Stash Report and Stitching Time 10/27/2024

Placemats were my main quilting focus for the past week. Our guild had a community service sewing day to make placemats for Meals on Wheels on Thursday. The community service stash of fabric provided the blue and brown fabrics that I used for this group. None of these fabrics came from my stash, but I'm planning to pull some of my own blue and brown fabrics to make more.

After that, I finished off a set of placemat tops that had been assembled in August. The little bowtie blocks finish at 2" each, and many of them were made in 1999! The second photo shows the two different backing fabrics used to finish the placemats, and those fabrics also date back to at least 1999. I used 7/8 yard for the backings.

My other project for the week was joining the Birthday Blocks from Laundry Basket Quilts into a finished quilt top, which was shared in yesterday's post. The yardage used in making the blocks was already counted, but I used an additional 1.25 yards for framing the blocks.

Altogether, I used just over 2 yards of fabric last week, and there were no new fabric additions to the stash.

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                  2.125 yards

Used year to date:           121.625 yards

Added last week:                    0.0 yards

Added year to date:             88.75 yards

Net used in 2024:          32.875 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. I've enjoyed making placemats and plan to continue with more of those, plus I need to get back to quilting one of the Rail Fence Spinners quilts.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024

10/20 - 10/26            7 of 7 days

2024 Total          295 of 300 days

Success rate               98.33 %   

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 8/11/2024

The Stash Report for the last week shows 2.5 yards used, all of it on different scrappy projects. That included orange blocks for two of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects, the Rail Fence Spinners and the RSC 2024 Hen and Chicks Sampler (you can see them all in yesterday's post.) I also made a set of four placemat tops from a stash of 2" bowtie and 4-patch blocks, using over 1.5 yards of fabric on them. Today I wanted to share closer photos of a couple of the placemats.

According to my records, I first started making the baby bowties back in 1999. A local quilt guild was sponsoring a placemat contest, with the placemats being donated to Meals on Wheels. I had been collecting lots of teal/turquoise/blue fabrics to make a Storm at Sea quilt and started using them to make the tiny blocks. I hope you enjoy revisiting some very old fabrics (although some are newer too.)

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                      2.5 yards

Used year to date:                 55.5 yards

Added last week:                     0.0 yards

Added year to date:               43.0 yards

Net used in 2024:              12.5 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. We were lucky to be far enough away from Hurricane Debby to avoid most of the rain, and had several beautiful, sunny days at the end of the week. That turned out to be the perfect time for staining the back deck. It's not my favorite thing to do, but it sure does look better when it's done. Amazingly, I still managed to get in some quilting time every day.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024

8/4 - 8/10                 7 of 7 days

2024 Total          220 of 223 days

Success rate                 98.6 %   

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

ScrapHappy Saturday

I was able to pull out some orange scraps and work on a couple of my projects for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this week. First up was finishing the August blocks for the RSC Hen & Chicks sampler. We are making four different block designs each month in both 3" and 6" finished sizes, and I am limiting my fabric choices to batiks. My selection of orange batiks was very limited, but I did get them all made.

RSC Hen & Chicks sampler

After that, I made some orange Rail Fence Spinners, ending up with a total of 10 blocks.

Last month our RSC color assignment was aqua, teal and turquoise. Besides pulling out scraps, I also discovered a stash of tiny (2" finished size) bowtie blocks plus some 4-patches, all in those colors. There were over 160 of the bowties, but even if I'd used all of them together, they would have made a very small quilt, maybe 24" x 28". Instead of making more blocks, I decided to use what I had to make placemats, ending up with a total of four placemat tops. There are only 2 bowtie blocks left over!

All in all, it was a fun and very scrappy week. Who knows what kind of scrappy trouble I might get into next week! There are still plenty more orange scraps to use.

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

To-Do Tuesday 1/26/2021

It's Tuesday morning once again, which means it is 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 Progress Update and Link-up hosted by Roseanne and Sue at Home Sewn By Us. 

My list for last week was long, but I managed to complete every goal on the list. I spent much more time than expected on #2, but the list helped me stay focused on finishing the rest of the items at the end of the week.

To-Do List for 1/19 - 1/25:

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

I've gotten a little bit ahead and have 27 bowtie blocks made so far.

2. Blooming Onion--make six more blocks                                 ✔done       

Instead of making just six blocks, I made the remaining 18 blocks last week and then joined all the blocks together. You can see my finished quilt top in yesterday's post.

3. Glorified 9-Patch--make 1 block in pink                                 ✔done      

4. Grassy Creek mystery--put together two blocks                     ✔done   

5. Sewcialites QAL--make block #16                                         ✔done

Here are the blocks for goals #3-5. The two top blocks are for Grassy Creek, the white and lavender block on the right is for the Sewcialites QAL, and the pink and black block is the Glorified 9-Patch. At the bottom left is a block I made from four Double Bowtie blocks in Green Bay Packers colors. Unfortunately, they lost on Sunday, but maybe I will do something with the block before next season.

6. Stay-at-Home Round Robin (SAHRR)--add piano keys border  ✔done

I finished the piano keys border and included it in Sunday's blog post.

I had hoped that my list would be shorter for next week, but it has stayed at the same number of tasks. Most of them are continuations from previous weeks.

To-Do List for 1/26 - 2/1:

1. Bowties 365--make one bowtie block every day 

2. Stay-at-Home Round Robin (SAHRR)--add plus signs border                            

3. Glorified 9-Patch--make 2 blocks in pink                                    

4. Grassy Creek mystery--put together six blocks (working on this quilt will be my biggest project for the week)                     

5. Sewcialites QAL--make block #17                                        

6. Sew Colorful Stars--make one pink block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

That should all be plenty 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

Design Wall Monday 6/23/14

I have developed a great fondness for bowtie blocks over the years.  They are quick and easy to make, and there are endless layouts similar to log cabin quilts. It started many years ago when I made a set of placemats with teeny little bowties. Those baby bowties finished at only 2" each! I still have a stack of extra blocks and parts to make more.

Last year I joined a block of the month group, and our project had bowties as the final border. This is my Scrappy Sampler quilt.

Earlier this year, I made a bowtie baby quilt for a coworker. I got so carried away making bowtie blocks that I have enough blocks left over to make at least one more baby quilt.

The current bowtie project is a set of red, white & blue bowtie blocks that will become a Quilt of Valor soon. They are all up on my design wall, waiting to be stitched together into a quilt top. You can see about 80% of the quilt in this photo.

I am linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times where you can see all sorts of amazing quilting inspiration! 

Julie in GA