 of 7 days

2025 Total         254 of 256 days

Success rate                99.2 %   

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 9/7/2025

There are no changes to my stash report for the past week. Our guild held a Mondo bag workshop on Friday, and I was able to pull together a collection of scraps and other fabrics from my stash for that project, but I still need to add up the total usage once I get my bag done. Here are some of the fabrics used for the bag.

2025 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                   0.0 yards

Used year to date:            48.25 yards

Added last week:                 0.0 yards

Added year to date:        58.375 yards

Net added in 2025:    10.125 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 been busy catching up on guild business, but I did finish a couple more of the applique blocks that were prepped before our recent trip, plus I attended the Mondo bag workshop. I hope to share that as a finished project very soon.

15 Minute Challenge for 2025

8/31 - 9/6                7 of 7 days

2025 Total         247 of 249 days

Success rate              99.20 %   

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 8/31/2025

My stash report posts (and all other blog posts) have been missing in action since early in the month, but I have a good reason--we went to Alaska! It was the trip of a lifetime, with time spent in Anchorage and at Denali National Park, followed by a fantastic cruise from Seward to Vancouver, BC. We got home late Monday night, and I'm finally feeling like I've adjusted back to normal life.

We saw all sorts of wildlife, plus lots of amazing scenery, but I thought I would share a couple of photos geared more to the quilting audience. This garment was in the Anchorage Museum, but I don't have any information about it.

We saw this wall of hexie panels outside a food court in Seward.

There are some small changes to the stash that have happened this month. Of course I visited quilt shops when I had the chance in Alaska, but showed great restraint in my purchases, adding less than 2 yards to the stash (some fat quarters and one panel.) We didn't see the Aurora Borealis, but these remind me of it.

The usage for the month happened before we left town. I used 1-5/8 yards to enlarge both the top and the back of my Star Pulse quilt, plus the binding (see it HERE.) I also used 1/2 yard for a simple tote bag made as a guild project.

2025 STASH TOTALS

Used in August:                2.125 yards

Used year to date:            48.25 yards

Added in August:              1.875 yards

Added year to date:        58.375 yards

Net added in 2025:    10.125 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. Thanks to lots of prep before we left for Alaska, I had plenty of applique with me and found time to work on it every day except one. It sure felt good to get back to my sewing room this week!

15 Minute Challenge for 2025

8/3 - 8/30             27 of 28 days

2025 Total         240 of 242 days

Success rate              99.17 %   

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