Blogger's Quilt Festival: Scrappy Quilt entry

My Blogger's Quilt Festival entries this fall were easy to choose.

This is my current favorite quilt! 

It began with 12-1/2" squares of made fabric that I stitched as part of the Rainbow Scrap challenge. I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do with these scrappy, colorful blocks until I saw this quilt by Rachel from In Color Order. I knew I could use that design idea idea for a huge, scrappy, rainbow star quilt. So I did! 

This scrappy star quilt measures approximately 48" square.

I used four different quilting motifs in the star (one for each set of two-color diamonds) and then quilted straight lines in the black background. Of course the binding had to be scrappy! 

OMG: Time for some machine quilting!

I was searching my computer this morning for a photo of the quilt top that I'm planning to quilt in July as my One Monthly Goal. And I couldn't find it. Which made me realize that I hadn't shared it yet here on the blog!

Love the stained glass effect from the light shining through.

This quilt is another made from my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. In addition to the 25-patches, I sewed a 12-1/2" square of made fabric in each month's color. My plans for these squares changed several times until I saw this quilt by Rachel from In Color Order. 

My version uses black as the background--there was enough going on in the star that I didn't need more color! Once I finished the made fabric squares, this quilt went together really quickly. Using sixteen 12" square blocks will do that for you! 

So my July goal is to quilt this quilt! I'm thinking straight lines. Thanks as always to Heidi at Red Letter Quilts for hosting this monthly kick-in-the-butt!

One Monthly Goal: Rainbow Quilt(s) Complete!

This might be the earliest I've ever finished a monthly challenge. Boy, does it feel good! 

My goal was to assemble my 25-patch rainbow scrap blocks into a quilt top with black and white squares for sashing. I originally planned to add a few black and white rows to the top and bottom as well, but I didn't like how it looked. So I stuck with simple instead. 

And my unofficial goal was to complete the second quilt as well, with a slightly different sashing treatment. I actually finished this one first, since it was on my design wall and had sashing that required a specific order as opposed to the alternating black and white squares. 

I'm really happy with them both and it was super fun to show them off at our guild meeting with Bonnie Hunter! Now to quilt them...

Thanks to Heidi at Red Letter Quilts for hosting One Monthly Goal. 

March One Monthly Goal

If you saw my last post, you likely won't be surprised to see what my March One Monthly Goal is. 

My goal is to get this quilt assembled--what you see here plus a top and bottom border--ideally before our guild meeting on the 15th, but barring that, at least by the end of the month to meet this goal!

But I actually have a second show and tell related to this project. 

I have been cutting out more black and white squares for the top/bottom borders and have started sewing them together in pairs. But at the same time, I decided I wanted to see what the second version would look like, so I took this first version off the wall and auditioned version #2. (If you missed the last post, I have two 25-patch blocks of each color, so I'm assembling them into two lap-size quilts in all their rainbow glory.) 

For this second version, I wanted to create the idea of blocks as puzzle pieces, interlocking. So I'm adding in the appropriate color squares as sashing between blocks (all cut Friday evening) and then am going to turn the sashing squares (empty holes in the photo) into more white stars, with wonky points extending into the sashing. 

In all honesty, after seeing this on the design wall, it might be too busy and might have been easier to simply go with solid white sashing. But the beauty of a scrap quilt like this is I can try something that I might not be in love with and reserve the "safe" choices for a quilt I have more invested in. 

I'm actually hoping to get both of these quilt tops assembled in March, but since One Monthly Goal is just that--ONE--I only have to commit to one!
:)

p.s. If you're really looking closely, you may have noticed that I have the blocks in the same position in both quilts. I tried to go with a different layout for the second quilt, but came back to this one because I felt it had the best balance of light and dark as well as keeping similar colors separate. Really going out on a limb, aren't I? 

25-Patch Rainbow Scrap Blocks

Last January I jumped on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at So Scrappy. I completed four months and then life got in the way and the RSC went on the back burner. 

However, Bonnie Hunter is coming to speak at our guild in March, and Diane, one of our guild members, challenged us to make and bring in a scrap quilt to show at the meeting since scrappy quilts are Bonnie's specialty. 

It seemed like a great time to pull out my RSC blocks! In the past month, I have made five more colors' worth of blocks. I chose to skip two months--black/gray/indigo and brown--because I liked the bright rainbow-ness of the blocks I had and I didn't want the quilt much bigger. 

Here are all of my RSC 25-patch blocks together. I'm splitting them up into two lap-sized quilts, and giving them different sashing/assembly treatments. 

 The first quilt (and the one I'm aiming to have completely pieced by our meeting in two weeks) uses black and white squares for the sashing. I was inspired to add the black and white to all my brights by Jackie Kunkel's book, A Splash of Color. I love how she pairs black and white prints with brights to create the quilts in her book! 

I cut these black and white squares last night. I'm planning to add two or three rows of black and white squares to the top and bottom as well. We'll see how it looks on the design wall before I decide...

I'm grateful for Bonnie Hunter's upcoming visit and Diane's challenge to spur me into action on these scrap-busting blocks!

January Blues

Sometime last year, I stumbled across the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at Sew Scrappy. I loved the idea, so I mentally bookmarked it for 2015.  Lo and behold, it's 2015 and my mental bookmark worked, so I'm participating!

If you're not in a clicking mood, basically the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is what it sounds like. Each month, you make blocks out of the chosen color. There's an overall scrap quilt pattern for the year, with tutorials for sampler blocks for centers of a main star block, or you can do your own thing. I spent a little time on Sew Scrappy's RSC Pinterest board and found way too many ideas I liked.

While procrastinating other things last week (sorting piles of paperwork, putting away Christmas decorations, laundry...) I jumped into the first month's color: blue. I got a bit carried away (courtesy of that Pinterest board with far too many cool rainbow scrap quilts). We'll see if I can keep up this momentum each month...

The only drawback is that even though I made 6 blocks, I don't feel like I even put a dent in my stash. Oh well...

All 6 blocks together:

The two Log Cabin blocks:

At top, 12-1/2" square of made fabric, 15-Minutes-Play style. My plan at the moment is to make these into Drunkard's Path blocks paired with a white solid. We'll see how that plan evolves through the year. At bottom, a "slab."

25-patch wonky star blocks:

This could get addicting...!