Sprouts

It's a finish!

Sprouts

64 x 72

This was a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project started way back in March of 2016.    I finished the flimsy in February of this year. 

I quilted it on my DSM. First I did straight line stitching in green down the length of all the stems.  Then I switched to a neutral thread and free motion quilted flowers and leaves in the background. I left the sprout leaves without quilting so they stand out from the background somewhat. 

The binding is also scrappy. 

Lots of scraps were used in this one! 

I thought the backing fabric looked like a garden of pink sprouts. 

From far away you can see the impression of sprouts in the backing. 

This is now in the stack of hugs to be given as needed.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Finished or Not Finished Friday at Alycia Quilts

Peacock Party at Wendy's Quilts and More

A Flimsy Has Sprouted

 Sprouts

It's a flimsy! (finally)

62 x 74

 I started this back in March 2016 according to an old blog post. 

 It was a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project. 

 Lots of scrap seedlings grew into a scrappy top. 

Now I hope it doesn't take me several years to get it quilted. 

And speaking of sprouts...my orchid is in bloom. The orchid and other houseplants share a corner of my sewing room in the winter. Now I feel like sewing something with yellows and purples. 

Green Scraps - 2.5 Inch Edition

 I dug into the light and bright (and in a few instances dark) green 2.5 inch scraps this week. 

I made some Dakota Farmer blocks.  When I hurt my back a few months ago I went through some old magazines and found instructions to make the Dakota Farmer blocks in Bonnie Hunter’s Addicted to Scraps column in the Nov/Dec ’13 issue of Quiltmaker. But I didn't follow the instructions. I used 2.5 inch scraps instead of 2 inch per the instructions so my blocks finish at 8 instead of 6 inches. 

 I also made some Hourglass blocks - the final block for Block Lotto since it has come to an end.  Lucky me...I won 28 of those six inch (finished) Hourglass blocks so I decided to make more for a twin sized quilt.  The Hourglass and Dakota Farmer blocks are the only two blocks I'm making this year from 2.5 inch scraps. 

 One of my old Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects made with 2.5 inch scraps is a Plus block.  I haven't worked on these in a long time.  I dug out the pile of them and found that if I alternated light and dark backgrounds I only needed 10 more blocks for a small quilt 42 x 54 (7 x 9 layout).  So I made 10 blocks. 

 And now the blocks are ready for assembly according to that secret code. 

 I've been working on Sprout blocks off and on evidently since March 2016 according to my blog.  Since I was in the 2.5 inch scraps I decided to evaluate what I needed to start assembling these blocks. What you see above is what I needed.  

 So now these blocks are ready for top assembly. I'm thinking the top will end up to be 52 x 72 - a nice comfort quilt size. 

I'm going to try this year to rid myself of all the scraps in the 2.5 inch scrap bin. So I'm going to cut anything left over after I make my Dakota Farmer and Hourglass blocks into 2.5 inch squares. 

 And if a scrap is less than a 2.5 inch square then it goes into a strip. I've been making scrappy strips in various sizes for a couple of years now so at the end of this year I think I'll have a nice (and probably huge) scrappy Chinese Coins quilt. 

After I finished playing in all the light and bright green 2.5 inch scraps I picked out a couple of small chunks of green and made two Churn Dash blocks that finish at a big 13.5 inches. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

From Orange 2.5 Inch Scraps

 In past years I haven't really had that many scraps to play with when the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color rolled around to ORANGE.   This year I do have a lot of 2.5 inch orange scraps since I made a quilt that used a lot of it. 

So this month I dug into those 2.5 inch orange scraps and made a couple of ten inch Crazy Lady of the Lake blocks. 

 And I made a couple of orange eight inch Depression Blocks and three brown ones. I've been making these from scraps for a couple of years and I think I only need 5 or 6 more for a twin sized quilt. 

 I made a few sprouts.  I've also been making these for a few years and probably should take a count of them.  

And then I made a couple of these Whatchamacallit blocks.  The pieces are 1.5 x 2.5 so I usually use 1.5 inch scraps to make them but I looked ahead into my 1.5 inch scraps and found I only had two orange pieces in there so this month instead of using the 1.5 inch scraps to make these I used the 2.5. 

And while working with 2.5 inch scraps if any scrap gets smaller than a 2.5 inch square I sew them into a strip like on the right side.  

Then I saw that this month's Block Lotto block, a sixteen patch in California Poppy colors including orange, could be made of 2.5 inch scraps I whipped up four of those. 

And on break times I enjoyed watching all the butterflies that visited the orange Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower) in the flower garden. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

Red 2.5 Inch Scraps

 This month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color is red so this week I dug into the 2.5 inch red scraps to make  four 10 inch Crazy Lady of the Lake blocks.  After making these for a couple of years I'm getting close to enough blocks for a large quilt. 

I've also been making eight inch Depression Blocks and those Sprouts for a couple of years. Not sure if I'm close to enough blocks for big quilts now or not.  Maybe I have enough sprouts since I'm not sure how I'm going to use them!   And that little strip at the bottom? I've been sewing all the little 2.5 inch scrap ends less than a 2 inch square into strips. Not sure how I'm going to use those either but I will. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

Yellow 2.5 Inch Scrap Edition

I dug into my yellow 2.5 inch scraps this week.  Combined with a few other colors I ended up with five 10 inch Crazy Lady of the Lake blocks.  This is a Rainbow Scrap Challenge carry over project from previous years. I'm hoping to have a total of 81 blocks at year end. 

Another carry over project - Sprouts. 

And yet another carry over project- eight inch Depression blocks. 

I also have been sewing together the end pieces of the 2.5 inch scraps if they are less than a 2.5 inch square. Someday I'll probably use them in a Chinese Coins quilt or a border. 

And I made a couple of little four inch Happy Blocks.   I have a giant pile of a variety of different four inch blocks. Maybe I should find something to do with them. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

Purple 2.5 Inch Scraps

This week I used my purple 2.5 inch scraps. 

With the addition of a few six inch HSTs  - some cut from scrap chunks but most left overs from the Parts Department - I used my 2.5 inch purple scraps (and  few yellow and red 2.5 inch scraps) to make lots of little HSTS that ended up in six 10 inch Crazy Lady of the Lake blocks.  This is a RSC project carried over from last year. 

And speaking of (very old) RSC carry over projects...I made a couple of Sprout blocks, a couple of Depression Blocks and had a few HSTs left over for a little Broken Dishes block for the Parts Department. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday

Blue 2.5 Inch Scrap Edition

 I dug into my blue 2.5 inch scraps this week and I sure had to make a lot of HSTs. 

Last year I made these ten inch (Crazy) Lady of the Lake blocks.  I have about half of what I need for a BIG quilt so they are on my to-do list again this year as an Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) project.    I found a baggie of six inch  half HST pieces leftover from making basket blocks several years ago so used some of them for the centers as well as some chunk pieces. 

 I don't know how many years I've been making these eight inch Depression Blocks but I have about 66 of them if I can believe my note in the bag with them.  Ok...so these get carried over again this year too.   I limit myself to actual scraps so how many I make depends on my scraps.  But I like BIG quilts so it still make take several years to have enough blocks.  And I'm okay with that. 

And finally I made some Sprouts. Somehow I forgot I had these in the works and skipped over them last year but what was lost has now been found and they are back in the scrap rotation. However many I end up with after this year is how many will be in the quilt, I think. I'm not going to count but just surprise myself at the end of the year.  I'm just going to go where the scraps take me.

And where are the scraps taking everyone else? 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy Saturday 

Red 2.5 Scrap Edition

Red 2.5 inch  scraps were used in three 10 inch Lady of the Lake...

...one 12 inch sail boat, one 8 inch Depression Block, fifteen Flying Geese...

...three Sprouts (I may have enough of these for a quilt now since I've been making them with my scraps for a couple of years now)...

...six 4 inch Little Happies (I have a bunch of miscellaneous 4 inch blocks)...

...and six 6 inch Plus Blocks which are new to the list since I had a bunch of red 2.5 scraps left over. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge ScrapHappy in Red Saturday

Purple 2.5 Edition

Lady of the Lake

10 inch block

This week I worked with the purple 2.5 inch scraps.  I have a box of all different colors of strips of scraps 2.5 inches long.  They get in there various ways - I use other than scraps in a project that requires a 2.5 cut of fabric or I get to the end of a piece of fabric and all that's left is 2.5 inches and maybe a little string.  Anyway...I used up most of the purple in the 2.5 inch box because I actually have very little purple in my stash. 

I'm making Lady of the Lake blocks this year. Two of them will be made in light/dark RSC (Rainbow Scrap Challenge) color of the month and two of them will be color of the month plus a color analogous on the  color wheel- this time blue.  6.5 inch centers will be cut from chunk pieces (yes, I have a scrap chunk crate). 

I tried out this block last year when the color of the month was orange. I used yellow for analogous color.  Here's how some of the blocks look together so far. Yes, I like them. So, I will continue this year making Lady of the Lake blocks. 

Also last year when color of the month was orange I made a 12 inch ship block.  I belonged to a "birthday club" where members make a requested birthday girl's block of choice and sent it to birthday girl in her birthday month.    This ship block was birthday girl's choice. I found it easy to make and cute AND I have a piece of ship fabric perfect for backing what will be this baby sized quilt. I'm using a variety of blue backgrounds...may even add gray...don't know yet. 

Each month I'm going to see if I can move toward finishing any UFOs with scraps from the color of the month.  I won some six inch Split Nine Patch blocks last year from Block Lotto.  They were made in purple, gray and white tone on tones.   So I made a couple of blocks from scraps but actually had to cut some purple 2.5 inch pieces because these are made with tone on tones and most of my remaining purple scraps after making the above were NOT tone on tone. 

So now I think that brings me to 54 blocks and that will make a baby sized quilt.  I have a piece of purple to use as a border. 

Another Block Lotto win last year was six inch Birds in the Air blocks.  These blocks are made in tone on tone purples and blues with white.   So, since I made some new 2.5 inch scraps from making the above blocks I immediately used them to make six birds in the air blocks. I'm going to make a big quilt from these and will probably use blue tone on tones to make more blocks for this quilt. So watch for same blocks in RSC blue month. Otherwise you won't see these blocks again for ScrapHappy Saturday. Merely trying to move a UFO forward this month. 

Sprouts 

6 x 13

I made the three sprouts on the left. The two on the right were made last year from my purple scraps. It's kind of fun to compare scraps from year to year.  I actually don't know where I'm going with these blocks so maybe I should figure that out now since these are rolling over from last year and I have different numbers of blocks in each scrappy color. 

Now I'm down to some miscellaneous blocks and parts. 

I made two eight inch Depression blocks. I've been making these for several years. I guess I should count the stack. I like big quilts so sometimes it takes awhile to get there when you make a few blocks each month from scraps.  But what's the hurry? 

The second row of blocks goes into the four inch parts department. Gosh, I have a big bag of 4 inch parts. I've been throwing things into there for years.   And the bottom row is a strip of wonky HSTs leftover from Lady of the Lake.  Usually I throw wonkies into the crumb pile but I decided to make a strip from them. I have "made strips" in various colors and sizes so will now add to them with hst strips.  Use to be determined later. 

Speaking of strips...I made one with the ends of some purple scraps. 

I also have been making triangles following the tutorial on Molly Flanders. I have a LOT of these. I guess I need to figure out the diagonal measurement of the quilt I want to make and then figure out how many of these things it takes sewn together to make that measurement. 

And that's the Purple 2.5 Scrap Edition. 

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