A Rainbow Scrap Finish

Thanksgiving is over and the Christmas Season is now upon us. I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving if you celebrate it. Ours was quietly spent at home, just the way we prefer. But later this weekend comes the task of taking down the seasonal autumn decorations, admittedly pared back from previous years. After a good dusting and vacuuming, we’ll start in with the Christmas and winter decorations. Now that it’s past Thanksgiving, Christmas music is officially allowed in the sewing room. And let the silly seasonal Christmas movies begin! Oh yeah, and the shopping too. Ugh.

I did finish one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts this week. It was made from the “waffle” blocks I started in January. The individual blocks were 5” finished, but I grouped them in blocks of four. Several blocks I made over the course of the year were oriented incorrectly (the verticals and horizontals were switched), so into the Block Orphanage they went to be adopted (or adapted?) for some future project.

Waffles finished at 40x50” and will go to Quilts for Kids. I quilted it in a simple stipple. The backing is this wonderful wide print from Connecting Threads, which also folds over and becomes the binding.

In addition to finishing Waffles, I basted two other string tops in dark neutrals (plus color), which will finish up my work with dark neutral scraps for this year. The first top uses the 27 brown string blocks I mentioned but didn’t show last week, (plus others in my stash) and some green string blocks. This is next up to be quilted and will be finished before month end.

And then there is this string quilt in shades of gray with red and navy blue. It’s a rather masculine quilt, and so I made it larger (48x56) than a baby quilt so it could go to an older boy through Quilts for Kids. 

It’s probably not a color scheme I would have put together, but I had some strip sets in grays and reds from the stash of strips and scraps I got last month from Quilts for Kids. You can see some of the strip sets in the picture below. They are the narrow dark gray/light gray/dark gray/red sections in the two leftmost blocks below. I added blue and just went from there, clearing out a lot of unloved strips in the process.  

Like the brown and green strip block quilt, this one will be quilted and finished before month-end. I’ll show them both next week. 

******* WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG POST TO BRING YOU AN ELEPHANT UPDATE!*****

I couldn’t help it. It seemed we needed more gray elephants, so I dug through the dark gray chunks and found enough to make two more Ellies! If you’re overly observant, you may notice that their hind quarters are a close match, but a different fabric from their forequarters. And if you didn’t notice or can’t see it, good. Never mind. That brings the gray and brown elephant herd to ten blocks this month. Elephants will be taking the month of December off, but will be reasserting themselves in January!

******** WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULAR BLOG POST ********

It was time to start some Christmas sewing. Alfie and Darla have been waiting patiently for their new Christmas quilts for their beds. Yesterday their wait was rewarded. I used leftover 10” layer cake squares to make 20” square (give/take) quilt tops. Pink for Darla, Blue for Alfie. 

The backs are both the same cute and festive Christmas cat fabric I picked up this year. 

Here is Alfie checking out his quilt. He liked it right away (can you just see the excitement emanating from him? LOL) He did curl up and sleep on it in the early evening. 

Darla has so far ignored hers. When we went to bed last night, she was curled up in Alfie’s bed. I don’t know if that’s a statement against “new”, against pink, or against the fact that her bed isn’t heated like Alfie’s is. Oh, the drama!

Another item on my personal Christmas sewing checklist this year is to make us a pair of pillowcases out of this reindeer fabric I’ve been holding on to for a couple years. It’s not sewn yet, but I will add the leftover red cat fabric for the cuffs and a black strip for the accents. Because, you know, reindeer and cats just go together. At least, in my world. 

So, when I finish the pillowcases and two quilts, I’ll move on to the Christmas quilt I cut out last year for us. My plan during December is to hopefully finish the Christmas quilt, plus another Rainbow Scrap quilt (I’m thinking Spring Stars), my pink and yellow Ring Around the Roses quilt (from February!), and possibly another Quilts for Kids string quilt finish. It’s a good thing I’m retired! 

Have a great week!  Linking up to Scrappy Saturday.