Quilt Show Results

There have been many times in the past few months when it felt like the only quilt projects I was working on this year were my entries for the Georgia Celebrates Quilt show. Of course, it's not true. I have made other projects this year, but a very large portion of my time has been focused on finishing my quilt show entries. Last week, all of that time and effort was on display at the Georgia Celebrates Quilts show.

Georgia Celebrates Quilts is the largest and most prestigious quilt show in the state, with over 300 quilts on display and more than $4000 in prizes awarded. The show is held every other year, and they always have an incredible display of quilts in a wide range of styles and sizes. 

I was fortunate enough to have three quilts accepted for the show, and I was stunned when all three of them received ribbons. The most exciting of all was the "Best Use of Color" award for my 2025 Temperature Quilt. It was quilted by Kris Townsend Davis.

Rainbow Stairsteps won 2nd Place for Pieced Quilts, 2 Person--Small. It was quilted at Sew Senoia, a local quilt shop.

Sunset at Lighthouse Inn won 2nd Place for Modern Quilts, Large. It was quilted by Kris Townsend Davis.

I am a member of two different local quilt guilds. One is the East Cobb Quilters' Guild, which is the group that presents the quilt show every other year. This guild generally has over 300 members. My other guild is the Common Threads Quilters Guild of Newnan, GA, a much smaller group, usually with 40 - 50 members. There were several quilts in the show made by members of Common Threads. Here are a few of them.

My Texas Neighborhood by Laurie Reissler

What to Do Next by Teresa Smith

Woven Whispers by Sharon Hendrix

Judges' Recognition 

Whimsical Vases by Sharon Hendrix

Honorable Mention, Applique

Sharon also had two other quilts in the show, one of which received a ribbon. It was a very impressive showing for our little guild!

You can see the winning quilts HERE. I'll share more of my favorite quilts from the show another day.

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

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

 Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Sunday Stash and Stitching 4/5/2026

It's finally time for some yardage to be counted in the used column on my Stash Report for the past week. My Lighthouse Inn quilt was finished a couple weeks ago, and I can now report 5.625 yards used for the backing, binding and hanging sleeve. You can read more about this quilt and see additional photos in THIS POST.

Lighthouse Inn, 56.5" x 81"

No fabric was added to the stash last week.

2026 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 5.625 yards

Used year to date:               24.5 yards

Added last week:                   0.0 yards

Added year to date:            43.75 yards

Net added in 2026:         19.25 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 worked on a variety of quilts last week, including piecing the quilt top for a community service project, plus finishing my monthly UFO for our guild challenge.

15 Minute Challenge 2026

3/29 - 4/4               7 of 7 days

2026 Total            93 of 94 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

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

Sunday Stash and Stitching 1/25/2026

Winter Storm Fern reached our area last night, but hasn't caused any serious problems for us so far. The temperature got down to 29 earlier this morning, but the freezing rain had stopped by then. We are hoping the temps start moving up soon and melting the glaze of ice that's out there now. The rain is expected to start up again this afternoon, then colder weather arrives tonight.

For the first time in 2026, there are some changes showing up in my stash report. Unfortunately, the incoming amount far exceeds the outgoing. I have been prepping some quilt tops to have them long-arm quilted, and I decided to get some new wide-back fabrics for them. Here are the new additions.

I got 6 yards of the bright print, planning to use it for my 2025 Temperature Quilt and also for some other rainbow quilts. The dark speckly fabric will be the back of my Lighthouse Inn quilt, which I'm hoping to enter in an upcoming show. The colors in the new fabric are perfect with the quilt top.

Lighthouse Inn quilt top, 57.5" x 82"

Because the fabrics added to the stash were both wide-back fabrics, I counted the 9 yards purchased as 18 yards added, double the amount of a regular 42" width piece.

Fortunately, I finally have some fabric usage to report as well. I used 3/4 yard for the mini Trip Around the World sample that I made (see it HERE.) I also contributed 10 fat quarters to our guild's UFO Challenge prize collection, for a total of 3.25 yards out for the week.

2026 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                    3.25 yards

Used year to date:                3.25 yards

Added last week:                  18.0 yards

Added year to date:              18.0 yards

Net added in 2026:         14.75 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. Not only did I make the mini Trip Around the World sample, but I've been attempting to write up a set of instructions for making a twin-sized version. That's meant far too much time at the computer, but it does force me to use a very different skill set, which is a good thing.

15 Minute Challenge 2026

1/18 - 1/24              7 of 7 days

2026 Total            24 of 24 days

Success rate                100 %   

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 2024--End of Year Review

For the tenth straight year, Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs is hosting the Best of 2024 Linky Party, a chance to link up our top blog posts from the past year. Cheryl suggested some ways to choose our best posts such as most views, most comments, best tutorials, and favorite finishes. I'm going to include several of her suggestions, plus throw in a couple of my own. Each listing has a link back to my original blog post.

1. Most views: Jabberwocky

The blocks for this quilt were made throughout 2023 as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and I got them all joined together in late January, 2024. The block pattern is by Judy Martin in The Block Book. The book is out of print, but you can still find copies online.

Jabberwocky, block pattern by Judy Martin

65" x 76.75"

2a. Most comments: Orange Peel Rainbow

The applique blocks for this quilt were stitched as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge all through 2019 and up to the summer of 2020.  The blocks were joined together in August, 2020. The quilt top waited patiently until spring of 2024, when I added a border, then finished it for entry into a local quilt show. This is also my favorite finished quilt of 2024.

Orange Peel Rainbow

39.5" x 51.5"

3. Favorite mystery: Lighthouse Inn Modern Mystery Quiltalong

This was my second mystery quilt by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr of Modern Quilt Studio, and they are masters at keeping you guessing while you make the blocks. I love the way my colors in this quilt worked together with the navy background, and the gradation of block sizes makes for an intriguing design.

Lighthouse Inn quilt top

57.5" x 82"

4. Favorite self-designed quilt: Herringbone

While cleaning off my cutting table one day in July, I ran across a portion of an old Kleenex box that I had saved as a quilt design inspiration. That led to my making a small, scrappy herringbone quilt from a wide range of turquoise, teal and aqua scraps. I would have made it larger, but ran out of the light contrast fabric.

Herringbone quilt top

33" x 39.5"

I might still add a border to this little quilt top, and I'm also thinking about making it again with the ends of the strips cut at a different angle. This is a design that I can envision making in multiple variations.

5. Project of the year: Placemats Parade

2024 turned out to be the year of the placemat for me. I started out by making placemats for all the different Project Quilting challenges at the beginning of the year. Those were followed by 22 placemats made for our guild's Christmas market, then many others to be donated by the guild to Meals on Wheels. The final total number of placemats made in 2024 came to 80!

Piles of placemats

Those are some of my quilting highlights from the past year. I'm still thinking about plans and goals for 2025, but I'd be willing to bet that placemats will appear again. My top goal is to start fewer new projects and get more of the old ones finished. 

Thanks to Cheryl for giving us all the opportunity to share our favorite posts and projects from the past year. I'm joining up with her "Best of 2024" linky party.

Happy quilting and Happy New Year to all!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 8/25/2024

It's amazing to me that we are starting the last week of August. The days slip by so quickly sometimes, and suddenly it's almost autumn. We've had some beautiful weather this past week, cooler and less humid than usual for August, which has made spending time outdoors much more enjoyable.

That nicer weather also made it possible for me to get some outdoor photos of my latest finished quilt top, the Lighthouse Inn Modern Mystery, designed by Modern Quilt Studio. You can read about my quilt and see several photos in my blog post HERE, but I'm going to repeat one shot because I'm so excited to have this quilt top together.

Lighthouse Inn quilt top

57.5" x 82"

This quilt made a good dent in my solids stash, using a total of 7.25 yards of fabric. The only fabric I had to buy for it was the navy background (and that was counted in a stash report back in June.)

I also used 1.375 yards of scraps to make a set of "Terry" blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. You can see those in yesterday's post. The pile of scraps from trimming down the blocks was so pretty that I had to get a photo of them.

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                   8.625 yards

Used year to date:                 69.0 yards

Added last week:                    0.0 yards

Added year to date:               60.0 yards

Net used in 2024:                9.0 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. Those Terry blocks were very time consuming and turned into the primary project for the week. I'm glad to have them done and be able to work on something else.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024

8/18 - 8/24               7 of 7 days

2024 Total          234 of 237 days

Success rate                 98.7 %   

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

Lighthouse Inn Mystery Reveal

For the second year in a row, my favorite quilting project of the entire summer has been another mystery quilt by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr. of Modern Quilt Studio. Last year it was the Summer Camp Mystery, and today I am sharing my version of their Lighthouse Inn Modern Mystery.

Lighthouse Inn quilt top

57.5" x 82"

It all started with choosing a color palette. We needed two distinct groups of fabrics, twelve lighter and twelve darker. The bundle offered by Modern Quilt Studio included a whole rainbow of colors and an off-white background. I decided to go with a more limited range, sticking to the colors of the sunset with Kona navy as my background. (You might notice that I've shown lots more than 12 fabrics in each group.)

We started making blocks on June 1st, with new clues posted on a weekly basis. Each week we made multiple sets of blocks with our light fabrics and matching sets of blocks (although sometimes mirror-imaged) with the darker fabrics. Here are my groups of blocks, week by week.

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

After four weeks, we were done making blocks, and it was time for a "Shift Change." All of the blocks got cut in half diagonally, then each light half got stitched to a dark half to make a new block. After combining all the light halves and dark halves into new blocks, they all got trimmed down to different sizes ranging from 3.5" up to 7.25". The sizes increase evenly in 1/4" increments. . Here are all of my blocks after that part of the process was complete.

At that point, we received the final reveal of the quilt design. The blocks get set on point, graduating in size from smallest at one end of the quilt to largest at the other. Here is the layout I decided to use.

The next step was adding background strips to two sides of each block. Since every set of blocks is a different size, the background strips were also different sizes. Then to get the right look for the layout, the strips had to be sewn to the correct sides. It was a slow, painstaking process, but definitely worth it in the end. Here are all the blocks with background added, but before they got joined together.

I'm very happy with the way my quilt top turned out, and I love the vibrant colors. The navy background really sets it all off beautifully.

Finishing this quilt top was my One Monthly Goal (OMG) for August. It had been awhile since I posted a goal, and it feels great to have succeeded on this one!

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. There are also lots of posts with photos and discussions of the process at the Facebook page for Modern Quilt Studio. They had many participants in this mystery, and you will be blown away by the variety of quilts people have made. I can't wait to see what Weeks and Bill come up with for their next mystery!

Linking up with:

Modern Quilt Studio Facebook page

Lighthouse Inn Virtual Exhibition at Modern Quilt Studio

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

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

One Monthly Goal at Stories from the Sewing Room

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

One Monthly Goal--August 2024

It has been several months since I joined in with the One Monthly Goal link up, hosted by Anne-Marie at Stories from the Sewing Room. I have a definite goal for August, and today is my last chance to join the party.

June 1st was the start date for the Lighthouse Inn Mystery , designed by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr of Modern Quilt Studio. I kept up pretty well with the weekly clues, which had us making 18 blocks most weeks for the first four weeks. You can see my original blocks in THIS POST. After the blocks were made, they all got sliced in half diagonally, then a light half block got joined to a corresponding dark half. Then those sets of new blocks all got trimmed down to different sizes. Here is a photo of all of my blocks after that stage was complete.

The next step was adding background, then the final layout. Every block  gets background added to two sides. Here are my blocks and background for the upper portion of the quilt. The background is sewn to the blocks, but they have not all been stitched together yet. The top edge will get trimmed straight across after everything is joined together.

My One Monthly Goal for August is to get all of my blocks and background joined together into a completed quilt top. It is slow work to keep everything oriented in the right direction, plus I have to do lots of pinning to have the diagonal rows line up correctly. I'm very eager to see how this quilt top will look when it is assembled.

For lots more great photos of other Lighthouse Inn quilts, check out the Modern Quilt Studio Patterns and Fabrics Facebook group (you don't have to be a member.) You can find out how to join the Lighthouse Inn mystery at the Modern Quilt Studio website HERE.

I'm linking up with the One Monthly Goal party at Stories from the Sewing Room. Check it out to see what other quilters are hoping to accomplish this month! I'm also linking up with Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication and Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter.

Happy quilting!

Julie in GA