Karma Four-Patch Top is Done!

There was a new project that I shared a few weeks ago, the Karma 4-patch blocks made from a prize won at the guild auction. Those blocks have now been joined into a finished quilt top!

Karma 4-Patch, 45.5" x 55.25"

Most of the fabrics used in this quilt were from the line "Karma" by Benartex, and they have a definite 1970's feel. It's a crazy mix of designs and colors that I tried to lay out in a somewhat cohesive manner by running matching blocks in diagonal lines. Leftover fabric strips were added as borders to finish the whole thing off. Here's a closer look at some of the fabrics.

Linking up with:

 Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts 

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Design Wall Monday 9/19/2022

Saturday was one of those days taken over by the need to work on a specific quilt project. I even warned Ed at the beginning of the day that I didn't intend to cook that day. Fortunately, he took care of making dinner!

That day was also "National Sew a Jelly Roll Day." One of my prizes from the guild auction a couple days earlier was a pile of 4-patch blocks plus additional jelly roll strips to make more. These were what filled up my day.

All of the precut strips are from the fabric line "Karma" by Benartex. I have no idea how long ago the line was made. There are also some fabrics that were not part of the line included in the blocks. The 4-patch blocks are sorted into matching stacks of blocks, with each pile holding 15-16 blocks, with a total of about 80.

I couldn't figure out a layout that worked for me with the blocks as they were made. I ended up taking all the 4P blocks apart, separating each block into two halves. Then I rejoined two matching halves into blocks. For instance, this set of 16 matching blocks...

turned into two sets like these, 8 of each.

I made more blocks from the extra jelly roll strips, plus occasional additions from my stash, until I ended up with 120 blocks total. They were placed on the design wall in diagonal chains of matching blocks. This is what was up on the wall at the end of the day.

Karma 4-patch blocks

Do I love it? Well, not really. It's awfully busy for my taste, and I wish those diagonal lines of the darkest blue were more evenly spaced. The bold prints in many of the fabrics remind me of fabrics from the 1970's, a time that I remember but don't feel the need to relive the styles. Ed referred to it as a "hot mess," and I couldn't disagree with him. 

Despite all that, it was a fun day with an interesting challenge in trying to make all those crazy fabrics work together. I'm not sure I succeeded, but I enjoyed the process. When the blocks get joined together, they will make a small quilt that measures 40" x 48".

Check out what other quilters are working on this week at Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Stash Report & Stitching Time 9/18/2022

There are all sorts of changes to tally up in the stash report this week. This may be the biggest total numbers for both additions and usage/outgoing in the same week that I've ever recorded. Here's the list:

Snail's Trail--border & binding  .375 yards used

Square Dance baby quilt--back and binding  1.875 yards used

Spinning Boxes quilt--border  .75 yards used

Donated to guild auction  12.25 yards out

Won at guild auction  4 yards added

Connecting Threads order  15 yards added

One of the guilds that I've joined this year does an annual auction as a fundraiser (although I would probably call it a raffle, because you don't actually bid on items.) Members donate quilting/sewing related items which are laid out on long tables with brown paper bags taped to the tables next to each item. We buy tickets and place them in the bags for the items we wish to win. Here are some of the items I donated.

"Holiday Homies" by Tula Pink--these were all fabrics I had won in a couple of different giveaways several years ago. There's a jelly roll, a layer cake and one piece of yardage. They didn't feel like anything I was likely to ever use.

16 pink and brown fat quarters, cut from my stash. These are fabrics I do like and intend to use again, but I had a big stack of them and it felt good to share them with someone else.

There were plenty of fabric bundles that I tried to win, but only a few came home with me. I did get these three Santa/Christmas panels.

This grouping contained 80 four-patch blocks, which I sorted into matching piles, plus 17 extra jelly roll strips.

Here's the one that left me wondering "Why did I try to win this item?" It's a shoebox-sized bin, plus another container, of triangle cut-offs. They are all neatly matched up in pairs, print and background. There must be hundreds, maybe thousands of them!

I also won a Quiltworx pattern and a couple of books. The prize I was most excited about is this saddle-style chair. I'm hoping it will work for me at my new machine.

To top off all the additions to the stash, my order from the Labor Day sale at Connecting Threads arrived. There are two wide backings at the top, 4 yards of solid white, plus a favorite turquoise print.

2022 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:            15.25 yards

Used year to date:     109.125 yards

Added last week:            19.0 yards

Added year to date:     105.25 yards

Net used in 2022       3.875 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 stitching time. Kate hasn't been able to blog lately because of computer issues, but I'm going to continue posting my numbers here. I didn't do much free-motion quilting this week, but I did finish one quilt plus two quilt tops!

15 Minute Challenge for 2022: 

9/11 - 9/17           7 of 7 days

2022 Total      255 of 260 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