Rainbow Scrap Challenge Review

It's time for the last Rainbow Scrap Challenge link up of the year, which is the perfect time to review the RSC progress made in 2020. It was another productive year here in my studio, sewing up little bits of fabric that most sane quilters throw in the garbage.

My favourite RSC inspired quilt finish of the year is called Shoo Fly, which was the Quiltville leader-ender project in 2019. I sewed a few blocks each month using scraps in the colour of the month and put the blocks together with sashing. Such a happy quilt made with leftovers (except the sashing and backing). Even the binding was made from scraps! 

My favourite RSC quilt top that was put together this year (and is waiting for quilting) is the Squared Away sampler from 2018. Did you sew along with the sampler that year? So fun to try a new pattern each month - thanks to Angela and Mari for this great quilt pattern... the block patterns are still posted if you want to make any of them! 

Ongoing RSC projects that will carry over into 2021 are... 

Easy Breezy

1. Easy Breezy leader-ender challenge - more colours will be added until July when the new challenge comes out, or if it gets too large, whichever comes first!

Wishing Rings

2. Wishing Rings - I'm losing interest in this one, so I'll add the colours I'm missing and finish it up this year.

Log Cabin Loonies

3. Log cabin - I enjoy making these blocks randomly as the scraps accumulate, so I'll keep going with this one. These are made with 1" strips.

Mini Arrowhead

4. Mini arrowhead - this project is still my favourite! I started making these in the summer of 2018 but I'm not done yet! I like sewing these blocks each month and I'm joining them into 4 patch blocks to make the construction easier at the end...whenever that will be!

Waflles

5. Waffle blocks - Nann inspired me to start making these blocks in June. Each waffle uses ten 1.5" squares. It still needs a lot of colours added.

QAYG Selvages

6. Selvage strings - this is a fairly new project and I've only sewn a few blocks in yellow month. I'm looking forward to making many more blocks in the quilt-as-you-go style. And that's what's been going on in my quilt studio this year. I'm so thankful to Angela for this scrap challenge which is such a wonderful way to use up scraps, maintain motivation to sew, and  make interesting quilts!

Linking up to RSC for the last time in 2020!

Scrappy Saturday

The RSC colour for December is dark neutrals and I have been continuing to sew random leader-ender Easy Breezy blocks as scraps accumulate on the cutting table. They don't look like much on their own but when they join the other colours, it's magical!

Here is the collection of blocks I've made since July.  I love the variety of scraps! I plan to keep making blocks into 2021 for this project and fill in the colours that are underrepresented.

Linking up to the weekly RSC party

Scrappy Saturday

Somehow I misplaced the cord to download phone photos to my computer. There are just too many things for my poor old brain to remember! My Saturday post is late because a blog post really needs to have the corresponding photos!

And here is more  evidence of my poor struggling brain. I'm slowly working on my 3" Arrowhead blocks. See the block on the right? It has multiple problems. Should I throw it in the garbage or get out the seam ripper and start over? I've been sewing these blocks for 2 years now so why can't I do it right this week? 

Covid brain. That's why.

Here are the yellow blocks that I cut in October and sewed in November. I'm hoping the design wall will be free next week to show you the layout I'm working on.

Linking up to RSC party

Scrappy Saturday

I am totally off my schedule for working on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects. I'm not even sure what the colour for November is, but that's okay because I haven't finished my yellow blocks for October yet and still have this pile of mini arrowhead blocks (link to Anita's blog) waiting to be sewn.

Finally one block is sewn together! Woo hoo! These are 3" blocks and are so darn cute. I have been making a few each month for 2 years now and still only have enough for a wallhanging :)

Here is a fun (but blurry) photo of me that a  snapchat filter put on top of my mini arrowhead blocks.  But you can see how I am starting to sew the blocks together in groups of 4. I still love this project and will continue sewing these blocks into 2021. 

In the region where I live we are now on "red control tier" which is a tiny step away from lockdown. Lock down just means that other people might start to live like we have been living since March!  And for some unknown reason when lockdown is mentioned, people start needing to shop constantly. Long lines at grocery stores have returned and probably toilet paper will be scarce again LOL!

I'll be staying home safe and covid free in my sewing room!

Scrappy Saturday

It's time to clear away the yellow scraps of October and finish up some blocks. Here are the yellow waffle blocks sewn this month. Each block has 10 little 1.5" squares of scrappy goodness. It's almost like an "I Spy" quilt in miniature.

 

Here is the majority of the collection of waffle blocks made so far. These are great scrap buster blocks and will make an interesting quilt.

And these are the October blocks being added to the Easy Breezy collection. 

I haven't made any yellow mini arrowhead blocks yet, so that has to be finished before I can start on the November colour scraps.

Hop over to the RSC link up

Scrappy Saturday

 Throughout October the Rainbow Scrap Challengers were sewing our yellow scraps. It has been refreshing to play with these pretty pieces.

These are the yellow Easy Breezy blocks (Quiltville's leader-ender blocks) that are being added to the collection from this month.  I fussy cut some words for the block on the middle left which made me smile :) I am enjoying sewing these blocks and have a stack beside my machine at the ready at all times. 

I also sewed 2 more waffle blocks. There are parts for more, but they haven't been finished yet... maybe today.

Hop over to the RSC linkup

New RSC selvage project

Do you save your selvages?

I have saved mine for about a decade and have made a few small items over the years. When I made my Christmas mug mat out of red selvages, I fell in love with these things again and started saving them more enthusiastically. The box has begun to overflow and it was time to either stop saving them or use them up.

I reviewed Melissa's tutorial for working with selvages and decided this would be my new RSC project.

Instead of piecing the blocks on fabric or paper, I decided to use the quilt-as-you-go technique. The strips are sewn to a base of a backing square and a batting square. When the blocks are sewn, the quilting is done!

Melissa's tutorial reminded me to check under each seam to ensure the most recent strip covers the one before it, which is an important step in this type of block making. That seam had to be made larger on the left.

I chose 3 block  sizes that correspond to my batting scraps. My yellow selvages were enough to make a large, a medium and 2 small blocks.

Here are the back of the blocks, using yellow scraps as the base fabric. The yellow on the right was leftover from the backing of a quilt I made in 2010!

I'm looking forward to using up all my selvages in 2021 making blocks each month using the RSC colour.

Linking up to the weekly party over at Angela's.

Scrappy Saturday

This week the Google Blogger system switched over to the new version and stopped allowing bloggers to use the old user friendly version. I waited until the weekend to tackle the learning curve so we'll see how this goes.
Last Saturday I blogged about a bag of red scraps that I received from a quilting friend. The bag has been organized and cut into useable pieces. 

There were several 2.5" pieces and triangles that were cut from the end of strips. I sewed 30 of those pieces together into a 12.5" slab block.
The last slab block I made was in June when the colour was pink (you can see that one here). 
This will be a very slow growing quilt if I only make 1 block every 3 months! 
Linking up to RSC red scrap party

Scrappy Saturday

red scraps

Not much sewing was accomplished this week, but I did sort out a bag of red scraps given to me by a friend. See this lovely bag of bits and pieces that were headed for the trash? It was the perfect project to focus on since it requires very little brain power.

Taming the scraps

I pressed and sorted and cut to a useable size all the oddly shaped scraps while I watched "Away" on Netflix. I loved the show but there were many tense moments that were eased by the distraction of the task.

Red waffle blocks

Some of the larger pieces might become a slab block but most were cut into useable pieces for waffle blocks and easy breezy blocks.
Here are the red waffle blocks sewn this week. I love these blocks for using up lots of random 1.5" squares.

And here are all the blocks made since the project started in June. Hop over to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge link up to see what other quilters are making with their red scraps.

Waffle block collection

Scrappy Saturday

The RSC colour for September is RED! I have quite a large collection of red fabric because of starting the 150 Canadian Women quilt in December 2016. I hope to make a few more blocks for that quilt this month.

I started red month with making some Easy Breezy blocks. It's a fun scrap project and I have a pile of block pieces cut and ready to sew over the month in the true leader-ender style.

This project was started in July so here are the new red blocks on the design wall with the blocks from purple August and blue July. I'm loving this on point layout idea!
Linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Wishing Rings

Two RSC posts on one day...that is rare, but that's what happened this week!

9 lavender wishing rings

While I was looking for scraps for the lavender log cabin blocks last week, I pulled out enough 1.5" scraps to make 9 more wishing ring blocks. I have been making 9 of each colour and sewing them together.

Here is the block collection on the design wall.

90 wishing rings

Linking up to Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Scrappy Saturday - Mini Arrowhead

One of my favourite ongoing RSC project is the mini arrowhead blocks that finish at 3". I have been working on these since the summer of 2018 and make a few each month as I feel inspired.

It starts with cutting out 4.25" squares, and then cutting the squares into other shapes according to Anita Grossman Solomon's instructions. Here is the stack of cut purple blocks ready to sew throughout the month of August. I keep them in a baggie by the machine and sew a block or two when I have a few moments.

Here are the purple blocks sewn. I very rarely buy purple fabric, so these are all scraps that other quilters have given to me.

Here are all the purple blocks from last year and this month. I still super love this project and feel lots of energy to continue making more blocks. There are over 100 blocks in the collection so far, but they measure only 3", so that makes a wallhanging size and I'd like it to be a bigger quilt.
Linking up to Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Scrappy Saturday

Earlier in the month I made a purple log cabin loony block and Mari suggested adding a lavender block to the collection. I wasn't sure I could find enough light scraps to make a block, but since these blocks only need 1" strips, I managed to scrounge up enough.

And I found a strip of lavender dots on white which was perfect for the background.  This is the only block so far that has 1 background fabric. So pretty!

Here is the collection of blocks on the design wall. I have tried other layouts, but I really love this offset with the vertical background zigzag effect.
Linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and Oh Scrap!

Scrappy Saturday - Easy Breezy

Now that I have finished last year's Shoo Fly leader-ender challenge, I am really enjoying the new Quiltville challenge block which is called "easy breezy". 

Purple easy breezy blocks

I enjoy sorting through scraps and cutting them into block kits. I really do use the pieces as leader-enders were intended to be used, sewing them together in between other sewing projects. It's a great method that saves thread and allows me to sew another project with little effort.

I cut up the scraps and then pull out the monthly RSC colour to sew  each month. Here are the purple blocks from this month with the blue blocks from last month.

You know you are a true scrap quilter when you come across a little treasure, and it makes you feel so happy! Just look at this little boy on a piece of toile. Do you see the tiny little dog at his feet. So sweet! I have no idea where it came from but I just love it and had to sew him into a green block.

Linking up to RSC

Scrappy Saturday - Log Cabin Loonies

It has been a while since I worked on my Rainbow Log Cabin Loony project and this week I decided to add a purple block. The block is made from 1" strips and is made by joining 4 log cabin blocks. There are 52  pieces in this 8" block. 

This project has been in progress for about 2 years and was inspired by Julie's Log Cabin Loonies group. Her block cutting instructions are still posted here. It is time consuming to cut out all the little pieces, but then it is really fun sewing them together. (The pieces on the left of the photo are squares that will be sewn into waffle blocks).

The new purple block joins the other 9 here on the design wall. I like the zigzag effect of this layout. It still needs  a few more blocks added... maybe pink, brown, grey? Maybe I'll have to also make some half blocks for the outside edges if I use this layout?
Linking up to Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Scrappy Saturday

It seems that whenever I go into the quilt studio these days I feel restless and can't concentrate on one thing. I tried to focus energy on three different projects, started into each one, but couldn't make progress on any of them.

One project needs a border decision (it's going to the UFO closet for sure), one needs a layout decision (probably also going to the UFO closet) and the other one needs complex cutting and I just couldn't organize my thoughts to get it done.

So I started digging through scrap bags, organizing pieces, cutting for scrap projects and finally started to relax. There is just something about the mindless task of organizing scraps that puts my brain into another gear. 

The colour of the month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is purple. It's not a colour I sew with very often but I do have some scraps to work with.

purple waffle blocks

After sorting the scraps and finding some purple I was able to settle into some sewing and made more blocks for the waffle project. I just love that each block:
1) uses up ten little 1.5" squares, and 
2) it creates an "I spy" effect with all the hidden treasures. Can you spy the cat, the bird, and the teddybear? Just so fun for a kids quilt!

This is my 3rd month working on the waffle project, so I have some blue, pink and purple blocks in the collection.
These are fun to sew, and hard to keep as a leader-ender because they keep wanting to be the main project!
Hop over to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and Oh Scrap! to see more scrappy projects.