ScrapHappy Saturday - RSC15 - Week 9

Welcome to Week 9 of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  A scary thing happened this week...

On Wednesday evening, I realized that I hadn't written ANYTHING for this post!!!  I really like to keep up with writing the post as the week goes along. (That way I don't forget what I did or when I sewed what.)

A little scroll through the photos on my phone told me that I did indeed spend some time at my sewing machine this week (which I couldn't remember off the top of my head!)

Here's a little back tracking:

On Sunday afternoon, I decided to share a photo that my friend Needleb took at Quilt Bee yesterday.

Here's me, dressed in my quilting "uniform."  Although, I have to tell you, my PINK Converse High Tops were traded out for SNOW BOOTS because there was still plenty of ice and snow hanging about.

When life hands you scraps, MAKE A QUILT!

Wouldn't you know it?!  I turned my head before she was finished taking the picture!  LOL

Sunday evening, I decided that I better sew SOMETHING because I had a busy week planned.  Here's the ONE pink String block that I made:





Monday afternoon, I was able to do some hand sewn binding on my Crumb quilt.  While not technically RSC15 sewing...  There is PINK in there (as well as every other color of the rainbow!)


Tuesday afternoon was the same story as Monday (only with less time for hand sewing.)  The GOOD news is that I turned the 2nd corner on the binding of my Crumb quilt!  :o))


And that, my friends, brings us to Wednesday.  It's been a CRAZY week!!!  More hand sewing on the binding of my Crumb quilt today.  (Hey!  It's a BIG quilt and I am a SLOW stitcher!)


Thursday I hope to make up for lost time.  (Since I'm not scheduled to work and we are supposed to have ANOTHER winter storm blowing through.)  I'll let you know how it goes.

Well, here you have it!  There was MUCH shoveling to be done:

The view out the front...

And out the back.

There's a full-sized minivan under there... SOMEWHERE!!  :o))

It's a good thing we took out the trash yesterday!!

 So...  Not much sewing got done on Thursday morning (since DH is out of town).  I did, however, manage to get a bit of hand sewing done on the binding of my Crumb quilt during the afternoon.  A body needs breaks between shoveling sessions and the "emergency" excursion to find a neighbor with 2 cans of evaporated milk.  (None to be found!)  But that's ANOTHER story.   :o))

Thursday evening (after MORE shoveling!), I was too exhausted to even THINK about sewing!!


I got a slow start on Friday morning, but on Friday afternoon... I sewed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe not a lot, but PINK progress was made.  Care to have a look?


I made ONE pink Maverick Star block:

And... TWO pink Slab blocks:

Notice the cute little Strawberry Shortcakes in these blocks (made with bits from last week's Design Floor Friday quilt!)

I may even try to get a few Tiny Nines done tonight.  It will have been a VERY productive day (in a slow and steady, end of the PINK, last ditch effort kind of way.)

Friday before dinner, I made ONE pink Tiny Nine block and cleaned up some PINK scraps, cutting them into various sized squares for future use:

Well, Saturday is here and a NEW Color of the Month is about to be revealed!!!  Take one last look around the sewing room:


The trash is looking PRETTY IN PINK (with some T-shirt quilt bits in there for good measure):

The PINK scrap "basket" is looking somewhat depleted:

And... It's time to take inventory!  You've seen the basket of the PINK scraps.  Can you guess how many blocks were made this month?


More than I expected, I can tell you that!!  It's strangely mathematical...


THREE (3) Maverick Star Blocks:

SIX (6) Slab Blocks:

NINE (9) Tiny Nines:

TWELVE (12) String Blocks:

For a total of THIRTY (30) quilt blocks made during the month of February!!!  (Not too shabby, considering all the days that I didn't sew!)


Oh!  And, let's not forget that little pile of freshly cut scraps for future use - it counts, too!  :o))

 Here are the composite photos to show this month's productivity laid out on the "design floor":

View One:  PINK Progress

View Two:  PINK Progress

Perhaps, I wasn't quite as productive as last month, but I still used up a fair amount of scraps.  Make sure to visit ScrapHappy over on the So Scrappy Blog to see what all of the other Rainbow Scrap Quilters have been up to.  It's a Link Party!  I'm link number 8 this week.

One last thing...

I thought for sure that Angela would post the NEW Color of the Month today, but she didn't.  :o((

We'll just have to wait for tomorrow...

drumming fingers impatiently on the table

Edited to add that Angela clued me into the fact that the NEW Color of the Month was buried at the bottom of her post.  (Tricky, tricky!)


Anyway...


The Color of the month for March is:

Ignore the crinkles... this color card belongs to a 2 year old!  :o))

Until next time...
Get Scrappy!!!

February = PINK = Productivity

Design Floor Friday - Taking in Strays

Welcome to another edition of Design Floor Friday!  Bear with me, please.  I've got a story to tell that goes along with the quilt that is the subject of today's "article."

Over on Ravelry (a website for knitters, crocheters, and weavers), I am a member (and moderator) of the Quilter's Knitting group (there are groups for EVERYTHING.)  I co-chair the UFO Club and I am also participating in the 2015 Austerity Challenge.

THE CHALLENGE:

The Austerity QAL is now CLOSED for additional sign-ups. This challenge began on January 1, 2015 and ends on June 30, 2015 or December 31, 2015. (Challenge duration TBD.)

The cut off for buying new fabric is December 31st !!!

You can start sewing before January 1st. You can also use UFOs. Although, many people will be using their scrap pile; this does NOT have to be a scrap quilt. The quilt can be from coordinated fabrics.

Please note: You can purchase batting and thread…batting is hard to store and not everyone keeps a stash of thread. or if absolutely necessary - backing/background fabric - but try to challenge yourself!!

If you have special quilt-related trips (i.e. a trip to Bali or a National Quilt Show) planned, those purchases can be exempt.

There are no prizes. The prize is your finished quilt(s) and the satisfaction of using what you have on hand.

THE WELCOME:

Welcome to the 2015 Austerity Challenge! If you signed up for this challenge, it’s probably because you have so much fabric that you don’t know what to do with it all. We hope that joining this group will help encourage you to STAY OUT of the stores and SHOP YOUR STASH!!!

Dictionary.com defines austerity as strict economy. We are taking that to mean increasing our fabric stash by ZERO fabric for the duration of this Challenge. Please post your completed projects in this discussion thread and own up here if/when you “fall off the wagon.”

Repeat after me, “I resolve to buy no more fabric than is ABSOLUTELY necessary for the projects at hand, USING STASH WHEN AT ALL POSSIBLE. The ONLY exception to the buying rule will be special trips planned throughout the year.”

Remember that the recipient of your quilt won’t CARE if you incorporated the PERFECT fabric!! They will think it’s lovely NO MATTER WHAT YOU USE!! They don’t know how to quilt and know nothing about fabric selection. USE WHAT YOU HAVE on hand!

Are you beginning to see the pattern??? :o))

Good luck to all.

THE RESULT:

"Confessions" for near a near miss at the fabric store and such.

THE REALITY (here's the relevant part):

I recently talked about the puppies (er... the fabric scraps) that followed me home from the Donation Quilt Workshop a couple of weeks ago.  I openly "confessed" to acquiring the said scraps, since the goal of the Quilt-A-Long is to use what you have.

My main goal in participating in the Challenge is to NOT PURCHASE MORE FABRIC, with that in mind, it was determined by the group that bringing strays home is not a breech of challenge "rules." Whew!  That was a close one!

I digress.


Oh, right!  You're here looking for another installment of Design Floor Friday.

I'm actually getting to that.

You see, the curved pieced blocks on the "design floor" this week were found among the SCRAPS in the bag that I was given (refer to the REALITY section above.)  Originally, I intended to add the colors of sand and sea, along with white. Apparently, the quilt (and my fabric stash) had other ideas... it just took me a while to figure out what it DID want!

Would you like to take a look at some of the iterations that the blocks have seen this week?

Yes??  I thought you might!  :o))


Without further ado, I present the audition stage of "Taking in Strays".  (Try to ignore the basketball rug that I keep forgetting to take to Goodwill and the somewhat less-than-perfect layout that comes from throwing folded fabric on the floor to check for color/pattern compatibility.)

Two "circles" on one side (with extra "swoop" on the other side and a "hole" in the corner):

Circles in opposing corners (with extra "swoop" in another corner):

Extra "swoop" in the same corner, but turned another direction:

Extra "swoop" rotated again (in the same corner):

"Blue" circle rotated and extra "swoop" moved up a row:

"Green" circle rotate along with the "swoop" ("blue" circle remaining the same):

Large circles remaining in position and "swoop" moving back to the corner:

Moving the "light" square near the center:

After all of that...

I think it's time to head back to the drawing board... er...  back to the fabric stash to check for additional options.  That light fabric just doesn't seem to be working!

Here are a few more choices (after a lengthy search of the fabric at hand.)

Adding in a new (darker) fabric:

Adding in an even darker fabric (removing a grayer piece):

Shifting the darker fabrics to new locations:

And, finally, I think we have a winner!!

Lining up the "bluer" pieces and then the "greener" pieces, placing them diagonally across the top:

It's interesting how much a design can change from the making (or acquiring) of blocks to the final layout.  I feel MUCH better about the composition, now.  What do YOU think??

Until next time...
Be flexible!!!

Scrap Happy Saturday - RSC15 - Week 8

Welcome to Week 8 of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  Each week, I link up with Angela over on the So Scrappy blog to share my ongoing projects that her challenge has inspired.  She and the other RSC Quilters have really "lit a fire under my butt."  I'm up in my sewing room more than ever... and I'm SEWING. TONS!!!  :o))

That being said, this week was not as productive RSC-wise, but I was quilting away on other projects.  Here's what I accomplished this week:

Sunday evening, although I got NO pink SCRAP sewing done, I assembled the PINK donation quilt that I started during last Saturday's workshop:

Hey!  There's PINK in there, so it counts!!  :P

Monday afternoon, I cut PINK borders (that counts, right?!) for my donation quilt and got the rest of my T-quilt blocks ready to sew into rows.  (Totally unrelated, but I'm SEW excited!)

Tuesday afternoon, I sewed the PINK borders on my donation quilt and sewed pairs of T-quilt blocks together for Jacob's quilt.  Progress.  SEW happy!!!

Wednesday, here's a shot of the completed Strawberry Upside Down {short} Cake donation quilt top that I put together yesterday:

Sorry for the bad lighting.  Took the photo last night.

Thursday afternoon, after sewing the pairs of T-blocks into rows, I decided that it was time to work on my RSC15 projects (since I haven't done that at all this week) and here is the ONE lone String block that I managed to stitch together:

Friday evening, I didn't get any more PINK blocks sewn, but...

Read the notice to see what else is going on...


NOTICE:  For more information about my T-shirt quilts that kept me busy this during the week, check out my Design Floor Friday post.  There's a REALLY good reason that I got no RSC sewing done.  I don't want to spoil the surprise, so make sure you visit to see what happened!!  :o))


Saturday is Link Party Day for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  (You'll find me at link number 16.)  Head over to see what all of the RSC Quilters have been up to (since I didn't have very much PINK scrappy goodness going on.)  I have a meeting AND have to work today, so that's it for this week!

Until next time...
Get Scrappy!!!

Design Floor Friday, The Next...

.. T-shirt Quilt that I make "as small as possible" out of "ALL these shirts", I really need to ask if the designs need to be kept WHOLE!!!

I saw a quilt last Saturday that appeared to include only PART of each logo in the quilt's blocks.  It was a VERY interesting quilt.  I'm still not quite sure how I feel about the partial logos.  You can see the quilt in question in the opening post of Megan's blog Sew Stitching Cute Quilts.

On closer inspection, it looks like she used more than ONE block for each shirt and then scattered the various portions around the quilt with some plain squares thrown in for good measure.

Hmm...  I really like it!

How does one decide WHERE to slice each shirt???

In my mind, I always think that I should include the entire design (in case some portion that I cut off was my client's FAVORITE part of the shirt.)  Although, with portions of the shirt designs missing, it really makes you wonder what the rest of the T-shirt looked like.  Or in this case, as I looked back at the quilt that Megan made, I felt like I was playing Connect the Dots or some type of matching game.

FUN!!!

Then another thought struck me...

I suddenly had the desire to start yet ANOTHER quilt.  I want to try making one like Megan made.

And I want to make it NOW!!!  :o))

I can't, of course, start another T-shirt quilt at the moment.  Perhaps, I'll try her method on my next T-quilt.  I believe that it will have to be one of my own quilts (as opposed to a client quilt.)  It seems to me that it would be a risky method to try on a client quilt without first having an example to show.

It seems more difficult to determine which portion of a shirt to use, if I weren't using the entire logo. As it is, I have trouble making a decision about how to treat a logo that is smaller than the rest of the designs... I can't IMAGINE how difficult it would be to select which elements of a design to keep and which parts hit "the cutting room floor."

As I looked at Megan's quilt (yet again) I think she used ALL of the various parts of the shirts.  Even her plain squares were sections of the shirts!  Can you say coping strategy for incorporating ALL parts of the shirts in a new an exciting way???

Or...

She may have done it to maximize quilt size while only using a small number of shirts.  Megan may have STRETCHED a few shirts into the BIGGEST quilt she could make.  The EXACT opposite of the challenge presented by my client!  Interesting.  VERY interesting!

I'm hoping that she will email me to explain what REALLY happened.  I'll be sure to let you know.

In the meantime, have a look at all the progress I've made on Jacob's T-quilt!

Blocks ready for assembly:

"Two-sies" ready for sewing into rows:

Sorry for the sideways shot!  The computer was giving me trouble with photo rotation.

Rows ready for sewing into a top:

DRUM ROLL PLEASE...

The completed top (minus borders!)

Don't worry! I was VERY careful while standing on the step stool (that STILL wasn't quite tall enough to allow me to get the entire quilt top in the frame.) It's a BIG quilt!!!  Not HUGE, but big enough.

Until next time...
Be Productive!

ScrapHappy {Valentine's Day} Saturday -RSC15- Week 7

In honor of the day, I thought that I'd start out with a photo of my little quilt that I call Keys to My Heart.  This was a Valentine's gift for my husband 5 years ago.  It hangs in our kitchen during the month of February each year.

Look for details at the bottom of this post.

This small quilt was made during a "Found Objects" study with my Art Quilter's Play Group using an actual (paper) envelope and 2 (real) keys that my husband brought in from the garage.  Once the design was complete, I noticed that it seemed a bit stark.  That's when I came up with the message for the contents of the envelope.


Welcome to Week 7 of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  It's hard to believe that SO MANY weeks have gone by in the short span of 2015.  I'm happy to report that I have had another productive week. How was YOUR week??  I hope you have been inspired to use up some of your scraps.  Rainbow or otherwise!

Today is Valentine's Day and I am spending it with loved ones...

My SEWING MACHINE:

My QUILT GUILD:

and...  My VALENTINE'S BAG:

I needed my SEWING MACHINE for the donation quilt workshop that my QUILT GUILD is putting on today and I needed my VALENTINE'S BAG to carry some of the necessary supplies.

And, yes, I was wearing my VALENTINE'S JACKET that you saw in last week's post!!!

:o))

Don't worry!!  DH knows that I love him.  (We passed the hearts and flowers stage ages ago!  We've been married 26 years and are much too frugal for frivolous gifts!!)  Besides that... we have a "romantic" dinner planned after my Sew Day.  :o))

You're not here to read about hearts and flowers, anyway.  You're  here to read about the QUILTS (or  at least the quilt parts that I've been sewing all week!)

Sunday evening, I searched for MORE pink scraps and located a few usable pieces.

I dug these PINK scraps out of the 7 - 9 inch basket (meaning the pieces are all 7" to 9" strips or squares.) 

I also finished the STAR POINTS for one Maverick Star block.

The background came from the 7 - 9" basket, too.

Monday afternoon I found that Angela had posted Rainbow Sampler February Block 2 Lady of the Lake (although Angela wasn't sure what block it was.)


Before dinner, I went up to put that ONE Maverick Star block together:

AND...  I ended up making TWO Tiny Nines:

Tuesday, I worked on a UFO and got TWO String blocks made:

Along with ONE Maverick Star block:

Please pardon the orientation of the block. It looks like a face with its tongue sticking out!

Wednesday, after work and taking DS2 to the doctor, I finished up THREE Slab Blocks that I started the other day.  Which other day I'm not quite sure, but I completed them this evening:

Oh!  As I was thinking about what day I might have begun these blocks, I said to myself, "I don't remember when I started these.  For all I know, it could have been last week!"  Sure enough!  I looked back at last week's post and found that I started them last Tuesday.  Not that you really care WHEN they were started, but I just HAD. TO. KNOW!  :o))


Thursday, after dinner, I made TWO totally random (as in blindly pulling strips out of a bag) String Blocks:

Friday, I worked on a UFO, so NO sewing was done on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  If you'd like to see what I was working on, check out THIS post.

Saturday, after breakfast, I finished up this post and sent it off into BlogLand.  I am spending/spent (depending on when you read this post) the day sewing, but NOT on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  I'm linking up with the other So Scrappy quilters over on Angela's blog.  Look for me at link number 6... that's JUST HOW EARLY things got going today!

Edited to add... I even managed to sew some PINK blocks at my Donation Quilt Workshop today!!

Oops!  The photo was popped in sideways... let's hope Strawberry Shortcake doesn't get sea sick!  LOL

TWELVE blocks ready to sew into a donation quilt (along with the backing and binding fabric.)  I'm not sure if I'll dig out some border fabric from my stash or if I'll just set the blocks together and quilt them as is.  I'll figure that out tomorrow and hopefully finish the quilt in time for our guild meeting on Monday night.  (It IS possible!  Not likely, but possible.)

:o))


Until next time...
Get scrappy!!!

And remember... I  HEART YOU!!!  :o))