Chandelier Quilt Finished!

The June assignment for our guild's UFO Challenge was #7, and for me that meant quilting and binding a quilt top that I made last year. This is my finished Chandelier quilt.

Chandelier, 47" x 57"

The Chandelier quilt was made from a free 3-yard quilt pattern at Sew Can She. I received the fabrics from our guild's Community Service stash, and the quilt will go to the local Meals on Wheels chapter to give to one of their clients when the weather gets cold.

One new thing that I tried on this quilt was to use a home-made basting spray. I found the recipe for it at String and Story. I hate pinning quilt layers together and trying to avoid the pins while quilting, and the aerosol basting sprays have gotten very expensive. This home-made version uses water, flour, salt and rubbing alcohol, so it is very inexpensive. You have to let it dry completely after you baste the layers together before you can start quilting, and it makes the layers a little bit stiffer, but I am very willing to deal with those facts in order to save so much on the cost of the spray. The basting spray washed out easily when the quilt was finished, a necessary step with this spray.

Chandelier Quilt back

Our UFO assignment for July is #6, and I already have that quilt top layered with the batting and backing, all ready to be quilted.

I'm  linking up with:

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Riding the Waves (aka Blue Onion) Finished!

This was one of those projects that jumped to the front of the line and insisted on being finished right away! This is "Riding the Waves."

Riding the Waves, 39.25" x 49.5"

Just a few short weeks ago, our guild (Common Threads Quilters Guild of Newnan, GA) had a presentation by Mary Ruth Hudson called "Tackling Curves in Quilts". The next day, Mary Ruth taught a workshop with the Blue Onion pattern by Karla Alexander of Saginaw Street Quilts.

The workshop was on a Friday, and just a few days later, I shared a post showing the blocks I had made up until that point (you can see that post HERE.) I ended up making a total of 24 blocks, but only 20 of them were used in the quilt.

I played with a few different layout options, and had decided to go with the layout shown above, which is similar to the pattern cover. I even started sewing the blocks together into rows, but the idea of diagonal waves kept nagging at me. Then I discovered the perfect backing fabric in my stash and knew that I had to change my plans.

The diagonal wave design on both the front and the back of the quilt reminds me of the giant slide at the state fair. That's what led to the name "Riding the Waves." I quilted from the back side, following the design of the backing fabric. The quilting adds some fun wavy stitching lines to the front of the quilt.

The four extra blocks were turned into placemats, which will be donated to Meals on Wheels through our quilt guild.

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

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Quilt Show Results

There have been many times in the past few months when it felt like the only quilt projects I was working on this year were my entries for the Georgia Celebrates Quilt show. Of course, it's not true. I have made other projects this year, but a very large portion of my time has been focused on finishing my quilt show entries. Last week, all of that time and effort was on display at the Georgia Celebrates Quilts show.

Georgia Celebrates Quilts is the largest and most prestigious quilt show in the state, with over 300 quilts on display and more than $4000 in prizes awarded. The show is held every other year, and they always have an incredible display of quilts in a wide range of styles and sizes. 

I was fortunate enough to have three quilts accepted for the show, and I was stunned when all three of them received ribbons. The most exciting of all was the "Best Use of Color" award for my 2025 Temperature Quilt. It was quilted by Kris Townsend Davis.

Rainbow Stairsteps won 2nd Place for Pieced Quilts, 2 Person--Small. It was quilted at Sew Senoia, a local quilt shop.

Sunset at Lighthouse Inn won 2nd Place for Modern Quilts, Large. It was quilted by Kris Townsend Davis.

I am a member of two different local quilt guilds. One is the East Cobb Quilters' Guild, which is the group that presents the quilt show every other year. This guild generally has over 300 members. My other guild is the Common Threads Quilters Guild of Newnan, GA, a much smaller group, usually with 40 - 50 members. There were several quilts in the show made by members of Common Threads. Here are a few of them.

My Texas Neighborhood by Laurie Reissler

What to Do Next by Teresa Smith

Woven Whispers by Sharon Hendrix

Judges' Recognition 

Whimsical Vases by Sharon Hendrix

Honorable Mention, Applique

Sharon also had two other quilts in the show, one of which received a ribbon. It was a very impressive showing for our little guild!

You can see the winning quilts HERE. I'll share more of my favorite quilts from the show another day.

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

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

 Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Rainbow Stairsteps Finished!

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge, hosted by Angela at So Scrappy, has been a big part of my quilting life ever since 2013. I've been trying to focus on finishing some of the many rainbow quilts that I started in those years, and I'm happy to share my finished Rainbow Stairsteps quilt.

This quilt was one of my RSC projects back in 2019. Here's a photo from my first post about this quilt showing a single block in case you were wondering about the piecing. The finished block size is 6".

The quilt top was completed in November of 2019 and has been hanging in the quilt room closet ever since. I'm so pleased with the way it turned out and look forward to displaying it in our home.

The backing fabric seemed like a good match for the top, with a design of lots of black and white plus scattered bright colors. It's much easier to see the print up close.

The backing fabric inspired my choice of a Baptist fan-type quilting design for this quilt, and I love the texture that it adds to the quilt.

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

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (TGIFF) at Melva Loves Scraps

 Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Mini Storm at Sea is Finished!

This month's assignment for the guild UFO challenge was #9. On my list, that meant my reversible mini Storm at Sea quilt, which was one of my very oldest projects. It just needed a binding, and now it is finished!

Mini Storm at Sea, dark side

 22.5" square

Mini Storm at Sea, light side

I've been quilting since 1995, and I've always been fascinated by designs that look like curves but are made from straight lines. In 1998, I felt ready to attempt a Storm at Sea quilt. I had been collecting fabrics in a variety of turquoise and teal prints, but I wasn't sure whether I wanted to combine them with a dark background or a light one. To help me make up my mind, I made samples of both, which ended up becoming this reversible quilt.

Making the two different versions definitely helped me decide to go with a light background. The main thing I see on the side with the black is the stars, but on the light side, I can see the diagonal wavy movement of the Storm at Sea pattern more clearly.

The mini Storm at Sea quilt was quilted in the ditch from the dark side. You can get a closer look at some of the fabrics in this shot.

I did end up making a bed-sized Storm at Sea quilt, but it wasn't started until 2001 when I found the perfect background fabric with sea anemones on it.

 That quilt was finished in 2012.

Storm at Sea quilt top, 87" x 96"

May, 2012

Storm at Sea, quilted and bound

October, 2012

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

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

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

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

2025 Temperature Quilt Finished!

It has been about a year and a half since I started planning my first temperature quilt, and as of today, it is finished! That's not a bad turn-around time for me, but I've been very excited (and therefore motivated) about completing this quilt. This is my finished 2025 Temperature Quilt for College Park, GA.

2025 Temperature Quilt

57.5" x 76"

It all started in November, 2024, with a presentation by Jo Avery of the UK about temperature quilts. She inspired several members of our guild, the Common Threads Quilters Guild of Newnan, GA, to begin our own versions of temperature quilts. 

For my quilt, I came up with an easy-to-piece block design and selected a group of fabrics from the Glaze and Glaze II lines by Libs Elliott for Andover. The photo above shows my fabric palette, and below is a close-up of some blocks. The finished blocks measure 3".

I tracked the high and low temperatures all through 2025 and tried to stay caught up on making my blocks. There were a couple times that I fell behind by a month or more, but I was fairly close most of the year. The color of the diamond in each block represents the high temperature for that day, and the background color is the low temp. The dates run from left to right in horizontal rows. Even though we did a good bit of traveling in 2025, I used the temperatures for College Park in all of my blocks.

It isn't easy to come up with a layout that uses 365 blocks. When I decided to set my blocks on point, I realized that it would work out if I added just a few extra blocks. There are three blocks with hand appliqued circles on them. They represent the temperatures for my husband's birthdate, our wedding day, and my birthdate.

I had originally planned to include the legend for the colors and their temperature ranges in the border of the quilt, but decided to keep the focus of the quilt front on the piecing and the flow of colors. I made a panel for the back of the quilt with that information.

My temperature quilt was quilted by Kris Townsend Davis in a feather meander pattern with Brassy Yellow Variegated Thread. I love the movement of the quilting design, and the variegated thread worked out beautifully.

There were over a dozen members of the guild who worked on their temperature quilts together throughout 2025. We all shared our progress at the April, 2026 guild meeting. Several quilts were completely finished and others are still in progress. Our group coordinator, Sharon Hendrix, kept us all inspired and motivated. A couple weeks after showing the quilts at the guild meeting, Sharon shared the very exciting news that our quilts are going to be displayed at the Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum in Carrollton, GA, from November, 2027 until February, 2028. It will be such an honor to have our quilts exhibited there!

I've already started a new temperature quilt for 2026. This time I'm using Jo Avery's Sea Urchin design, which is included in her online Supernova class at The Thread House Academy. My sister Karen is also making the same pattern with temperatures for Madison, WI. Below is my February block for that quilt, and you can read more about the new project HERE. I'm enjoying continuing to track our daily temps in fabric.

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

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (TGIFF) at Slice of Pi Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Another UFO Finished!

Our quilt guild's UFO (UnFinished Object) Challenge has been a great motivator this year, helping me clear out some old projects. Our assignment for April was UFO #2, and for me that meant finishing my Pinwheels Christmas Tree Quilt. It feels great to have this finished long before the Christmas season, and I know exactly where I will hang it when the holidays get here.

Pinwheels Christmas Tree, 39" x 46"

My quilt was inspired by a friend's quilt that was displayed in our guild's Christmas market booth in past years. This is Martha's Pinwheel Christmas Tree quilt.

Martha's quilt

I changed up the design a little bit, alternating the direction that the pinwheels spin from row to row, plus the star is different. My favorite part is the cute background fabric of Christmas lights, which had been in my stash for many years.

The backing fabric is a "Peanuts" Christmas print, which had also been in the stash for quite awhile. I managed to do some ruler quilting in the border, adding scallops all the way around.

I'm 3 for 3 on the UFO Challenge so far this year, and I hope to continue that way for the rest of the challenge. My project for May is a small one, so I'm hoping to get it done quickly and have time to work on some other UFOs.

Linking up with:

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (TGIFF) at Quilted Delights

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Lighthouse Inn Finished!

My main quilting goal since the beginning of this year has been to finish some quilts before the end of March, the entry deadline for a local quilt show. The first of those quilts to be completed was Lighthouse Inn, a 2024 mystery quilt designed by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr of Modern Quilt Studio.

Lighthouse Inn, 56.5" x 81"

Lighthouse Inn was a mystery quilt-along unlike any other I have done before (and I've made plenty of mystery quilts!) We made blocks in a variety of sizes and designs for four weeks, then cut them all in half diagonally and joined a light half with a dark half to produce a whole new set of blocks. The blocks ranged in size from 3.5" up to 7.25", increasing in 1/4" increments. Here are my blocks before the background/sashing was added.

Choosing a quilting design for this quilt was difficult, but I went with a modern-looking design of interlocking boxes. I believe it is called Square Dance. Unfortunately, the pollen outside is so nasty that all my photos had to be taken indoors.

I found the perfect fabric for the quilt back, with spots of pink, orange, yellow and light blue on navy. I might need to order some more of this fabric for the background of a future quilt.

If you are interested in seeing other versions of the Lighthouse Inn Mystery Quilt, you can check them out at the Lighthouse Inn Virtual Exhibition page at Modern Quilt Studio. Their mysteries are always fun and challenging. I'm so glad to have finished my version on Lighthouse Inn, and it is currently hanging in a prominent spot in our house.

Linking up with:

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Monday Musings at Songbird Designs

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

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