Star Pulse is a Finished Quilt!

Star Pulse started as a quilt-along and pattern by Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl. The quilt-along ran from November 2023 until June of 2024. My quilt top was made in June 2024 with the intention of entering it into a challenge at the Great Wisconsin Quilt Show, but it didn't get quilted in time to be entered. This year it was added to my list for the guild's UFO Challenge, and now I can present my finished Star Pulse quilt!

Star Pulse, 41.5" square

Yvonne's pattern makes a quilt that finishes at either 60" square or 60" x 72". The rules for the quilt challenge required that it finish at 30" x 40". For my original quilt top, I made the units in the quilt half the size of Yvonne's pattern and adjusted the rows at the top and bottom to get it to the right size.

Star Pulse quilt top 2024

30" x 40"

When I pulled this quilt top out for finishing earlier this summer, I decided that I would like it better if it were extended at the sides to complete the design. I'm so glad that I took the time to make that change because I'm much happier with the way it looks now.

Star Pulse quilt top before quilting

My quilting is very simple, and for the most part it barely shows. I would have stitched in the ditch next to the red, but that didn't work because my seams were all pressed open as suggested in the pattern. Instead, I quilted very close to the red bands, then added a triple star quilted in red at the center of the quilt. 

I had marked the center star with a blue wash-out marker, and it hasn't been washed away completely yet, just spritzed with a spray bottle. Unfortunately, spraying to remove the blue marks made the red dye run in a few spots. You can see traces of it in the music note fabric right next to the red. I'm very frustrated by that because I tested the fabrics before  making the quilting, and there wasn't any bleeding on the sample piece. I'll need to work on soaking that out later.

Backing fabric

That's one more finished project crossed off my UFO Challenge list. You can find more information about Yvonne's Star Pulse Quilt Along at her website, or go straight to her store to buy the pattern.

Linking up with:

Favorite Finish for August 2025 at Quilting Jetgirl

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

Design Wall Monday

The main design wall in my sewing room has the blocks for a project that originated almost three years ago when I won a container full of triangle cut-offs at our guild auction. I blogged about this project for the first time HERE. I stitched the pieces into half-square triangles as my leader and ender project for many months, then later joined the HSTs into groups of four to make pinwheel blocks. Each pinwheel block was trimmed down to 3" square (2.5" finished size.) Here's one group of blocks made in 2023.

Earlier this year I made the last pinwheel blocks, ending up with a total of close to 370 blocks. I sorted them into groups by color, then arranged them on the wall in concentric rings. The colors blend together more than I anticipated (except for the light/cream blocks,) but I like the way they work together. This layout used 340 blocks, set 17 across and 20 high.

I started stitching the blocks together over the weekend. Getting all those triangle points to match where the blocks come together is challenging, and getting the seams to lay flat when I press them isn't easy either. I started with the lower half of the quilt, dividing it into four groups. Each group is 10 blocks high, and most are 4 blocks wide, but one of them has 5 across.

When the blocks had been assembled into the four groups, it was time to join the sections to one another. The lower half of the quilt is together!

I hope to have enough time in the next few days to get the rest of these little pinwheels joined together. This quilt top is one of the projects on my list for the guild's UFO Challenge, which has really helped motivate me to get it done!

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

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Quarter Log Cabins is Finished!

Just in time for tomorrow's quilt guild meeting, my Quarter Log Cabins quilt is finished!

Quarter Log Cabins

53.5" x 63"

Our quilt guild is making throw quilts to be donated to the local chapter of Meals on Wheels. The quilts will be distributed in the fall to clients who are in need of comfort and warmth. 

I received the fabrics for this quilt from the guild's head of community service projects. The design I chose to make is the Quarter Log Cabin pattern from the Sew Can She website. Caroline at Sew Can She offers a huge selection of free patterns on her site, including several of the popular 3-yard patterns. My quilt is a little bigger than the pattern because I had a larger piece of the red print and made my outer border wider.

I got a little carried away with my machine quilting and ended up wishing I'd done something looser and simpler, but it turned out well. I stippled through the logs in the blocks, did a couple wavy lines in the narrow light border, switchbacks in the navy border, and large swirls in the outer red border. I had just enough of the navy print to use for the binding.

The backing fabric is similar to the red print on the quilt front, but a little lighter/duller in color. 

Finishing this quilt was one of the projects on my list for the guild's UFO challenge, and it feels great to be able to cross another item off that list!

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

Jane Stickle Update for Design Wall Monday

Most of my quilting time over the last week or so has been focused on my Jane Stickle Sampler blocks. I spent several days prepping a stack of applique blocks, which will become my travel project for an upcoming trip. I still plan to prep more of the applique. I'm always surprised at how long it takes to do all that prep, but it does make the stitching go much more quickly.

After that, I was ready for some piecing. I cut fabrics for more than a dozen blocks, most of them fairly simple. There were also a few complicated block patterns that required foundation piecing. I was able to finish a total of 15 blocks over the holiday weekend.

Top row: H13, C13, D7, D5

2nd row: E9, D13, F3, F7

3rd row: D1, D9, D6, C12

4th row: E4, F4, D12

I couldn't resist putting the new blocks up on the design wall along with all of the previously finished blocks. I have a total of 52 blocks done, out of the 169 blocks needed for the center of the quilt. They were done in a little less than four months, which would give me an average of around three per week. 

There are 117 blocks still to make for the quilt center. If I continue at the same pace, it would take me 39 weeks (9 months) to get them all done.  After that there's still the 56 triangular blocks for the borders. Better to not dwell on those numbers too much, just keep plugging away and enjoy the process.

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

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Temperature Quilt 2025--The First Six Months

The end of the first half of 2025 seems like the perfect time for a little update on my temperature quilt. Here are all the blocks through the end of June.

I've done well at keeping up with making my blocks, never getting much more than a week behind. Yesterday I was able to get more groups of blocks joined together. I've been putting blocks together into sets of 16 for the center area of the quilt and smaller groups along the sides. Here's another photo, minus the blocks that haven't been joined together yet.

You may have noticed a couple of blocks that are different shapes than the rest. I need a total of 368 blocks for the layout I'm doing, which meant adding three extras to the total for a regular year. Those extra blocks will represent my husband's birthdate (the circle near the upper right,) our wedding day (the heart near the bottom left,) and my birthdate later in the year. 

It has been so much fun to see how this quilt has changed as the year goes along. I know there will be plenty more of the yellows, oranges and reds for these hot summer days in Georgia before we get back into the cooler colors in the fall.

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

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Chinese Coins is Finally Finished!

One of my very oldest quilt projects was completed recently, and I can't believe how long it took. This is my Chinese Coins quilt, which was started in July of 1998!

Chinese Coins, 44.5" x 51.5"

Some of my memories of this project are a little fuzzy, but I know it was started at a quilt shop sewing day in '98. I had been collecting teal and turquoise fabrics with plans to make a Storm at Sea quilt, and I enjoyed using them in this quilt. The quilt shop named the design "Chinese Coins," but they look like Snowball blocks to me.

The quilt top, batting and backing were pin basted together soon after I made the top, but I struggled for a long time with figuring out how to quilt it. It would get pulled out of the closet on a regular basis, but always ended up going back again unfinished. I did start quilting it in 2014, but I didn't get far before I returned the quilt to the closet again.

It was our guild's UFO (UnFinished Objects) Challenge that finally motivated me to get this quilt done. I decided that I would rather continue with the quilting that had already been done than pick it out and do something else. It feels great to finally get this scrappy beauty finished and out of the closet. It deserves to be seen and enjoyed!

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

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Jane Stickle Sampler Progress Report

It has been almost two months since I posted an update on my Jane Stickle sampler blocks. I tend to work on them in spurts, maybe because they require more focus than many of my projects. The fact that every single block is different means nothing happens quickly, but I've made good progress recently.

Top row: A9, B3, C7, C8, B13

2nd row: B4, C2, C1, G7, B5

3rd row: B10, A10, B2, A7, C10

4th row: C3, B11, B12, G1, C4

These are all the blocks I've made for this quilt since my last post in late April. I really got going with them earlier this month, completing 13 blocks since the beginning of June. The photo shows them arranged by color, not the way they will be laid out in the quilt. 

I've been tracking my progress on making blocks in EQ8. I had hoped to include that image in my post, but I'm having some trouble getting it to work. I have finished a total of 37 blocks since starting this project back in March. Unfortunately, my larger design wall is covered in blocks for another project, so I can't put these on the wall along with the previously made blocks. Maybe next time...

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

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Daisy Tablerunner Finished!

Almost two years ago, I won a bundle of border-striped floral fabrics at our guild's annual Brown Bag raffle. This is the set of fabrics I won. Most of them were 2-yard pieces.

I had intended to use some of these fabrics to make tablerunners for the craft market the guild participates in before Christmas. I had even gotten some of the fabrics cut and pieced into tops. However, the guild is not going to do the Christmas market this year, so these have just been sitting around waiting for a new inspiration to hit.

Well, here comes the inspiration--it's turning into daisy season around here. The flowers in our front yard are just getting started, but there will be many more in the weeks ahead. They inspired me to finish a tablerunner from the daisy border-stripe fabric. I used the coordinating daisy print for the back.

The tablerunner really stands out on our dark dining table. I have enough of the daisy print to make some napkins to go along with it. I think that will be my next project for today. Finishing this project was also one of the items on my list for the guild's UFO Challenge. It feels so good to complete another UFO!

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

Chandelier Quilt Top

Our quilt guild had a group sewing day recently to work on throw quilts for donation to the local chapter of Meals on Wheels. The quilts are distributed to clients who are in need of comfort and warmth. Here is my completed Chandelier 3-yard quilt top.

Chandelier quilt top

50" x 61"

The design I chose to make is the Chandelier 3-yard quilt pattern from the Sew Can She website. Caroline at Sew Can She offers a huge selection of free patterns on her site, including several of the popular 3-yard patterns. The pattern was easy to make, and the quilt came together quickly.

I received the fabrics from the guild's head of community service projects. They aren't my usual style, but I like the way they look together. So many of the quilts I make are scrappy, which I love, but the cutting sure goes faster with only three fabrics. 

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

UFO Challenge 2025--Report #1

Our quilt guild recently started a UFO Challenge (UnFinished Objects, in case you didn't know), with each member submitting a list of UFOs and what they hope to achieve on their projects. The challenge is running from April until October. For each goal successfully completed, we get our name entered into a prize drawing, and for each goal not completed, our penalty is one fat quarter. Those fat quarters become part of the final prize.

As usual, I greatly overestimated how much I am likely to get done on my UFOs. The list I submitted contains 13 different projects! Most people listed three or four. This week I buckled down and completed two of my UFO goals.

Sewcialites 2, 9" blocks

The blocks shown above were made as part of the guild's most recent Block of the Month, Sewcialites 2 from  the Fat Quarter Shop's website. I finished a quilt top with 3" blocks from the same pattern (see it HERE,) but lost interest in making more of the 9" blocks. My UFO goal was to join them together into a baby quilt top.

Before joining the blocks together, I decided to rework two of them that bothered me as part of the group. Those were the blocks at the top right (that bright blue isn't used anywhere else) and the bottom left (needs more of the background fabric.) I changed the corner squares in the bottom block to half-square triangles with the dark blue background, and I'm much happier with that look.

Instead of taking apart the block with the bright blue, I picked a different block pattern to make from scratch. This was a very easy block to piece.

After those were done, I figured out a plan for sashing and borders. It took a couple days, but I now have a finished quilt top. UFO Challenge Goal #1 completed!

Sewcialites 2 quilt top

39.5" x 50"

I didn't waste any time after that UFO success before I pulled out another project. This was a small quilt that had been pieced several years ago, then the quilting was started in 2022. Each fabric has been quilted with a different design in a different color thread. Here are some close shots of the fabrics and the quilting.

This photo of the back really shows the texture of the quilting. The backing is a flannel print.

All that needed to be done on this quilt was to finish quilting the borders, then add the binding. I took care of those items, and now it's a finished quilt. Goal #2 completed!

Diagonal Squares baby quilt

38" x 45"

It feels so good to have completed two of the goals from my UFO Challenge list. Maybe that will motivate me to keep pushing through the other projects I've chosen. If I can average completing two goals per month, it will be a very successful challenge for me.

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

One Monthly Goal Success!

There's nothing like waiting until the last day of the month, but I got in just under the wire.  It is time to report on the successful completion of my One Monthly Goal for April. My Quarter Log Cabins quilt top is done!

Quarter Log Cabins quilt top

54" x 64"

Our quilt guild is making throw quilts to be donated to the local chapter of Meals on Wheels. They distribute the quilts to clients who are in need of comfort and warmth. 

I received the fabrics from the guild's head of community service projects. The design I chose to make is the Quarter Log Cabin pattern from the Sew Can She website. Caroline at Sew Can She offers a huge selection of free patterns on her site, including several of the popular 3-yard patterns. My quilt is a little bigger than the pattern because I had about 1.5 yards of the red print and made my outer border larger.

I'm joining in with the One Monthly Goal link-up, hosted by Anne-Marie at Stories from the Sewing Room. It's possible that my One Monthly Goal for May will be to quilt and bind this quilt. That is still to be determined.

I'm also 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

Sewcialites 2 Quilt Top Finished!

I can't believe it is the last day of March already! I'm cutting things a little close here with a last-chance report on the successful completion of my One Monthly Goal for March. My Sewcialites 2 quilt top is done!

Sewcialites 2 quilt top

27" square

Our quilt guild chose the Sewcialites 2 pattern as our Block of the Month for 2024-25. Actually, we made two blocks each month, and I made one extra block at the end. 

Sewcialites 2 originally ran as a weekly block program at Fat Quarter Shop from October, 2022 until April, 2023. All of the block patterns are still available on the Fat Quarter Shop's website. The pattern includes instructions for blocks that finish at 3", 6" or 9". For some crazy reason, I decided to challenge myself and make the 3" blocks.

The above photo shows all of my blocks after I finished making them back in December of 2024. At that point, I had no idea how I would arrange them in the finished quilt.

In February I auditioned some options for the setting fabric. I had expected to go with a lighter aqua/turquoise, but ended up choosing the darker blue for the dramatic contrast. Below are my blocks on the setting fabric before the top was assembled. Some of them changed position, but this gave me a good idea of where I was headed.

 

I'm very happy to have this quilt top done, and I look forward to getting it quilted and hanging on the wall. Making all those 3" blocks convinced me that I could handle the challenges of very small piecing, which is probably what led to my newest project, a Dear Jane quilt.

I'm joining in with the One Monthly Goal link-up, hosted by Anne-Marie at Stories from the Sewing Room.

I'm also 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

TGIFF at Sew Preeti Quilts

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA