Neutrals, Blues and Scraps

The August RSC call for neutrals fit right in with what I was doing this week. I follow along the Yahoo HeartStrings group which has a dark/neutral challenge going on right now. I hadn't pulled out my neutral strings for many moons, so I easily made 48 nine-inch string blocks with neutrals on one side and (somewhat) ugly darks on the other. I still have many blue scraps floating around my sewing room, so I put together 12 string blocks with blues and neutrals for a table runner. This will be gifted, probably for the holidays, so it feels great that I only need to finish sewing down the binding!

Check out the other RSC activity and be inspired!

healing and sewing

Six weeks ago I was out walking, slipped on ice and broke my wrist. Yikes! That put a real cramp on my creative abilities. I've been doing a lot of reading. However, after I got a smaller cast that did not constrict my elbow, and now that I have a removable splint, I have found I can quilt loose designs on my longarm and I can sew together squares from my box of pre-cuts. Rotary cutting is still a challenge.

This quilt came from my box of 4.5" squares cut from leftovers as other projects were finished (inspired by Bonnie Hunter's scrap using system.) It will be donated to our guild's comfort quilt program. I love the Laurel Birch cat flannel I found in my stash for a fun backing. The rainbow stripe binding and multi-color backing is my attempt to join in the April RSC multi-color fabrics. I have a pile of other multi-color fabrics I would like to use up, but I'm not up to cutting them right now.

This top is next in my easy quilting queue. I was gifted a Maywood Studio "Fresh Lilacs" charm pack and added other purple and green fabrics. Don't look too closely, some of my corners don't match because of my imperfect cutting. It will be another comfort quilt.

Check out all the other creativity using multi-colored fabrics at RSC!

Aqua, Blue and Green

I turned my pile of aqua fabric scraps into some string and crumb blocks. These will be incorporated into future rainbow quilts. I love the look and the thriftiness of these "free" blocks.

I hope to make a monochromatic comfort quilt each month to support our guild outreach. I looked through my boxes of precut pieces for aqua, turquoise or sea green. I found some in the 2.5" x 6.5" and 2.5" x 8.5" piles, but not too many. When I expanded my color criteria to include greens and blues, I found enough to make 35 eight inch blocks which I finished into a charity quilt. I only needed about 1/2 yard of the cream fabric to finish the top. I still need to sew down the binding, but it's almost completed.

Our guild had a challenge this month to create a small quilt representing a letter or a number. I chose "B" and found many "B" images in my fabrics to add to my creation. The overall size is about 15" x 20".

My daughter has an out-of-town guest visiting, so the sewing room was transformed to the guest room. In picking up and putting away all my projects, I found a forgotten collection of aqua strings. There may be more string blocks in my future this month!

I'm linking up to RSC17 - check out all the other wonderful aqua creations! 

Playing with Aqua

I added to my black, white and aqua blocks all week and decided to stop at 64 eight-inch blocks for a 64" square top. My daughter who has lots of aqua in her room has claimed this quilt ... I like making things my kids like. Thanks for the pattern, Alycia! Many of the aqua fabrics are leftovers from a quilt I made for her several years ago. Feels great to make this top completely from fabrics in my stash.

I sorted through my smaller aqua, turquoise and sea green scraps and found enough for a 18" inverted star block. I didn't make a purple one last month, but I think this will be one of my RSC17 projects. I have the pieces cut for a second aqua block, and these big blocks will make a fast top.

Be inspired by all the aqua and sea green projects at Angela's RSC17 link up!

Aqua, Black and White

I recently pulled out my black and white fabrics for a small project and realized my black and white stash is overflowing. I had been buying for a "future project" which had yet to materialize. Last month, I used some b&w to surround my rainbow and mixed color 9-patches. I decided to use this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge color to add some pop to a rail fence variation. I was inspired by Alycia's quilt here. Right now I have enough cut for 56 blocks, but I might keep going. I like the look!

Other recent finishes include this top using (some of the) crumb blocks I made each month of 2016. I like looking at the blocks and remembering where the fabrics came from.

I quilted swirls in the crumb blocks, and different border designs in the white sashings.

I also finished this rails and pinwheels block (pattern from Maryquilts) which used some Riley Blake Sugar and Spice fabrics left over from another quilt I made years ago. I cleaned out several different pink fabrics in the pinwheels. Quilted with an allover meander of loops, butterflies and dragonflies. Glad to move these fabrics into a cute donation quilt!

Purple and Finshes

I love the 9-patch blocks surrounded by black & white prints several RSC participants are doing! I pulled out the single color 9-patch blocks I made last year and added some other 9-patch blocks to make a nice size donation quilt. I was shocked by how many black and white prints I had stashed away in my sewing room, I will need to make more quilts with these!

I finished my purple crumbs and pinwheels and used a few purple pieces from my stash on the back. I quilted with a fun and easy double-triangle allover design. This week our guild gave 100 quilts to Hole in the Wall camp and this quilt was in the pile.

Check out all the other purple scrap projects at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Scraphappy Saturday!

Purple Scrap Progress

After a multi-year blog hiatus, I am reviving my blog with pictures of my rainbow scrap projects. I played along last year and made a small quilt and/or some blocks each month and loved watching my scrap bins decrease slightly. For this month's challenge, I pulled out some purple crumb blocks, made a few more and added purple pinwheel blocks.

I also finally quilted and added the binding to my purple "stacks" quilt from last year. When I used up all my pre-cut purple 2.5 x 4.5 pieces, I used pink rectangles rather than cut more purple. All those pre-cut pieces had been languishing in my sewing room and it is great to be able to actually close the box now.

My guild has a very active comfort quilt program and both of these quilts will be donated.