Aurora Borealis

 

Suddenly, a top!

 

Once I took the string stars out of their hiding place, I became fixated with them -- I spent all yesterday evening assembling this top.  I've been sewing up the stars sporadically for the past two years for Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013/2014.  I think my original vision for this project was a bit different than this result, but I'm quite happy with the conclusion.  And I'm delighted to have a completion to report to RSC14, and to the String Thing Along group! 

 

This will most likely be the last quilt project I do this year.  I have binding to be hand-sewn on a couple of quilts during odd moments, but the holiday festivities are commanding most of my time right now.  I will continue to make plans for 2015 in a back corner of my mind though -- feeling creative and excited about the future :)

 

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And another one done!

 

Quilted, and binding sewn around, ready to be stitched down during TV time.  I started this one in ummmm: maybe August, as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge project.  I'm also counting this one in my NewFo2013 tally, because I'd listed a red and white quilt for December for that challenge.

 

The motivation to finish everything that's been piled up in my workroom for a while is that the room will be put to use as a second guest room over the holidays.  All the heaps of clutter need to get hidden away someplace.   To further illustrate the challenge I'm facing, I store all of my big 40-yard rolls of batting in the guest bathtub, so that needs to be cleared out and hidden someplace too, but not in the sewing room which is where I would normally put it when the regular guest bedroom/bathroom are being used.

 

We're expecting a house-full!  But of course if the weather is stormy and the roads are bad, that could change to nobody coming up at all ...

 

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RSC13 - Red

I started these courthouse steps blocks back in August for the RSC13 "red" challenge.  I've been puttering along on them in between doing real stuff, and just this week accumulated enough blocks to make a top. 

 

And so another project joins the To-Be-Quilted pile.

 

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Moving this one forward

I'm assembling blocks this week, to finish up this project that's been languishing on my To-Do pile most of the year.  The blocks originated as one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013 sets, but I only did a few month's worth of colors before I fizzled out.  The project bundle came very close to falling into the Bottomless Pit Of Eternal UFO-ness, but I finally decided to just get going and make use of the blocks I had.  Onward to layering and quilting!

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RSC13 - August Red

 

It seems that during the summer my attention drifts away from both quilting and blogging.  I noticed the other day that the Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for August was going to be red, and decided to use that as the jump-start for getting myself back on track.

 

Red is my favorite color.  My house is RED.  And yes, I do have some red scraps ... 

 

I decided to work on courthouse steps blocks using this tangle of already-cut red strips.  I expect that I'll be able to make enough blocks for an entire quilt without cutting any more red at all!

 

My inspiration is this courthouse steps quilt by Pat Sloan was first published in American Patchwork and Quilting magazine way back in 2001 or 2002.  I've always wanted to do something similar.  Pat's quilt is pink, and I'm doing red, but ten years later I'm finally getting started in this project from my wish list!     

 

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Really orange this week

 My RSC13 accomplishment this week finally includes some
 really-truly orange fabrics!

I started these log cabin blocks last autumn and since they weren't done in time for Halloween, they got buried in the UFO tub. In my quest for orange scraps, I unearthed this project bag and forged ahead with block assemby and borders!  Ha, and now I have at least six months before I need to feel anxious about actually finishing this UFO :) 
 

 

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More 'sorta orange'

Back at it with RSC13 - ORANGE.  This week's ongoing RSC blocks were the string stars.
 

Nice decent blocks, but again just barely ORANGE.  Seems like there are only gold and cheddar scraps in that bag :(

 

 And here are all the string stars so far. I've been doing two a month, but now I think I probably want to end up with 35 rather than 24, so I'm deciding about whether to go back and do a few in the colors already done, or add from this point forward.

 

And here's the Mother Lode of ORANGE scraps, just as I thought: in a Halloween UFO.  So next week I should have something really truly ORANGE to share :)

 

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Rainbow Scrap Challenge - ORANGE/March

 

This month's RSC13 color is ORANGE. 

 

Really slim pickins for ORANGE in my  scrap bag, though -- I think most of my orange odds and ends are buried in a Halloween UFO bundle -- so these blocks are sort of at the outer edges of 'orange.' I do need to dig up something 'orange-ier' for next week!

 

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Rainbow Scrap Challenge - PURPLE week 3

 

The RSC13 Week 3 assignment I have set for myself is String Stars.  These blocks work up quickly, and since I'm only doing two of each color, this particular project isn't making much of a dent in my PURPLE scrap bag.

 

 

 They look good added to the pink stars from last month.

 

 

I have an **idea** for the final week of  PURPLE but I'm not sure I'll have time to get it going ...

 

See more PURPLE projects over at Soscrappy

 

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Rainbow Scrap Challenge - more PURPLE

No new developments in the manhunt situation.  We're all just waiting to see what the next incident turns out to be, here or elsewhere ...

 

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So here's a 'pretty' inspirational picture of purple agastache that grows here in summer:

 

 

And here's the 'real' picture of my purple agastache plant:

Hehe, we got quite a dump of new snow yesterday, about 15 inches.  The ski resorts are HAPPY!  I spent the day at home sewing, and among other things got this week's RSC13 blocks done.  February is PURPLE month, and for Week Two I sewed Chunky Churndash blocks:

 

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Rainbow Scrap Challenge - PURPLE/February

 

Purple  Agastache grows in my yard during the summer ...

 

This month's RSC13 scrap color is PURPLE.

 

It was easy to pull out my purple scrap bag and zoom up these 9ps -- since I got this project going last month there was no thinking or deciding or "designing" involved this time.

These two orphan blocks also came out of the purple bag, so maybe as the month goes along I'll think of something interesting to do with them.

 

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One more start - PINK

A beautiful pink sunrise over our nearby mountains ...

 

We're in the final stretch of  PINK month at Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

 

My new Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine came in yesterday's mail, and this Star Strings project by Pam Buda immediately caught my eye ... so yet another block set has been begun.   

 

My stars are 8", twice as big as those in the magazine project.  Two a month in the various RSC13 colors will give me a nice set of blocks for a coverlet at the end of the year.

 

 

My RSC13 wrap-up for January is:

 

runner made from leftover HSTs (finished!)

9-patch blocks (10 per month, ongoing all year)

chunky churndash blocks (four per month, ongoing all year)

string star blocks (two per month, ongoing all year)

 

I can't wait to find out what February's color is going to be!!

 

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PINK - week 3

A beautiful pink sunrise over our nearby mountains

 

I've been busy this week, and haven't had much chance to do any creative thinking.    I did whip up these pink scrap blocks based on Bonnie Hunter's Chunky Churndash instructions, but my blocks are 9" as opposed to her 6-inchers.

 

 

It's a quick easy block, and I've made at least half a dozen quilts using Chunky Churn Dashes.  Here's one from a few years ago, very scrappy, but "gathered" together with red sashing.  If I keep doing a few blocks each month/each color for Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013, I could end up with something similar at the end of this year. 

 

 

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More PINK

Reporting in with this week's progress for RSC13 ...

A beautiful pink sunrise over our nearby mountains 

 

When I was rummaging through my pink scrap bag last week, I found an orphan 9-patch and decided to use it as this week's jumping-off point.  Of course 9-patch blocks are super easy, so I think they'll be my ongoing Rainbow Scrap project for the whole year.  If I do ten or so a month in the various colors plus tan, I'll have enough for a nice rainbow-y lap robe come next winter :) 

 

And meanwhile, I finished hand quilting the little mat from last week's pink activity:

 

 

 Two more pink weeks to go, so I'll continue to deplete the pink scrap bag even more!  :)

 

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Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013 - PINK

A beautiful pink sunrise over our nearby mountains

 

It was my plan last week that I'd be able to double up on my efforts and count Jessica's Valentine quilt and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for January as a two-for-one.  But as it turns out, Jessica's quilt will in fact only be using three fabrics, new yardage, not scraps at all.  So it won't count for RSC13/pink. 

That's OK though, cause wouldn't you know it? I do have **a few** scraps to work with anyway.  This is my collection of "small odd size scraps", sorted into 2-gallon bags by color:

Lo and behold!  Yes, there was indeed a bag full of pinks in there:

 

 

And right off the bat, I unearthed a started HST project:

 

 

left over from this quilt I did last year.  I can spend a few evenings this week finishing up the hand quilting and adding binding, and it'll be another one done.

 

So it's going to be this week's Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2013 - January/pink.  More pink scraps to follow throughout the month ...

 

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