Design Wall Monday 2/5/2024

It's the last thing I should be doing, but I've started another new quilt-along project. This is my first block for the Chatsworth Quilt-Along.

Chatsworth, Block 1

16" finished size block

When I finished my first block, there was one happy surprise (how well those red and blue stripes almost lined up) and one unpleasant discovery (the darker blue is two different prints.) I don't think most people will notice, and I'm certainly not going to change it now!

The Chatsworth pattern was designed by Doug Leko of Antler Quilt Design, and the quilt-along is hosted by Moda Fabrics. The quilt finishes at 74" x 88", but the book also includes other size variations and layouts.

Chatsworth by Doug Leko

74" x 88"

Here are some of the other Chatsworth color variations from the pattern book. I considered making a Christmas version like the one at the center, but decided to go with the red, white and blue instead.

Chatsworth color variations

Check out what other quilters are working on this week at Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and at Monday Musings at Songbird Designs. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Stash Report and Stitching Time 2/4/2024

Our quilt guild recently received a large donation of fabric from a quilter who was downsizing. After our January meeting, the fabric was up for sale at $4/yard. I took full advantage and ended up bringing home 16 yards in a variety of sizes from scraps and 1/4 yard pieces up to a 4-yard length of a dark navy, shown across the top. It's hard to resist bargains like that!

On the usage side of my report, there was 2 yards used for the sashing and borders on my Jabberwocky quilt top (see it HERE.)

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                       2.0 yards

Used year to date:                 8.75 yards

Added last week:                   16.0 yards

Added year to date:               17.5 yards

Net added in 2024:            8.75 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. The start of a new month means new blocks for some of the quilt-alongs I have joined. There should be some new blocks finished and ready to be shown soon!

15 Minute Challenge for 2024: 

1/28 - 2/3            7 of 7 days

2024 Total        34 of 34 days

Success rate                100%

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces. Thanks so much to Donna and Kate for continuing to host these link-ups.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Jabberwocky Top Finished!

January has been a busy month including lots of quilting time. I've started way too many new quilts, but I'm very happy to have made progress on one of my projects from last year too. This is my finished Jabberwocky quilt top!

Jabberwocky, block pattern by Judy Martin

65" wide x 76.75" long

The Jabberwocky block pattern is by Judy Martin in The Block Book. That was the name she used for her block, and I didn't see any reason to change it for my quilt. The book is out of print, but you can still buy it online.

The star blocks for this quilt were made all throughout 2023 as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The last blocks were made in October, then it was time to figure out my setting. After many auditions, I chose to offset the columns of blocks, and I used a grey spotty fabric as the sashing and borders. Here are a few of my favorite blocks.

Finishing this quilt top was my One Monthly Goal for January. Success at my first OMG of the year sure feels good!

Linking up with:

Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication

Wednesday Wait Loss at Inquiring Quilter

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

Rainbow Scrap Challenge at So Scrappy

Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework

One Monthly Goal at Stories from the Sewing Room

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

SAHRR 2024--Round 2

The second border assignment for the 2024 Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR) was announced yesterday. Here is the direction we got from Anja: "using only 2 colours, you can do whatever you want for this round." Well, that left it wide open. Sometimes that can make things harder to decide, but surprisingly enough, I didn't have any problems.

Our previous assignment was signature blocks, and I made 13 of them in various greens. I liked the way they looked with my main block and decided to make more with red fabrics. The red blocks were all finished the very same day that the round 2 assignment was announced! None of the signature blocks are sewn together yet, since I'm not sure how they will be used in my final quilt.

This week's link-up is at Anja's blog, Anja Quilts, and the entire 2024 SAHRR schedule is below.

January 15: Center block: Gail @ Quilting Gail

January 22: 1st Round:   Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

January 29: 2nd Round:   Anja @ Anja Quilts

February 5: 3rd Round:  Emily @ The Darling Dogwood

February 12: 4th Round:  Brenda @ Songbird Designs

February 19: 5th Round: Gail @ Quilting Gail

February 26: 6th Round: Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing

March 18:   Parade: showing all of your finished SAHRRs!

 

Next Monday we will find out another new border assignment. It's unlikely that I will finish it as quickly as this week's round, but who knows what might happen!

Happy quilting!

Julie in GA

Stash Report and Stitching Time 1/28/2024

It has been a very busy week in my sewing room, and I'm a little overwhelmed by the number of projects in the works. It has also been a very productive week, with two placemats being finished and one quilt top nearly assembled. There was 1 yard of fabric used for the placemats. You can see them HERE and HERE.

I've gotten rather carried away with joining quilt-alongs plus starting new projects for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge already this year. Most of these will be continuing for several months, and it is already proving to be easiest to total up the yardage for all of them near the end of the month. Here's what I've made so far. All measurements listed are for the finished sizes of the blocks.

Hen and Chicks, RSC 2024 Sampler

3" blocks + 6" blocks

Hollow 9-Patch, 6" blocks

Rail Fence Spinners, 6" blocks

Laundry Basket Quilts Birthday Blocks

6" blocks

Jen's Color Challenge, 12" blocks

SAHRR 2024

16" Liberty Legacy block

3" signature blocks

Added together, the fabric used for all of those many blocks totals about 2 yards. The Hollow 9-Patch and Rail Fence Spinners have both been used as leader/ender blocks, so I might end up making more of those before the end of the month. If so, I will just count the fabric used with next month's totals.

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                       3.0 yards

Used year to date:                 6.75 yards

Added last week:                     1.5 yards

Added year to date:                 1.5 yards

Net used in 2024:               5.25 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. The past week had seemed especially busy with different quilting projects, but I was a little shocked when I counted up 9 different quilts having been worked on over the last 7 days. It's no wonder I feel like I'm going in a million directions!

15 Minute Challenge for 2024: 

1/21 - 1/27          7 of 7 days

2024 Total        27 of 27 days

Success rate                100%

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces. Thanks so much to Donna and Kate for continuing to host these link-ups.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

SAHRR Round 1

Last week I shared a few blocks that were being considered as the center block of this year's Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR) project. Later that same day, I made yet another block, but I still haven't decided which one I might use. There's even a chance I will use them all!

The block at the lower left is the newest addition. It is the center block of Kim Diehl's Liberty Legacy quilt, a free pattern from Henry Glass fabrics. Here's the newest block by itself. It is definitely my favorite of the group.

Our assignment this week came from Wendy at Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life. She chose signature blocks for the first round. I started out by making some samples to help me decide on the scale for the corner triangles. 

As you can see above, changing the size of the corners also changes the width of the center diagonal strip. I decided to go with the middle version, and made up a dozen of them in different green fabrics.

I also tried the signature blocks out with the whole group of star blocks, but it's not terribly successful. I have no idea where I'm headed with this project, and I'm not going to stress out over it. I'm just following the prompts and seeing where they take me.

This week's link-up is at Wendy's blog, Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life, and the rest of the 2024 SAHRR schedule is below.

January 29: 2nd Round:   Anja @ Anja Quilts

February 5: 3rd Round:  Emily @ The Darling Dogwood

February 12: 4th Round:  Brenda @ Songbird Designs

February 19: 5th Round: Gail @ Quilting Gail

February 26: 6th Round: Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing

March 18:   Parade: showing all of your finished SAHRRs!

 

On Monday we will find out our next border assignment. I'm looking forward to seeing what lies ahead.

Happy quilting!

Julie in GA

Green Table Scraps Challenge and More

One of the items on this week's quilting to-do list was to finish up my entry for the January Table Scraps Challenge, hosted by The Joyful Quilter. My plan for this challenge is to continue making monthly placemats, which will later be donated to Meals on Wheels.

We start with scraps in the color of the month from the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and this month was bright and dark green. We also had the suggested theme of "snowflakes," but I didn't include any in my placemat.

I started with a few green crumb blocks, using one for the center of the star. The other two were sliced in half to become part of the side borders. I even managed to find the dark green triangles for the star points in my box of leftover triangles.

The back is an oldie, "Nouveau" by Sentimental Studios for Moda, which I purchased for a class project around 2009. It's funny how I have no memory of where or when I bought some fabrics, but others like this one bring back very strong memories. I'm still enjoying using it all these years later.

I'll share a photo of my current RSC projects on this last Saturday of our month for green scraps. Strangely enough, almost all of them feature 6" blocks. 

Top row: Laundry Basket Quilts Birthday Blocks

2nd row: RSC Hen and Chicks Sampler

Left side: Rail Fence Spinners

Right side: Hollow 9-Patch

Bottom right: Table Scraps placemat

I might end up with a couple more of the Rail Fence or Hollow 9-Patch blocks in green since we still have several more days before the end of the month (or I might just start in on next month's color of red.)

Be sure to check out all of the wonderful scrappy projects at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge every Saturday. I'm also linking up with the Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter and Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Project Quilting 15.2: Sky Color

The second challenge for Season 15 of Project Quilting was announced on Sunday, and the theme was "Sky Color." Here's the challenge:

Take inspiration from the colors of the sky, but exclude or use less than 10% of the usual blue.

It took me a few days to figure out how I wanted to interpret the theme. Most of my ideas were for scrappy projects, and I didn't have the time or energy to pull out a whole pile of fabrics in order to cut them all. The plan finally came together after I discovered a Zip-loc bag of scraps from an earlier project.

These pieces were all leftovers from my Blooming Onion quilt, made in early 2021. The colors were perfect for the project I had in mind. 

Blooming Onion, 60.5" x 80.5"

The pieces I used measured about 2" x 4.75" each. I arranged them in a gradation of the colors of a  sunrise. They were all pieced together into a placemat measuring 12" x 16".

For the back, I used an old favorite Hoffman Fabrics gradation print. I had previously used the same fabric in my Project Quilting Mystery quilt earlier this month. 

Linking up with:

Project Quilting 15.2 at Persimon Dreams

Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation

Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts

Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA

Design Wall Monday 1/22/2024

My One Monthly Goal for January is to turn my pile of Jabberwocky blocks (a Judy Martin pattern from The Block Book) into a quilt top. I've gotten all of the blocks stitched into columns with the horizontal sashing strips and put them up on the design wall with the vertical sashing plus the borders. I couldn't quite get the whole thing into my photo. The long columns actually have six blocks each.

When I showed the first two columns a couple days ago, I was uncertain about the larger grey areas at the ends of the offset columns. Now that the borders are up there too, I think it's going to be fine. Now I need to measure those columns of blocks and mark the sashing and borders to match, then get them all stitched together.

Check out what other quilters are working on this week at Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and at Monday Musings at Songbird Designs. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA 

Stash Report & Stitching Time 1/21/2024

The stash report this week shows the first fabric addition for the year. Angela Walters is teaching the Dot to Dot FMQ Challenge, and I decided just after Christmas to take part. Unfortunately, the panel was out of stock at that time, but it finally arrived this week. The lessons started on January 2nd, so I've got some catching up to do on that quilt-along. The panel measures 1.5 yards.

Fortunately, I have some usage to report too. I used two yards of this Hawaiian print for the back and binding of a small quilt (see the quilt HERE.)

2024 STASH TOTALS

Used last week:                       2.0 yards

Used year to date:                 3.75 yards

Added last week:                     1.5 yards

Added year to date:                 1.5 yards

Net used in 2024:               2.25 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. The first half of the week was spent finishing the charm square quilt, and I have primarily been joining a set of blocks together since then.

15 Minute Challenge for 2024: 

1/14 - 1/20          7 of 7 days

2024 Total        20 of 20 days

Success rate                100%

Check out more stash reports at quiltpaintcreate and join the 15 Minutes to Stitch Challenge at Life in Pieces. Thanks so much to Donna and Kate for continuing to host the link-ups.

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA