Sunday Stash and Stitching 3/29/2026

My Stash Report has taken a dangerous turn in recent weeks, with far too much fabric being added. I have been working hard on finishing up a few quilts for an upcoming quilt show, which will help balance out the numbers eventually. However, I'm not counting any of those fabrics as used until I share each finished quilt in a blog post.

The additions to the stash included 2 fat quarter bundles plus a few extra yards of Kaffe Collective fabrics, 11.5 yards total. These fabrics are so much fun, but I struggle with figuring out how to use them.

I also bought two bundles of remnants, most of them batiks, which added up to 6.5 yards after I gave a few pieces away on the free table at our guild meeting. The black fabric at the top of the photo is a 5-yard piece that was on deep discount, which should work nicely as a background someday. I also bought one charm pack (.75 yard, not shown.)

Total additions to the stash: 23.75 yards. No fabric used last week.

2026 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                     0.0 yards

Used year to date:            18.875 yards

Added last week:                23.75 yards

Added year to date:            43.75 yards

Net added in 2026:      24.875 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. My report covers the last two weeks because I was in Wisconsin visiting family last Sunday. For the first time all year, I had one day with no time spent quilting, but I more than made up for that as I raced the clock to meet the entry deadline for the quilt show.

15 Minute Challenge 2026

3/15 - 3/28          13 of 14 days

2026 Total            86 of 87 days

Success rate               98.8 %   

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

2026 Temperature Quilt, Version 2

Back in January I shared a post about my plans for a 2026 Temperature Quilt. I had such a good time making my 2025 Temperature Quilt that I was eager to start a new one. I decided at that time to keep it easy and started to piece a Herringbone Quilt. This section represents the highs and lows for the first 9 days of 2026.

Well, that plan didn't last long. Just a day or two after that blog post, I was talking to my sister Karen, who is also a quilter. She was considering making a temperature quilt, and we discovered that we were both very intrigued by a design by Jo Avery. The next photo is Jo's 2022 Sea Urchin temperature quilt.

I discovered that Jo teaches an online workshop that includes the Sea Urchin design, her Supernova class at The Thread House Academy. We both got signed up for the class and began our separate versions of this amazing quilt.

I'm using most of the same fabrics for my Sea Urchin quilt as last year's temperature quilt which are  Glaze and Glaze II by Libs Elliott for Andover Fabrics. Here's my color palette for the 2026 quilt. The hot pink diamond at the bottom center represents the hottest temps, over 100 degrees, and they go down in increments of 3 degrees, with the grey for the lowest temps. The black solid will be my background.

Jo's method for making this design involves drawing it out on light-weight non-fusible interfacing, which becomes the foundation for the piecing and is not removed from the blocks. The fact that the shapes are a little wonky and vary in size makes it easier to deal with the fact that the  number of days varies from month to month. Here is the pieced area of my January block from both the right and wrong sides.

The last steps for finishing the January block were adding the black background around the outside and at the center. I machine pieced the outer background to the foundation-pieced section, then hand appliqued the center. 

This is my block for January, 2026. The tiny safety pin in the top  segment marks January 1st, and the days move clockwise around the block. The outer wedges represent the daily high temperatures, and the inner wedges are the lows.

I have the foundation piecing done for the February block and need to get the four quadrants of it joined together before I can add the background. Karen and I are going to get together this weekend, and I can't wait to see how different our blocks look. My block represents the temperatures for the Atlanta airport, our nearest weather station, and hers will be for Madison, WI. We are not using the same fabrics, but our colors are similar.

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

Sunday Stash and Stitching 3/15/2026

Spring has been putting on a show here lately, with several days of warm temperatures and all sorts of flowers and trees blooming. We spent a few days in New Orleans this week, and it was even warmer there (mid 80's) until one night when thunderstorms rolled in and cooled things off. We are back home now and expecting a major cool-down in a day or so.

Here's a tip for anyone planning a trip to New Orleans--the National WWII Museum is well worth a visit. We took a highlights tour in the morning, then spent more time after lunch exploring on our own. It was very easy to spend a whole day there, and we still didn't see it all. Highly recommended! We also spent some time wandering the French Quarter and ate lots of wonderful seafood.

St. Louis Cathedral/Jackson Square

New Orleans

My stash report is very brief this week because there is nothing to show and very little to tell. The only change to the stash was the addition of 2 yards of black solid for my new temperature quilt project, and I didn't bother taking a photo of that.

2026 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                     0.0 yards

Used year to date:            18.875 yards

Added last week:                   2.0 yards

Added year to date:              20.0 yards

Net added in 2026:         1.125 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 trip to New Orleans reduced my quilting time, but I did take a hand-stitching project along. I also got to visit one quilt shop there. Now that we are back home, I'm finishing up the binding on a quilt.

15 Minute Challenge 2026

3/3 - 3/14                7 of 7 days

2026 Total            73 of 73 days

Success rate                100 %   

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

Sunday Stash and Stitching 3/8/2026

It has been another busy week, with a little time spent quilting combined with lots of time getting the house ready for a birthday party yesterday. Having people over is always good motivation to get the place cleaned up. The party was last night, so I'm looking forward to more quilting time today.

The quilting highlight of the past week was finishing up my UFO #5 for our guild challenge, the Square Dance quilt. You can read more about it HERE.

I used 3/8 yard of fabric for the binding on this quilt, and there was no new fabric added this week. 

2026 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                   .375 yards

Used year to date:            18.875 yards

Added last week:                   0.0 yards

Added year to date:              18.0 yards

Net used in 2026:             .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. Along with the binding on the Square Dance quilt, I have been working on the February block for my 2026 temperature quilt. I also made the bindings for three quilts that are being long-arm quilted, and I just got the first of those quilts back a few days ago. It's time to start attaching binding and a hanging sleeve.

15 Minute Challenge 2026

3/1 - 3/7                 7 of 7 days

2026 Total            66 of 66 days

Success rate                100 %   

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

Another UFO Finished!

The assigned number for the next UFO to be finished as part of our guild challenge was #5. As I'd hoped, it was a quick finish for me because my #5 project was a small quilt top that needed to be quilted and bound. This is my finished Square Dance quilt.

Square Dance quilt

40" x 52"

The blocks for this quilt were made as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge throughout 2020. The Square Dance pattern was the Stashbuster Challenge Block at Border Creek Station that year. Each block is basically a Double Four-Patch, with the black squares forming a diagonal chain through the block. 

I made about 30 blocks each month using the assigned color of the month along with the next color of the rainbow progression. By the end of the year, I had the blocks all joined together into two small quilt tops that measured 40" x 60" each. 

I could have joined the two small tops into a throw-sized quilt, but decided they would be more useful as baby/kid quilts. The first quilt was finished in the fall of 2022, and now I've finally finished the second quilt. I removed two rows of blocks before quilting, taking the size down to 40" x 52". I used one of my favorite flannel prints for the back, and quilted wavy lines through the chains of black squares. A black binding was added, and this UFO was finished!

I'm 2 for 2 on the UFO challenge so far this year, mostly because the first two projects assigned were easy ones. I've got my fingers crossed that my success rate continues for the rest of the year.

I'm  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

TGIFF (Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday) at Anja Quilts

 Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Sunday Stash and Stitching 3/1/2026

The weeks keep slipping by so quickly, and suddenly here we are at March. How did that happen? I had a very busy week of quilting, but somehow I didn't manage to get photos of most of my projects. I did get a shot of the backing I pieced for my #5 UFO that is part of our guild's UFO challenge. 

The backing fabric is an old favorite flannel from JoAnn's and I wish I had more of it. I used to have several yards, and it has been used to back multiple baby quilts. I had to piece in a chunk at the upper left to make it big enough, and that used up most of my remaining yardage of this fabric.

I'll wait and show you the front of the quilt after I finish the quilting and binding. If you are able to zoom in on the photo, you will see that I've been quilting wavy diagonal lines on this quilt. I'm debating whether I should add more quilting or just call it done and add the binding.

I used 1.625 yards of fabric for this quilt back, and there was no new fabric added this week. That means my stash report is back to showing more fabric used than added for the first time in over a month!

2026 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 1.625 yards

Used year to date:               18.5 yards

Added last week:                   0.0 yards

Added year to date:              18.0 yards

Net used in 2026:                 .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 finished piecing the backing for my 2025 Temperature Quilt, which I hope to share very soon. I also worked on the first block for my 2026 Temperature Quilt, and I'm very excited about that project. There was also one secret project that can't be revealed just yet. Definitely more than 15 minutes of quilting every day!

15 Minute Challenge 2026

2/22 - 2/28              7 of 7 days

2026 Total            59 of 59 days

Success rate                100 %   

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