Going in Circles

I have finally gotten around to making more improv circles so I can get them in the hoop and embellished...

...like these. 

It's a long term neutral, circular, improv, crazy quilt project.  Just going with the flow.

Ad Hoc Improv with Kaja and Ann

Challenges

Four six inch blocks of another quilt in the making.  Three are completed. 

It all started with sorting scraps for the neutral "color"  for this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I ended up with two piles of larger scraps - neutrals and low volumes.  I was pondering what to do with them and a comment from an old friend on my Peacock quilt led me to an email conversation where she mentioned she was working on a new crazy quilt challenge hosted by Sharon Boggon of Pintangle - a 2020 Crazy Quilt (finish by end of 2020 and use 2020 unique items). 

I haven't done any crazy quilting for awhile and my stash of threads, laces, books, trims, etc are in disarray so what better way to get more organized as I go and use some stash.  Plus you know my quilts usually span a few years so I have until 2020 to finish up this challenge which I hope will result in a neutral and very unique large quilt.   I don't make art quilts...my quilts are for comfort and this will be no exception.  

I am going to make improv circle blocks from neutral scraps and embellish them.  The low volume scraps will get a separate quilt. 

And now for the count of items: 

Block 1 (upper left) -

Fabric: 4

Lace and trims: 1

Threads: Coats and Clarks hand quilting thread 80,10, DMC embroidery 782, DMC perle #8 738, DMC embroidery 451, Sullivans embroidery 45179 (like DMC 738), variegated brown? = 6

Stitches: feather/lazy daisy leaves, herringbone/french knot, straight, french knot =4

Embroidery motifs: 2 (sayings, basket of apples)

Total = 17

Block 2 (lower right)

Fabric: 0

Lace and trims: 1

Threads: gray embroidery 3024, DMC embroidery 400, Sullivan's ??? = 3

Stitches: feather/quarter buttonhole wheels/straight = 1

Embroidery motifs: 1

Total =6

Grand total = 23

Block 3 (lower left)

Fabric: 0

Lace and trims: 1 (butterfly twill tape)

Threads: perle Irish variegated 5063, thread arts ??, perle 5 dk brown, perle #5 951=4

Stitches: buttonhole, chain arches/lazy daisy flowers, stem/lazy daisy leaves, french knot flowers = 3

Embroidery motifs: 0

Total = 8

Grand total = 31

I'm starting off slow with the stitches because I'm a little rusty but I think I'll be doing bullions and cast on stitches and ribbon roses in no time!  I also want to try some different techniques - cut lace embroidery, reverse applique, Irish crochet, beaded crochet trims, etc...

Another challenge that spurred me on to this point was the Ad Hoc Improv Challenge of adding words to quilts.   I have three UFOs that are waiting for me to piece some words (prepping, tea towel challenge, bird brains) but I didn't feel like working on any of those this month.  (I also have a couple of crazy quilt UFOs -crazy farm, valentine bed runner, glow in dark fairy garden- but didn't feel like working on those either). But I will be embroidering lots of words on this quilt starting with an Irish proverb I embroidered on block 1: 

Say but little and say it well. 

Thank you all for the best wishes for a speedy recovery yesterday. This is day 11 of herniated disc/sciatica and I'm feeling better every day..I just can't sit or sleep for very long.  But I'm alive and know there will eventually be an end to the pain and  I've found out there's a lot of things you can do standing! 

Green 2.5 Scrap Addition And Then Some

With 2.5 inch green scraps I made some six inch Plus blocks...

...some ten inch Lady of the Lake blocks (six inch centers are from green scrap chunks and HSTs from 2.5 scraps)...

...and a  twelve inch ship with green sails. 

And then I went back to the green scrap chunks and made some improv circles.  Actually these are made from more than green scrap chunks...I've been using red and brown as my constants with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color of the month.  

I'm not the only one using green scraps this month. You'll see when you visit ScrapHappy Saturday and read all about it. 

I still have 4.5 inch green scraps and some waste triangles to play with for next week. 

Red Scraps - Potpourri Edition

Red is the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. But that's about to change soon. 

I used 4.5 inch scraps to make some Flying Geese bodies.  For the other part (wings?) I have been using secondary colors if the color of the month is a primary color and vice versa. 

Last week when I was working with 3.5 inch scraps I made the bottom sets of butterfly wing HSTs and now this week when I was working with 4.5 inch scraps for the Flying Geese I made the top sets of wings and paired the two up in some red butterflies.   I've also (obviously) been using up bits and pieces of white on white (WOW) scraps. 

And, oh those waste triangles! I had lots of red ones in the box. I  have been saving blue on blue (BOB) or blue solid scraps for the "sky" background for these little butterflies - a kaleidoscope of butterflies! 

I have hundreds of these little four inch blocks now so maybe I need to decide just how many is enough.  ( I wonder if I can count that high). 

I also used waste triangles in these Wonky Stars (with 2 inch scrap backgrounds and red center). 

Then I used more waste triangles (I have gads of them - that's what you call a box of waste triangles, right? - a gad) on some Wonky Hearts.  The hearts were 2 x 4.5 red scraps and I used white waste triangles for the background. I have lots of white waste triangles so was experimenting a little with those hearts. I'm thinking I might use them as Wonky Log Cabin centers. 

Then I used a couple of scrap chunks to make my improv circle.  I have been using red and brown as my constants in these along with the RSC color so only made one. 

Then I made 3 large Burgoyne Surrounded blocks with bits and pieces of different red/pinkish scraps.  (I made the one in the upper right previously so just used it to fill in for the photo.)  Now that I see them together I'm thinking I'll skip the sashing and just make more blocks.  I really don't like making sashing/adding sashing strips so why torture myself?  But, then again, when I look at the inspiration quilt  I'm thinking maybe making/adding sashing isn't really that painful. 

ScrapHappy RSC Saturday

Aqua, Turquoise, Blue-Green, Teal: Chunks, 1.5, Strings and 4.5 Edition

We have a new color to work with this month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge - aqua, turquoise, blue-green, teal. 

I looked in my chunk scrap pile first for anything in that color that was at least 8.5 inch square to make my Improv Circles.   For these circles I also use red and brown scraps as my constants. 

I then dug into my 1.5 inch scraps and made some little 3 inch rail blocks. 

I also made these little thingys that finish at 2 inches. 

I saw a quilt at Kat & Cat Quilts that she called Confetti that reminded her (and me) of gum wrapper chains so decided to make one myself since it takes 1.5 inch scraps. Might as well cut for rails and Gum Wrapper Chains while I'm at it.  (And, yes, these would make a good leader/ender but I'm not a leader/ender kind of gal). 

Finally the 1.5 inch scraps got a postage stamp (1.5 inch square) cut off of them along with some reds to make a 10 inch postage stamp block inspired by a vintage quilt.  I think I only need four more blocks and quilt assembly will begin.   

Then I made a 10.5 string block.  I barely had enough strings in aqua, etc. to make this one block.  I'm using the black rainbowy fabric 2 inch strip somewhere in each block. 

Then I moved on to 4.5 inch pieces. Normally I make Flying Geese units from my 4.5 inch scraps but aqua ones don't really fit into my plan so will skip making those from 4.5 inch scraps this month. 

I have a big pile of 4.5 inch HSTs already made from various projects over the years so have been using them up in 12 inch HST blocks as well as 8 inch Broken Dishes blocks. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

Purple Chunks, Strings and 4.5 Edition

15 inch Burgoyne Surrounded

From purple scrap chunks (and a little turquoise) 

Free pattern (plus many others) at Quilted Twins

Improv Circles 

Also from purple chunks (plus a constant of red/brown that will be used in all monthly blocks)

I blogged a little more about these blocks a few days ago. 

2 10 inch String Blocks

1 - 4.5 inch wide strip

A lot of the time I use a muslin foundation with my strings, a constant center string and sew on the diagonal ala Heartstrings but I didn't want to use a foundation for my strings this time.  Instead I decided to cut the long strings into 10.5 inch pieces. I decided on a 10 inch block because these will be used in donation quilts and most of the time the child sized quilts are 40 x 60.   That means I only need 24 blocks (2 a month) and I'll have a donation quilt (and a lot less strings).   I'm still using a "constant" in each string block which is the black polka dot fabric.  I cut the rest of the strings into 4.5 inch pieces and sewed a strip.  No plan for this strip right now other than using up string scraps. 

Flying Geese

From the 4.5 inch scraps I made a few Flying Geese.  These are continuing on from last year.  If the RSC color of the month is a secondary color I use primary colors for the sides and vice versa.  I guess I should count these up but I'm not even sure of a layout or quilt size at this point. 

8 inch Broken Dishes

I didn't make these HSTs.  I already have a small box of miscellaneous 4.5 HSTs leftover from other projects and swaps.  I decided to clear these out so if I found matching sets for some Broken Dishes blocks I made those otherwise I ...

...just sewed them together into a couple of 12 inch HST blocks. 

And that's about it now for the purple scraps! 

Got scraps? 

Join us each ScrapHappy Saturday - the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Linky

Improv Circles

Purple is the color of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  This is one of my RSC projects I experimented with last year and am continuing on this year. For the blocks I used scrap "chunks" - pieces at least 8.5 inch square.   I use the RSC color of the month plus red and brown chunks (my constants) to make my blocks.   Don't ask me why red and brown - I guess it's because I saw the most chunks in the milk crate of chunks in those colors.  I stack four pieces right sides up and make 3 free form circular cuts.   Then I re -stack the cut pieces in no particular order and sew them together again into four blocks then trim each to 6.5 inches for a six inch finished block. 

I'm warning you right now that this will be a loooooooong term project because I will only be making one or two sets of four blocks per month and only if I have scrap chunks in the color of the month.    Won't that be fun? 

And who knows what the final layout will look like.  I may keep the four blocks of a set together and sew a sashing in between or not...

With last year's yellow and orange RSC project blocks. 

They may just all get sewn together plain and simple. Or maybe some type of sashing will be inserted elsewhere. Or maybe the sets of four won't be kept together and blocks will all be mixed up instead. 

Or maybe...the layouts are endless...

Ad Hoc Improv Quilting with:

Ann at Fret Not Yourself and Kaja at Sew Slowly