Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Mystery Monday Link-up! Allietare! Part 5!!

Welcome to Part FIVE of the Allietare Mystery!!  Bonnie released the clue on Saturday (since Christmas fell on Friday this year.) I didn't get a chance to look at the instructions because my family went away for the holidays.

I will catch up, but not today.  :o((

We arrived home yesterday afternoon.  I didn't even get through my email before falling asleep (at the computer!)

Today, jet lag has me feeling a bit dizzy and sewing tasks are out of the question, at the moment. Three of these fabrics will be waiting for me:


In Clue 5, Bonnie has us using our neutral, gray, and black fabrics (for some more easy piecing - from what I've heard from friends.)  Here's hoping that I will be able to have some fun with them BEFORE the next clue comes out!!

Visit the Link Up to see if others were productive.

Until then...
Be mysterious!!!

2015 Rainbow Scrap Challenge - The Year in Review

WARNING:  THIS IS A PICTURE-HEAVY POST!!!

At the end of last year, I happened upon the So Scrappy Blog.  The blog's author, Angela, was hosting  the 2015 Rainbow Scrap Challenge and had designed the 2015 RSC Sampler Quilt for the occasion.  I find it difficult to believe that 52 weeks have gone by since then!

While I wasn't planning to participate in making the Sampler, I had PLENTY of scraps in a RAINBOW of colors and a list of blocks that I had been wanting to make!  I chose FOUR blocks from my list and got to work.

OK!  So I went a LITTLE overboard, during the first few months, but I was having SEW much FUN!!!  It had been a LONG time since I was this excited about spending time in my sewing room. Thank you, Angela, for renewing my love of quilting with your Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  Your weekly LINK PARTY only added to my enthusiasm.


My "design floor" took on a new look as the Color of the Month changed throughout the year.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November


One of the RSC Quilters showed a stack of blocks in March and I thought that it might be interesting to see how my own pile of blocks grew over the course of the year...


Would you care to have a look???


In January the stack of completed blocks looked very BLUE:


February's stack grew with the addition of PINK blocks:


In March, we added some YELLOW blocks onto the growing stack:


April saw the addition of PURPLE blocks:

Oops! You can tell that I've been quilting this month by the angle of my machine cover.  LOL

May brought GREEN blocks to the stack:


In June, the pile only experienced slight growth with the addition of LIGHT BLUE blocks:



July saw the small addition of RED blocks:



August added INDIGO to the ever-growing stack:



In September, the stack grew imperceptibly, with the addition of ORANGE blocks:



October added BROWN blocks to the growing pile:



November meant that a FEW Light/Gright GREEN blocks were added to the stack:



December is the month when all good Rainbow Scrap Quilters are assembling their blocks in to quilts and finishing up projects.


Not so, with me!  I did, however, take a lovely photo of the block stack together with its accompanying stack of Rainbow Crumb Block for you to see:



Wow!!!  That looks QUITE impressive.

I'm pleased with all I've gotten done this year.  Thanks to Angela and the RSC Quilters, I've got Rainbow blocks coming out my ears!!  (OK.  Not literally.)

Here's a  look back at the Mid-Year Review:


THIS is the way the 2nd half of the year turned out:



And...


THIS is how it all stacks up for the Year-End Review:



Let's not forget a year's worth of RAINBOW Crumb Blocks:



Perch those at the top of the stack and HERE is what you've got:




A pretty BIG pile of blocks... ALL made during the 2015 Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!!


Shall I break the block pile down by type??

Sure, Joyful!  Why not?!?!

THIRTY-ONE (31) Maverick Stars:


FORTY-EIGHT (48) Slab Blocks:


SEVENTY-EIGHT (78) String Blocks:


SEVENTY-NINE (79) Tiny Nines:



For a TOTAL of  TWO HUNDRED THIRTY-SIX (236) Rainbow Scrap Challenge Blocks made between January and November 2015!!  That's an average of 21.45 blocks per month during RSC15.

And, of course, let's not forget the ONE HUNDRED FIFTY (150) Rainbow Crumbs:



For a GRAND TOTAL of THREE HUNDRED EIGHTY-SIX (386) quilt blocks made during 2015!!!  That's 1.057 blocks per day... assuming this quilter ACTUALLY sewed EVERY day!!!  :P


It's all well and good to see piles of blocks up on a pedestal, but ...



What do they look like all laid out, Joyful???


Maverick Stars:


Slab Blocks:


String Blocks:



Tiny Nines:



And, last, but not least...


A Rainbow of Crumb Blocks:


From time to time, projects just don't pan out the way you expect them to.  You don't like the proposed layout or other projects (or several!!) take center stage.  I'm sorry to say that is what happened to one of my RSC projects.  The Rainbow Crumb Blocks took over and the Bricks fell to the wayside (never to be heard from again.)  That's OK!  Another RSC Challenge will soon begin.



Again, I want to thank Angela for hosting the 2015 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  It inspired me to spend more time in my studio playing with my fabric scraps.  I've got the makings of SEVERAL quilts and I'm already looking forward to the fun that I will have participating in the 2016 Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

I also want to thank YOU for reading about my journey and commenting along the way.  Your kind words have meant more to me than you could possibly know.

Until next time...
Scrappy New Year!!!

Monday, December 21, 2015

Mystery Monday Link-up! Allietare! Part 4!!

Welcome to the next edition of Mystery Monday Link-up!!  I am linking up with Bonnie Hunter, of Quiltville fame, for the FOURTH clue in the Allietare Mystery. We've been lucky with the first four parts of the mystery... not too many hoops to jump through!  :o))

Thanks for going easy on us, Bonnie!!!

In case you don't know about the mystery quilt, Bonnie took her colors from the sights on her recent trip to Italy.  I took my colors from her suggestions.  This is not my usual way of doing a mystery quilt, but it's what my stash demanded this time around.  The only substitutions I made was in the number of prints within certain color groupings.  I'm hoping that it won't make a difference in the grand scheme of things!!

Part 4, released this past Friday, began with cutting...

I cut sets of matching REDS:


I cut sets of non-matching NEUTRALS:


And I cut BLACKS (Mine are all the same, even though Bonnie called for a mix.):


After all that cutting, it was time for a BREAK!!!  :o))




NOTE:  If you read my ScrapHappy Saturday posts, those photo may look familiar to you.


On Saturday, I marked all of the corners:




Sunday afternoon found me sitting at my sewing machine.

Stitching first one side:


Then the other:


Then double stitching one side:


And the other:



Until...


In the end, I completed ALL of the units AND all of the bonus HSTs:



Trimming will have to wait for another day...  I'm going on (a long awaited) vacation!!

True confessions:  Some of you might have spotted a problem...  That trimming will include cutting away the extra half-inch that I cut for EVERY Center-less Bow-tie.  I cut the all 2.5" x 4.5" for some unknown reason.  :o((

Until next time...
Be mysterious!!!