Rainbow Scrap Challenge - January Last Saturday



I got off to a late start making my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks and did not get as many done as I had hoped to do.  Add to that I did Red instead of Purple cause I did not closely read the instructions, hopefully I will do better the rest of the year.

 

My goal is to make one 3" 9-patch each day plus 2 extra sometime during the month.  I am English Paper Piecing these, so they take a little longer, but they come out so accurate. EPP is my all time favorite piecing method.

 

I have all the January blocks cut out, and will continue making them each month until I get those caught up, but will also begin the next months, and make every effort to keep the new months current.  Should not be so hard, as I just love making these sweet little blocks.

 

 

I checked out the blogs posted on the link page and am so impressed by what you are all doing.  It will be fun to see the progress throughout the year.

Thanks for stopping by,
Teresa

Star of Bethlehem - Block 3

Just posting the completion of Block 3 in my Star of Bethlehem quilt.

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by.  Back to my RSC 9-patches :)

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - The beginning

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge has been going on for few years now, but this will be my first year to participate.  I have loved seeing the quilts others have made and like the idea of a color for each month.  You can get information on this challenge at SoScrappy blog.  I am still not sure how to link up with the challenge, but I have begun my project.

There is only one problem so far, I began with Red which was the first color on the list, but the color for January is actually purple. Hmmmm....off to a bad start already.  So I will just continue with my red since I have already cut out the fabric, but when the month for Red comes along, I will do purple.

We were to pick out a project, and my project is a Jack's Chain quilt. I first saw this quilt in an old quilt magazine and just fell in love with it, but there was no pattern.  An internet search yielded this pattern published by Lessa Siegele in Australia and available for purchase as a download.  The original quilt that I saw did not have the flowers in the center's for the rings, and I may leave those out as well.  To make this quilt I will need 332 three inch 9-patches!!!

 

One of my favorite things to do when starting a new project is to get organized.  I wanted all 332 9-patches in my quilts to be made of a different fabric (each 9-patch would be the same fabric, but would be different from all the other 9-patches.)  Having made scrap quilts in the past, I knew I needed to keep a record of the fabrics I had used, so I came up with this chart.  I cut out 20 different red squares for making 9-patches.  (Reminder - these should have been purple)  I may come back and add more red squares, so I have left space for up to 40 different reds.



 

 

Next step was to get my stuff organized.  I have all kinds of these neat storage bins and it is just fun  for me to get my stuff organized all in one place.  I cut out 458 white squares, which is enough for a little over 100 blocks.  (Oh yes, I had to purchase 8 1/2 yds of white fabric - Yikes! All the remainder of the fabrics will come from my stash).

 

 And here is my first sweet little 3" 9-patch block.  I am going to English Paper Piece the blocks just cause that is my favorite, and most accurate,  way of piecing a quilt.  My plan is to cut out 20 blocks worth of squares each month, and hopefully get most of them done that month.  I can make one block in about 40 minutes and if I make one a day, all should be good.  It will take a little more than a year to complete, but I am not in a hurry and just love the process.  My husband cuts out the paper pieces for me after I print them out on my computer. 

One down, 331to go!

Inauguration Day Sewing

Today is a day that makes USA proud as a new president is inaugurated.  Whether you voted for the new president or not, it still shows the greatness of our country and as the newscasters keep saying, the peaceful exchange of power.   I just pray that all goes well for our peace keepers on this day, and I pray for our new president, vice president and their families.  God bless America!

This morning I spent my time hand quilting:

Wreath quilt project - working on border

 This afternoon I have been working on  my Star of Bethlehem quilt.  The star blocks are English Paper Pieced and there will be two of 6 different colosr, one on a pink background and one on a yellow. I have completed all the hour glass blocks made that separate the star blocks as well as the HST that make up the borders.  That outer dark color is actually a dark pink, with light pink and yellow flowers. 

 

 

Patchwork of the Crosses

I did not realize I had never posted pictures of my Patchwork of the Crosses quilt after it was quilted until I received a nice letter from a Shelly asking to see a picture.  Then I realized I did not even have pictures of the quilt once it was quilted.  The quilt is rather her large and heavy, so I spread it over my guest room bed to take these pictures.

The quilt was quilted by Donna Sawyer, of Heath Springs, SC.  She did a marvelous job, custom quilting each block with a motif that I selected and then doing a lovely border design. 

The off white border around each block are made with a variety of shirting fabrics, which I fell in love with during this process. 

This motif was quilted on the back of each block

Eli's quilt continues

 

So here are the blocks in process showing the colors I used.  Its funny, but when I downsized the blocks so they would not take so much memory, the colors dimmed.  They really are quite bright.

 

7 colors (counting the teal and blue as one color - Blue, Orange, Green, Yellow, Red, Purple and Brown

 I laid the quilt out on my design wall to make sure I was getting a good balance of colors.  And of course, I liked it on the design wall, but when looking at this picture I realize I have some shuffling to do.  This is actually sideways as it fits better on my wall that way. 

Swap yellow on bottom  with one of the browns on the row above, move teal over beside the red and yellow above the red.  Have to study picture some more to see if I need to move anything else.

 My "plan" was to do a "quilt as you go" adding a black 1" sashing between the blocks.  But now, looking at them on the design wall, I really like the secondary pattern that is formed when the blocks are next to each other.    I wanted to quilt concentric circles over the blocks, and not sure I can manage the free motion on my domestic machine.  I could just do a grid, but I really like the idea of circles.

What would you do ?????????

Gonna set it aside for a bit and think about it.

Oooops

 

So I am sewing away on Eli's quilt - and realized that I had sewn the white fabric on WRONG!  The one on the left is correct, the one of the right is WRONG.  Dagnabit......

 

 

 

I have 60 of these strips to unsew and resew!!!!

 

By the way, the pictures are showing sideways - they were right side up when I uploaded them.  Go figure.

 

 

One hour later......blocks all fixed.  Watched two episodes of Fixer Upper while is did some Fixer Uppers myself.

Star of Bethlehem quilt block

Spending my days with my husband in the hospital and now in rehab.  He just had his second back surgery this year  since October .  He is doing great and pain free for the first time in many months.

While here I have been working on my current English Paper Pieced project- Star of Bethlehem . I need to make twelve of these blocks, and this is block 1.

I have designed this quilt using EQ7 and it will have 12 star blocks, using 6 different color
combinations for the star ring. The center star is fussy cut and will vary with each star.  Each color combination will be made up using a pink background on one and a yellow background on the other.

This is a rough layout of the quilt top.  The plan is to use the fabric that I fussy cut for the star centers also as the outer border on the quilt.  I am sure the plans will change as the quilt evolves.