First Finished Quilt of 2024

One of my biggest quilting goals for 2024 is to finish more quilts. Finishing has been my least favorite part of quilting ever since I started, but the number of unquilted tops hanging around in my sewing room closets has gotten ridiculous! I'm afraid to count how many there are, so it's time to get some of them finished.

The first quilt to be finished for 2024 is the Charm 9-Patch quilt. This quilt started as a set of 9-patch blocks made from charm squares by one or more members of our quilt guild. The guild president had made up several kits of these type of blocks and handed them out at a meeting last April with the challenge to bring back a finished quilt the next month. It took me several months longer, but it's finally done!

Charm 9-Patch quilt, 37.5" x 49.5" after washing

This was my favorite block in the quilt top. The sizes of the blocks tended to vary, and they all got trimmed down to the same measurement before they were joined together.

When I first received the blocks, I considered adding sashing in between to give the blocks a little separation, but I realized that joining them without sashing would produce a top that would fit on a backing made from a single width of fabric. I chose a well-aged Hawaiian print for the back and binding.

Here's a closer look at the backing fabric, and you can also see the meander quilting done in light blue.

This quilt will be donated back to the quilt guild for one of our community service partners. It feels great to have a finish, and I hope it's the first of many quilts to be completed this year.

Linking up with:

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

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (TGIFF) at Devoted Quilter

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 6/11/2023

My sewing room has been a very busy place this week. One big project that got finished was the piecing for the quilt backing I made as part of the blog hop for Kelly Young's upcoming book Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs. I can't show you my finished quilt back yet, but here's a look at my fabrics.

I also finished adding the borders to the Stars Galore quilt top that I shared in last week's post, but I haven't taken any photos of the completed top yet. I do have this photo of a smaller quilt top made from charm squares.

Charm 9-Patch top, 40.5" x 54"

This top started as a group of 9-patch blocks that I received as part of a guild challenge. My original plan was to add sashing to the blocks, (see that plan HERE.) However, I decided to omit the sashing in order to end up with a quilt top that will fit on a single width of backing fabric. Now I just need to get it layered and quilted. 

My main project for the last couple of days has been washing and pressing my collection of solid fat quarters. All through 2022, I belonged to the solids club at Fat Quarter Shop. Each month I received a packet with 12 FQs of solids, with the colors based on that month's birthstone. 12 months of 12 FQs adds up to 144 pieces of fabric, all sitting together in a bin. This week I decided it was time to do something with them! I washed them in groups of light, medium, or dark, and have been trimming off the frayed edges and pressing them up. This is the result.

I'm planning to use some of these in a new mystery project. I hope to finalize my color palette today, then start cutting and piecing blocks.

For the second week in a row, the stash report doesn't show any changes over the past week. The fabrics in the Stars Galore quilt and the Charm 9-Patch didn't come from my stash, and none of my other projects are ready to be counted.

2023 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                          0.0 yards

Used year to date:                 46.625 yards

Added last week:                         0.0 yards

Added year to date:                49.625 yards

Net stashed in 2023                 3.0 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 definitely got well over 15 minutes every day this week!

15 Minute Challenge for 2023: 

6/4 - 6/10             7 of 7 days

2023 Total      151 of 161 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