Finishing Placemats

Another batch of placemats have been finished this week, with all of them being added to the stack getting donated to Meals on Wheels through the quilt guild. The first group to be finished were the Sawtooth Star placemats.

These were made for me to use as my practice piece for the ruler quilting class that I recently completed. This closer photo gives a better view of the quilting, although it's still hard to see in the center of the star. I enjoyed learning a little bit about using rulers for machine quilting, but I still have a long way to go before I will become comfortable with them.

The other placemat to be finished this week is this green string-pieced mat. I started by stitching together a stack of 1.5" x 3.5" rectangles that were leftover from making green Rail Fence blocks. I added strips to each side of the pieced section until the placemat was the right size (around 13" x 18".)

This placemat was made as part of the 2023 ABC (Table) Scraps Challenge hosted by The Joyful Quilter. My placemat fits with the assigned color of the month (green), but I completely forgot about including the letter prompts of B and U in my inspiration. I've been trying to include colors that start with the monthly letters. I guess my colors this month can be Bright green and U??? I drew a blank for color names that start with U. Let's say my placemat is Ultra Scrappy!

Linking up with:

ABC Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Brag About Your Beauties at From Bolt to Beauty

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 3/26/2023

There was all sorts of quilting fun happening around here this week, including a quilting road trip yesterday. We were able to go to two different quilt exhibits, and they were both wonderful to see. The first was "Life's Not All Black & White--Gotta Add Color!" It's a wonderful collection of quilts by Jan Cunningham at the Mable House Arts Center in Mableton, GA. The exhibit will be there only until March 30th. Here are two of my favorites of her quilts that were on display.

The other exhibit we went to yesterday was at the Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum in Carrollton, GA. We managed to get there on the last day! The exhibit was "Vintage Modern" and featured  antique quilts from one collection alongside modern quilts made by members of the Greater Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild. No photos to share from that exhibit. It was very interesting to see the juxtaposition of antique and modern quilts side by side.

As for quilting here at home, one primary project throughout the week was the Ruler Quilting Challenge by HollyAnne Knight of String and Story. This was a five-day online class with HollyAnne sharing the basics of using rulers along with free-motion quilting. I had never used rulers for quilting before and really enjoyed getting an intro to the process. I made a set of placemats for my practice pieces. The first photo shows all four placemats before being layered for quilting, and the second photo shows one placemat with most of the quilting completed.

The stash report for the week shows 2.375 yards used for the placemats plus the three Jabberwocky blocks shared in yesterday's post. No new fabric was added to the stash.

2023 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                2.375 yards

Used year to date:           27.125 yards

Added last week:                   0.0 yards

Added year to date:               9.5 yards

Net used in 2023          17.625 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've spent some time cutting and piecing, plus doing the Ruler Quilting Challenge. There has definitely been at least 15 minutes of quilting every day this week! 

15 Minute Challenge for 2023: 

3/19 - 3/25          7 of 7 days

2023 Total        82 of 84 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

Design Wall Monday 3/20/2023

Today is going to be the beginning of a new quilting adventure for me. I've signed up for a new on-line class starting later today, the Ruler Quilting Challenge taught by HollyAnne Knight of String and Story. There will be five days of lessons on the basics of using rulers for free-motion quilting. I just bought my first quilting ruler and look forward to getting lots of tips on how to use it. Best of all, my sister Karen has signed up for the class too!

There was a kit available for this class that included a panel to be quilted, but I have plenty of panels around and thought I would use one of those. Then I decided over the weekend that I could make my own version of one of the panel choices, and I pieced the four placemats shown above.

This is the fabric that was used for the centers of the stars, and it will also be on the backs of the placemats. My color choices were based on this print. The fabric is very old, and unfortunately, the printing is not terribly straight--those little gingham boxes all lean a bit, especially close to the selvage. I'm hoping I can manage to square it up a little better.

Check out what other quilters are working on this week at Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and at Monday Musings at Songbird Designs.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA