First, I have an actual finish to show you - one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects for 2020 is a finish!! I’ll be sharing this on Scrappy Saturday. Here is Scraptastic Stars.
Scraptastic Stars finished at 48.5x64.5”. It’s quilted with small, viney loops and is labeled and ready for Quilts for Kids.
I had hoped to get a couple more quilts tops layered together this week, but that didn’t happen. I did, however, finish sewing the quilt top for my son Ryan and got the backing prepped, too. Kim and I will baste it on Sunday.
It has been trimmed since this picture. I sure wish the colors photographed more accurately. Hopefully once it’s finished, we can get a good outdoor picture of it. But it’s huge - about about 75 x 85”, so I don’t know how one person can hold it up. I’ll worry about that later, though.
As usual (lately), I spent time working on string blocks. This week I made 27 of the multi-colored string blocks (below). I also sewed some special string blocks for my grand-squirrel project, and then focused on using up my brown strings for the RSC dark neutrals month. Here are the string blocks.
There are 19 brown string blocks, which will be added to my strings blocks for future use as alternate blocks in scrappy Quilts For Kids (QFK) projects.
Ok, NOW we can talk about the grand-squirrel project. So, as if I didn’t have enough ongoing must-finish and should-finish projects, I started another project this week. I was itching to pare down that brown scrap drawer, and ran across some wonderful color inspiration photos online. So I sketched out some scrap-friendly blocks in a simple row design and hunted my scraps and stash for the appropriate colors.
First up was making 14 of these 6.5” strip blocks, each with a central (more or less) teal strip surrounded by some old brown and blue polka dot strips. Then the rest of the block was filled in with other warm brown strips.
After those, I used scraps to make rail fence blocks, snowballs, nine-patches, checkerboards and friendship star (variation) blocks. Alfie was Supervisor of the Day, and dropped by while I was cutting half-square triangles for the friendship stars.
I guess he wasn’t sure if things were up to standard, so he had to peer closer...
And then, apparently not satisfaied with the way I was doing it, decided to cut them himself....
So, together we got them cut and I got them sewn. Here is the brown (and blue and molten gold) quilt so far. There will be a final gold strip across the top once it’s all sewn together.
As it appears above, it’s just half sewn and half pinned. I think the confetti dots ombre gold fabric gives it a real lit-from-within look, and I love it. At least, it’s not bad for a “brown” quilt! It should finish at about 42x50”. I’ll show a finished picture next week. What do you think?
And finally, a picture of Bruce with his NEW guitar-playing prosthetic. The one I showed last month was his “quick-and-dirty” (homemade) version while the prosthetist was finalizing this real carbon fiber arm. Bruce helped in the design of the arm because he was a medical engineer who worked for Symbion and Robert Jarvik on the artificial heart and the Utah artificial arm. Who would’ve thought that his experience would end up coming in handy for himself? Anyway, the playing arm is lighter and gives Bruce much easier control. He can even pick notes, not just strum. He’ll never be a Bela Fleck, but he is really amazing!!
20 comments:
Congratulations on a finished quilt! It turned out great. What an awesome guitar playing prosthetic, looks perfect for the job.
I'm sure Bruce has been interested in this entire procedure from the engineering point of view -- the theoretical and the practical combine. Your stars sparkle! And the molten gold makes the December "creature" glow.
came for the headline and stayed for the Bruce, That is so cool!
Congrats on your completed quilt and Bruce's new guitar arm!! As for one person holding up Ryan's quilt, just finish it in time for Cousin Kim to hold one side and Bruce to hold the other while you take the picture. Have fun finishing up the grand-squirrel project!
The teal, brown, and gold quilt is a great color combination! I love those string blocks, especially. Wonderful news for Bruce - you know you're going to have to share a video of him playing one of these weeks, right?! :)
Lovely quilt, congratulations on the finish! And a great new arm too!
Your quilt does sparkle--lovely piece (uhh squirrel or daughter of squirrel??) anything you name it-- it is lovely...great new arm for playing how wonderful;))
Hugs from under my umbrella Julierose
Love the "grand squirrels" idea! Congrats to you for your pretty brown quilt, and to Bruce for his new guitar playing prosthesis. We need more music in the world!
Go Bruce! He certainly looks happy and its wonderful that he can pick notes as he plays.
Grand baby squirrels, where will it end, I wonder? Love the scrappy stars quilt, it's such a nice pattern.
Love that RSC finish quilt and the brown quilt with the teal is really neat. Looks like you have a great cat helper there. Pretty neat he got to help design his arm!
Love the squirrel quilt and thrilled for Bruce's musical future!
That's an absolutely delightful squirrel! And a whole bunch of delight for Bruce, too!
Scraptastic Stars is a great finish and will be loved by whoever is fortunate to receive it. Love your idea of teeming the bright turquoise with the brown strings, especially to have the turquoise spot on brown in every block. The quilt is coming along beautifully. Hats off to your husband Bruce! His acceptance and determination astound me. I showed the post to my husband and it amazed him too. How wonderful that Bruce was able to use his expertise to design the prosthetic arm to enable him to play his guitar. Happy Christmas to both of you!
Love, love your quilts, Cathy, especially your grand-squirrel. It is GRAND even if it is made with leftovers and scraps. The blue touches are just perfect. Congrats! Congrats to Bruce too. He is such an inspiration to us all, on just take whatever life throws at you with a smile and keep the music alive. Bravo! ;^)
It's inspiring how both of you just keep moving right along. Scraptastic Stars is wonderful and definitely on my list of possibilities for RSC21. Ryan's quilt is close to a finish and the grand-squirrel quilt is creative genius. Of course, the best outcome is Bruce being able to help design his guitar arm so that it meets his needs and lets him continue to create music. I admire his determination.
Pat
Yay for an RSC finish - the Scraptastic Stars look great! It's a fun pattern and great scrap-buster. The brown row quilt does look like it glows - an inspired grand-squirrel! Way to go, Bruce! Are y'all familiar with New Orleans banjo musician Don Vappie?
Hi Cathy! The picture of Bruce and his guitar-playing prosthetic is just fabulous! As is the supervisor Alfie shots - that sweet little paw helping you out. Grand squirrels?! Good grief, that's the last thing I need to hear about. I am barely motivated to sew now on my projects, let alone to get distracted. {{Hugs}} Have a great week. ~smile~ Roseanne
It's Bruce and the Flecktones! Which is better than being in a band called the Fleshtones, don't you think? And speaking of colors, I adore blue and brown together so your new squirrel looks wonderful to me! Brown gets a bad rap but I've never once opened a chocolate and thought, "Ew, ick! Why couldn't this be red?"
Congratulations on your finish and glad Bruce is able to play again!
Yay for Bruce! He must be so happy to be able to play and no doubt his work in helping to design this will help lots of other people as well. Your latest quilt top looks great - and I like the 'grand-squirrel' project too.
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