Design Wall Monday--9/14/2020

I had an afternoon available for quilting time over the weekend, but had some trouble figuring out what to work on. It needed to be something that didn't require a great deal of decision making. That lead me to pull out my Rolling 9-Patch project.

Rolling 9-Patch, 5" blocks (finished size)

The last time I showed these blocks was February of 2019. They were started with some extra 9-patches left over from Bonnie Hunter's 2017 mystery "On Ringo Lake." I had been considering the Rolling 9-Patch pattern as a possible project for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2019, but set it aside because I had too many other RSC projects in the works.

There were plenty more 9-patches to use, plus rectangles already cut in reds and black-on-white prints. I made 11 more full blocks, plus two partial blocks for setting triangles, then began auditioning possible layouts.

The first idea was to add grey sashing with black cornerstones. I would probably use a single grey fabric in an attempt to calm down the very busy blocks.

Version two still had grey sashing but switched the cornerstones to whites.

The third idea was to remove the sashing completely. This one worked best for me, even through it is definitely very busy. I love the white pinwheel effect where the blocks meet up.

After more piecing, I had added all of the side and corner setting units to the design wall. Everything is ready to be joined together. The only problem is the size. Since my blocks finish at 5", when these are all stitched together, it will measure approximately 21" x 28". Unless I added very large borders, that would be too small for a baby quilt. 

I'm debating whether to add another row to both the width and the length. That would bring it up to about 28" x 35". Add 3-4" in borders and it is a much more workable size for a baby quilt. I think that would require making 14 more full blocks plus two more side units. I've used up all but one of the original 9-patches.

On the other hand, I could leave it this size as a mini quilt. Why are decisions so hard sometimes? I'll let you know my choice when I figure it out!

Linking up with:
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Stitching and DeStashing--Week 37

The majority of my time in the sewing room over the past week was spent going through all of my many quilting books and pulling out some to give away. I've set a few aside for possible future blog giveaways, but there are three boxes full that are going away. Fortunately, a friend in a guild said they would be happy to take the books. It makes me happy that they will go to other quilters instead of just giving them to Goodwill.

I did squeeze in some sewing time too. I made a sample block from the Fat Quarter Shop's Sew Colorful Stars pattern, using 1/2 yard of fabric, and I also finished making my Stashbuster Square Dance blocks in red and orange for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 3/4 yard of fabric was used for those blocks. No new fabric added this week (but I did place an online order last night.)

Sew Colorful Stars sample block

RSC Square Dance blocks

2020 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                              1.25 yards

Used year to date:                     148.375 yards

Added last week:                               0.0 yards

Added year to date:                       47.50 yards

Net used year to date            100.875 yards

My net stash usage is over 100 yards! That is definitely a first for me. Most years I struggle to reach 100 yards in the used amount, but I have blown past that number thanks to orphan/UFO adoptions, giving away old fabric, and making lots of masks.

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. Sorting through the quilting books got tiresome after awhile, but it sure feels good to have it done, and I got in a little bit of stitching time too. I did have more than 15 minutes every day.

15 Minute Challenge:  

9/6 - 9/12                 7 of 7 days

2020 Total          247 of 256 days

I pulled out an old project to play with last night, and I need to figure out what else to focus my attention on in the coming week.

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge at Life in Pieces. 

Happy quilting and stay safe everyone!

Julie in GA

Scrappy Rainbow Saturday--Week 37, 2020

Most of the past week was spent sorting through my collection of quilting books with the goal of getting rid of some. It took a few days, but was finally completed on Thursday, and I rewarded myself with a sewing session on Friday. I made the remaining 16 Stashbuster Square Dance blocks in red and orange that were needed for this month's Rainbow Stash Challenge assigned color of red. Here's all 32 red and orange blocks in my current favorite zigzaggy layout.

Only one more color assignment left for the year, and that will be yellow for October. For these blocks, my yellows will be combined with light green scraps. I can't wait to get the last set of blocks done and start joining them together!

I am linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday and with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. I hope you are all staying well and getting lots of quilting done!

Julie in GA 

To-Do Tuesday 9/8/2020

The long Labor Day holiday weekend is over, and it is time once again for the To-Do Tuesday Weekly Progress Update and Link-up hosted by Roseanne and Sue at Home Sewn By Us. I didn't do so well with my goals last week, but maybe this week will be better.

To-do list for 9/1 - 9/7/2020

1. Orange Peel quilt--prepare for quilting                           no

2. Dresden Stars--apply binding, wash and block               ✔ done 

3. RSC Square Dance--make 8 red/orange blocks              ✔ done

4. Sewing room cleaning--sort through boxes from work    progress

1. I didn't touch the Orange Peels quilt top last week and decided that I had other quilts that should get finished before this one.

2. The Dresden Stars quilt is finished and hanging on the living room wall! Now I just need to get some photos of it and write up a final blog post.

3. I made 11 Square Dance blocks to go with the 5 that had been done earlier.

4. Sewing room cleaning--I put away two boxes of books from work, plus some of my other supplies.

To-do list for 9/8 - 9/14

1. Dresden Stars quilt--photos and blog post

2. Sewing room cleaning--finish going through quilting books

3. RSC Square Dance--make 8 red/orange blocks 

Bonus--Make a couple of new grocery bags

The sewing room clean-up has been getting the majority of my attention recently. Over the weekend I started going through my too-large collection of quilting books with the goal of getting rid of a significant number of them. So far, I've gone through 3+ shelves and have 1-1/2 boxes of books that I don't feel the need to keep. 

My current challenge is what to do with these books. I know I could just give them to Goodwill, but if it were possible to get them directly to quilters, that would be preferable. They are generally not the most recent books. I've been quilting since 1995 and bought many of the books in my first 7-10 years. I definitely don't want to deal with selling them on Ebay or anything like that. I don't belong to a quilt guild--that would be the ideal recipient group, especially near the Atlanta area. Any suggestions would be appreciated! (I have quilting magazines too, but haven't sorted through most of those yet.)

That should be more than enough to keep me busy for the next week. I'll report on my progress and post a new set of goals next Tuesday. I'm linking up with other To-Do Tuesday lists at Home Sewn by Us .

Julie in GA

Design Wall Monday 9/7/2020

Happy Labor Day to all the hard-working people of the U.S. today. My former co-workers returned to work last Monday after nearly three months on furlough. It was strange not to be there with them, but I've been enjoying the slower pace of retirement. It's such a treat to set my own pace each day instead of following the workday schedule.

We've been especially lucky with beautiful weather this weekend. I know the heat and humidity are likely to return soon, but the past few days have been a huge treat! We have started walking twice a day, once in the morning and a shorter walk after dinner. I hope the pleasant weather continues long enough for this to become a regular habit.

After finishing up my Dresden Stars quilt late last week (photos coming soon, I promise!), I had a hard time deciding what to work on next. I'm sure many others have similar trouble after completing a project. None of my UFOs interested me, so I decided to try something new. I've been starting to think about new projects for next year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and I was quite intrigued by the Sew Colorful Stars pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop.

Downloadable PDF patterns are so great! I love being able to buy a pattern and have it available within minutes. I bought this one and decided to do a sample block and see how I liked making it. I already had a stack of orange and light HSTs leftover from some previous project, and that made construction much quicker. The only cutting I had to do was the corner squares.

It took some time to figure out a good way to press my seams and get them to nest together. Unfortunately, the pattern did not include that information. Once that question was answered, it went together smoothly. I had triangles in sets of four and arranged them so that each quarter of the quilt had them in the same place. My finished block size is 20". The pattern is for a 16" block, but my HSTs were a larger size and I just used them as is and adjusted the size of the corner squares.

Will I make this pattern as one of my RSC projects next year--it's a very strong contender. I like to have one project that uses many fabrics in a single, complex block, and this one certainly fits that requirement. There's still plenty of time before I need to decide, and there are many other possible designs floating through my head.

Linking up with:
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Stitching and DeStashing--Week 36, 2020

The weather has definitely got a touch of fall in it this weekend, and I love it. The temps have dropped, and even better, our humidity is way down, making it much more bearable outside. It makes me eager to get out for our morning walk.

There has been considerable movement in the fabric stash this week, both incoming and outgoing. After two years on the market, my favorite quilt local shop's building (Intown Quilter's in Decatur, GA) has been sold. They hope to find a new place to open the store, but may end up going to just online. At any rate, they have to be out of the current space by Halloween. They are having a sale to reduce the inventory before the move, and I bought some fabric to help them out. I got 9 pieces ranging from 1/2 to 1-1/2  yards, plus one charm pack.

Fortunately, there was even more fabric going out of the stash than in for the week. I gave away 11.25 yards that I was never going to use, and I also used 4.5 yards for the sashing, setting, borders, back and binding of my Dresden Stars quilt. It's finished, but I haven't had a chance to get any photos of it yet. Coming soon!

2020 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                            15.75 yards

Used year to date:                     147.125 yards

Added last week:                             8.75 yards

Added year to date:                       47.50 yards

Net used year to date              99.625 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. My main focus for the week was on finishing the Dresden Stars quilt, but I've also started playing with some new project ideas for next year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I had no trouble getting my 15 minutes every day.

15 Minute Challenge:  

8/30 - 9/5                 7 of 7 days

2020 Total          240 of 249 days

I need to spend some serious time back at the cleaning and organizing of the sewing room next week. The cutting table is quite buried by piles of fabric and who knows what else!

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge at Life in Pieces. 

Happy quilting and stay safe everyone!

Julie in GA

Scrappy Rainbow Saturday--Week 36, 2020

Our September color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is red, and I've gotten off to a slow start with my blocks. I did manage to make half of my Stashbuster Square Dance blocks yesterday, combining red with orange. 

I'm so excited about these blocks that I had to put several colors on the design wall together to try out another layout idea. Even with only half the colors up there, it's fun to see how they look together.

I am linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday and with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. I hope you are all staying well and getting lots of quilting done!

Julie in GA 

Tuesday To-Do List 9/1/2020

September is here, schools are back in session (in one way or another), and it is time once again for the To-Do Tuesday Weekly Progress Update and Link-up hosted by Roseanne and Sue at Home Sewn By Us. I finished two of my goals from last week, and the third took a turn in the other direction.

To-do list for 8/25 - 8/31:

1. Orange Peels--finish joining blocks together                     ✔ done

This was the top priority for the week, and it happened right away. I have a finished quilt top and am thrilled with how it turned out! I've been sharing this photo all over the place, but here it is one last time. You can read more about this quilt HERE.

Orange Peel Rainbow, 36.5" x 48.5"

2. Dresden Stars--start quilting borders                               ✔ done

The borders are completely quilted, but that left the setting and corner triangles looking too poofy and full. I've added more quilting in those areas, which should help even things out. I'm not sure yet if it was enough; I might need to do even more quilting.

Borders quilted, setting triangles need more

Additional quilting added to setting triangles

3. Continue cleaning up the sewing room (the never-ending goal!)

The cleaning of the sewing room took a u-turn this week because I had to pack up all of my belongings/books/tools at work and bring them home. This was my first opportunity to do so since the building closed for the pandemic. It means I have to find places to put even more things, many of them in the sewing room.

To-do list for 9/1 - 9/7/2020

1. Orange Peel quilt--prepare for quilting

2. Dresden Stars--apply binding, wash and block to straighten/flatten out

3. RSC Square Dance--make 8 red/orange blocks

4. Sewing room cleaning--sort through the boxes I brought home from work

That should be more than enough to keep me busy for the next week. I'll report on my progress and post a new set of goals next Tuesday. I'm linking up with other To-Do Tuesday lists at Home Sewn by Us .

Julie in GA

Design Wall Monday 8/31/2020

I finished joining together the rest of my Orange Peel blocks last week (you can see the finished quilt top HERE), then spent most of the remaining time in the sewing room quilting the borders on my Dresden Stars quilt. After the borders were all quilted, I lay the quilt out on a big table and made a sad discovery.

The borders and the blocks all lay nice and flat, but the setting triangles are too poofy (a very technical term!) You can especially see the fullness in the upper left triangles. I've already started adding more quilting to those areas and hope it helps smooth out the extra fullness. Fingers crossed!

Linking up with:
Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Stitching and DeStashing--Week 35, 2020

This week's Stash Report shows some usage and no new additions. The fabric used was 1/4 yard for my purple Scrappy Bear Paw block and one yard for the remaining Orange Peel blocks that were added to all the blocks made last year. Both of these photos are repeats from earlier posts, just to show where the fabric went.

Scrappy Bear Paw, 14" block

Orange Peel Rainbow quilt top, 36.5" x 48.5"

2020 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                               1.25 yards

Used year to date:                      131.375 yards

Added last week:                               0.0 yards

Added year to date:                       38.75 yards

Net used year to date              92.625 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. Getting the Orange Peel blocks joined together into a top was my main focus at the beginning of the week, and since then I've been concentrating on machine quilting my Dresden Stars quilt. I've spent much more than 15 minutes quilting every day.

15 Minute Challenge:  

8/23 - 8/29               7 of 7 days

2020 Total          233 of 242 days

The sewing room clean-up slowed down this week because I was spending most of my time sewing. I will get back to sorting and organizing next week.

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge at Life in Pieces. 

Happy quilting and stay safe everyone!

Julie in GA