More Rainbow Scrap Challenge Projects - Two Flimsies and a Finish

Strings  - A flimsy

40 x 60

These are 10 inch finished blocks. I started them a long time ago as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge Project - strings in the color of the month plus a 2 inch strip of a black polka dot.  I haven't worked on them for awhile because I ran out of strings that were long enough. Well, long strings have magically appeared again so I dug through them to make more blocks. I think I had to just make six of them and now I have a small donation quilt top. 

 And the good thing is that I have enough of that black polka dot print for backing and binding. 

 Arrowhead Puzzle (or as Bonnie Hunter calls them - Garlic Knots)

It's a flimsy!

64 x 88

 This will be another donation quilt. 

 I sure like how this top turned out. 

 Cats in the Cradle

Baby Quilt

It's a finish!

44 x 44

Its a finish! And a pretty busy one at that. I tried to tone down the busy-ness with some gray sashing but it is still pretty darned busy. 

Getting this to the finish line was my October One Monthly Goal (OMG)    at   Elm Street Quilts. 

It was also my goal #7   for   Q4 Finish-Along

 These blocks started with a bunch of 3 inch nine patches I wanted to use somehow. Sally (Objects of Design) had made some micro kittens I thought were cute so I asked her if she would share the instructions.  She did. By the way, she has a tutorial for a larger kitty on her tutorial page as well as many other cute critters. 

 Anyway, while the kitties alone were cute I think they didn't combine all that well with those nine patches and I probably should have alternated them with plain squares instead (which I may do in the future).   

 Maybe baby and parents can get a game of I Spy out of it.   I spy a kitty, basil and lettuce...

 ...a chicken...

 ...a flower, snowflakes, elephant...

 ...a fish.  

 If baby thinks the front too loud the back could always become the front. 

The back also has a rainbow clowder of cats. 

Batting was pieced (with wide zig zag stitch) and I quilted it with some spirals. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

Do You Believe in Magic?

My October OMG (One Monthly Goal) is to turn some colorful kitty litter (busy nine patch blocks with kitties) into some cats in the cradle (a baby quilt that won't make a baby go cross-eyed). 

Do you believe in magic? 

One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts

The Green Green Scraps of Home

 Green is the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  I usually start off a new month with the scrap chunks.  I had a lot of green chunks this year. They have been accumulating since I used them all in 2014-2015 in my 56 Shades of Envy quilt. 

 I define a chunk scrap as something bigger than a 4.5 inch square and smaller than a fat quarter.   

First I put all the fall-ish looking greens aside to be used with a couple of autumn themed UFOs. 

 I set aside all the light greens to be used in my low volume String Hearts. 

If the remaining chunks were big enough to cut pieces for a cat then I made a cat.  I've been using some gray scraps for backgrounds. 

Then, since these Double X Variation blocks use different sized pieces (1.5 and 2.5), I cut chunks that were big enough into 1.5 and 2.5 strips and made blocks.   These blocks finish at four inches and this quilt is inspired by a vintage quilt. 

I evaluated the rest of the green chunks and cut them into sizes of scraps I keep separated by size - 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5 and strings. 

Then I dug into the green scraps in the 1.5 inch bin and made some little rails. I've been making these for several years so by the end of this year I'll probably have enough for a large and very scrappy quilt. 

I've also been making these Bit Coin blocks for years.  

I think I have about 58 of them and am aiming for 84 so maybe this will be the year of the Bit Coin quilt too. 

After I use a 1.5 inch strip to make the Rails and Bit Coins the remaining piece goes into the Spider Web quilt project box. 

Then I dug into the 2.5 inch green scraps and made some Garlic Knots - a new block I started this year. 

I also made some Plus blocks from 2.5 inch scraps. I made a few several years ago and then forgot about them so I'm resurrecting this as an RSC project this year. 

I keep the 30s repro scraps separate from the other scraps in the 2.5 inch scrap bin.  I had quite a few greens in there so made another Bit Coin block this time using 2.5 inch scraps instead of 1.5. 

Next up was the 3.5 inch scrap bin. 

I cut these Church Window Variation blocks from 1.5 and 3.5 scraps. 

The 3.5 inch scraps were also made into some Broken Dishes blocks...

...and some Sixteen Patch stars. 

If any remaining 3.5 inch scrap was less than a 3.5 inch square it was sewn into a strip. I've been doing this for a couple of years instead of throwing the pieces into the crumb box.  I think I'm going to have fun playing with a rainbow of scrappy strips one of these days. 

I have the 2 inch and 4.5 inch scraps left for the rest of the month. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

Yellow Scraps

Yellow Cats

Yellow is the February Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month. 

 I sort most of my scraps by size and not by color.  That's what works for me.  This week I dug into the 3.5 inch scrap bin and pulled out some yellow scraps to make some cats.  I want to make at least four cats per month and so if I don't have enough 3.5 inch scraps (as so happened with red) then I cut a 3.5 inch pieces off of a chunk scrap.   I've been using gray or black/white scraps for the background. 

 The next thing I do with 3.5 inch scraps is cut sixteen 3.5 inch squares to make sixteen patches with stars. 

 Then I pair up the yellows with another color of my choosing to make HSTs and then make Broken Dishes blocks. 

I was kind of surprised I had so many yellow scraps in the 3.5 inch bin. I usually don't have many yellow scraps in any size.  

 Since I still had yellow scraps left in the bin I decided to cut 1.5 x 3.5 pieces for my little rail fence blocks.   Those pieces were made into the Rails on the left. Since I usually cut Rails from 1.5 inch scraps I decided to also  go get yellow scraps from the 1.5 inch scrap bin and cut and make Rails which are on the right.   This is the third year of making little Rails from scraps so maybe at the end of this year I'll have enough for a big and very scrappy quilt.  

Then while I was in the 1.5 inch scrap bin I cut my Bit Coin pieces (1.5 x 2.5) for the block on the left.  I usually don't like to repeat fabrics in a block but I didn't have much to choose from in the 1.5 inch scrap bin. After I use scraps from the 1.5 inch bin in my RSC projects they go into the Spider Web project box.   I'm aiming for a big quilt and this is my third year of making them so I'm not going to be picky about repeats anymore.  Then I decided to look into the 2.5 inch scrap bin.  I should have looked there before I made the block on the left because as you can see from the block made on the right I had lots of different yellow 2.5 x 1.5 scraps. 

Anything left in the 3.5 inch bin that was less than a square went into a strip instead of into the crumb bin.   I've been doing this for a couple of years too so I probably have enough for a Chinese Coin rainbow or a rainbow border. 

Earlier this week I started making Church Window Hexagon Variation blocks from 3.5 inch scraps and made my red and yellow blocks. 

So that completes my yellow blocks from the 3.5 inch scrap bin and the 1.5 inch scrap bin.  That leaves me with the yellow scraps in the 2 inch and 4.5 inch scrap bins to use the rest of the month. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

A Kitty Litter of Sally Cats

A Kitty Litter of Sally Cats

(A group of Sally Cats is called a Kitty Litter)

A Sally Cat is a micro breed of cat measuring three inches square. You may see them in any color of the rainbow and find them hanging out in Nine Patches living their nine lives. As you can see some are sweet and some end up in prison stripes; some are slightly dotty and some are snowflakes; some are tattooed all over and some are plain and simple.  By nature they are quarrelsome, have an aggressive and determined spirit and are feisty (aka scrappy).

I saw Sally's micro Sally Cat and asked her for breeding advice because I thought I might breed some to live in my oodles of  Nine Patches. She obliged.   Sally freely offers breeding advice for a  little larger variety of cat that I have seen popping up in red all over blogland.  The original Sally Cats that started it all live in a beautiful quilt. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

Can't wait to see what color I'll be breeding next month! 

Feral or Free Range?

Meet the Ferals, Cat's Meow, or Free Rangers? 

40 x 60

It's finished.

It's one of the quilts I'm donating for silent auction at a benefit for my Son-in-Law who has Acute Myeloid Leukemia and may soon need a bone marrow transplant. 

For all who have sent prayers and good thoughts our way...please keep it up. Thank you. 

Happy Blocks are quick and easy and fun.  I figure everyone loves cats and stripes and polka dots so why not make a quilt with cats. 

These blocks have 6.5 inch centers and 2.5 inch sides. I have a lot of polka dots and stripes so chose that for the block sides.  And the binding ended up in polka dots. 

I had this piece of cat fabric that fit the back just perfectly with a little left over to spare.  I bought it several years ago from a deeply discounted bin. I pieced the batting from leftover pieces of batting 

I quilted it on my DSM (Bro Barney) with spirals.   It's now all washed, nice and soft, and cuddly. 

Inspiration came from Buddy Feral and...

...Free Ranger, Feed Me Too Two (if you ask my husband) aka Muffin (if you ask my grand kids).  

The rest of the cats and kitties hid when it came time for pictures.