Dakota Inspired--Quilt Top Done!

My most recent finish is the quilt top from Alycia's Dakota Inspired mystery quilt-along. This one wasn't much of a mystery for me because I didn't start piecing mine until around the time that Alycia was giving the clues for assembling blocks.

Dakota Inspired, 67.5" x 83.25"

I always enjoy Alycia's mystery quilts because the piecing is fairly easy and goes quickly. I didn't have enough of any single red fabric, so each red churn dash is a different print. Some are red, white & blue prints, others are red tone-on-tones.

I added a border that was cut at 3" wide to finish off the outer edges. I love the way the dark blue fabric frames the rest of the quilt.

My best spot for taking quilt photos is with the quilt or top hanging off the railing of our back deck. It can be tricky if there is too much wind or sun, but I was fairly lucky out there today.

I'm  linking up with Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts.

Julie in GA

To-Do Tuesday 4/27/2021

Happy To-Do Tuesday once again!  It's time to look back at my to-do list from last week, see how I did on accomplishing my goals, then post a new list for the week ahead. I'm linking up with the  To-Do Tuesday Weekly Link-up hosted by Chris at Chris Knits. 

Life seems to be very busy lately as we have been getting out of the house more. We reach the "fully vaccinated" stage tomorrow (two weeks since our 2nd shot.) It feels good to get closer to normal, but it has definitely cut into my quilting time. I am so thankful that I have this wonderful hobby which helped me stay sane  through the past year.

To-Do List for 4/20 - 4/26

1. Bowties 365--make at least 1 bowtie block every day not done

I finished 5 of 7 blocks last week, but I'm still ahead for the month with 33 total so far.

2. Sewcialites QAL--make block #28   ✔done

3. Sew Colorful Stars--make 1 light blue block  ✔done

4. Alycia's mystery #A12--make 8 red blocks   ✔done

Not only did I make the 8 red blocks, but I also finished the 6 remaining blue blocks. All the blocks for this quilt are done!

5. Glorified 9Patch--prep background for light blue blocks  ✔done

6. Around the Twist--figure out a plan for quilting  not done 

It's time to be realistic and cut the list down a bit since I will have less time to spend quilting. 

To-Do List for 4/27 - 5/3

1. Bowties 365--make at least 1 bowtie block every day  

2. Sewcialites QAL--make block #29

3. 30's Kaleidoscopes--make pink and yellow blocks from new fabrics

4. Alycia's mystery #A12--cut setting triangles, start joining together

I'll report on my progress and post a new set of goals next Tuesday. I'm linking up with other To-Do Tuesday lists at Chris Knits.

Julie in GA  

Design Wall Monday 4/26/2021

My larger design wall is covered with my blocks for Dakota Inspired, Alycia's most recent mystery quilt. The wall is so full that some of the blocks are cut off around the outer edges, but you get the idea. There is probably some rearranging of blocks still to come. It looks to me like I need to move one brighter red block to the bottom row.

The next step is to find a dark blue fabric for the outer setting triangles and final border. I don't have many options for that in my stash, but I did find an old Jinny Beyer paisley print that might have enough yardage. I couldn't get a good photo of the color--here is a washed-out version with the flash, followed by a too-dark shot without. The real color is somewhere in between. I hope the faint line down the middle of the second photo is just the fold catching the light and not a fade line.

 

Linking up with:

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Making Backings for Quilts of Valor

There was a national sewing day for Quilts of Valor a couple of weeks ago. I didn't have a current QOV project going, and I didn't want to start a new one (very unusual for me!) Instead, I decided to focus on making backings for some Quilts of Valor tops and other red, white & blue quilt tops.

When I checked the quilt closet, I found six different RWB tops. There are three definite QOVs, and the other three I might keep for now. They are all throw-sized tops, around 60" x 80". My goal was to come up with backings for every top. I had a bin of larger yardages of RWB fabrics which had been set aside to become quilt backs. I started with single fabric backs, then combined the leftovers to make pieced backs. 

The first one was the easiest. It is a wide backing fabric from the line "Saltbox Village" by Country Essentials for Connecting Threads, and I bought it in 2013. It will be the back for my version of Allietare, Bonnie Hunter's 2015 mystery, now available as a digital pattern.

Allietare, top finished 2/3/2016
67" x 81"

Up next is my Woven Squares quilt top, made in May/June 2019. This quilt is my version of a pattern from Fons and Porter's Easy Quilts magazine, Winter 2016

Woven Squares, top finished 6/6/2019
59.25" x 75.25"

I used another fabric from Connecting Threads for the back. It is "Patriotic Patchwork" from the "Liberty for All" line, made in 2015.

The last of the single-fabric backs was for my Musical Stars quilt. I made this top in 2018, using a block pattern called "Double Delight Star" by Lynne Hagmeier of Kansas Troubles Quilters. Her pattern was originally shared as part of the 2017 Moda Blockheads QAL.

Musical Stars, top finished 8/15/2018
59.5" x 76.5"

For the back, I used yet another Connecting Threads fabric. This one is "Cartouche" from the line "Symphony in Blues" by Jenni Calo, 2014. There is one long vertical seam running through my quilt back, but I got the pattern to match up so well that it is practically invisible!

At that point I had run out of big enough pieces to make whole backs. It was time to start piecing together the leftovers. First up was my Meadow Mystery quilt. This is my variation of the mystery pattern designed by Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs.

Meadow Mystery, top finished 3/12/2017
60" x 84"

The back for this quilt was made from pieces of the leftover "Patriotic Patchwork" print plus two other Connecting Threads fabrics. The light blue is "Bunting" from the "Liberty for All" line, 2015, and the red/white print is from the "Rhapsody of Reds" line, 2014. The quilt back is more symmetrical than what you see here--the left side is cut off by a doorway.

The final quilt back to be made is for one of the mysteries by Alycia of Alycia Quilts. This was Mystery #A-11, later named "Under the Starry Sky." If you aren't familiar with Alycia's QOV mysteries, you should definitely check them out. She just listed the fabric requirements for #A-12 "Dakota Inspired" a couple days ago. Get more info HERE.

Alycia's Mystery A-11, top finished 11/22/2020
60.75" x 81.75"

Like the last back, this one was pieced from multiple fabrics. The flag print was given to me; it is by Fabri-Quilt. Again, the left side is cut off by the doorway. The flag fabric is actually the same width on both sides of this back.

I have only one more RWB quilt top that needs a back. It is another of Alycia's mysteries, this was her Winter Quilt-Along from November and December of 2019.

Alycia's Winter QAL, top finished 12/24/2019
60.5" x 72.5"

My leftover pieces are running low. I might have to go back to the stash for some more options, or else do more piecing in the back for this quilt. That's feeling like a project for another time. I think five finished quilt backs is very good for this week!

Linking up with:
Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA  

Alycia's Mystery #A11

My latest finish is the quilt top from Alycia's most recent mystery, #A11 (she is still trying to decide on a better name!)

Mystery #A11, 60.75" x 81.75"

Alycia's mystery quilts are geared for quick assembly, with each step planned to take about an hour or so per week. Mine took longer than that because I went scrappy with the reds and blues. I also made the border with dark blue scraps.

I could tell from the very first step that the scale of the piecing would work well with my background fabric. Those big pieces in the blocks with the chains of blue squares show off the background print perfectly! The background was a line from Connecting Threads called "Hometown Summer," and the date on the selvage says 2014. That fabric had aged long enough and needed to be used!

This is the third quilt top to be finished here this month--that may be a new record for me! It feels very good to have a quick finish like this. I'm still undecided about starting Bonnie Hunter's new mystery on Friday, and we know that project will not be quick and easy with big pieces! Maybe I will concentrate on figuring out the borders for Frolic, last year's Bonnie Hunter mystery, instead of starting the new one. (Who am I kidding--that won't happen!)

I'm  linking up with Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts.

Julie in GA

To-Do Tuesday (on Wednesday) 11/25/2020

Not only did I miss posting my to-do list last week, I'm a day late getting it posted for this week. The days just run together sometimes. Today I will catch up with the To-Do Tuesday Weekly Progress Update and Link-up hosted by Roseanne and Sue at Home Sewn By Us. I finished everything on my last to-do list and need to figure out what to include on the next one.

To-Do List for 11/10 - 11/16:

1. Alaska QAL--finish joining blocks together                ✔ done

The blocks are all joined together into a finished quilt top! Blog post is HERE.

2. Alycia's QOV Mystery--do the next step                    ✔ done

The next two steps are done, which means a finished top! I will blog about this one later in the week--here's a little sneak peek photo.

3. Scrappy Bear Paws--cut the sashing, begin joining    ✔ done

Not only did I start joining blocks and sashing, I got everything stitched together into ho

yet another finished quilt top. Do you wonder why I missed posting last week? You can read more about this one HERE.

4. Glorified 9-Patch--stitch one brown block                  ✔ done

One brown block is done, another started.

To-Do List for 11/17 - 11/23:

1. Practice What I Preach--finish quilting + binding

2. Glorified 9-Patch--stitch one brown block

3. Frolic (Bonnie Hunter 2019 mystery)--figure out plan for borders (unless I decide to go ahead and start her new mystery)

4. Sewcialites QAL--make block #10

That should be more than enough to keep me busy for the next week. I'll report on my progress and post a new set of goals next Tuesday. I'm linking up with other To-Do Tuesday lists at Home Sewn by Us .

Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving everyone!

Julie in GA

Design Wall Monday 11/23/2020

Alycia posted the final step of the most recent Quilt of Valor mystery last week. You can find out more about it on her website HERE. I've started stitching my rows of sashing to the rows of blocks. You can see five sets up on the design wall, and there are two more at the ironing board waiting to be pressed.

All that's left to do after I get the rows stitched together is to add one border, blue with red cornerstones. Since my blocks are scrappy, I will probably make the blue border scrappy too. I hope to have this top finished very soon!

Linking up with:
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Stitching and DeStashing--Week 46, 2020

The past week included plenty of stitching time, mostly joining already-made blocks together. I've reached the assembly stage of a few different projects. The only stash usage to be counted this week is 5/8 yard for the sashing strips that were stitched to blocks in Step 5 of Alycia's mystery #A11. There are four more rows to go along with these. No new fabric added.

2020 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                             .625 yards

Used year to date:                    180.625 yards

Added last week:                              0.0 yards

Added year to date:                        64.0 yards

Net used year to date           116.625 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 mostly been working on quilt assembly and need to pull out a project that has blocks to piece, just to have some variation.

15 Minute Challenge:  

11/8 - 11/14              7 of 7 days

2020 Total          310 of 319 days

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge at Life in Pieces. 

Happy quilting and stay safe everyone!

Julie in GA

Stitching and Stashing--Week 45, 2020

It was another very productive week for quilting, with time spent on several different projects. However, my stash totals are going up instead of down because I also received a couple of fabric orders. 

The additions to the stash are both large pieces, and strangely enough, they are both grey. The piece on the right is a gridded flannel by Kaffe Fassett, and it is going to become my new design wall fabric. The grid lines should help keep my blocks straight and evenly spaced when I put them up on the wall. I bought 6 yards of that and 5 yards of the grey print on the left. That one is planned to be used for Bonnie Hunter's Grassy Creek mystery starting the day after Thanksgiving.

My usage total for the week came to 3.5 yards. That included 3/4 yard for Step 4 of Alycia's mystery, 1.5 yards for the remaining blocks for the Alaska QAL, and 1.25 yards for some more face masks.

Alycia's mystery, Step 4--strips are folded in half for the photo

10 more face masks, mostly batiks

2020 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                             3.50 yards

Used year to date:                      180.00 yards

Added last week:                            11.0 yards

Added year to date:                        64.0 yards

Net used year to date             116.00 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 Tuesday To-Do List has really helped keep me on track this week, and I have checked off almost everything from that list!

15 Minute Challenge:  

11/1 - 11/7                7 of 7 days

2020 Total          303 of 312 days

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge at Life in Pieces. 

Happy quilting and stay safe everyone!

Julie in GA

To-Do Tuesday 11/3/2020

Good morning on Election Day 2020. If you haven't done so already, please get out and vote at some point today. It is a right and a privilege that every American citizen has earned, and it is important that everyone do their part. We were among the many who voted early, and it feels good to have it out of the way. 

Today is also time once again for the To-Do Tuesday Weekly Progress Update and Link-up hosted by Roseanne and Sue at Home Sewn By Us. I missed posting a list last week, and I can't even remember why, but here's a recap of my list from two weeks ago.

To-do list for 10/20 - 10/26:

1. Scrappy Bear Paw--make yellow block     ✔ done

2. Square Dance blocks--complete any colors that need more blocks  not done

3. Alaska QAL--make next set of blocks       ✔ done

I've made all the blocks from the pattern, but I'm thinking about adding another row top and bottom to make the quilt rectangular. You can read more about this project in yesterday's post.

4. Glorified 9-Patch--make yellow block #3  ✔ done

Here are my three completed yellow blocks.

5. Alycia's QOV Mystery--do the next step   ✔ done

We have made a total of 17 chain blocks and 18 Friendship Star blocks so far.

All in all, good progress on my projects. Let's check out the list for the week ahead.

To-Do List for 11/3 - 11/9:

1. Glorified 9-Patch--prep more blocks

2. Alaska QAL--plan new rows and begin piecing

3. Scrappy Bear Paws--figure out sashing/setting fabrics

4. Square Dance blocks--complete any colors that need more blocks

5. Alycia's QOV Mystery--do the next step

That should be more than enough to keep me busy for the next week. I'll report on my progress and post a new set of goals next Tuesday. I'm linking up with other To-Do Tuesday lists at Home Sewn by Us .

Julie in GA

Stitching and DeStashing--Week 44, 2020

It has been an interesting week around here, not all in a good way. Hurricane Zeta was down to a tropical storm by the time it passed through our area early Thursday morning. Fortunately, we had made coffee before the storm knocked out the power. At least we didn't have to face the day without our caffeine fix! We didn't have any damage, but there were many trees down all over the area. We were without electricity for 16 hours on Thursday, and about 4 hours again on Friday. Just another couple of crazy days in 2020, but I know we were much luckier than many people.

My quilting time was productive for the week, with two sets of blocks being completed. I used 1.5 yards in the remaining blocks for the Alaska QAL, and also used 1.75 yards in Step 3 of Alycia's mystery. Here are some of the blocks from Steps 1 and 3.

2020 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                             3.25 yards

Used year to date:                      176.50 yards

Added last week:                              0.0 yards

Added year to date:                        53.0 yards

Net used year to date             123.50 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 managed to get my 15 minutes every day last week, even the day we were without electricity due to Zeta. I couldn't use my sewing machine or iron, but I was able to sort through and cut up some scraps from the Alaska QAL, plus I played with some design ideas for how to make that quilt longer.

15 Minute Challenge:  

10/25 - 10/31            7 of 7 days

2020 Total          296 of 305 days

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge at Life in Pieces. 

Happy quilting and stay safe everyone!

Julie in GA

Stitching and DeStashing--Week 42, 2020

It was a bit of a surprise when I sat down to figure out my stash report this morning. I knew I had been doing lots of cutting this week, but I also got more blocks stitched up than I'd realized. I made the last eight yellow and green blocks for my Square Dance quilt. That's a total of 3/4 yard used for all 32 of those blocks, which you can see in yesterday's post. I also made 16 more blocks for the Alaska quilt along, using 1.875 yards. There's also one completely new project joining the list--Alycia's latest QOV mystery #A11 started, and I have already finished the first step, using 1.5 yards. Grand total for the week--4.125 yards used! No new fabric was added to the stash.

2020 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                            4.125 yards

Used year to date:                       170.50 yards

Added last week:                              0.0 yards

Added year to date:                         53.0 yards

Net used year to date              117.50 yards

One of the best things about Alycia's mysteries is that they tend to go together quickly with fairly large pieces. We've just started, so it's not too late to join in. You can learn more HERE at Alycia's blog. I found a fun patriotic background fabric and used scrappy blue squares with it for the first step. Here's twelve of the 17 blocks I made this week. The blue squares finish at 3", and the blocks will be 9".

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 time spent quilting over the last week tended toward hours rather than minutes each day. That would explain the larger than normal stash usage for the week.

15 Minute Challenge:  

10/11 - 10/17            7 of 7 days

2020 Total          282 of 291 days

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge at Life in Pieces. 

Happy quilting and stay safe everyone!

Julie in GA

Alycia's QAL

My last finish from 2019 is this quilt top that I made as part of Alycia's 2019 Winter Quilt-Along. The top was finished on Christmas Eve, but I wasn't able to get outdoor photos of it until New Year's Day.

As in the past, Alycia's quilt-along was easy, even for the busy time around the holidays. The whole quilt is made up of half-square triangles, plus a few squares of background. I used a single background, but went scrappy with my reds and blues. All of the blue fabrics are batiks.

60.5" x 72.5"

This closer shot will give you a better look at the center pinwheel and some of the fabrics. My favorite thing about this quilt is the way it shows off my great background fabric. That print wouldn't have worked nearly as well in a quilt made from small pieces, but the 6" HSTs showed it off beautifully! 

This quilt will make a great contribution to Quilts of Valor. Many thanks to Alycia for another fun mystery quilt-along! It sure feels good to have a new quilt to share on the first Friday of the new year.

I'm  linking up with Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts.

Julie in GA