Stash Report and Stitching Time 11/17/2024

My sewing room has turned into a placemat factory lately, and I have been happily making more and more of them. Our guild collects placemats throughout the year for donation to Meals on Wheels, but the main push is before the holidays when they distribute new placemats to all of their clients. The latest group to be finished were made from some orphan Dresden Star blocks.

These blocks were leftover from my Dresden Star quilt which was started in a class with Edyta Sitar in 2013. The original pattern was for a quilt with eight blocks, but I ended up using only five of them in my quilt, finished in 2020. The Dresden Star pattern is still available at Laundry Basket Quilts.

Dresden Star quilt, 50" x 50"

Besides the fabric used for the side borders and backing on the Dresden placemats, my other usage for the week went toward my RSC Hen & Chicks Sampler blocks, which were shared HERE. The total fabric used for the week was 1-3/8 yards, and no new fabric was added to the stash.

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                  1.375 yards

Used year to date:             124.25 yards

Added last week:                     0.0 yards

Added year to date:           104.75 yards

Net used in 2024:              19.5 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 have another big group of placemats that I've been finishing, with the goal of turning them in at our guild meeting on Thursday. That has meant plenty of quilting time every day over the past week.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024

11/10 - 11/16            7 of 7 days

2024 Total          316 of 321 days

Success rate               98.44 %   

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

Best of 2020

Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs is hosting the Best of 2020 blog party, the fifth year for this event. She is offering the opportunity to link up our five "best" posts from the past year. We get to decide how we choose those posts, but I'm going to follow her suggestions.

1. Post with the most views:  Star Cluster Baby Quilts

I made quilts for the two newest additions to the family over the summer, and this post got the most views by far in 2020. We haven't been able to travel and meet the new babies yet, but it's great to see both enjoying their quilts!

2. Post with the most comments: Orange Peel Rainbow

Orange Peel Rainbow, 36.5" x 48.5"

The Orange Peel blocks were my hand-stitching project for over a year and a half as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I got them all joined together into this small quilt top in August.

3. Post that provoked the best discussion: Scrappy Bear Paws Setting

The above photo shows my Scrappy Bear Paw blocks on the wall with scrappy setting triangle fabrics, an idea that ended up being rejected. Here's a photo of the finished quilt top.

Scrappy Bear Paws, 47.75" x 68.75"

4. Post showing your favorite 2020 finish: Dresden Stars

Dresden Stars, 50" x 50"

Besides the two baby quilts, this was one of the few quilts to get completely finished this year. It felt great to get this long-time UFO, which was started in 2013,  done and hanging in our living room.

5. Post that is a personal favorite: 2020 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Wrap-Up

My final Rainbow Scrap Challenge post of the year shared all four of the rainbow projects that became finished tops by the end of 2020. Besides the Orange Peel Rainbow and the Scrappy Bear Paws shown above, it also included my Scrap Snap quilt, Rainbow Cascade, and my two RSC Square Dance tops.

Rainbow Cascade, 60.5" x 72.5"

RSC Square Dance tops, each 40" x 60"

Despite all the challenges of this very strange year, I'm happy with the progress I made on my quilting projects for 2020, and I look forward to continuing in 2021. Thanks to Cheryl for giving us all the opportunity to share our favorites from the past year. I'm linking up with her "Best of 2020" blog party.

Happy quilting and Happy New Year!

Julie in GA

Dresden Stars quilt finished!

For a couple of weeks now, I've been promising to share my finished Dresden Stars quilt, and today is finally the day! Warning, there are lots of photos in this post.

My Dresden Stars quilt was started in a class with Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts in June, 2013. It was a great class, and she was an absolutely delightful teacher with many wonderful quilts to show us. This is the picture of her pattern with a link to the website.

Dresden Star pattern from Laundry Basket Quilts

I made eight blocks as shown in the pattern, but decided to use only five to make a wallhanging for a specific spot in our living room. My quilt finished at about 50" square.

In finishing this quilt, I used techniques similar to those in Marti Michell's book Machine Quilting in Sections. The book is available from her website or at many online sources. She also had (has?) a Craftsy class on this topic.

The idea is that it is easier to machine quilt on a domestic machine if you aren't wrestling the entire quilt through the machine at once. The book presents different methods for quilting in sections and then joining those sections together. I adapted/combined a couple of her techniques in the finishing of my quilt. I always struggle with machine quilting, and doing it in smaller portions did make things easier for me. 

The center of my quilt was divided diagonally into three sections of blocks, sashing and setting triangles. I laid them out with the batting and backing fabric, including extra on the sides where the borders would be added later. Here are two of the sections laying on the backing fabric with the extra batting showing at the top and right edges.

The separate sections got quilted in the blocks and the setting triangles before they were joined together. I stitched in the ditch around the Dresdens, then echo quilted around them. There's also a couple lines of stitching around the center circles.

After that quilting was done, it was time to join the sections together. The next photos show two sections joined with a contrast strip on the backing side to cover the seams.

After all three sections were joined together, it was time to add the borders. There is a narrow dark gold inner border, and the outer border is a floral print on a deep blue background. The fabrics for the sashing, setting triangles, and borders all came out of my stash.

It was very difficult to get any good photos of the quilting in the borders. I used the floral print as my guide, free motion quilting around the outlines of all of the flowers. You can't tell from this photo, but my stitching was done in red thread.

The crazy backing fabric just makes me smile! I have no idea when or where I got this, but I'm so glad it was waiting in my stash. 

It feels great to have a finish, especially to get an old UFO completed. It is such an unusual combination of fabrics, with many batiks in the Dresdens, an Asian style print in the setting triangles, and a folk art floral for the outer border. Somehow, they all work well together. I'm happy with the results, and best of all, Ed likes it too! This quilt looks great hanging opposite the front door in our living room, greeting us each time we enter!

FYI--it's time for the Fall 2020 Quilty Orphan Adoption Event  hosted by Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework. You can join in and get rid of some UFO's that no longer excite you, or you can enter the giveaways to win other people's UFO's. I have three "orphans" up for adoption there--go ahead and check them out!

Linking up with:

Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Tuesday To-Do List 9/1/2020

September is here, schools are back in session (in one way or another), and it is time once again for the To-Do Tuesday Weekly Progress Update and Link-up hosted by Roseanne and Sue at Home Sewn By Us. I finished two of my goals from last week, and the third took a turn in the other direction.

To-do list for 8/25 - 8/31:

1. Orange Peels--finish joining blocks together                     ✔ done

This was the top priority for the week, and it happened right away. I have a finished quilt top and am thrilled with how it turned out! I've been sharing this photo all over the place, but here it is one last time. You can read more about this quilt HERE.

Orange Peel Rainbow, 36.5" x 48.5"

2. Dresden Stars--start quilting borders                               ✔ done

The borders are completely quilted, but that left the setting and corner triangles looking too poofy and full. I've added more quilting in those areas, which should help even things out. I'm not sure yet if it was enough; I might need to do even more quilting.

Borders quilted, setting triangles need more

Additional quilting added to setting triangles

3. Continue cleaning up the sewing room (the never-ending goal!)

The cleaning of the sewing room took a u-turn this week because I had to pack up all of my belongings/books/tools at work and bring them home. This was my first opportunity to do so since the building closed for the pandemic. It means I have to find places to put even more things, many of them in the sewing room.

To-do list for 9/1 - 9/7/2020

1. Orange Peel quilt--prepare for quilting

2. Dresden Stars--apply binding, wash and block to straighten/flatten out

3. RSC Square Dance--make 8 red/orange blocks

4. Sewing room cleaning--sort through the boxes I brought home from work

That should be more than enough 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 8/31/2020

I finished joining together the rest of my Orange Peel blocks last week (you can see the finished quilt top HERE), then spent most of the remaining time in the sewing room quilting the borders on my Dresden Stars quilt. After the borders were all quilted, I lay the quilt out on a big table and made a sad discovery.

The borders and the blocks all lay nice and flat, but the setting triangles are too poofy (a very technical term!) You can especially see the fullness in the upper left triangles. I've already started adding more quilting to those areas and hope it helps smooth out the extra fullness. Fingers crossed!

Linking up with:
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Tuesday To-Do List 8/25/2020

Another week is gone, which means it is time once again for the To-Do Tuesday Weekly Progress Update and Link-up hosted by Roseanne and Sue at Home Sewn By Us. I made progress on all of my projects, which feels good, even though I didn't finish every goal on last week's list.

To-do list for 8/18 - 8/24:

1. Orange Peels--applique last 4 blocks, begin joining blocks together   ✔ done

I made my first hand-appliqued Orange Peel blocks in December, 2018, and the final blocks were stitched last week. I have started joining them together and have two quarters of the quilt done. You can see the first quarter in yesterday's post, and here is the upper left quarter of the quilt.

2. RSC Square Dance--make 8 more purple/pink blocks                       ✔ done

I ended up making 16 more purple and pink Square Dance blocks, finishing off what I needed for August. You can see all 32 blocks in Saturday's post.

3. Dresden Stars--attach borders and begin quilting them       progress

I got the borders stitched to the center of the quilt, but haven't started quilting them yet. I'm pleasantly surprised that they lay fairly flat and hope that continues to be true once they are quilted.

       

4. Scrappy Bear's Paw--make 1 purple block                                 ✔ done

No photos of this block yet.

5. Cleaning/organization--start going through UFOs                       ✔ done

I spent large parts of two days sorting through my many UFOs. Some were set aside to be given away in the near future, and the fabrics from others were put back into the fabric stash. Now I need to get busy finishing some of the rest!

My main project for the week ahead will be to finish the Orange Peel quilt top.

To-do list for 8/25 - 8/31:

1. Orange Peels--finish joining blocks together

2. Dresden Stars--start quilting borders

3. Continue cleaning up the sewing room (the never-ending goal!)

That should 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

Tuesday To-Do List 8/18/2020

It is time once again for the To-Do Tuesday Weekly Progress Update and Link-up hosted by Roseanne and Sue at Home Sewn By Us. I got a little bit obsessed with one project, but still managed to get through my whole list from last week

To-do list for 8/11 - 8/17:

1. Dresden Stars--continue assembly         ✔ done

The center section of the quilt is all quilted and joined together. The next step is to add the borders, then quilt them.

2. Orange Peel--applique 5 more blocks      ✔ done (+ 2 extra)

3. RSC Square Dance--make 8 more purple/pink blocks   ✔ done

4. Cleaning/organization     ✔ done

I sorted through my collection of English Paper Piecing supplies and put away fabrics and scraps from past EPP projects.

The focus for the next week will be the Orange Peel quilt. There are only a few more blocks to make, then I can begin assembly.

To-do list for 8/18 - 8/24:

1. Orange Peels--applique last 4 blocks, begin joining blocks together

2. RSC Square Dance--make 8 more purple/pink blocks

3. Dresden Stars--attach borders and begin quilting them

4. Scrappy Bear's Paw--make 1 purple block

5. Cleaning/organization--start going through UFOs

That should 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 8/17/2020

One design wall is completely covered will Orange Peel blocks waiting for the last few blocks to be appliqued, then they can all get stitched together. The project on the other design wall is my Dresden Stars quilt, which is slowly getting it's parts assembled. I attached the second corner a few days ago, so now the center is all together and quilted.

The border areas are a little wavy, but I think that's because the center is all quilted and the borders are not. I'm hoping it will smooth out once I attach the border fabrics and quilt them down. There will be a narrow border of the dark gold that is shown along the left side, plus a wide border of a deep blue print. Wish me luck getting them to the right size and laying flat!

Linking up with:
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Tuesday To-Do List 8/11/2020

It is time once again for the To-Do Tuesday Weekly Progress Update and Link-up hosted by Roseanne at Home Sewn By Us. I got through my entire list last week and am motivated to do the same again this week!

To-do list for 8/4 - 8/10:

1. Dresden Stars--begin joining sections together             ✔ done

The long center diagonal section was joined to one of the corner sections. The red diagonal stripe on the backing covers up the joining seam.

2. Orange Peels--hand applique at least four blocks          ✔ done (plus one extra)

3. RSC Square Dance--make 8 purple/pink blocks            ✔ done

4. Cleaning/organization--go through drawers under ironing board      ✔ done

One of the top drawers holds CD's, but the rest all have quilting supplies. The other top drawer was crammed full of pens and pencils, markers, crayons, colored pencils, etc., plus a few drawing/drafting tools like compasses and protractors. Here's the collection spread out on the ironing board, then neatly arranged in the drawer after getting rid of some and relocating others.

The next drawer held an assortment of many types of pins, plus a few other things that didn't need to stay there. The pins have been sorted out, and I haven't yet figured out what will end up in the left side of this drawer. The only things there now are some sheets of tracing/transfer paper.

The bottom drawer has all sorts of threads, and these aren't even the ones I use regularly for piecing. There are heavy-weight threads, invisible, metallics, rayon, and some cotton threads that I keep in case I need a specific color. There are also some machine attachments in the back corner. 

This is my ironing station after cleaning up. I even washed the fabric covering the ironing board. Someday I hope to convert this to a "Big Board" type top that can sit on the dresser as a larger ironing surface.

The goals for next week are mostly continuations of the last week.

To-do list for 8/11 - 8/17:

1. Dresden Stars--continue assembly

2. Orange Peel--applique 5 more blocks

3. RSC Square Dance--make 8 more purple/pink blocks

4. Cleaning/organization--I haven't decided what to do next, but I'll find something!

That should 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

Tuesday To-Do List 8/4/2020

Once again, I am joining the To-Do Tuesday Weekly Progress Update and Link-up hosted by Roseanne at Home Sewn By Us. Last week was a productive one, although I did not complete all three of my goals for the week

To-do list for 7/28 - 8/3:

1.  Dresden Stars--continue quilting, begin joining sections      progress

2.  Orange Peel--choose fabrics for the last group of blocks      ✔ done

3.  Cleaning/organization--go through closet #2                      ✔ done

On the Dresden Stars quilt, I did the free-motion quilting in the setting and corner triangles, but have not started joining sections together. Here are photos of the quilting in a side triangle. The first shot is from the top where the quilting doesn't really show very well against the busy print fabric, and the other is the back side. Isn't that crazy backing fabric great?! Who wouldn't love a fabric with Can-can girls on it?

For the Orange Peels project, I did put all the finished blocks up on the wall over the weekend (check it out in yesterday's post) and chose fabrics for the remaining blocks. At that time there were 3 yellow, 7 blue, and 9 purple blocks still to make, but I have since finished the yellow ones.

As for the sewing room organization, I did go through the second closet, but it doesn't look much different than last week's "before" photo. I also sorted out some boxes of basic sewing notions and reduced my stash of those, plus started looking through old magazines with the plan to scan patterns I want to keep, then get rid of the magazines.

To-do list for 8/4 - 8/10:

1. Dresden Stars--begin joining sections together

2. Orange Peels--hand applique at least four blocks

3. RSC Square Dance--make 8 purple/pink blocks

4. Cleaning/organization--go through ironing cabinet

Here are some of the Orange Peel blocks that I will be stitching. These blocks will finish at 3" square.

That should 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

Tuesday To-Do List 7/28/2020

Once again, I am joining the To-Do Tuesday Weekly Progress Update and Link-up hosted by Roseanne at Home Sewn By Us. It was another good week, with check marks for all three of my goals.

To-do list for 7/21 - 7/27:

1.  Dresden Stars--continue quilting and assembly ✔ done

2.  RSC Square Dance--finish blue/purple blocks    ✔ done

3.  Cleaning/organization--sort/trim triangles         ✔ done

Progress continues on the Dresden Stars quilt. All of the blocks have their echo quilting, and I have also quilted triangle frames in the setting and corner triangles. There will be more quilting inside those frames.

The Square Dance blocks were finished over the weekend, and they can be seen in yesterday's post. My triangle scraps have been trimmed to useful sizes and sorted out. My bonus project was to clean out and reorganize one of the closets in my sewing room. You can see a photo of that in my post from Sunday.

To-do list for 7/28 - 8/3:

1.  Dresden Stars--continue quilting, begin joining sections

2.  Orange Peel--choose fabrics for the last group of blocks

3.  Cleaning/organization--go through closet #2

The second closet in my sewing room is the next planned step in the clean-up. The shelf holds many empty shoe boxes and printer paper box tops (handy for holding project pieces), and who knows what's in the back corners of that shelf. There are some clothes in here because my bedroom closet is too small for them, but 2/3 of the hanging bar holds quilt tops, some of them with their backing and/or batting, and a few are already pinned for quilting or partially quilted. In the bottom are the rolling tote with my featherweight in it, a few boxes of specific types of fabrics like 30's reproductions or recycled shirts, plus other assorted treasures (or trash?)

Getting started on the clean-up has been the hardest part, but once I got going on the first closet, it was very exciting to see it come together. I hope to keep that momentum going for the weeks ahead.

That should 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

Tuesday To-Do List 7/21/2020

Once again, I am joining the To-Do Tuesday Weekly Progress Update and Link-up hosted by Roseanne at Home Sewn By Us. I was successful with last week's list, completing all three of my goals on it.

To-do list for 7/14 - 7/20:

1.  RSC Stashbuster Square Dance--make at least 7 blocks in blue & purple  ✔ done

2.  Dresden Stars--decide on layout/setting, start assembly  ✔ done

3.  Clear away face mask leftovers                                      ✔ done

Most of my time last week was spent on the Dresden Stars quilt. I figured out a plan to join the blocks, sashing and setting triangles into 3 sections with the hope that it will be easier to quilt those smaller units than the whole quilt. You can read and see more about it in yesterday's post.

Here is one of the blocks that has been quilted. I did stitch-in-the-ditch around the Dresden edges and around the center circle, plus another line 1/4" from the edge of the circle. The echo quilting in the background was free-motion quilted. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you might be able to see little blue markings that are there to help keep my quilting evenly spaced. It's not perfect, but I'm okay with how it turned out.

To-do list for 7/21 - 7/27:

1.  Dresden Stars--continue quilting and assembly

2.  RSC Square Dance--finish blue/purple blocks

3.  Cleaning/organization--triangles

I was inspired to do a little cleaning up yesterday, and I'm hoping to keep the motivation going for many weeks to come. My sewing room certainly needs it! Anyway, I trimmed up and put away some piles of scraps from previous projects. My collection of pre-cut squares is now nice and neat. 

I have a small collection of triangles that have been trimmed and sorted by size...

but there are still many more triangles that need to be organized. I'm sure there are stray triangles tucked away in other places around the room too.

That should 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