Design Wall Monday 6/7/2021

Have you heard about the Positivity Quilt Along? It is the brainstorm of Preeti of Sew Preeti Quilts, and you can read more about it on her blog.

Preeti shared the fabric requirements and an incredible variety of layout options for the quilt recently (in this blog post.) I especially liked the versions that used darker background for the outer blocks, making a border effect. 

I spent a great deal of time last week dithering around, trying to figure out my color palette. Nothing was jumping out at me as the perfect choice, but I decided to try out turquoise and teal. My first two sample blocks used a single background fabric and two older fabrics for the plus signs/corner squares. It felt rather blah to me.

The next attempt switched things up with scrappy light greys for the background, and turquoise and yellow as my main colors. That wasn't working for me either...

Maybe if I switch the yellows to greens and teals? And make the corner squares from the same scrappy greys as the rest of the background? I'm liking this better than the previous versions.

I made four more blocks and have them up on the wall together. The thing I'm debating right now is whether to swap out the whitest pieces of background or leave them in. I can't decide if they are distracting or if they add a little sparkle. My idea is for the background to gradually get darker as you move out from the center of the quilt. We'll see if that works out.

Check out Sew Preeti Quilts for more info about the Positivity Quilt-Along. THIS POST will give you an idea of Preeti's starting point, and THIS POST has links to all the other information for the QAL.

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 23, 2021

When I sat down to write my stash report for the past week, I didn't think there would be much to report. It feels like I spent most of the week trying (mostly unsuccessfully) to figure out what color scheme to use for a new quilt-along. I was pleasantly surprised when I looked back at my info from earlier in the week to discover that I used two yards for the sashing and border pieces on my Moda Blockheads quilt top.

I also used 5/8 yard for my lavender and purple Homespun blocks, which were shared in yesterday's post. That brings my stash usage so far this year up to just over 100 yards! That used to be my usage goal for a whole year. Retirement has had an enormous impact on my quilting!

2021 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                             2.625 yards

Used year to date:                      102.375 yards

Added last week:                               0.0 yards

Added year to date:                         48.0 yards

Net used year to date              54.375 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 have been pulling lots of fabrics, making sample blocks, then pulling different fabrics to make more sample blocks. That has led to much more than 15 minutes of quilting every day.

15 Minute Challenge for 2021: 

5/30 - 6/5                  7 of 7 days

2021 Total           155 of 156 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

Scrappy Rainbow Saturday--Week 23, 2021

It's always exciting to start a new month and a new color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Our color for June is purple, and I got right to work on my Homespun blocks. The Homespun design is by Modernly Morgan.

I started out by making a block with my lighter purple and lavender scraps. This included digging into the 30's scraps to come up with enough different fabrics.

A couple days later I made a darker purple block.

It wasn't until I was about to stitch the final seam in the darker block that I realized one fabric had been used in both blocks. Can you see it?

This should make it easier to find--I rotated the darker block and zoomed in.

Just in case you are wondering--no, I did not take either block apart and change out that fabric! The blocks are not likely to be next to each other in the final quilt. Even if they are--who cares?

Be sure to check out all of the wonderful scrappy projects at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge every Saturday and at Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday.

Julie in GA

Hands 2 Help 2021

I'm cutting it close, but it's time for me to share the photos of my quilts for the 2021 Hands 2 Help Comfort Quilt Challenge. This wonderful event is hosted each year by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict, and it is so heartwarming to see how many quilters have been inspired to donate quilts to a variety of groups providing comfort to those in need. Last year there were over 500 quilts donated, and I wouldn't be surprised if the number was much higher this year.

My donations are going to Kat in Texas for Covered in Love. This first one is the Beveled Blocks quilt top that I finished in March. I am also sending the backing and binding with this quilt top. The backing includes a few extra blocks from making the top.

Beveled Blocks, 60.5" x 72.5"

Beveled Blocks backing

The other quilt top that I will be sending to Kat is a Scrappy Trips design, based on Bonnie Hunter's instructions. I used 3" strips to make the blocks, rather than the 2.5" used in Bonnie's version.

Scrappy Trips, 60.5" x 75.5"

I pulled out some fabrics as possibilities to back this quilt, either the two turquoise and purple fabrics together or the two greens. I don't have enough of any of them for the whole back. I'm hoping to get that done this weekend, plus make a binding, and send everything off on Monday.

Many thanks once again to Sarah for all the hard work she puts in to make this event a success. This is the 11th year of the Hands 2 Help Challenge, and almost 3000 quilts were donated in the first ten years. I can't wait to see the final total for 2021. You can see photos of many of the quilts that have been donated this year at Sarah's blog, Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Happy quilting to all! 

Julie in GA  

To-Do Tuesday 6/1/2021

Happy To-Do Tuesday once again!  How in the world did it get to June already?! It's amazing how quickly the days are passing right now!

It's time to look back at my to-do list from last week, see how I did on accomplishing my goals, then post a new list for the week ahead. I'm linking up with the  To-Do Tuesday Weekly Link-up hosted by Chris at Chris Knits. 

To-Do List for 5/25 - 5/31

1. Bowties 365--make at least 1 bowtie block every day   ✔done

This photo shows 32 of the 36 red blocks I made in May. You can learn more about the unusual setting for the blocks in my blog post HERE.

2. Sewcialites QAL--make block #33    not done

3. Sew Colorful Stars--make 1 red block   ✔done

4. Moda Blockheads--figure out a plan for setting my blocks  ✔done

Not only did I come up with a plan, I got all my blocks joined together into a quilt top. Read more about it HERE. The only question remaining is whether I should add a border or two. The current size is about 48" x 65". 

5. Redwork embroidery--make progress    ✔done

Things will be rather unsettled around our house this week because we have a bathroom renovation project starting today. Not only will that mean noise and mess, but we are likely to be gone more often during the day, trying to avoid the noise and mess. I hope to still get in plenty of quilting time, but we shall see how that works out. Fortunately, my sewing room is not right next to the bathroom that is getting redone.

To-Do List for 6/1 - 6/7

1. Bowties 365--make at least 1 bowtie block every day   

2. Sewcialites QAL--make blocks #33 and #34. 

3. Redwork embroidery--make progress

4. Sewcialites QAL--start framing blocks

5. Rainbow Scrap Challenge--make one set of blocks (I have several projects in the works for this; we'll see which one I'm in the mood for.)

6. Positivity QAL--choose fabrics

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 Chris Knits.

Julie in GA  

Design Wall Monday 5/31/2021

Happy Memorial Day to all in the U.S. We are enjoying the holiday weekend at home, avoiding the craziness at the airport and on the roads. We live very near the Atlanta airport, and there has been a definite increase in plane traffic there over the past few weeks/months. 

We aren't travelling this weekend, but we have been doing some socializing. It is such a treat to gather with friends and neighbors again! We enjoyed an evening with a group of neighbors on Saturday, followed by a cookout with my former coworkers on Sunday afternoon. I was exhausted by the end of it all, but so happy to see everyone again!

In honor of Memorial Day, I decided to pull out one of my red, white & blue quilt projects. These blocks were made as part of the original Moda Blockheads Quilt-Along, which ran from March, 2017 through early 2018. I didn't start making the blocks until June of 2017, and I worked on them very sporadically for a couple of years. There were patterns included for 48 different blocks, and I ended making 36 or 37 of them.

I pulled out some fabrics from my stash as options for sashing the blocks. I found two that worked well together and got right to work. Yesterday I finished joining all the blocks and sashing units together into this quilt top.

This currently measures about 48" x 65". I'm thinking about adding a border or two to make it a little bigger. I have very little of the blue sashing fabric left, but plenty of the pale stripe. I need to do another dig through the RWB collection and see if there is anything else that would work with this.

The blocks in the quilt all finish at 6". Some of them were fairly simple to piece, others were very intricate. Here are some of my favorites.

This last block is my favorite one in the whole quilt. It is called "Double Delight Star" by Lynne Hagmeier of Kansas Troubles Quilters. I liked this block pattern so much that I made a whole quilt of 12" blocks using this design. You can see my Musical Stars quilt HERE.

 

Linking up with:

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Stitching and DeStashing--Week 22, 2021

The good news for my stash report this week is that no new fabric was added to the stash! The bad news is that there are a couple of Memorial Day sales that I've been browsing. My red, white & blue collection is seriously depleted, so I'm thinking about supplementing that area of my stash.

The other good news is that I can report 1.125 yards as used this week. I used 3/8 yard for my Sew Colorful Stars block and 3/4 yard for my collection of red bowtie blocks. You can see all the new blocks in yesterday's post.

I've been working on a sampler quilt of red, white & blue blocks. The two large pieces of fabric in this photo will be used together as the sashing for my blocks. It doesn't look too exciting in this photo, but believe me, they work great together! I hope to finish getting everything joined together into a top before next weekend's stash report.

2021 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                             1.125 yards

Used year to date:                         99.75 yards

Added last week:                              0.0 yards

Added year to date:                         48.0 yards

Net used year to date                51.75 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. I pulled out the set of RWB sampler blocks last week and have been working on getting them set into a quilt top. That has meant plenty of quilting time every day over the past week.

15 Minute Challenge for 2021: 

5/23 - 5/29                7 of 7 days

2021 Total           148 of 149 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

Scrappy Rainbow Saturday--Week 22, 2021

It is nearly the end of our month of sewing up red scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I finished up the red blocks for my last two projects. I'm hoping that maybe we will get an early announcement of our color for June? Hurray--I just saw Angela's post, and she did announce purple as our color for next month!

First I made my Sew Colorful Stars block. So many red triangles!

Sew Colorful Stars, pattern by Fat Quarter Shop

I also worked ahead a little bit and made the last batch of red bowtie blocks. My goal is to make one block every day this year, and I have been averaging 32 blocks each month. Here is the set of red blocks.

This interesting layout for the bowtie blocks is one I had seen on Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog. The spiky look of it is very unusual for a bowtie quilt.

Bowtie quilt top shared on Quiltville blog

I played around with some of my blocks to figure out how to reproduce that design. What I came up with starts with 9 bowtie blocks joined together into a bigger block. Three of the bowties run diagonally from top right to bottom left, and the rest are rotated 90 degrees. All the bowties would be made into these 9-patch big blocks, then set together into a quilt top, keeping them all oriented the same direction.

Besides those two projects, I also made red blocks for three other rainbow quilts this month. I made two Homespun blocks, two Scrap Magnet blocks and 22 kaleidoscope blocks from my 30's fabrics (16 red plus two yellow and four pink.) Why are there still so many red scraps around here?!

Homespun pattern by Modernly Morgan

Scrap Magnet pattern by Kirsty of Bonjour Quilts

30's Kaleidoscopes

Be sure to check out all of the wonderful scrappy projects at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge every Saturday and at Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday.

Julie in GA

To-Do Tuesday 5/25/2021

Happy To-Do Tuesday once again!  Normally this would be the time to look back at my to-do list from last week, see how I did on accomplishing my goals, then post a new list for the week ahead.  However, I missed posting my to-do lists over the past couple of weeks, so it's time for me to do some catching up. I'm linking up with the  To-Do Tuesday Weekly Link-up hosted by Chris at Chris Knits. 

In the past three week, I have managed to keep up with most of my on-going projects. I'm up-to-date with the daily Bowties, plus the weekly Sewcialites blocks. I'm also on track with most of my various projects for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I started a new project, some redwork embroidery, so that I would have some hand stitching to take along on a recent trip.

I'm back to my semi-regular rotation of current projects, plus I have added the embroidery. I'm also hoping to pull out one old project and make some progress on it.

To-Do List for 5/25 - 5/31

1. Bowties 365--make at least 1 bowtie block every day  

2. Sewcialites QAL--make block #33

I finished Blocks #29 - 32 since my last to-do list.

3. Sew Colorful Stars--make 1 red block 

4. Moda Blockheads--figure out a plan for setting my blocks

I started making these red, white and blue scrappy blocks in 2017, and have barely touched them in two years. Memorial Day weekend seems like a good time to do something with them.

5. Redwork embroidery--make progress

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 Chris Knits.

Julie in GA  

Design Wall Monday 5/24/2021

Both of my design walls are completely empty at the moment, but it doesn't mean I'm not quilting. I've been making individual blocks for a variety of projects, sharing them as I go, then stashing them away with the rest of the set of blocks.

Besides my regular piecing projects, I have continued stitching on the redwork Santa embroidery that has become my current hand-stitching project. It has been many years since I did any embroidery, but I am enjoying this project very much. Check out the adorable teddy bear!

The Santa design is from the book Just Be Claus by Robin Kingsley. My version is reversed from the one in the book because I used a Sulky transfer pen to get the markings on the fabric. The fabric is 100% linen that I got at JoAnn's, and I'm stitching with #8 perle cotton.

 

Linking up with:

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA