Rail Fence Stairsteps is Finished!

Another quilt top from my large collection of rainbow quilts in the to-be-quilted closet has been finished! This is my Rail Fence Stairsteps quilt.

Rail Fence Stairsteps, 38.5" x 46.5"

The blocks for this quilt were made as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2022 and 2023. I ended up with over 300 blocks, which were turned into two quilt tops. This quilt top was assembled in November, 2023, and it has been hanging around waiting to be finished ever since. 

Most of the rest of the blocks made in 2022-23 were used in the Rail Fence Zigzag quilt, which was finished in early July of this year.

Rail Fence Zigzag, 37.25" x 38.75"

The quilting is gentle curves that follow each color down the stairs, with tighter curves through the light rectangles.

I used the same tie-dye look flannel fabric as the Rail Fence Zigzag quilt to back this quilt, and finished it off with a bright turquoise binding.

This is my 12th finished quilt for 2026, which ties my record for finishes from 2025, and I still have several months left to go in the year!

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

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (TGIFF) at Rebecca Grace Quilting 

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

Rainbow Stairsteps Finished!

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge, hosted by Angela at So Scrappy, has been a big part of my quilting life ever since 2013. I've been trying to focus on finishing some of the many rainbow quilts that I started in those years, and I'm happy to share my finished Rainbow Stairsteps quilt.

This quilt was one of my RSC projects back in 2019. Here's a photo from my first post about this quilt showing a single block in case you were wondering about the piecing. The finished block size is 6".

The quilt top was completed in November of 2019 and has been hanging in the quilt room closet ever since. I'm so pleased with the way it turned out and look forward to displaying it in our home.

The backing fabric seemed like a good match for the top, with a design of lots of black and white plus scattered bright colors. It's much easier to see the print up close.

The backing fabric inspired my choice of a Baptist fan-type quilting design for this quilt, and I love the texture that it adds to the quilt.

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

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (TGIFF) at Melva Loves Scraps

 Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Mini Storm at Sea is Finished!

This month's assignment for the guild UFO challenge was #9. On my list, that meant my reversible mini Storm at Sea quilt, which was one of my very oldest projects. It just needed a binding, and now it is finished!

Mini Storm at Sea, dark side

 22.5" square

Mini Storm at Sea, light side

I've been quilting since 1995, and I've always been fascinated by designs that look like curves but are made from straight lines. In 1998, I felt ready to attempt a Storm at Sea quilt. I had been collecting fabrics in a variety of turquoise and teal prints, but I wasn't sure whether I wanted to combine them with a dark background or a light one. To help me make up my mind, I made samples of both, which ended up becoming this reversible quilt.

Making the two different versions definitely helped me decide to go with a light background. The main thing I see on the side with the black is the stars, but on the light side, I can see the diagonal wavy movement of the Storm at Sea pattern more clearly.

The mini Storm at Sea quilt was quilted in the ditch from the dark side. You can get a closer look at some of the fabrics in this shot.

I did end up making a bed-sized Storm at Sea quilt, but it wasn't started until 2001 when I found the perfect background fabric with sea anemones on it.

 That quilt was finished in 2012.

Storm at Sea quilt top, 87" x 96"

May, 2012

Storm at Sea, quilted and bound

October, 2012

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

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

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

2025 Temperature Quilt Finished!

It has been about a year and a half since I started planning my first temperature quilt, and as of today, it is finished! That's not a bad turn-around time for me, but I've been very excited (and therefore motivated) about completing this quilt. This is my finished 2025 Temperature Quilt for College Park, GA.

2025 Temperature Quilt

57.5" x 76"

It all started in November, 2024, with a presentation by Jo Avery of the UK about temperature quilts. She inspired several members of our guild, the Common Threads Quilters Guild of Newnan, GA, to begin our own versions of temperature quilts. 

For my quilt, I came up with an easy-to-piece block design and selected a group of fabrics from the Glaze and Glaze II lines by Libs Elliott for Andover. The photo above shows my fabric palette, and below is a close-up of some blocks. The finished blocks measure 3".

I tracked the high and low temperatures all through 2025 and tried to stay caught up on making my blocks. There were a couple times that I fell behind by a month or more, but I was fairly close most of the year. The color of the diamond in each block represents the high temperature for that day, and the background color is the low temp. The dates run from left to right in horizontal rows. Even though we did a good bit of traveling in 2025, I used the temperatures for College Park in all of my blocks.

It isn't easy to come up with a layout that uses 365 blocks. When I decided to set my blocks on point, I realized that it would work out if I added just a few extra blocks. There are three blocks with hand appliqued circles on them. They represent the temperatures for my husband's birthdate, our wedding day, and my birthdate.

I had originally planned to include the legend for the colors and their temperature ranges in the border of the quilt, but decided to keep the focus of the quilt front on the piecing and the flow of colors. I made a panel for the back of the quilt with that information.

My temperature quilt was quilted by Kris Townsend Davis in a feather meander pattern with Brassy Yellow Variegated Thread. I love the movement of the quilting design, and the variegated thread worked out beautifully.

There were over a dozen members of the guild who worked on their temperature quilts together throughout 2025. We all shared our progress at the April, 2026 guild meeting. Several quilts were completely finished and others are still in progress. Our group coordinator, Sharon Hendrix, kept us all inspired and motivated. A couple weeks after showing the quilts at the guild meeting, Sharon shared the very exciting news that our quilts are going to be displayed at the Southeastern Quilt and Textile Museum in Carrollton, GA, from November, 2027 until February, 2028. It will be such an honor to have our quilts exhibited there!

I've already started a new temperature quilt for 2026. This time I'm using Jo Avery's Sea Urchin design, which is included in her online Supernova class at The Thread House Academy. My sister Karen is also making the same pattern with temperatures for Madison, WI. Below is my February block for that quilt, and you can read more about the new project HERE. I'm enjoying continuing to track our daily temps in fabric.

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

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (TGIFF) at Slice of Pi Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

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 

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

Around the Twist Baby Quilt Finished!

I've been doing plenty of quilting lately, but haven't kept up as well with the blogging. I finally managed to get some outdoor photos of a few recent finishes last week, so now is the time to start sharing them. The first is my  Around the Twist baby quilt. 

Around the Twist

37" x 42"

Here's a closer look at the fun fabrics in the quilt top. The animal print at the center of the rings is very old, probably mid-late 1990's. I also used the green print for the binding.

The perfect backing fabric was just waiting in my stash. I'd gotten it at Hancock's of Paducah sometime within the last year or so.

For the quilting, I did something I've wanted to try for many years which was to quilt it from the back following the designs in the backing fabric. Maybe I need to get closer for you to see it. You can click on any of the photos for a larger view.

I used a bright yellow thread for the quilting on both sides of the quilt. It took a little while to get my rhythm and figure out how to move from one area to another, but it was great fun to do. Let's get in there even closer.

This isn't the first time I've made the Around the Twist design. I made a similar baby quilt a couple years ago, and I also made a miniature version back in 1995, my first year as a quilter. That one needs to have the quilting redone. The Around the Twist pattern is from the book Template-Free Quiltimaking by Trudie Hughes, published in 1986. It looks like you might still be able to find the book online.

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

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday at Quilted Delights

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

First Finished Quilt of 2024

One of my biggest quilting goals for 2024 is to finish more quilts. Finishing has been my least favorite part of quilting ever since I started, but the number of unquilted tops hanging around in my sewing room closets has gotten ridiculous! I'm afraid to count how many there are, so it's time to get some of them finished.

The first quilt to be finished for 2024 is the Charm 9-Patch quilt. This quilt started as a set of 9-patch blocks made from charm squares by one or more members of our quilt guild. The guild president had made up several kits of these type of blocks and handed them out at a meeting last April with the challenge to bring back a finished quilt the next month. It took me several months longer, but it's finally done!

Charm 9-Patch quilt, 37.5" x 49.5" after washing

This was my favorite block in the quilt top. The sizes of the blocks tended to vary, and they all got trimmed down to the same measurement before they were joined together.

When I first received the blocks, I considered adding sashing in between to give the blocks a little separation, but I realized that joining them without sashing would produce a top that would fit on a backing made from a single width of fabric. I chose a well-aged Hawaiian print for the back and binding.

Here's a closer look at the backing fabric, and you can also see the meander quilting done in light blue.

This quilt will be donated back to the quilt guild for one of our community service partners. It feels great to have a finish, and I hope it's the first of many quilts to be completed this year.

Linking up with:

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

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (TGIFF) at Devoted Quilter

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Pinwheel Christmas Trees

My newest projects were inspired by a friend's quilt that was displayed in our guild's booth at the Christmas fair a few weeks ago. This is Martha's Pinwheel Christmas Tree quilt.

For my first attempt, I wanted to get more colors into the design, sort of like the colors of the ornaments on a Christmas tree. I used a bright green print of Christmas tree lights along with scrappy green fabrics for the pinwheel blocks.

I liked the added colors in that version, but decided to make another one that is more like the original, with the background fabric in the pinwheel blocks. Here is my second tree. Both of my versions measure approximately 40" x 48".

Making my first version helped me realize that my favorite thing about this quilt is the airiness of the design with the background included in all of the pinwheels. This second version also includes a cute print of Christmas tree lights, but this time it's the cream background fabric. Click on the photo for a closer look.

I hope to get version #2 layered with batting and quilted up in the next week so that we can enjoy it for the Christmas season this year. I haven't decided what will happen with the other quilt top yet.

Linking up with:

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

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday (TGIFF) at Slice of Pi Quilts

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA