A Rainbow Recap for 2016

I have had such a blast this year participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. If you sew or quilt, you might want to consider joining us in 2017.  It’s run by Angela of So Scrappy, and every Saturday she holds a linky party where we show our progress. Today’s linky party is HERE.

Here’s how the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) works: At the beginning of every month, Angela assigns a new color for us to work with. We dig through our  scrap piles, boxes, bags, drawers, etc. and set to work.  You can pick what you want to create: blocks with a purpose, blocks with a purpose yet undetermined, quilts or anything your heart desires. The best part is that you go at your own pace. There are no minimums or guidelines or accountability. Angela posts a linky party every Saturday morning on her blog, and you can post (or not) as your progress dictates. And you get to visit others’ work, get ideas, make new friends and generally just have fun.

Also, there is an optional quilt-along where a block design is given monthly by Angela (with the finished product being another one of her stunning quilt ideas!). Again, that’s optional.

So, think about it for 2017, mmmmkay?

And since the end of the year is virtually upon us, I figured this is a good time to recap my quilt makes for this year.  Some are Rainbow Scrap quilts (and I will show the flimsies that still need to be quilted too), and some are “other” quilts - mostly gifts. Ready?

RAINBOW QUILTS AND FLIMSIES

First are the three Mama Cat & Kittens quilts I made for my three granddaughters. Each quilt is a litter consisting of a 12” Mama Cat (my pattern, write me if you’d like a copy) surrounded by 12 - 6” kittens. The kitten block is a pattern by Sally T (visit her blog and check it out under her Tutorials tab) and it inspired the whole idea. Thanks, Sally!  These quilts finished at 52x72” each. 

OOPS!! I  just noticed that one of them (on the left) has a 2” white border down the center that the others do not! So, let me correct that to say two of them finished at 52x72” and the third finished at 54x72”. 

And in 2016 I also chose to participate in the RSC Sampler, since I didn’t have the skill set needed to do it in 2015. (Really, I tried and failed miserably). But this year I did it! Thanks, Angela, for great patterns and inspiration. 

RSC Sampler Quilt, 60x72"

The following three Rainbow Scrap projects are still in the FLIMSY (top only) stage except for the one I just basted (see captions)

RAINBOW DRESDENS - still a flimsy

Rainbow Rails (Vintage Sheets) - basted this one on Thursday

Rainbow Improv in Cools

I also have improv blocks in pink, yellow, orange and red that will be pieced into a WARM version of the improv quilt above. The sashing will be white or gray. That will finish up in first quarter 2017.

Finally, I have 90 blocks of 16-patch blocks; colors with black and white measuring 8.5” unfinished.  They will be set 9x10, yielding a quilt 72x80”. Also planned for 1st quarter 2017.

 OTHER QUILTS & WALL HANGINGS

In no particular order, here are the rest of the quilts I finished this year:

Aria Quilt.  October, 86x103"

Seeing Red, February, 58x76"

Valentine Quilt, January, 62x62"

Birds & Bees, April, 56x64"

Magic Carpet, November, 75x89"

Cityscape Wall Hanging, April, 48x54"

Notting Hill Sampler, September. 58x72"

Petals, November, 64x75"

November Rain, December, 67x83"

Cozy Christmas, December, 58x71"

Big Game, December, 62x74"

 Totals were: 15 quilts, 3 flimsies and blocks for 2 more flimsies. Not a bad haul!

This week we attended Bruce’s Christmas Party. He works at The Leonardo, a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) museum in Salt Lake. Anyway, they had an Ugly Sweater contest and Bruce won the $200 first prize (hooray!). His sweater? Butt Ugly. We got him an ugly blue thrift store sweater from the ’90’s. Then he set about crafting it to look like it was a Bruce History of 30+ years. We captioned the additions with names and “dates”.  Burnt hole - check (“Great Aunt Mabel, 1986”), Mustard stain - check! Half-smoked doobie - check (it was really just cotton rolled in toilet paper, then burnt), BBQ sauce stain - check! Dead mouse - check (an old cat toy. He wanted the mouse on there because in their Tech Take-apart museum activity, they actually found an old desiccated mouse in a computer last month). Baby poop - check (not real, of course), Chewed gum - check! Cheetos - check! Peanut butter - check! Axle grease - check!  ETC ETC....  Between the way it looked, the IDEA of it, and the smell (axle grease, mustard and BBQ sauce together, ugh!) it was so ugly on so many levels.

Next Saturday I’ll be talking about my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects planned for 2017 - and there are several. After all, scraps come in strips, itty bitty pieces, chunks, etc. So that is how I sorted possibilities, then narrowed down from there. What are you doing next year for RSC, and how did you make your decisions?

A Valentine Quit Finish

Between sneezing my lungs out and sleeping from the cold meds I’m taking, I managed to finish my Valentine Quilt.  This is Goal #2 (and my second quilt finish of 2016) on my 2016 Quarter 1 Finish Along goals.

Everything I used in this quilt, which finished at about 62x62” is OLD stock from my stash, with the exception of the border fabric, which I purchased on sale from Fabric Depot at the end of the year.  I used a total of 8 yards in this quilt. The red heart fabrics, which form the spinners in front and comprise most of the back, was 54” cotton fabric. That was an oldie but a goodie. It also contained fabric from JoAnn and Makower.

Here’s the back. I kept cutting blocks until I ran out of fabric, then had to sew all the pieces back together in improv slabs. I used nearly every single bit. What a good feeling!  This quilt will be for us to use in the car during road trips, the first of which begins later this week. We are heading for the sunny blue skies of southern Arizona on our annual family visit to the Kizerian HQ (LOL) in Tubac, Arizona.

I have sewn up lots of brown blocks this month, too, as I work through my brown scrap stash for Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Here is a sampling of some.

But as I will not be around to link up to their Saturday Scrap Party, I will save them for the next time. I have brown cats and kittens sewn, too, and all sorts of other goodies in the works.

Finally, I’m taking Bernadette (my Bernina 550QE sewing machine) on vacation with me, along with the Birds and Bees quilt I have cut out. I will return home with a pieced quilt top and lots more brown scrappy blocks.

See you on the flip side!

Brown Mama Cat

Our color for February over at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is brown. Like just about every other color of the rainbow, I have more brown scraps than I should.  :-)  But this month I decided to pace myself a bit better than I did in January with blue. Last month it was foot pedal to the metal until I ran out of scraps. This month the brown is being worked around my other sewing.

So, this week I only have a couple things to share. First off is my brown Mama Cat. You may recall that I am doing this 12” mama cat and surrounding her with a litter of 6” kittens (pattern by Sally T)  in the same color. Well, Mama cat is done. And, she is pregnant! Expect the kittens to arrive in the next couple weeks or so.  I am leaving on vacation in a few days and will have very little if any internet access. The kittens may not arrive until closer to the end of the month.

And for those of you who requested and received my free Mama Cat pattern, I have two corrections to make (so sorry!).  (1)  For piece M in background fabric, you only need to cut ONE, not two, and (2) Pieces O should be two 1.5” squares (not 1”).   Any future patterns will go out with the corrections incorporated; just write if you’d like a copy.

I also sewed my brown rail fence blocks in vintage sheets. The setting I am using only calls for three brown blocks, thankfully, because even these required a strip of regular fabric.

This week I attended a genealogy conference for a couple days. I’ve also been sewing on my Valentine quilt. Right now it is about 90% quilted and I plan to finish quilting and binding it today. I’ll post pictures here and on Instagram when it’s finished.

Later in the week I’ll begin cutting out the things I want to take along on vacation to sew; 12 kittens and a simple patchwork quilt of Birds and Bees fabric. I may take my brown scraps along, too.

Come join us for some scrappy goodness over at So Scrappy!!

Until next time,