Scrappy Rainbow Saturday--Week 11, 2021

I've got a few different projects in the works for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year, and they are all fun in different ways. There are some blocks that use lots of different fabrics in the monthly color (it's green this month.) I find those easier for choosing fabrics. Just mix up a good variety--light or dark, bright and intense or toned down and moody, modern prints or traditional. They will all work together just fine.

Pulling choices for blocks that use a limited number of fabrics can be more challenging, especially large blocks like the 16.5" Scrap Magnet blocks that I made this week. I considered many options, trying to get the mix just right. I ended up with one block in bright emerald and springy greens.

The second block has the darker forest and olive greens.

Here are the two green blocks together, followed by all of my blocks so far this year. I'm having a great time making these and have to stop myself from jumping ahead and moving on to more colors.

The Scrap Magnet pattern is by Kirsty of Bonjour Quilts.

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 3/9/2021

Happy To-Do Tuesday once again!  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. 

My list for last week was quite short, and I'm happy to have completed everything on it. Besides the items on that list, I also finished three other unplanned tasks:

1. I finally wrote the blog post for my Grassy Creek quilt top and shared it on Monday. There are more photos in the blog post, but I'm so pleased to have this done that I'm sharing the full photo again today.

2. I made Block #21 for the Sewcialites QAL at Fat Quarter Shop.

3. I made 25 Kaleidoscope blocks from 30's fabrics for one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects. You can see the blocks in Saturday's post.

To-Do List for 3/2 - 3/8:

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

I finished 9 green Bowtie blocks last week.

2. Finish secret projects/birthday gifts   ✔done

The gifts all got done on time! I made a pair of shorts plus two grocery bags, and you can see them all in Sunday's Stash Report post.

3. Finish tax prep    ✔done 

It is always a huge relief to have this job finished and delivered.

Today feels like a good time to regroup and reevaluate what I need to be working on this month. For now my list will focus on the ongoing projects that need blocks made, but I would also like to pull out a UFO for finishing.

 

To-Do List for 3/9 - 3/15:

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

2. Scrap Magnet--make two blocks in greens

3. Sewcialites QAL--make block #22

4. Glorified 9Patch--prep green blocks

That should all 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 Chris Knits.

Julie in GA 

Grassy Creek top done!

It has taken awhile, but I am finally ready to share photos of my completed Grassy Creek quilt top, the 2020 Bonnie Hunter mystery.

Grassy Creek, 64" x 79"

When I finished the top, we were going through a stretch of far too many grey, rainy days to get good outdoor photos. I tried taking some photos indoors first, and this was the best of the lot. The colors are more true in the previous photo.

This mystery was one of the extremely rare instances where I chose to use the same colors for the quilt as the designer. I liked Bonnie's fall inspiration and had been wanting to make a quilt with those colors. My biggest change was using a single grey fabric instead of scraps and strings for the grey areas.

There were some adjustments to my color palette that happened along the way. After Bonnie revealed the finished quilt in January, I put together some blocks and sashing units, then put them all together on the design wall. That's when I realized that my fall color scheme had wandered off track.

Bonnie's design used "parakeet" yellow-greens, which to my eye looked much too bright for fall colors. Of the blocks I had made, only the one at the top left of the previous photo seemed right. I ended up rejecting or remaking the rest of the blocks and most of the nine-patches. Here is my second attempt at the blocks, which made me much happier.

It is always a good feeling to finish the piecing on a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt. Anyone who has done one of her mysteries knows from the outset that there will be many small pieces, and string piecing is frequently included. I skipped the string piecing on this one, using a single grey fabric instead, and that saved lots of time. Here is a closer look at the assembly of part of my quilt.

The size of Bonnie's finished quilt was 94" x 94", and it has 25 blocks in it. I considered making the whole quilt, but wasn't ready to commit to that at the beginning. I started out making about 2/3 of each of the units in Bonnie's instructions, but ended up using only 12 blocks in my version. The finished size of my top is 64" x 79".

After the center of the quilt was together, I searched my stash for an appropriate border fabric. I wasn't having much luck until I ran across this leafy sunprint that was leftover from backing an earlier quilt. These are the colors that say fall to me.

I have one last photo to share--the stained-glass look with the quilt top hanging over the deck railing.

For anyone interested in making Bonnie's Grassy Creek quilt, the mystery clues have been taken down from her blog. However, it is available as a pattern booklet from her Quiltville store HERE.

Linking up with:

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt
Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

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 10, 2021

The majority of my sewing time last week was not spent quilting, but I was using quilt fabrics. I made a pair of pj shorts as a birthday gift for my guy (he loves hot peppers.) The hem is pinned up until we can check the length.

The other items made from quilting fabrics were two bags for grocery shopping. We used to have several of these that I had made, but someone walked off with our cart at the store several months ago. We never did find the person, our cart, or the bags that had been in the bottom of the cart.

There was a little bit of quilting done too--I used 1.25 yards for the 25 Kaleidoscope blocks I made from my 30's reproductions. You can see those in yesterday's post.

The amounts of fabric used were 1-5/8 yards for the shorts, 7/8 yard for each of the grocery bags, and 1-1/4 yards for the Kaleidoscope blocks. Total used was 4-5/8 yards, and no new fabric was added to the stash.

2021 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                            4.625 yards

Used year to date:                          56.0 yards

Added last week:                              0.0 yards

Added year to date:                      11.50 yards

Net used year to date                 44.5 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. Despite spending most of my stitching time working on those gift projects, I did get in a little bit of quilting every day too. 

15 Minute Challenge for 2021: 

2/28 - 3/6                  7 of 7 days

2021 Total              65 of 65 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 10, 2021

It has been a busy week, which put me behind on making my first set of green blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Today I managed to finish my 25 green Kaleidoscope blocks made with 30's reproductions.

30's Kaleidoscopes, 6" blocks (finished size)

I'm going to try to finish cutting the 3.5" strips from the 30's colors that haven't been used yet in the RSC. Besides green, we have already used pink and yellow. I have already cut strips from all of my red and orange 30's fabrics, and all that's left are the blues and purple/lavenders, plus a few multicolor prints.

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 3/2/2021

Happy To-Do Tuesday once again!  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. 

I didn't do very well with my list from last week, just one item done and progress made on another. However, I did finish the quilting and binding on a different project that wasn't even on the list, so I call that a win! This is my Sister's Choice quilt.

Sister's Choice, 52" x 66"

To-Do List for 2/23 - 3/1:

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

I ended up with 36 yellow bowtie blocks for February.

2. Grassy Creek mystery--write blog post   not done

3. Stay-at-Home Round Robin (SAHRR)--plan the next border    not done

4. Finish secret projects/birthday gifts!         progress

I'm keeping the list super short for the next week. I want to stay on track with my daily bowtie blocks, and the secret/gift projects must get finished this week. Besides those, I also need to finish getting our tax info together, plus do some cleaning up in the sewing room.

1. Bowties 365--make one bowtie block every day    

2. Finish secret projects/birthday gifts!   

That should all 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 Chris Knits.

Julie in GA 

Design Wall Monday 3/1/2021

We were so fortunate with our weather over the weekend here in north Georgia, with beautifully warm days just meant for long walks and sitting on the front porch. That warm weather has also helped the spring flowers. This was the first of our daffodils to bloom, and there are many more now. 

The anticipation of spring always makes me want to play with bright, cheery fabrics in my quilt projects. Fortunately, I have two current projects using 1930's reproductions that fill that requirement. Yesterday I pulled out all 20 of the blocks I've made for the Sewcialites QAL, sponsored by the Fat Quarter Shop. 

My blocks will finish at 6", but the patterns also include cutting instructions for 3" and 9" blocks. Imagine how tiny some of those pieces would be for 3" blocks! It has been so much fun to go through my box of 30's fabrics each week and choose which one to use for the next block. The patterns are scheduled to continue until mid-June, for a total of 36 blocks. Here is the official final design, but I probably won't do this layout with my blocks.

You can still find the patterns for all of the Sewcialites blocks at the Fat Quarter Shop blog. They are a great source for fun quilt-alongs, with a new one, the Serendipity quilt, scheduled to start in two weeks. 

I'm linking up to:

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 9, 2021

When I started tallying up the numbers for my weekly stash report, I made the happy discovery that none of the fabric used in my recently finished Sister's Choice quilt had been previously reported. Most of the time, I count fabric as used as I make progress on a quilt. For instance, I will report the fabric in the blocks when they are all made, then later count the fabric in the sashing and/or borders when that step is complete, and the backing and binding after those tasks are finished. For the Sister's Choice quilt, the numbers had already been calculated, but never listed on a stash report. The total amount of fabric used in that quilt was 7.5 yards.

My other usage for last week was 3/4 yard for six Blooming Onion blocks (which I showed in yesterday's post) and 1.25 yards for 36 yellow bowtie blocks. My plan for the year is to make one bowtie block every day, following the color of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge when possible. I've managed to get ahead a bit, making a total of 72 blocks in the first 58 days of the year.

My usage for the past week totals 9.5 yards, and no new yardage was added to the stash!

2021 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                               9.5 yards

Used year to date:                      51.375 yards

Added last week:                              0.0 yards

Added year to date:                      11.50 yards

Net used year to date             39.875 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. Finishing the Sister's Choice quilt became my top priority for the week, and I worked on that every day.

15 Minute Challenge for 2021: 

2/21- 2/27                7 of 7 days

2021 Total              58 of 58 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

Sister's Choice Quilt Finished!

In an attempt to finish some of the many UFOs that are hanging out in my sewing room,  I am participating in the One Monthly Goal link-up at Elm Street Quilts. 

My goal for February was to finish the quilting on my blue and yellow Sister's Choice quilt. I didn't touch this quilt until the very last week of the month, but I am very happy to report that not only is the quilting is done, but I also added the binding to this quilt. It needs to be washed, but otherwise, it's FINISHED!

Sister's Choice, 52" x 66"

This quilt has been an on-again, off-again project for several years. It started in 2013 as a pile of scrappy blue and yellow 9-patch blocks. In 2018 I added the blue triangles to turn the 9-patches into Sister's Choice blocks. I stitched the blocks together into rows, then quilted each row before joining them together, my own variation on quilt as you go. The only part that still needed quilting was most of the border sections, and now those are done too!

This is one of my favorite blocks in the quilt. I especially love the center fabric with the bees. You also get a good look at some of the other fabrics, plus the quilting shows up well. There's straight-line quilting in the center star, meandering in the white background, wavy lines in the sashing (especially visible across the top,) and a diagonal grid in the border at the right.

The back of the quilt was pieced from chunks of several older blue prints. The horizontal seams line up with the seams where the rows of blocks and sashing were joined together on the front of the quilt. The colors don't really look as grey as they appear in this photo.

Linking up with:

One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts

Rainbow Scrap Challenge at soscrappy

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

Favorite Finish at Meadow Mist Designs

Thanks God It's Finished Friday (TGIFF) at Rebecca Grace Quilting

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Scrappy Rainbow Saturday--Week 9, 2021

February has been the perfect month to play with yellow scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The sunny warmth has brightened up many dreary days.

I have three regular projects in the works for the RSC this year, and I decided to put the yellow blocks from all three up on the wall together. 

I made two Scrap Magnet blocks (upper left), one Sew Colorful Stars block (upper right) and 27 bowtie blocks. Putting them all up on the wall together gives a good look at the size differences--the blocks in the top row all finish at 16 or 16.5", and the bowtie blocks will finish at 5".

As soon as that last sentence was written, I realized that there is another RSC project that I missed--my 30's kaleidoscope blocks. That means I have four RSC projects this year. Here are the kaleidoscope blocks, 26 of them altogether.

Since I had finished all of my regular RSC projects early this month, I pulled out some yellow crumbs and made four 6" blocks. These will join a stack of crumb blocks in other colors from previous years.

I also stitched together the last of the yellow blocks that I had cut back in January when I was getting ready to start my Blooming Onion quilt. That gave me a total of six of those blocks.

I've had a great time stitching up yellow scraps this month, but now I am ready to get started on a new color. Maybe Angela will let us know today what the color will be for March.

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