15 Minutes and Stash Report Sunday 4/15/18

It was another week with a small amount of stash usage and no fabric added. My usage was 1/2 yard for four Squared Away sampler blocks and one trial block using Jamie's "Have Faith" pattern, which she shared at the Hands 2 Help Challenge last weekend.

2018 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 0.50 yards

Used year to date:            18.25 yards

Added last week:                 0.0 yards
Added year to date:            5.50 yards
Net used year to date:   12.75 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. It was a good week with quilting time every single day!

15 Minute Challenge:  
4/8 - 4/14              7 of 7 days
2018 Total       100 of 104 days

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

Julie in GA

Squared Away in Yellow and Gold

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge colors for April are yellow and gold, and my RSC project for the past week has been the Squared Away sampler blocks. Our block this month, as chosen by Mari at The Academic Quilter, is the 4X Star.

I have been making my blocks to finish at 7.5". I was so pleased with the way the colors looked against my grey background print, that I made four blocks for this month. I look forward to adding more warm colors to the mix.

4X Stars
RSC Squared Away sampler

I am linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday and at Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. Be sure to check out all of the wonderful projects that everyone is sharing! 

Julie in GA

15 Minutes, Slow Stitching and Stash Report Sunday 4/8/18

My Slow Stitching project for the week has been my Scrap Hexies quilt, which was started in 2013 as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Yesterday was the monthly English paper piecing club at the LQS, where I have been working on getting this all sewn together. 

This is a photo of that project from last year. I have completed stitching the top two sections together, and now there is just the center seam to finish. After that I will applique the whole thing to one of my black-on-white prints for a border. Maybe this will actually become a finished quilt top this year!

My stash numbers for the week are headed in the wrong direction! That is one of the disadvantages of spending the morning at a quilt shop. I took a break halfway through the morning, and discovered these two Blueberry Park prints in the clearance section, 2.375 yards total. I wish I'd had the chartreuse one a couple weeks ago to use for my light/lime green Scraptastic Star in March.

2018 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 0.25 yards

Used year to date:            17.75 yards

Added last week:              2.375 yards
Added year to date:            5.50 yards
Net used year to date:   12.25 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 had a decent week, 6 out of 7 days. The only day I missed was Monday when we spent the day at Augusta National, the home of the Masters. It was a glorious, sunny day, and the azaleas have never looked better!

August National, 13th hole

15 Minute Challenge:  
4/1 - 4/7               6 of 7 days
2018 Total          93 of 97 days

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate, and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge at Life in Pieces and Slow Stitching Sunday at Kathy's Quilts.

Julie in GA

RSC Spinning Boxes

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge colors for April are yellow and gold, and I have plenty of scraps in those colors! This week I made two yellow/gold Spinning Boxes blocks to add to my small collection. I should probably go back and make another light blue block and a purple block; that way I can end up with two for each month.

I still like the way the blocks look set on-point, but that would mean coming up with something for setting triangles, maybe pieced triangles? There's lots of time before I need to decide about that.

I am linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday and at Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. Be sure to check out all of the wonderful projects that everyone is sharing! 

Julie in GA

April 2018 One Monthly Goal

It's time to decide on my One Monthly Goal for April, and this month it's an easy decision. A few weeks ago, my husband mentioned that it would be nice to have a small quilt to put up over the mantel in our living room. He was especially interested in a 3D or optical illusion look. After showing him images of several options, we agreed on this design.

I pulled fabrics (not the colors shown) and have been working on the blocks. My goal for April is to finish making blocks and get them all joined together into a top. I might be able to start the quilting, which would be a big bonus! I will report back at the end of the month and let you see how it turned out . I am joining the One Monthly Goal link-up for April at Elm Street Quilts. Check it out to see what others are hoping to get done this month!

Julie in GA

Design Wall Monday 4/2/18

After being out of town for a couple of days late last week, I felt the need to spend some time in my sewing room on Sunday (in between the loads of laundry!) The April color assignment for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is to use our yellow and gold scraps, so I decided to work with those colors.

I was able to make the rectangular units for two Spinning Boxes blocks (tutorial available HERE.) The blocks are easy to make, so I should be able to finish these off tomorrow.

My original plan was to make one block with the brighter yellow units in the top row and a second block from the more golden units below, but I feel like there isn't enough contrast in the top set--I might need to switch things around a bit.

I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt, and Moving It Forward at Em's Scrapbag. Check out all of them for tons of amazing quilting inspiration! 

Julie in GA

15 Minutes, Slow Stitching and a Stash Report

My goodness, what a crazy, busy week it has been. And suddenly it is April--how did that happen?!! I spent the last 2+ days in New York City doing fittings for an upcoming show. It was a whirlwind trip filled with lots of work and a little time for fun. I've been home less than 12 hours and am trying to get back to normal life--unpacking, laundry, etc. The trip influenced all of my reports for this week.

The stash report shows both usage and additions. The usage was for the bright green Scraptastic Stars (see them HERE) that I made for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge--1/2 yard used. One of the fun parts of my trip was a quick visit to Gotham Quilts, where I bought a total of 1 yard of assorted fabrics. I love buying fabric souvenirs when I travel--check out the orange subway map print!

2018 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                 0.5 yards

Used year to date:            17.5 yards

Added last week:                1.0 yards
Added year to date:         3.125 yards
Net used year to date:   14.375 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. My quilting time suffered this week because of travel, only 5 days out of 7. It was still a good week, and I will work at getting back to quilting every day next week.

15 Minute Challenge:  
3/25 - 3/31            5 of 7 days
2018 Total          87 of 90 days

I took along a hand applique project in case there were any chunks of free time when I could do some stitching. I finished stitching down the center circle on this Dresden Star block, and have started appliquing the outer points on the last of my eight blocks. 

Dresden Star block
pattern by Edyta Sitar

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate, and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge at Life in Pieces and Slow Sunday Stitching at Kathy's Quilts.

Julie in GA

Scraptastic Stars in Green

Thanks goodness for an extra Saturday this month! That is the only reason I was able to finish my last blocks in lime/light greens for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Here are my Scraptastic Stars blocks for March.

I love making these blocks every month! It is so much fun to see if I have enough squares in the color of the month for each block. As usual, this month I made one block from 2.5" squares, and the other block is from 2" squares.

16" block from 2.5" squares

12" blocks from 2" squares

I couldn't resist putting my different color blocks up on the wall together. There are a few extras because I made some as samples last fall to be sure I liked making this block pattern. I'm already starting to think about setting/sashing options!

I am linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday and at Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. Be sure to check out all of the wonderful projects that everyone is sharing! 

Julie in GA

On Ringo Lake--A Finished Top!

My One Monthly Goal for the month of February was to finish assembling the top for my "On Ringo Lake" quilt. I was barely able to meet that goal, but unfortunately did not have a chance to get photos of the top and write a blog post about it in time to link up at the end of February. Since I missed that deadline, there didn't seem to be a reason to rush into the reveal post, but today is finally the day!

I started this project in November, 2017, as part of Bonnie Hunter's annual Thanksgiving to New Year's mystery quilt. I liked Bonnie's color scheme very much, but felt the need to go my own direction. I replaced her colors of aqua/turquoise, chocolate brown, and salmon/coral with red, black and grey, plus black-on-white for the backgrounds. My choices were inspired by several of my sewing-themed fabrics.

The prints in the first photo were too large for all the little pieces we used in our quilts, but you can definitely see my color inspiration. The fabrics in the next photo were all included in the quilt piecing.

As usual, Bonnie's design included many units made from lots of little pieces--we made 9-patches, flying geese, chevrons, and other parts. It seemed like I kept needing to cut more background pieces every few days! Eventually I had all the parts needed and it was time to join them all together.

Here is a close shot showing off some of my fabrics. I can see a few sewing prints with needles, pins, zippers, scissors, etc. There are also some music-themed fabrics, which I have been collecting to make a quilt for my musician husband.

Bonnie's quilt was designed to finish at 75" x 90". I made about 2/3 of all the different units for a finished size of 60" x 75", good for a throw quilt. Here is my version of On Ringo Lake. The red, black and grey fabrics inspired the name for my quilt--Fire and Smoke (On Ringo Lake.) It feels so wonderful to have this one completed!

Fire and Smoke (On Ringo Lake)
60" x 75"

Linking up to:

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Julie in GA

A Mysterious Monday Design Wall

Libby at Life on the Hill has been hosting the Magical Mystery QAL since late February. I joined in on the action a few weeks late, but had no trouble catching up.

Libby had us start with two fat quarters, one light and one dark, which will make four blocks, two each of two different blocks. I started with four fat quarters in red, white & blue, with the idea that I might make enough blocks for a Quilt of Valor

We have made all the various units that will get joined together into blocks, and Libby's reveal happens today. Here's my guess for the final blocks.

I couldn't resist trying out my idea in a couple different layouts. These blocks will be fun to play with (if this is indeed the right block arrangement.)

I can't wait to see Libby's block reveal. She is also going to share some setting options. It's almost time to solve the mystery! Here's the link for the block reveal.

I'm linking up with Libby's Magical Mystery at Life on the Hill. I'm also linking up to Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt, and Moving It Forward at Em's Scrapbag. Check out all of them for tons of amazing quilting inspiration! 

Julie in GA