Stash Report and Stitching Time 3/31/2024

It was a productive week, with plenty of fabric getting cut and stitched back together in my sewing room. I was very happy to finish the assembly of my latest Around the Twist baby quilt top (read more about it HERE.) 2.5 yards of fabric was used for this top.

Around the Twist, 38.5" x 45"

I also finished two more sets of purple blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, Hollow 9-Patch (shared in yesterday's post) and the Birthday Blocks by Laundry Basket Quilts. I've got a couple of extra blocks that didn't appear in yesterday's post. One is a duplicate because I didn't like my first attempt of the pattern, plus the heart block was a bonus pattern from Valentine's day that finally got finished this week.

Birthday Blocks by Laundry Basket Quilts

6" finished size blocks

The two groups of purple blocks used a total of 3/4 yard of fabric. No new fabric was added to the stash this week.

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                   3.25 yards

Used year to date:              25.75 yards

Added last week:                    0.0 yards

Added year to date:               22.0 yards

Net used in 2024:               3.75 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. Besides the projects I showed with the stash report, I spent large chunks of time pulling and cutting fabrics for my remaining Chatsworth blocks, an ongoing Block of the Month project.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024: 

3/24 - 3/30          7 of 7 days

2024 Total        90 of 90 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

Around the Twist Quilt Top

Our quilt guild had a group sewing day at the end of February to work together on baby quilts. Most people were using a pattern supplied by one of the members, but of course I felt the need to complicate things for myself and made a totally different design. This is my latest Around the Twist baby quilt top.

Around the Twist, 38.5" x 45"

The starting point for this quilt was the background fabric. According to my records, this adorable print was purchased in 1998. 

I knew that I had used the same fabric for a small quilt many years ago. I managed to find a photo (not digital) of this Snowball/9-Patch quilt, made in 1998. I had totally forgotten about the coordinating striped fabric.

Snowball/9-Patch Quilt, 1998

The Around the Twist pattern used for the new quilt top is a design I have made a few times before, most recently as a baby quilt last year. (The quilt name under the next photo will take you to my blog post with more info about the pattern and this quilt.)

Around the Twist baby quilt, 2023

If you compare the finished quilt in the photo above with the quilt top at the beginning of this post, you might notice a key difference--the new version used five colors for the rings rather than the four in last year's quilt. Adding one more color made construction much more complicated. There are two different blocks in this quilt, Snowball blocks and Twist blocks. Every block uses four of the five colors around the center in very specific order to make the design work. That meant making five different sets of each block. My photos show two versions of each below.

Snowball blocks

Twist blocks

Piecing the blocks required concentration in order to get the colors in the right places, but it all worked out well in the end. I need to dig through my stash for a good backing fabric, then I can get this quilted and ready to donate. I've already pulled together another group of fabrics to make yet another version of this pattern. I considered using seven different colors for the rings in that one, but I think I will stay with five.

Linking up with:

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 3/12/2023

When it was time to sit down and write my Stash Report post for the week, I discovered that I missed posting last Sunday due to a short trip out of town. When we got home on Sunday, I was focused on a new project and never even thought about a blog post. The numbers in today's post all cover that two week period.

The good news is that I managed to use some fabric in that two weeks time, and no new fabric was added to the stash. Most of the usage (4.375 yards) was for the Around the Twist baby quilt that I made as part of the "Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop" hosted by Bea at Beaquilter. I can't resist sharing another photo of it with our gorgeous bright pink azaleas.

I also used 3/4 yard for the Migrating Geese placemat that was made for Project Quilting Challenge 14.5: Sew Not a Square. Yes, many of the same colors appear in both projects, so bright and cheery. 

2023 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 5.125 yards

Used year to date:               21.0 yards

Added last week:                   0.0 yards

Added year to date:               9.5 yards

Net used in 2023             11.5 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've gotten back into the rhythm of quilting every day again, with several projects in the works. It felt so good to have an actual finish on that Around the Twist quilt. I need to get it washed up, then sent off to the parents-to-be.

15 Minute Challenge for 2023: 

2/26 - 3/11      14 of 14 days

2023 Total        68 of 70 days

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

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop: Around the Twist

Welcome to my stop on this year's Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop, hosted by Bea at  Beaquilter. I believe this is the 5th year of this blog hop, but it is my first time participating. I've been collecting quilting books since I started quilting in 1995, and I knew I would have plenty of options. The hard part was narrowing it down to one choice!

I paged through many of my quilting books before settling on this one. It's not the oldest book I own, published in 1986, but I've had it longer than most of my collection. It's also significant to me because the author, Trudie Hughes, was one of my earliest quilting teachers. She owned a quilt shop, Patched Works, in Elm Grove, WI, not far from where I lived in my early years as a quilter.

Trudie was one of the early advocates for using rotary cutters and other time-saving techniques in quiltmaking. She wrote over a dozen books,  and I was lucky enough to assist her on a couple of the later ones. This was her first book, published by That Patchwork Place (later Martingale.)

Around the Twist baby quilt

38" x 44.5"

The pattern I chose to make is called Around the Twist. It is a variation of the design from the front cover of the book. I scaled the blocks down from the 6" size in the pattern to 4.5" for this baby quilt. The fabrics I used were all chosen to coordinate with the adorable birdie background print.

Our bright pink azaleas are blooming and seemed like the perfect match for this little quilt. 

The quilting is a loopy meandering design, done in a light aqua thread. The backing is a fun flannel print, and the binding is the same turquoise fabric that was used in the piecing.

Bea was interested in hearing about our oldest quilting books, even if we didn't make a project from one of them. I looked through several books in my collection and discovered that this is the oldest quilt book I own. If I'm reading those Roman numerals in the last photo correctly, it was published in 1935, and it looks like I bought it in February, 2002 or later.

Thanks so much to Bea for letting me be a part of this fun blog hop. Here's the schedule for the entire week of the Dust Off a Quilt Book Blog Hop:

March 6th
Quilting at the Farm
Lemon Tree Snippets
Creatin in the sticks
Natalie (on Beaquilter)

March 7th
Quilting Gail
Thrift Shop Commando
High Road Quilter
Moosestashquilting

The Morning Latte

March 8th
Kathleen McMusing
Words & Stitches
Isabella's Whimsy
DesertSky Quilting
 
March 9th
LC's Cottage
Cynthia's Ark
Ms P Designs USA
Just Let Me Quilt
 
March 10th
Beaquilter
Karrin's Crazy World
Quilting Patchwork Applique
Julie's Quilts and Costumes--that's me!

Check out the blog posts, and maybe you will get inspired to make something from one of your old quilt books too!

This is my first finished quilt for March, and I am also linking up here:

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Favorite Finish at Meadow Mist Designs

Happy quilting everyone,

Julie in GA 

To-Do Tuesday 4/6/2021

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. 

I managed to complete my whole list from last week, but it was down to the wire. The final item didn't happen until after dinner last night.

To-Do List for 3/30 - 4/5

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

Twelve bowties done last week.

2. Sewcialites QAL--make block #25  ✔done 

3. Beveled Blocks--make binding  ✔done

This is the project that didn't get done until last night!

4. 30's Kaleidoscope--make light blue blocks  ✔done 

Sixteen light blue blocks done.

5. Around the Twist--remove old quilting  ✔done 

You can still see the creases where the quilting stitching was, but it has all been removed.

The list for next week continues with many of the same projects, plus the return of the monthly Scrap Magnet blocks, a personal favorite!

To-Do List for 4/6 - 4/12

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

2. Sewcialites QAL--make block #26

3. Scrap Magnet--make two  blue blocks 

4. Around the Twist--figure out a plan for quilting 

5. 30's Kaleidoscope--choose fabric for corner triangles and start adding them to blocks

 

The list doesn't look like much, but I'm sure other things will come up. 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 3/29/2021

Angela at soscrappy announced over the weekend that our Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for April will be light/bright blue. I decided to go through my quilt tops to find something featuring light blue that I could get quilted up and finished next month. There were several options, but this is the one I chose to work on first.

Around the Twist, 24" x 32.5"

pattern by Trudie Hughes

from her book Template-Free Quiltmaking, 1986

As you can see, this little quilt has already been quilted, and it is very badly done. I made the quilt top in my first year as a quilter, 1995, and attempted to machine quilt it in 1996 (25 years ago!) I used polyester batting which, along with a poor choice of quilting design, made the whole thing puff out in between the lines of stitching. I got this far, hated how it was turning out, and put it away in the closet. I think it's time to resurrect this sad little quilt.

I've started removing some of the the machine quilting. It was done with invisible thread, both top and bobbin, which makes it very hard to see. My plan is to take out all the quilting, press the top and back to get rid of the creases from the quilting (which will probably require wetting them heavily,) then layer it with new cotton batting. I haven't figured out a new plan for the quilting design yet, but I will come up with something. 

Finishing this little quilt is going to be my One Monthly Goal for the month of April. It may not be my finest work, but it is a special reminder of my early days as a quilter, and it deserves to be finished for that reason.

Linking up with:

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA