Curves in Quilts = A New Project

The program for last week's guild meeting was "Tackling Curves in Quilts" presented by Mary Ruth Hudson. She shared a great variety of different designs that all featured curves. The next day, she taught a workshop with the Blue Onion pattern by Karla Alexander of Saginaw Street Quilts.

Blue Onion pattern by Karla Alexander of Saginaw Street Quilts

That pattern might look familiar to anyone who has been reading my blog for awhile. I made the Blue Onion pattern back in 2021, renaming my version "Blooming Onion," and it is still a favorite of mine. I really need to get this one quilted and finished!

Blooming Onion quilt top, 60.5" x 80.5"

There were a few reasons that I took the workshop even though I had already made this design before. One was the fun of enjoying a sewing day with guild friends and learning some new tricks from an excellent teacher. Another was the fact that the class fee included the ruler that the Blue Onion pattern was designed to use. (The pattern does include instructions for cutting the pieces without the ruler, and that is how I made my earlier version.

Ovals All Ways ruler by Creative Grids

I didn't choose any fabrics for this project until two days before the class. My plan was to make a smaller version of the pattern, and I knew I could pull enough fabrics from my stash. I started with these three coordinating prints that I've had in my stash since around 1999, then pulled other fabrics to go with them.

We had a great time in class, and most of us got at least six blocks made. As expected, I did learn some new tricks from Mary Ruth, and I continued making more blocks after I got home on Friday and through the weekend. I still have one more set of six blocks to finish piecing. I've started playing with possible layouts. 

This is going to be an extremely bright quilt! My plan is to use 20 blocks for the quilt top, which should finish at 40" x 50". I hope to get the last group of blocks made today, and maybe even get them all joined together into a quilt top too. 

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

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 10/5/2025

It seems like I should have more to share for the stash report this week, but it just wasn't a very productive week. Maybe next week will be better. I can report 1.75 yards used for the pieces I made in the Drafting Complex Curves class with Audrey Esarey a week ago (read more about that HERE.) No new fabric was added to the stash this week.

Exploring Complex Curves, 24.5" square

I've been looking back at my yearly stash totals from previous years, and I'm not happy to see how far I am lagging behind on usage for this year. I've been finishing more quilts than usual this year, which is a very good thing, but several of them were tops that were already pieced and the fabrics used had been counted in earlier stash reports. Maybe there will be some more finishes before the end of the year that use up a significant amount of yardage. 

2025 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 1.75 yards

Used year to date:             52.0 yards

Added last week:                 0.0 yards

Added year to date:        62.375 yards

Net added in 2025:    10.375 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. There were a couple of days this past week with very little time for quilting, but I did squeeze in at least 15 minutes each day. Next week is looking quieter, and I'm hoping there will be a day or two that I can devote to quilting.

15 Minute Challenge for 2025

9/28 - 10/4              7 of 7 days

2025 Total         274 of 277 days

Success rate               98.9 %   

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

Design Wall Monday 9/29/2025

There is a brand new project up on my design wall this week! This is my Exploring Complex Curves quilt top. I think it looks like planets and the moon in the night sky.

Exploring Complex Curves, 24.5" square

I'm not terribly up to date on what's happening in the modern quilt world, but I did go to QuiltCon when it was here in Atlanta in 2023, and that's when I first saw some of Audrey Esarey's works. Let me tell you, they knocked me out! My favorite was her quilt Aura No.1, which took 1st place in the Minimalist Design category. 

Aura No.1, 2022 by Audrey Esarey

The simplicity of this quilt blew my mind. Audrey explained in her presentation to the guild that there are only two seams in this quilt, one on each side of the light blue ring which is pieced, not appliqued, to the purple background. It looks like the background is four squares pieced together, but it is actually a single piece of fabric, and the different colors of her quilting stitching are what make the color change. You can see many more of her amazing quilts on the gallery page of her website Cotton and Bourbon.

I had the very good fortune to get a spot in one of Audrey's workshops over the weekend. Our class was called Drafting Complex Curves. We learned how to draft our own patterns with curves, followed by some piecing of curves. We began by drafting a Drunkard's Path block, and then we pieced that block in fabric. No more need to buy acrylic templates for this kind of block.

Drunkard's Path block, 6.5" square

The next exercise was making a larger piece with curves. We had the choice of doing the Quick Curves exercise... 

Quick Curves exercise, 13" x 17"

or we could start with the larger Exploring Complex Curves piece. Since I already had a fair amount of experience with sewing curves, I dove right into the larger project, which is the piece shown at the top of this post. I made the Quick Curves block the next day, and added borders to get it to the right size for a placemat.

Here are all three of my pieces together.

The workshop was very informative and a lot of fun. Audrey is an excellent teacher who really makes both the drafting and the piecing part of dealing with curves manageable. I hope to be able to take more classes with her in the future. She has a wide variety of quilt patterns available on her website Cotton and Bourbon, and she teaches some of her patterns as virtual classes. I urge you to check out her amazing quilts!

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 

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

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