Red Scraps Chapter IV

Twilight Flock

6 inch (finished) blocks

This week I worked mostly with 2.5 inch width red scraps. 

Twilight Flock

From the book From the Cover (Quilter's Newsletter Magazine Editors and Contributors)

Monkey Wrench 

5 inch finished blocks

Uses both red 1.5 and 2.5 inch scraps.  

10 inch blocks inspired by a picture in a Connecting Threads catalog. 

9 Patch Blocks

6 inch finished

for a Snowball and Nine Patch quilt.

And sew on...

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

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CELEBRATE! (my word of the year)

Feb. 23 - I said in yesterday's blog post that I was celebrating early in the day with the Dawn Chorus. But I also celebrated later in the day when I received a beautiful handmade Valentine card in the mail from Linda, an amazing and very thoughtful lady who blogs at Art in Search.

 

Green Scraps Chapter III

Happy Geese

10 inch blocks

Inspired by a picture of a quilt in a Connecting Threads catalog, I made a few blocks last October to see how I liked making them and to see if I thought they might be a good Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project. And here we are.   I'm thinking 48 blocks might make for a nice sized quilt. I'm using some very light green florals for the backgrounds for all of these blocks. 

All of the blocks I've made this week used mostly 2.5 inch green scraps. 

In Chapter I  I used mostly 1.5 inch green scraps. 

In Chapter II  I used mostly 4.5 and 4 inch scraps. 

Twilight Flock

6 inch blocks

Twilight Flock

From From the Cover (Quilter's Newsletter Magazine Editors and Contributors)

I did a few sample blocks with scrap I had laying near the sewing machine last December and then decided it would be another good RSC project to use dark scraps plus blacks. 

Happy Blocks

8.5 inch blocks

5 inch centers and 2.5 inch sides. 

Someone sent me some Happy Block border pieces for 5 inch centers. There was quite a mix of prints so I divided them up into different piles for different quilts and I will add to the borders. 

For this one I used the rainbow colored prints and I'm going to use 5 inch tone on tone (TOT) or solid 5 inch squares looking first for squares in my 5 inch squares box.   I will need 20 blocks for this donation quilt. 

This one will be florals in the RSC color of the month and will be a larger sized donation quilt so I'm thinking 30 blocks for this one. 

For this one I cut some prints with small critters for the centers and the sides will be in the RSC color of the month.  I might make two little donation quilts like this with 20 blocks each. 

Monkey Wrench

5 inch blocks

For a couple of years one of my RSC projects was Monkey Wrench blocks in three different sizes - 5 inch, 7.5 inch and 10 inch.  At the end of last year I started putting the blocks together into tops. I made four tops with the 7.5 inch blocks and then looked at the 5 inch blocks. When I counted them I had 203 blocks.   I remembered a big  Little Monkey Wrench quilt I made back in 2015 and decided to make another.   In order to do that I need 288 blocks so I made a few more from my green scraps and will keep making blocks each month until I reach 288. 

Monkey Wrench 

5 inch blocks

Nine Patch

6 inch block

And now I have 220 Monkey Wrench blocks and need only 68 more! 

And sew on...

RSC ScrapHappy Saturday

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CELEBRATE! (My word of the year)

Jan. 19 - I paid the last of hubby's 2023 medical bills ! That's definitely a cause for celebration. And I'm hoping he hardly has any medical bills for 2024.  I did catch an error on the part of the hospital - they overcharged me $1,000+ on one bill and it took me forever and many many phone calls and letters to straighten that out. But, thank goodness, they have finally seen the error of their ways and I don't have that headache anymore.

 

A Couple More New Starts

Well, it started when Nann sent me a link to a Scrapbuster block. (I guess she thinks I need to bust some scraps or something.)    I guess since it is a scrapbuster block by Claudia I will call it Claudia for now.  Well, anyway, I took a glance at the block and decided to give it a try as a new Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) block.  I grabbed a few scraps and tried.  Ok. Looks pretty good. Claudia might be a good Scrapbuster and I have just the box of scraps for it.   One problem...unless I missed it Claudia gives instructions for pressing the seams in the blocks; however, when it comes time to put the blocks together into a top I don't think the seams will nest properly. 

I think for the seams to nest properly in the top the blocks would have to be set like above. And I'm okay with that layout too. BUT I think I figured out how to press the blocks now so they can be assembled into a top like Claudia's.   So, this is a new RSC start. 

And the reason I've started it is because I have a little box of 4 inch width pieces that have accumulated. Most of the scraps in that box have come from others. I usually have a block in the works for each size of scrap I normally generate. As I make scraps or receive scraps I try to process those scraps right away into those blocks in the works. 4 inch width scraps is not a size I usually deal with so I just set those aside in a box when scrap processing.  Now that I have a little box of that size scrap I know what to do with them and I now have a block in the works for 4 inch width scraps and the block works well for RSC. With each color of the month I can dig into the box and find that color to work with plus I can look in my bag of scraps sorted by color (mostly scrap chunks now) to see what could be used to make blocks.  Oh, and I also will hopefully be using up a little pile of pastel bits and pieces to make the blocks. I haven't decided yet if I will make a couple of child sized donation quilts or a larger twin sized donation quilt. More later...

Then I was inspired by this photo in the latest Connecting Threads catalog.  It is called Sunset Flight by Needle in a Hayes Stack.  

I grabbed a few scraps and gave the block a try. I think I will start making these blocks as another RSC project. Also you can't really tell from the photo but I think I have enough different pieces of light leafy greens to use for the background in these blocks.  I'll probably aim for 48 blocks and a twin sized donation quilt. 

And then I will also make the same block but in a light blue and black colorway. I have a little pile of fabrics in those colors waiting to be used up. I'll aim for a twin sized 48 blocks. Happy Blocks and Flying Geese = Happy Geese.  This one isn't a RSC block. It's just fun. 

And sew on...

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday