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

2026 Temperature Quilt, Version 2

Back in January I shared a post about my plans for a 2026 Temperature Quilt. I had such a good time making my 2025 Temperature Quilt that I was eager to start a new one. I decided at that time to keep it easy and started to piece a Herringbone Quilt. This section represents the highs and lows for the first 9 days of 2026.

Well, that plan didn't last long. Just a day or two after that blog post, I was talking to my sister Karen, who is also a quilter. She was considering making a temperature quilt, and we discovered that we were both very intrigued by a design by Jo Avery. The next photo is Jo's 2022 Sea Urchin temperature quilt.

I discovered that Jo teaches an online workshop that includes the Sea Urchin design, her Supernova class at The Thread House Academy. We both got signed up for the class and began our separate versions of this amazing quilt.

I'm using most of the same fabrics for my Sea Urchin quilt as last year's temperature quilt which are  Glaze and Glaze II by Libs Elliott for Andover Fabrics. Here's my color palette for the 2026 quilt. The hot pink diamond at the bottom center represents the hottest temps, over 100 degrees, and they go down in increments of 3 degrees, with the grey for the lowest temps. The black solid will be my background.

Jo's method for making this design involves drawing it out on light-weight non-fusible interfacing, which becomes the foundation for the piecing and is not removed from the blocks. The fact that the shapes are a little wonky and vary in size makes it easier to deal with the fact that the  number of days varies from month to month. Here is the pieced area of my January block from both the right and wrong sides.

The last steps for finishing the January block were adding the black background around the outside and at the center. I machine pieced the outer background to the foundation-pieced section, then hand appliqued the center. 

This is my block for January, 2026. The tiny safety pin in the top  segment marks January 1st, and the days move clockwise around the block. The outer wedges represent the daily high temperatures, and the inner wedges are the lows.

I have the foundation piecing done for the February block and need to get the four quadrants of it joined together before I can add the background. Karen and I are going to get together this weekend, and I can't wait to see how different our blocks look. My block represents the temperatures for the Atlanta airport, our nearest weather station, and hers will be for Madison, WI. We are not using the same fabrics, but our colors are similar.

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

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Another UFO Finished!

The assigned number for the next UFO to be finished as part of our guild challenge was #5. As I'd hoped, it was a quick finish for me because my #5 project was a small quilt top that needed to be quilted and bound. This is my finished Square Dance quilt.

Square Dance quilt

40" x 52"

The blocks for this quilt were made as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge throughout 2020. The Square Dance pattern was the Stashbuster Challenge Block at Border Creek Station that year. Each block is basically a Double Four-Patch, with the black squares forming a diagonal chain through the block. 

I made about 30 blocks each month using the assigned color of the month along with the next color of the rainbow progression. By the end of the year, I had the blocks all joined together into two small quilt tops that measured 40" x 60" each. 

I could have joined the two small tops into a throw-sized quilt, but decided they would be more useful as baby/kid quilts. The first quilt was finished in the fall of 2022, and now I've finally finished the second quilt. I removed two rows of blocks before quilting, taking the size down to 40" x 52". I used one of my favorite flannel prints for the back, and quilted wavy lines through the chains of black squares. A black binding was added, and this UFO was finished!

I'm 2 for 2 on the UFO challenge so far this year, mostly because the first two projects assigned were easy ones. I've got my fingers crossed that my success rate continues for the rest of the year.

I'm  linking up with:

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

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

 Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Herringbone Quilt Finished!

It has taken longer than I'd hoped, but I finally have my first finished quilt of 2026! This is my Herringbone baby quilt.

Herringbone baby quilt

38.5" x 45"

For the second year in a row, our quilt guild is having a UFO (UnFinished Object) Challenge. Last year we could work on whichever project(s) we chose each month, but this year we each turned in a numbered list, and a number is assigned as the project to be finished by the next meeting. I was very happy when #8 was pulled at the January meeting, because I've been eager to finish this little quilt.

Herringbone quilt center before borders

The center of my quilt was assembled in July of 2024 as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Our color of the month was aqua, and I decided to pull out all of my scraps in the blue-green family, aqua, teal, and turquoise, plus some accents of lime green. These are my favorite colors for quilting, and my stash reflects that preference. My pattern was inspired by the design on a box of Kleenex!

My UFO goal for this year was to add a border to the quilt center, then get it quilted and bound, and those steps have all been done. I'm happy with the way the border mimics the angles of the quilt center, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well the mitered corners turned out.

Making scrappy quilts like this one is always a wonderful trip down memory lane as I revisit my fabric scraps. This quilt has some fabrics that date back to my early days of quilting in the late 1990's, and they look great next to more modern fabrics.

I almost forgot to include a photo of the back. I love these beautiful prints, but wasn't having much luck finding a way to use them in a quilt top. They worked out perfectly for the back of the Herringbone quilt.

The quilting is very simple, with stitch-in-the-ditch in white along the seams of the quilt center. For the border, I decided to practice free-motion quilting straight lines along the seams with a ruler in order to avoid the constant turning that would have been necessary otherwise. They're not all perfectly straight, but I did get much more comfortable with the ruler by the end.

I'll be taking this quilt to share at the guild meeting today, which is also when we will find out the number for our next UFO project. I hope it's another small quilt, because the next month is going to be a busy one.

I'm  linking up with:

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

 Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Baby Trip Around the World

Much of my recent quilting time has been focused on prepping quilt tops and backs to have them long-arm quilted. In between doing that, I've become a little fixated on the Trip Around the World design. I started with a mini quilt top made as a sample for an extra-long twin version that I will be making for our guild's Community Service project. I wanted to try out the pattern one more time before starting the bed-sized quilt, which led to this sweet blue and yellow baby quilt top.

Trip Around the World baby quilt

39.75" x 51.5"

My original fabric pull for this quilt included one different fabric, but it was just too blah with the rest, and I swapped it out for the light blue check.

Original fabrics

Final fabrics

Now I'm ready to get started on the long twin version of this pattern. For our guild workday last week, we concentrated on pulling fabrics and cutting kits from an enormous stash that had been donated to the guild. These are the fabrics I selected for the quilt I will make.

I'm  linking up with:

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

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Trip Around the World Mini

Our quilt guild has taken on a new Community Service project this year. We are planning to make extra-long twin quilts for a children's home. The quilts need to be gender neutral and not too childish because the residents range in age from early teens up to 21.

In looking at many design options, I realized that I have never made a bed-sized Trip Around the World quilt. I figured out how to make one that would end up the right size, and I checked out a variety of patterns and tutorials. My favorite technique is Bonnie Hunter's, which is available as a free pattern.

In case there were others in the guild who wanted to try the same pattern, I decided to make a miniature version as a test sample. My plan for the twin version would use squares that finish at either 4.5" or 5". Squares in this mini quilt top are 1" finished.

Trip Around the World mini

13.5" x 19.5"

I still need to figure out the total amount of yardage I will need for a twin version, and I might work up a couple of diagrams for others to follow if they want to try the same design. We have a group prep/cutting day planned for next week, so it's time for me to get ready for that.

I'm  linking up with:

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

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Improv Alphabet Quilt Top Finished!

The holiday season has seemed even busier than usual this year, which has really limited my time in the sewing room. For the past month, almost all of my quilting time has been focused on a single project, and now my Improv Alphabet quilt top is complete!

Improv Alphabet, 53.25" x 55.75"

My alphabet quilt was started in a workshop called "Outspoken" with Elaine Poplin of Huntsville, AL. We learned Elaine's techniques for making scrappy improv letters. Below is one of Elaine's quilts that includes letters.

Be Strong by Elaine Poplin

Some people were making letters for specific phrases, but I decided to make the whole alphabet, using bright colors on a background of scrappy black and dark grey fabrics. I added chunks of bright-on-black prints for the outer border to finish it off.

This is probably my last finish for 2025, but who knows what I might get done between now and the end of the year. I've been thinking about quilting plans for the new year, including UFOs for our guild challenge and which quilts I hope to finish for an upcoming show. There's always plenty to keep me busy around here.

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

Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy

 Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. 

Happy holidays and happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

A New Project--Improv Alphabet

The last thing I need right now is to start a new quilting project, especially with the busy holiday season upon us, but that's exactly what I did recently. Our November guild meeting featured a presentation by Elaine Poplin of Huntsville, AL, who shared many quilts she has made, including her inspiration and design process. Here are photos of a couple of her beautiful quilts with amazing quilting on them. You also get to see Elaine in a great jacket made from a pattern she designed. See more at her website HERE. 

Elaine Poplin

The next day was our "Outspoken" workshop with Elaine, where we gathered to learn her methods for making scrappy improv letters. 

Be Strong by Elaine Poplin

Elaine had samples of a full set of letters, numbers, and symbols up on the wall for us to study. We started with an easy one, a capital "E", to learn the basics, then continued from there. Here's what I had completed by the end of the day.

Some people were making letters for specific phrases, but I decided to shoot for making the whole alphabet, and I might make numbers as well at the end. The blocks will get joined together into horizontal rows, and some will need background added to get them up to size, like that small "w" needs an addition at the top to make it tall enough. 

As you can see, I'm using bright colors on scrappy black and dark grey backgrounds. The colors for my letters made in the class were chosen randomly from the scraps I had brought with me. After I got home, I wrote out the whole alphabet and assigned a color to each letter in order to get a fairly even distribution of the colors. Getting ready for Thanksgiving limited my quilting time, but I was able to complete one short phrase that seems appropriate this week. 

I was able to spend most of Black Friday in the sewing room, and I am very thankful for that. Here's where I am on my alphabet after my marathon of scrappy stitching. I count 26 letters done, which means I'm halfway there!

I'm currently working my way through each color separately (i.e. making all the red letters at the same time before moving on to another color.) That approach seems to make the process a little more efficient. I'm having a great time digging through my bags and bins of scraps to find pieces that will work together. These orange letters are nearly done, just needing some background added around them, then I can move on to another color today.

I'm  linking up with:

Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy

 Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. 

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

Daisy Placemats

The placemat production continues, but this set of placemats will be staying here with us instead of being donated to Meals on Wheels. These are my finished daisy placemats!

The border-stripe fabric came from a guild auction a couple years ago. I had already made a tablerunner from the same fabric and six napkins from a coordinating print earlier this year.

I didn't have enough of the same daisy print for the placemat backs, so I used some bold black and white prints there. We won't have any daisies blooming around here again until next summer, but these placemats will be waiting to brighten up our dining table.

Here's what we can look forward to in our front yard again next summer.

Linking up with:

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA