2025 Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Year in Review

Welcome to the 2025 Rainbow Scrap Challenge - The Year in Review edition from The Joyful Quilter!!

It's the final day of the year and this is where I break my RSC progress down to a monthly review of scrap use.  If you saw my 2024 Year in Review post, you might know what comes next.

I would like to start off by thanking Angela for her continued offering of the RSC by hosting the 2025 Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year, even though she was super busy with work and graduate school.

I'm sharing this post

with

Angela @ So Scrappy

Now, let's take a look at my Rainbow Scrap Challenge progress for the year...

I started off the year with a plan to create donation quilt tops in each of the RSC Colors of the Month, inspired by Jasmine @ Quilt Kisses and her TUTORIAL for the Jumbo Jelly Roll Race quilt.  I'll share those below,  along with the projects completed with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge in mind.


JANUARY - PINK

I started off the year with Dragon Scales for PQ 16.1, done in the RSC Color of the Month:

I also made Warm Beverage as my TABLE SCRAPS Challenge project...

Ombre, a mini quilt for PQ 16.2...

Along with my PINK donation quilt specifically with the RSC in mind:

FEBRUARY - BLUE

Common Blocks for PQ 16.3:

The background of Birthstone, made for PQ 16.3, used a stack of BLUE scraps from a friend:

Bright was my entry for this month's TABLESCRAPS Challenge:

And finished Noah's Grad Quilt, begun with scraps during a long ago BLUE month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge:

MARCH - YELLOW

Follow Your Arrow - PQ 16.4

Song Lyrics was a painted and appliqued piece made for the TSC:

RRM Mug Rug #3 used a floral print that incorporated the Color of the Month:

And...

I finally finished my UFO titled YELLOW JRR on Steroids:

APRIL - RED

TWO donation quilts finished specifically for the RSC...

Big RED Race Quilt:

Short Track RED Race quilt:

And...

This month's TABLE SCRAPS Challenge entry Raining Cats and Dogs:

MAY - GREEN

Fresh Cut Grass, my entry for the TSC:

JUNE - ORANGE

My TABLE SCRAPS Challenge project was Life's a Beach:

JULY - PURPLE

When faced with the Bloom Time prompt for this month's TSC, I remembered that I had a PURPLE UFO.  Inherited Iris was an abandoned project from a friend.  Abandoned = Leftover = Scrap:

Completed my super scrappy Grape Candy Coated quilt from Crazy Mom Quilts:

AUGUST - AQUA

Hot Flash Mini for the TABLE SCRAPS Challenge:

QFK Jumbo JRR in AQUA finished for the RSC:

SEPTEMBER - Light/Bright BLUE and/or Light/Bright GREEN

Laura's TV Test Pattern mini was made for the TSC:

OCTOBER - Dark and/or Light NEUTRALS

DENIM Make It Mini quilted art with scraps of October's Color of the Month:

Kristen's Scrappy Bargello  (from her Scrappy Strips QAL) was made during BLUE month and completed this month because it also fit October's Dark and/or Light NEUTRALS:

NOVEMBER - Assembly of Blocks

For the purposes of the TABLE SCRAPS Challenge, I made an executive decision and called for MAKERS CHOICE.  

For the RSC25 I made this Light NEUTRAL Quilted Thread Catcher last month, didn't get it finished:

DECEMBER - Finishing and Quilting

For my final entry for the TABLE SCRAPS Challenge, I called for RAINBOW and here is what I made...

Ella's PEACE-ful RAINBOW:

Not too shabby, huh???

During 2025, I made TWENTY-SIX (26) projects with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Color(s) of the Month in mind.  Some were specifically made as an RSC project.  Others were UFOs completed because of the Color of the Month.  I also selected fabrics with Angela's monthly color choice as my guide when creating many of my ProjectQUILTING challenge pieces along with ALL of my entries for the 2025 TABLE SCRAPS Challenge here on my blog.

Speaking of the TABLE SCRAPS Challenge...

I'm SEW glad that Judy @ Busy Hands are Happy Hands, Deb @  Happy to be Scrappy and LeeAnna @ Not Afraid of Color encouraged me to offer The TABLE SCRAPS Challenge again in conjunction with the 2025 Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but after 5 years (and a chronic health condition), I'm stepping away from offering the challenge in 2026.  We will just have to spend more time on RSC projects.

I thoroughly enjoyed hosting the challenge and hope you will still visit Angela and continue sewing the fabric scraps from your cutting table with her Color of the Month.  I know that I will!  As I mentioned in the December 2025 Link Party, please know that I appreciate each quilter who participated in the TSC over the years.  I'm SEW glad that my prompts sparked your creativity (even though some of them were so... challenging.)

Until next time...

Quilt SO scrappy!!!

Best of 2025

Hello, quilting friends!!  If you are new to The Joyful Quilter, welcome.  If you have visited before, welcome back!  Cheryl @ Meadow Mist Designs is continuing her Best of... link party tradition.  Follow THIS LINK to see all of the wonderful bloggers who have joined in the fun.  Here is her new button for the 11th anniversary edition of the Link Party:

To take part in the link party, participants were asked to write a blog post highlighting our "best" 5 posts from 2025 and join the linkup.  Cheryl suggested the following examples of posts to be included:

• Posts with the most views
• Posts with the most comments
• Posts that provoked the best discussions
• Posts showing your favorite finishes
• Posts of your best tutorials
• Posts that are simply your favorites

The link party will open the day after Christmas on Friday, December 26th and will be open for one week ending on Friday, January 2nd.

This will be my 7th (consecutive) year of participation.  Those of you who have been following me for a while know that this year has been one of work, art, and even more health issues than last year.  Even so, I managed to fit some quilting time in, as well!  I was able to enjoy one Quilt Retreat and several Sew Days during the year.  It made some progress possible and resulted in a fair number of completed projects.

Here is an overview of my productivity for the year:

I completed 12 mini quilts/quilted mug rugs, 6 wall hangings, and 3 large(ish) quilts, plus 6 other quilted items (including 1 quilted thread catcher, 1 quilted chair cover, 1 quilted yarn bowl, 1 quilted pillow, and 2 quilted art pieces on a canvas.)  I also finished 5 donation quilts.

Items made per month...

January - 4

February - 4

March - 5

April - 3

May - 1

June - 1

July - 2

August - 2

September - 1

October - 3

November - 4

December - 2

That adds up to the fact that I finished a total of 32 quilted items in 2025.  (26 of those were made as a result of Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge, because of her Color of the Month and/or in conjunction with my TABLE SCRAPS Challenge.)  I'm quite pleased by the number of projects I was able to complete.  My productivity was fairly good considering the ongoing health issues I've dealt with during the year.

How does one decide on her BEST posts for the year??

I took a long and hard look at the posts written in 2025, but as per usual, choosing the BEST was quite a challenge.

Mine include the following...

Most modern finish - DENIM Quilt Art on Canvas

Favorite mixed media finish - Sing Circa 1973:

Favorite UFO finish - Inherited Iris

Favorite three dimensional finish - PQ16.3 - Common Blocks:

Favorite QAL finish - Kristen's Scrappy Bargello:

AND as a bonus...

After five years, my final TABLE SCRAPS Challenge finish - PEACE(out):

Thank you for joining me in this review.  Special thanks to Cheryl for organizing a Link Party dedicated to reminding us to take another look at the blog posts we've written during the year.  If not for this venture, I might never have finished updating this year's project list which was woefully behind.  

Until next time...

Quilt the year away!!!

ScrapHappy Saturday - RSC25 - Week 52

Welcome to Week 52 of the 2025 Rainbow Scrap Challenge!!  This week may or may not include scrap sewing.  The verdict is out.  We'll have to see where the time goes.

Any guess???  Read on to find out...

SUNDAY - Today's Weekly Morning Art Zoom found participants enjoying the final edition of Dare to Roll.  We went through two sets of prompts...

Set One - stamps, watercolor, bubble wrap, cling wrap, and dots:

Set Two - Pink, something found, old photo, and glitter:

After lunch, I was back in the studio for Permission to Play with Lisa Riehl:

MONDAY - This morning, I enjoyed another FREE Watercolor Workshop with Tammy Kaye.  Here is the painting I completed during the class:

I trimmed up what I hope will be another UFO finish for this quarter.  I hope to share the story and photo finish before the end of the year:

Longarm quilting by Britt with one of her fun new pantographs.

I signed up for an art event with a new-to-me artist, Irene Ruby, who is offering a FREE 7-day workshop.  We started with watercolor:

Alas, no scrap sewing, but the off-cuts from earlier appear to work perfectly for the binding:

Weekly Zoom Call with LeeAnna @ Not Afraid of Color for a chat about art and quilting:

TUESDAY -  Open Studio with Barb found me working on Day 2 of Irene Ruby's art event, A Week of Art and inspiration.  She worked with oil pastels today, but I pulled out my gel sticks instead.  The colors and blending were a bit off, but I gave the piece a good try:

Afterward, when I wanted to work on my quilt, I made my way to the zoo.  OK, so not really the zoo, but the day before any major holiday isn't the best time to head to the grocery store!

WEDNESDAY - Some holiday baking and...

A haircut for Knittingsuek:

A trip to pick up our Christmas "Beast" happened after a goodbye photo and quick lunch:

THURSDAY - Merry Day to you and yours!!

Weekly Quilt Group was canceled today...  Obviously.  Mr. and Mrs. Claus...

Realized they were celebrating their first "Empty Nest" holiday:

And this afternoon, I caught up on Day 3 of this week's art event using watercolor markers...

I also did today's Get Messy lesson called Igniting Your Practice with @claudette_hasenjager:

FRIDAY - TABLE SCRAPS Challenge

It was just Beth and me at Knit Group today and I nearly forgot to take a photo:

Next came Get Messy's Open Studio with Deandra I worked on planning the details for yesterday's journal page and later I revisited it at the beginning of  my Weekly Evening Art Zoom.  Britt and I had a little while to chat before anyone else arrived:

Once the gluing was done...

Then I decided to work on Day 4's lesson from Irene Ruby.  This style of watercolor was WAY outside my artsy comfort zone:

Next, I made a quick page in my Collage Scraps Journal begun with tissue box remnants from Maggie:

SATURDAY - It's LINK PARTY day for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!  I hope you will join me in visiting Angela @ So Scrappy to see what the RSC Quilters have been up to this week.  Some will share their RSC wrap-up post.  Mine's not ready yet, so I'll share mine in a few days.

Angela made the announcement for January's Color of the Month.  It is...

BLUE

Until next time...

Get SCRAPPY!!