Rainbow Scrap Challenge Review

I have been participating in Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 7 years now. I have written more than 270 blog posts about these projects and have had a lot of fun making many wonderful quilts from simple scraps. For the last Scrappy Saturday post of the year, I am reviewing the  successes from 2017 and some challenges for 2018.



2017 RSC Accomplishments:

1) I did not start any new RSC projects in 2017!! Woohoo! If you have followed my blog at all, you will recognize that this is really something to be proud of! In spite of all the wonderful inspiration from the weekly link ups, I was able to stay somewhat focused on my ongoing projects and not "squirrel off" into new projects!


2) Mad City Mama  quilt top was finished in December and it's just waiting for quilting. I think I will quilt straight lines using thread colours to match each block. If I pin baste this and quilt one colour each month, it would be finished in 9 months. If a tiny human can be created in 9 months, surely I can finish the creation of this Mama in the same amount of time! LOL

3) I have an almost finished RSC quilt! I'm so close to finishing machine quilting "All tied up in Knots". This was a quilt started in 2012 and was my December project to finish for One Monthly Goal. I hope to be able to start the binding today and maybe finish it tomorrow to squeak in under the wire for a 2017 finish!


2018 Challenges:

1) My goal this year will be to finish some of the wonderful RSC projects from previous years. If I have a couple of them pin basted, I could work away at the quilting instead of piecing more blocks each week. 



2) 2018 will be the year to finish the Alamo Star project. Here are the four patch blocks blocks in a stack. I just knew someone would ask me how many there are, so I counted.... there are 84 so far here and a nice even 90 blocks would be nice to work with.  However this will only be a wallhanging size quilt since these four patch star blocks finish at 4.5".


3) Of course I have a few projects that will need ongoing scrap piecing including Omigosh, Scrappy Sprouts, Maverick Stars, and Circle of Squares and I look forward to continuing to play with scraps in the colour of the month.

A huge thank you to Angela for hosting this weekly link up and inspiring us with ideas for using up our scraps! To see more scrappy accomplishments and goals, hop over to the last RSC link up of 2017.

Scrappy Saturday

I really wanted to finish my RSC Knot blocks quilt this month. It's a project that has been 5+ years in the making and it's time to become a finished quilt. The free motion quilting is done on all 12 Knot blocks. 






The next step is quilting the sashings and borders. I decided to experiment with different sizes of squares and see what kind of continuous line grid could be made. These are the sizes that seemed to fit best.

Once the quilting design was figured out, the next decision was how to mark the pattern. For this project I went with the Sewline pen which disappears over time. The only drawback to this method of marking is that you have to sew it right away. You can't mark the whole quilt and come back the next day to do the quilting because the lines will disappear. In fact, you have to quilt the design quickly because the marks start to fade right away. 
It's possible that this will be a 2017 finish. Being an optimist, I have the binding strips all ready to go!
To see what the other RSC quilters are finishing up today, hop over to the weekly link up.

Scrappy Saturday - Quilt Top Finish

I am so excited to share with my Rainbow Scrap Challenge friends that my "Mad City Mama" blocks have turned into a quilt top! Here is the completed 9th and final block using a ton of lime green scraps. There is so much cutting and sewing of tiny bits and pieces in these blocks by Bonnie Hunter (pattern in Adventures in Leaders and Enders).
As soon as this last block was made, I couldn't wait to get ALL the blocks sewn together. Here they are! That was a lot of seam matching... don't look too closely!

This has been a totally awesome project for using up scraps and I'm so delighted with the outcome! Any ideas for quilting designs are welcome!
Hop over to the Scrap Happy Finishing Fiesta and see what other projects are nearing completion today.

Scrappy Saturday

It's the finishing time of year over at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. There are many half finished scrappy projects sitting around here and they need to move along towards becoming a finished quilt. Some of them have been sitting around a long time and not turning themselves into finished quilts!! What's with that?!?!


This past week I've focused on completing the ninth/last Mad City Mama block using lime green scraps. The strip blocks and the 25 patch blocks are sewn together. The next step is to make a centre block and finish sewing on the light triangle corners.

I have also made some progress on my UFO of the month which is a long term RSC project. The backing was sewn together from 2 pieces of yardage, and pin basting has begun. I am motivated to get the basting job finished quickly because it ties up all my table space.
Hop on over to the RSC linkup to see more projects being completed this week.

December Goals

Here are a few goals I'd like to meet in December:

1) Write a blog entry every day. Cheryl is hosting this challenge for the month of December and I couldn't resist signing up. You can learn more about the challenge and see the participants here. There are quite a few quilters already signed up and many more interesting and new (to me) blogs to check out.

2) Completely finish one more UFO in 2017. I want to finish the Knot Blocks quilt. The quilt top needs to be pin basted, machine quilted and bound in time to be a finished quilt by New Years Eve. To see more UFO goals, hop over to One Monthly Goal link up.

3) Create and wrap a big pile of Christmas gifts for Santa to deliver! Well, that might be a fairly lofty goal to make now since there are only 24 days left before the big day. It's mind boggling all the things that I will accomplish between now and then!


4) Finish the Mad City Mama quilt top. This project just needs one more block and I've been cutting up lime green scraps all week. Here are some of the block parts on the design wall. I have to sew a centre patch, sew 12 light corners on some parts, sew the 5 patch strips together, and then get it altogether. To see more Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects, hop over to the weekly link up.

Scrappy Saturday - Mad City Mama

It's the finishing time of year for our Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects. Last week I got my Knot blocks sewn together into a quilt top and this week I'm on to another RSC project.... Mad City Mama. This is a pattern from one of my all time favourite quilting books called Adventures with Leaders and Enders (see other versions of the block when Bonnie Hunter was teaching her pattern here).

I started these blocks in January 2016 and have had the 8 blocks sewn since the spring. 
This is the place at which many of my projects get stalled - at a decision point near the end of piecing the top. I couldn't decide which colour to pick for the last block. There is no wrong answer here, and I just had to make the decision.

I finally decided that this quilt top is going to be finished in 2017 and that the last block is going to be lime green (which my friend Barbara considers to be a "neutral" colour!!) There are over 130 scraps in each Mad City Mama block, so I have gathered a nice pile of green bits to cut up (sorry about the overexposed photo... lime green is very bright!) and I hope to use this last as a leader-ender project when building my Quiltville mystery blocks.

To see what other RSC projects are being finished up this month, hop over to the weekly link up.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Knots

November and December are for "finishing" Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts. I have "a few" RSC projects that need finishing! At the top of the list is the Knot blocks which were pieced 5 years ago.
Well guess what?
Those blocks are now sewn into a quilt top!
Woohoo!
I debated about the cornerstones quite a bit, but decided to keep them and think it gives the quilt top a bit of a 3D effect. I also debated about a border and the quilt decided it didn't want borders. So the next task is pin basting and then on to quilting. Is it possible that this quilt might get finished in 2017?!?
To see what other RSC quilters are working on, hop over to the weekly linkup.

Scrappy Saturday - All Tied Up in Knots!

For the rest of the year, the Rainbow Scrap Quilters are encouraged to finish up some of their scrappy projects. That is my downfall. I love to use up crumbs and scraps, and sew them into interesting blocks, but then there are all those hard decisions about how to get them into a finished quilt.
At the end of last year, with a lot of effort I was able to finish my Spools quilt top... and even though a whole year has passed, it's still just a quilt top. UGH! For that project I need to purchase a large hand quilting batt, and get it pin basted.
I had a serious talk with myself about setting some goals to finish some of my Rainbow Scrap quilts. I cannot start next year with the same list of unfinished projects as I started this year with!!!
So this month I'm going to focus on my collection of Knot blocks. The pattern is from the Quiltmaker's 100 blocks magazine, issue #3. Did you catch that? Issue THREE! That's how long ago it was that I started this project. 2012! 5 years of indecision is long enough! 
I was going to finish this with the quilt-as-you-go method but I already have another labour intensive QAYG project on the go and it will take at least another year to finish. 
So I'm going to just take the next steps to move this project closer to completion. I found some fun sashing and border fabric and hope to get these blocks sewn into a quilt top soon. 
To see more Rainbow Scrap projects on their way to becoming finished quilts, hop over to the weekly link up.

Scrappy Saturday

block #13

It's the last week for using pink scraps over at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Where did October go?
This week I made another pink block for the "Circle of Squares" collection (free block pattern is here).

Here are the 13 blocks on the design wall. I think I will make 7 more blocks for this quilt. Some colours are noticeably absent and I need to pay attention to this next year and maybe add a dark green, navy blue, a lighter red, brown, etc.
To see more scrappy projects, hop over to the weekly linkup.

Scrappy Saturday

October is pink month for the Rainbow Challenge Quilters. I have sewn together most of my pink Alamo star blocks into 4 patch blocks. They are joining the yellows, blues, purples, and aqua blocks in storage. Soon it will be time to figure out a layout for all these blocks. I think I will need your help when that time comes!
Hop over to SoScrappy to see what other blocks are being sewn with pink scraps!

Red and Pink

My sewing room is full of red and pink scraps today.

The red scraps are for Blockapalooza day for the 70273 Project. To read my blog post from yesterday for more information, click here.
As project captain Jeanne says: "a big Thank You to y'all for helping us remind and/or convince the world that Every life has value. Every. Single. Life."
I'm turning my red scraps into a "Middling" for the 70,273 project. What's a "Middling" you ask? It's a miniature quilt measuring 18" x 22". I only have two blocks started so far.

The pink blocks are part of my Alamo Star collection that I have been working on for 5 years. Yoday I am sewing the pink stars together into 4 patch blocks.


To see what the other Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilters are up to today, hop over to SoScrappy.

Scrappy Saturday

This week is the 4th anniversary of my Omigosh project, so I had to make a few more blocks to celebrate! This is one of my multi-decade projects. 
Last month's colour was orange, and October is pink month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Finally I had a chance to play with my tiniest scraps to make a few more Omigosh blocks.

The grand total of blocks is: 

87 double nine patch
8 scrappy shoefly

After 4 years of adding to the pile, I'm almost half finished the block production. See what I mean about it being a multi-decade project?!?!

To see more scrappy projects in the making, hop over to the  SoScrappy linkup.

Scrappy Saturday

This is the last Saturday of orange month over at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I got a few scraps sewn into useable blocks for various projects over the month. These are the two newest orange scrappy sprout blocks finished this week. For more sprout inspiration, the pattern is here, and you can see a finished version of this block pattern here and a WIP here.



Here is my entire sprout collection on the design wall. Does it need more medium blues/aquas? Yellows/golds?
Purples? Pinks?
Well, I guess it needs more of everything!

Hop over to the weekly link up and see what quilters are sewing with their orange scraps.

Sew a Jelly Roll Day

Did you ever know there was such a day to celebrate?!?!
Today's the day! Hop over to Project Jelly Roll to see what's going on over there.
I have been saving a jelly roll for this very occasion I was hoping to plan a jelly roll sewing party but have been too busy to get it organized. That's a sad state of affairs when you're too busy to plan some fun sewing! But it's Fall Fair season, so sewing time is at a premium.

I did get some maverick star blocks sewn this week from some orange scraps for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. If you asked me if I liked orange I would probably tell you that I don't, but I sure do seem to have a lot of orange fabric scraps laying around here!





Here are the 36 maverick star blocks on the design wall. This project is coming along well!

And now I'm off to see what's going on in computer land to celebrate Jelly Roll day. Are you cracking open a jelly roll today?!?

Happy International Bacon Day!

Do you know what today is? 
Here's a photo clue...
Besides being Scrappy Saturday, it's international bacon day! Yes I know bacon is a terrible food and it's really unhealthy, and we shouldn't eat it. But we do because it's just so darn delicious! We usually save this as a treat to enjoy when we're camping, but today is a special day set aside for bacon lovers, so we're having it!

When not eating bacon, I've been busy organizing some orange fabrics to work with for orange month over at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I sewed another Circle of Squares (pattern here) block using some reddish orange scraps. I found that perfect background fabric in the stash.



I added this to the growing collection of blocks and here they are on the design wall. 12 blocks without sashing makes a rather small lap quilt, so I'm going to keep going with this one and make 8 more blocks. Looks like I'm missing some colours... dark green, navy blue, gold, and brown to name a few. To see more scrappy projects, hop over to the weekly RSC link up.

Scrappy Saturday

Blue is the colour for July over at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 
The Omigosh project saw some scrappy attention this week. I finished 3 alternate shoofly blocks and 1 more double 9 patch block. These blocks use up my smallest 1" scraps. These are fiddly blocks and take just as long as a full size block to make (and sometimes longer if the seam ripper needs to be involved!)

Here's the full blue block collection. Many more shoofly blocks are needed but 3 is a good start!

This is a multi-year (maybe multi-decade project!) and I just sew a few blocks here and there when I have collected enough tiny scraps.

To see more blue scrap projects, hop over to the link up at SoScrappy.

Scrappy Saturday

A couple more blue blocks were added to the Maverick Star collection this week. This a slow growing, no pressure project... just the way I like my quilting to be! The star points are mostly corners cut off of flying geese blocks. This is a free Bonnie Hunter pattern (click here) and uses up lots of scraps. 
To see more Rainbow Scrap projects, hop over to the weekly link up here.

Scrappy Saturday

I'm working away on my collection of Alamo star blocks. 

 I've been making blocks for almost 5 years and this year I am sewing them together into 4 patch blocks with two light colour backgrounds and two dark backgrounds. The star colours in each four patch are random, which I constantly remind myself does not mean "evenly placed"!!  Here are a four more finished green 4 patches from May, and eight blues from this month. The 4 patch blocks measure 4".
To see more Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects, hop over to the weekly link up.

Scrappy Saturday

July is blue month over at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I'm starting off the month by organizing my blue Alamo Stars into 4 patch blocks. I'm surprised that there aren't more blue blocks, but this is all there are to work with. 
What are you sewing for the blue month? Hop over to the link up at SoScrappy.

Scrappy Saturday - Alamo Stars

It's Canada's 150th birthday today and I wrote about it here yesterday so that today I could show the Rainbow Scrap Challenge stitchers my yellow progress this month.

I was able to get all my Alamo Star blocks with yellow backgrounds sewn into 4 patch units! I had to match up a few of the yellows with some darker background blocks using oranges and browns, but I'm happy with them. These 64 star blocks have been sewn into 16 four patch blocks. Let's not mention that I'm still working on the green ones from last month and will now start working on the blue ones also! 
Hop over to the RSC link up to see what the scrap quilters are working on today.