Scrap Happy Saturday - RSC15 - Week 10

Welcome to Week 10 of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

Can you believe how fast January and February flew by?!?!?!

In case you missed Angela's announcement over on the So Scrappy blog, the Color of the Month for March is YELLOW. It should be interesting to see how this month's SCRAP SEWING pans out.

Why???

The reason is simple, really.  It is a common supposition that many people don't like YELLOW very much or that YELLOW is only good in small doses.

Personally, I'm looking forward to the challenge of making some lovely String blocks, Maverick Stars, Slab blocks, and Tiny Nines in the Color of the Month.  Bright and sunny, soft and buttery, warm and lemony... YELLOW is a cheerful color!

Here's a look at the scrap basket (to give you an idea of what I have available to work with):

Notice:  This basket is NOT like the others! It was a gift from a friend a number of years ago. Thanks, Joyce!!

My Week 10 went something like this...

Sunday afternoon, I sorted through my scrap bins in search of YELLOW fabrics.  Once they were gathered, I had them pose for a pretty picture.  Then I posted the photograph above.  :o))

Sewing???  Not sew much.  Too much LAUNDRY to do!!  However, I did get some prep work done (for another day):

3 Tiny Nines, ready for stitching...

1 Maverick Star, awaiting its turn with my machine's needle and thread...

Along with... some Strings and Slabs, lined up and ready to SEW!!!

Now, back to Mt. Wash-more!!  :o((

With laundry all dried and sorted, we arrive at Monday and Angela's reveal of the RSC Sampler block for March.  The block is called Air Castles and you can find the instructions HERE.  Race off to your sewing room to give it a try!  (I wish I could, but it's 5:20 PM and I'm still at work.)

Tuesday has arrived and the ONLY sewing that I have gotten done is half of a side of hand stitched binding on my Crumb Quilt (between yesterday afternoon and tonight.)  No RSC sewing.  :o((

Why not, Joyful?!?!

Long hours at work and THIS kept me from my SCRAPS:

Duke University Wind Symphony's Come Dance With Me...

And the view from our seats in the balcony of the beautiful Baldwin Auditorium.

Wednesday proved to be more of the same... A(nother) late night at work, followed by shopping, cooking, and cleaning up dinner, left no time for sewing.  :o((

Thursday?  Rinse and repeat.  Thank goodness that I sorted and prepped on Sunday!!  Otherwise, the entire week may turn out to be a wash.  Maybe tonight I will sew...

I did it!  I did it!!  Thursday night... before bed... I made ONE String block:

Then... because I was feeling so guilty about missing so many sewing opportunities earlier in the week... I stayed up in my sewing room just a little longer and made that ONE (prepped) Maverick Star block:

Friday morning... since H cancelled Coffee And (Knitting) this morning... I ran errands.  There was banking to be done and a trip to the grocery store.

Friday afternoon... I took a trip to Raleigh to pick up DS1.  It's Spring Break, if you can believe it. (Which means that I get to be eaten out of house and home for the next 10 days, thus the reason for today's grocery run!)

Friday, after dinner,  I headed upstairs and here I am, stitching away:

And here are those THREE (prepped on Sunday) Tiny Nines that I made:

Saturday morning I finished this post and got Crock Pot BBQ started for dinner.

Sounds like the perfect way to spend the rest of the day sewing, right???

Well, that WOULD have been a good idea, but Threebagsfulled wanted to go shopping today.  I haven't seen her all week and we plan to make a day of it.  Coffee, knitting, lunch, AND shopping.

Maybe I can sew some this evening...  providing that we don't end up shopping til we drop!  :o))

In the meantime, today is LINK PARTY day over on Angela's So Scrappy blog.  I'm link number nine (9) this week.  I'm looking forward to following all the links to see what everyone else has been up to with their Rainbow Scrap sewing!  If you've got some time on your hands, you might like to head over, too.  There are some REALLY WONDERFUL projects on the go!!

Until next time...
Get Scrappy!!!

Design Floor Friday - Taking in Strays {Waiting for Borders}

Well, I did it!

It wasn't easy, but I managed to find a few minutes to work on Taking in Strays this week.

It's now a quilt top...  waiting for borders:

Why, yes!  That IS the pesky basketball rug peeking out from beneath the quilt top.  :P

I had hoped for more.  I really wanted for it to be a COMPLETED quilt top!  Due to extra hours at work, there just wasn't time to do any more than get the top together this week (and I actually JUST did that after dinner tonight!!)

So... I still need to scrounge through the stash to look for appropriate border fabrics.

Do I have anything available???

Only time will tell.

Until next week...
Keep quilting!!!

Mail Call Monday - The First Edition

I've been thinking about a new "column" for my blog.  While considering the days of the week and the things that I could write about, I thought that I would like to institute a post called Mail Call Monday.  It's fairly self-explanatory.  I plan to share the quilty (or knitty) packages that arrive in the mail from time to time.

Welcome to the first edition!  I hope you like it.

Ravelry Knitterella Bag

The enticing write-up:

Show your Ravelry love with these cute project bags designed exclusively for Ravelry by Knitterella/Jill Zielinski.

We just love these bags which is why we have done several different designs on them. The bag is 100% organic cotton jersey and is as soft as your favorite pajamas. It’s super soft and large enough for a medium-sized project. They are printed by Raveler pattyb. They measure tall 18” by 16.5” wide when laid flat.


Hmm... I really NEED another project bag.  :o))

Press the button to place the order.  Wait for it.  Wait for it.  Hey!  That arrived quickly!!

Here's the package:

And its contents:

And the bag in use (as intended):

That cozy little project is the (beginnings of the) January Mystery KAL Neckwarmer on the UnRavelers group on Ravelry.  Thank you to the amazing designer, Wallita, with assistance from the incomparable Carolkimball, the group's "go to girl" for all things technical about knitting.

I'll finish my neck warmer... one of these days!  For now, the project appears to be enjoying the comfort of its new Knitterella Bag.

Until next time...
Happy Crafting!

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!!!