ProjectQUILTING - PQ 17.5 - My Complements

MY COMPLEMENTS

Welcome to The Joyful Quilter!!  And... Welcome to the wonderful world of Project QUILTING hosted by Kim Lapacek @ Persimon Dreams!!  This is my 6th year of participation in the Challenge.  Trish Frankland @ QuiltChicken is the creator of the crazy challenges that participants will face during the next 4 weeks.

Sassy @ Farm Quilter got me started at the beginning of Season 11 by inviting her readers to join in the fun.  I accepted her invitation and the rest is history.  I wasn't sure if I would be dragging along my friend LeeAnna @ Not Afraid of Color for this season, as she has had some other things on her mind recently, but she decided she might be up for the challenge after all.  Would YOU like to join me in this creative journey, too?  Jump in at any time. 

FAIR WARNING:  It's a wild ride, but oh SEW rewarding!

Challenges are given and start to finish you have ONE WEEK to complete your project.  PQ 17.5 can be found at THIS LINK:

Step One...

Nod my head.   This could be a very interesting exercise.

Step Two...

Read the instructions to see what is required of the fifth challenge.  Here's what Trish had to say:

Project Quilting Challenge 17.5 - My Complements

We're all about color this week - specifically, complementary colors. Find two colors that are opposite one another on the color wheel, and focus your project on mainly those two colors. You may add other colors, shades, and hues, but I want to see two dominant complementary colors right away when I look at your completed project.

She went on to say the following:

 

... You may add other colors, shades and hues, but I want to see two dominant complementary colors right away when I look at your completed project.

Step Three...

Consider the prompt against the image that flashed through my head when I read what this week's challenge involved.

Does it pass muster, Joyful???

Maybe.  I'll have to give it a bit more thought.

Step Four...

Head up to the studio to decide on my supplies:

Spoiler Alert!  Whatever I make will most likely incorporate at least one scrap of RED fabric.  After all, that's the March Color of the Month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge:

Tutorial for these baskets can be found HERE.

Step Five...

Review the rules:

Rule One: use two dominant complementary colors in your completed project.

Projects need to be created during the week of the challenge (started on or after March 1, finished by March 8).

You have one week to meet the challenge. Every challenge piece must be a FINISHED project seen through from INCEPTION to COMPLETION during the challenge timeline – that is, started on or after March 1st, 2026, and linked up by noon Central Time March 8th, 2026.

Each piece must stand alone as DONE to count.

Your project does not need to be a traditional quilt, but must meet at least one of these requirements: include patchwork, include appliqué, have 3 layers stitched together by hand or machine.

Incomplete or unfinished does not qualify. Every challenge piece must be a FINISHED project seen through from INCEPTION to COMPLETION during the challenge timeline.

Step Six... Think about getting to work!!!

I thought I would jump right in this week, as DH was away when the prompt went live and I had no afternoon Zoom meetings scheduled.  Alas, I got distracted by another project.

Here is a bit of my construction process...

(Scroll down to the bottom of the post NOW, if you don't care to see a blow by blow of the making of my quilt.)

FOUR DAYS LATER...

Step Seven... Start cutting!!!

The original plan was sound, but on Thursday morning, I had another idea that really intrigued me.  I decided that it was worth experimenting with for this week's prompt.  Here are the strips that I cut for that purpose:

Not long after, the search for focal fabric began in my Quilted Holiday Scrap Basket...

But...

The top of the open bag shown below held the funky cut scrap you see.  It told me that it REALLY needed to be showcased in the center portion of my challenge entry.  When a fabric is SEW convincing, I just HAD to see if it had a valid point:

Assembly followed...

Here's the quilt top in its beginning stages, but trust that it came together quickly during Friday Friends art zoom on Get Messy:

Next up???

It was quilted during Friday night's Weekly Evening Art Zoom.  Although, since it was constructed Quilt-As-You-Go style, I could have left is as it came off the machine:

Soon enough...

My entry was quilted and squared (rectangled?) up:

That left the question of binding, but what shall I use???

I tried a selection of RED scraps, but none of them seemed to work as well as this offcut from the fabric I used in last weekend's Boutique Tote.  I did feel the necessity to cut out the orange portions of the strips!  As per usual, I attached the binding to the back then (after the photo) it was folded to the front to stitch down by machine:

With the binding made, applied and stitched down, I'm am pleased to present my completed my completed entry for PQ 17.5:

There is usually a reason that I participate in these challenges...

... And this time, it was creating a new table topper for my bedside table.  Thank you, ProjectQUILTING, for giving me fun ways to stretch my creativity with every challenge prompt!

There you have it...

Process, product, and the REAL reason for accepting this Challenge.

Follow THIS LINK to the Season 17 overview.  Check back on the Challenge release days (or sign-up to be notified automatically) and there may be one that YOU just can't resist.

It's a SHORT turnaround time!

Depending on the size and complexity of your project, that doesn't HAVE to be insurmountable.  With a little creativity and a few evenings, you really CAN do this!  My project was begun with 4 days into the PQ17.5 challenge and was completed with about 3 hours shy of a full day to spare!  

Until next time...

Challenge accepted!!!

Remember:  If I can do this, YOU can do it, too!

(Plus, there's a spot to post your completed Project QUILTING inspired projects AFTER the deadline for any of the challenges.)

ScrapHappy Saturday - RSC26 - Week 10

Welcome to Week 10 of the 2025 Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!  This week has been planned differently than most.  A number of days are a bit mixed up.  No worries!  I'll make it work while focusing on my RED scraps for the Rainbow Scrap challenge:

Walk with me through the last 7 days...

SUNDAY - Weekly Morning Art Zoom found me working on a black and white page in my Collage Scraps journal:

I remembered to switch out my gallery wire to reflect the Color of the Month for the RSC:

The RED and block one on the right was a gift from my friend Dee Dee.

I'm still enjoying it after all these years.  Thanks again, friend!

MONDAY - The LAST Curiosity Collective met today.  :o((

Here is the page I made using Claudette's "All the Colors" lesson in the Get Messy Color book:

Tammy Kaye hosted another FREE watercolor workshop on painting her Loose Florals:

Later, I met for my Weekly Zoom Call with LeeAnna @ Not Afraid of Color:

TUESDAY - TidyUp Tuesday

I went to Britt's house for an ART-venture.  She made other plans for Thursday so we worked in our Ledger journals this morning...

After lunch, Britt helped me with my March project for our group's UFO Challenge, turning it from a me-project to a we-project with the addition of a fabric for the alternate blocks and a binding fabric, if those choices stick:

Tuesday Explorers Open Studio on Get Messy was spent laying out a GF page in my personal journal:

WEDNESDAY - Wonderful Wednesday

During Midweek Meetup I worked on a purple page in my Collage Scraps journal:

Later, I attended another watercolor workshop with Olga Koelsch titled "How to Paint Transparent Flowers" and this was my resulting painting:

THURSDAY - Weekly Quilt Group

I stayed home to work on this week's ProjectQUILTING challenge...

But met a few of my beemates at the Art Feeds the Soul Quilt Show in Elon once the meeting was done:

FRIDAY - Fasting Labs...

Were followed by Knit Group:

After lunch, I headed up to Get Messy's Friday Friends Open Studio.  I spent time chatting with my art friends while assembling my PQ17.5 entry:

During my Weekly Evening Art Zoom, Britt and I chatted for a few minutes before anyone else arrived:

I worked on quilting the project I assemble this afternoon...

When the quilting was done...

I worked on this white and black page in my Collage Scraps journal using UPC codes from food packaging and magazine images:

SATURDAY - It's LINK PARTY day for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  I hope you will join me in visiting Angela @ So Scrappy to see what the RSC Quilters have been up to this week.  Here's the other half of my gallery wire dressing RED scrappy goodness:

Silly me!!  I was so anxious to get up to the studio when this post was done and released early this morning that I completely forgot to link up until 12 HOURS later...  Whoops!

Until next time...

Get SCRAPPY!!

Wonderful Wednesday - Blue and Green Donation Quilt - A Winter 2026 (Ravelry) UFO Club Finish

Welcome to another edition of Wonderful Wednesday!!  I'm here to share my 2nd UFO finish of 2026. Let's reflect on the making of this quilt...

It began when I gathered supplies for SECU Family House Sew Day September 2025.  I like to take an extra project in case I finish up early.  I used the Design Floor to plan this layout:

Then it became one of my retreat projects in October 2025

I got the bits assembled into rows, but discovered that I had more blue strips and the quilt was smaller than I would have preferred...

So...

My quilting friends came to the rescue, as a number of them had green scraps which they were kind enough to donate to the cause.  The extra rows made a big difference:

Special thanks to Britt, Kristen, Stacy, Marianne and anyone else who contributed!

The resulting row sat for quite some time before I managed to give them a bit of machine time.  The paired rows found themselves waiting by the machine for MONTHS waiting to be assembled into a top:

Finally, at the end of BLUE month for the 2026 Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I assembled the top and it was ready for quilting:

If you're in the Quilters Knitting group on Ravelry you may have already seen it, but here's the story of my Blue and GREEN Retreat Quilt...

I feel really good about the fact that this quilt top only waited a few months for quilting.  I even had a scrap of backing fabric in my stash:

Special thanks to Britt for making time for me to quilt it on her machine:

I feel SEW lucky to have such a good friend!!

Since I wanted it done fast, I went for a large meander for the quilting:

With the quilting done, that only left the trimming and binding!!!

Here it is all squared up:

Next came the binding adventure...

Options One and Two:

Options Three and Four:

Option Five, tested along the left edge, was the ultimate winner since I had originally hoped that there were enough bright green scraps for the entire project.  Lime binding?  Just right:

There was only a single 1" strip from the selvage remaining once I had enough cut for the circumference of the quilt.  Here I am applying the binding to the back of the quilt...

Where's the adventure in that, Joyful???

Well, just look how far that "perfect" binding took me:

That gap is where the real adventure came in.  Finding a matching shade of green was like searching for a needle in a haystack.  After searching the GREEN Quilted Scrap Basket, I found one that worked:

Soon enough the problem was resolved...

Late this afternoon, as the sky was beginning to darken, I finished sewing down that binding.  Here is the completed quilt in my traditional porch swing photo:

I'm SEW glad to get this finished in a somewhat timely fashion.  It was completely made of scraps.  I believe the stack of  blue strips were leftovers from one of Francine projects.  The green squares from my scrap basket.  If YOU contributed to my scrap stash, THANK YOU!

I might not have completed this quilt without the UFO Challenge hosted by my Bee.  Thanks, Maggie, for suggesting we play the UFO Number Game and to Britt for taking the lead.  This is also my 2nd finish for the Winter 2026 session of the UFO Club on Ravelry.  I couldn't be happier.

Until next time...

Mark another UFO off the list!!

TidyUp Tuesday - The 100 Day Project 2026 - Week 1

Welcome to the 2026 edition of #100Days100ThingsDecluttered, a new mini-series here at The Joyful Quilter!!  I started The 100 Day Project last week.  I'm excited that I've committed to it, again.  It's particularly popular on Instagram.  I was hesitant to participate before last year.  I'll be releasing weekly updates on Tidy Up Tuesday for those of you who might be interested in seeing what goes out the door.

What did you say your project was, again, Joyful???

I signed up with a different idea in mind than most.  You can read about it HERE.  That link will tell you all about my project.

The gist of my focus...

Decluttering my home and studio in an effort to free up space for MORE creativity.

Here's my progress for Week One:

I off to a bit of a slow start.  I really can’t imagine that I will do as well as I did last year.  Unloading 6 times as many things out of the house as I had hoped was mind-blowing, but I’ll give it a good try.

I got rid of the following items:

2 cans of food (Admission to DOQ Boutique Workday)
1 pr of (broken) boots - trashed
1 bag of ruined items from DH’s shop (also trashed)
12 FQs of fabric to quilting friends

Week 1 Total for the 100 Day Project: 16/100

I didn't get a photo for Week One.  I'll try not to make that mistake again.

Thank you to those of you who encouraged me in my decluttering efforts as I kicked off this challenge!  I appreciate your kind comments and your willingness to cheer me along.  Sara @ My Sewing Room had this to say:

You always do a great job of decluttering with this challenge, and you've taken me along the last 2 years. I actually have 1 donation box started but haven't tracked anything yet. This year I may need some extra kicks in the tush to get going again. LOL

As Sara mentioned, she has participated alongside me in this challenge since I took it on.  I'm glad she has her donation box ready and is ready to give decluttering another try.  I love the fact that I have an accountability buddy and wish her success again this year.

 

@dothe100dayproject

#The100DayProject

#DoThe100DayProject

#100Days100Things_TheDeclutterEdition

#100Days100ThingsDecluttered

#filltheboxjoy

Come back next week to see what goes in the box during the next 7 days.  You can also follow me on Instagram @thejoyfulquilter, if you are there more often than in BlogLand.

** Updated to add the 2 cans of food that I accidentally omitted.

Until next time...

Do the 100 Day Project!!!