2018 rainbow scrap challenge is a TOP and one other project...

This week has flown by.  I was scheduled to work Tuesday and Thursday mornings, which makes for short sewing days, but I planned to make the most of my day off, Wednesday.

Originally, I was going to make tiny stars.  But Responsible Katie said I should cut the sashing strips for my rainbow scrap challenge blocks so they'd be ready for sew-in this weekend.  (I got to go both Friday and Saturday!)  That makes sense.

So I cut those.  No photos.  Nothing much interesting, really.

Then, Responsible Katie saw the new red, purchased to make the Summer Fun quilt larger, sitting there on the cutting mat and said I should just work on that.  Use the fabric, put it away.  Instead of working around it to make tiny stars.

Now where did those notes go?

These took a while to find because, well, do they look like anything useful?  I was pretty sure they were in this notebook, but thought I'd drawn a few diagrams or something.

Nope.

But you know what?  They were right!

So I took apart some of the quilt, added a few rows of sashing to make it a little taller and then sewed another batch of checkerboard borders and it was done!  36x36, as predicted!

I think I like it with the sashing strips between the friendship stars.  They looked a little crammed in there before, so even better!

I should have cut and made binding from the red before I put it away, but oh well!  Later?

But, midway through this project, my boss called.  We did inventory this Thursday and there was a lot to be done in preparation for that event.  Like major tidying up in the store.  And she hadn't done a very good job of scheduling the right people for that.  So I agreed to go in later and help.  Having been scheduled only two shifts last week, the extra hours weren't a bad thing either.

So no tiny stars happened this week.

That's okay.

This weekend is my guild's sew-in and I was able to attend both days!  I have no idea what happened that I wasn't scheduled to work Friday or Saturday, but I'm not going to complain!

Friday morning I packed up my rainbow scrap challenge blocks, sashing, and all the other assorted necessities and headed to the library where our event is held.  The room is large and, sadly, the sew-in is poorly attended, so I knew there'd be plenty of room to lay everything out, fiddle with the arrangement and sew it from the floor.  At home, I don't have nearly as much room, plus I have "helpful" cats...and a hubby who would allow the quilt to lay in the middle of the floor for a few days, but wouldn't be happy about it.

So 75 blocks were layed out into 25 groups of 3 based on the photo from the book.  Well, sort of.  Mine aren't in exact locations of the original, but I grouped them by color and placed colors in about the same locations.  But since my blocks were a range of colors in each group, I tried to put like colors in groups of three to make it more cohesive.

The layout (that probably changed a touch in sewing because I wasn't being careful with directionalities):

The pinks gave me the most trouble because some are more orange, some more red, etc.  But I got to the point that it was good enough.  I wish I'd limited my colors a bit more on some of these, but in the end, I knew it would be fine.  With all that variety, a few oddballs will blend in just fine.  And I'm NOT remaking any of those blocks.

So I started sewing the sets of three into blocks.

That took For. Ever.

But I was doing them one at a time and pressing after each seam.  And being a genius that I am, I set up the ironing board across the room from me.  Why?  I don't know.  It seemed like a good idea when I put it there!  But it did get me up and moving a lot, so it made up for all the chocolate I ate!  (Thanks Carol!)

By the time I went home (5pm), I had all the sets of three sewn into 25 larger blocks.

Up and at it early again this morning, I started sewing the sashings to make vertical columns.  Usually I go horizontally with my sewing rows, but for whatever reason, this quilt seemed to need to go vertically.  It doesn't really matter, though.

By lunch I had the blocks sewn into their columns!

It's not easy to distinguish the sashing from the carpet, as it's a darker grey.  It looks kinda like grunge and kinda like cork, but is neither.

Back from a delicious lunch at a local outdoor (food truck-like deal) barbecue place (I even smell good from the smoke billowing around us while we ate!), and it was on to the dreaded long seams.

A few hours later, those were complete and I had a top.  Then I needed to decide about outer borders.  The pattern calls for 6" finished.  That seemed excessively wide, so I decided to go narrower.  One quilter friend suggested 4", but I opted for 3", knowing the wider borders always stump me when it comes time to quilt.  I feel they need special treatment when they get that wide and I never know what to do.

By about 4pm today, I had a finished top!!!!

Looking at it now, maybe the wider border would have been a better choice visually, but I'm not taking it back off and adding an inch wider border!

There are a few issues with a few blocks and a little issue with some of the columns not lining up with each other as you go across horizontally (and I should have known to line those up when sewing, but I got so excited to be almost done, plus dreading the seams in the first place...), but this is going to be used, so once it's draped over a person, you're not going to notice it much.  So I'm good.

I wanted to stay later and piece the back for it, as well as make the binding, but my friends were ready to pack up and go.  And since I was the only one left capable of lifting the tables to put them back, lift the chairs to put them back and run the vacuum to suck up our stringy bits, I had to pack up too.  (Well, I could have sewn alone...but that's not fun!)

So I'll get those parts done at home and this quilt will be ready for the longarm when the weather cools some.  Temps have gone back up into the 80s during the days this week and will continue to be such for a few more.  Thankfully, though, temps at night are dropping to comfortable sleeping weather, so at least we can get a good rest to prepare for the next warm day!

Time to go help the hubby wrangle cats - the softener needs salt and it's harder than anything to get the cats back out of the basement (where the softener lives) if they get down there.  Plus they're a major trip hazard when they try to "help" us down the stairs...

Happy quilting!

katie

rsc: orange - done!

After about a week hiatus from sewing after vacation, I finally unpacked my sewing stuff and set my room up again.  I had tidied as I packed, so it looks better than usual right now - and so far, I've been able to find everything I've looked for!

But I noticed the days left in the month were dwindling quickly and I needed to sew my orange Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  The LAST color for me!  The LAST 9 blocks of this dreaded project.

So, being scheduled only three days this week, I had time to do chores and sew.  (Unlike last week where I was scheduled five and felt like I was being punished for taking time off!)

I started out counting how many of the nine blocks had templates.  Three.  Not so bad.

Get out the oranges.  Gather the other fabrics and supplies and focus.

Sew!

#67

transit center

#68

porch

(this one is going to require a little fudging when I put them together - the diamond part came out a little small...templates...)

#69

mini storage

#70

sequins

#71

emergency exit

#72

house plant

#73

escalator

#74

coffee shop

#75

haircut

D.O.N.E!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am beyond excited.

I started these Monday and, after my guild meeting last night, whipped out the very last one.

I'm not looking forward to putting them together, but since the challenge still has two more colors to go (dark blue and dark green, I think?) that I am not using, I have two extra months to sew this together - before the call to sew up the blocks comes in December!

Let's see all the oranges together, shall we?

Pretty wide variety of oranges there, but I like it anyways.  It shows the variety in my stash.  (And I didn't even add in the leftovers from the orange UFO quilt this month - though they were in the stack, I kinda pondered if they qualified as scraps yet!)

Let's see a collage of all the blocks (including the tiny stars that I did early on - and fell off the wagon a bit in later months)...

Holy cow!

I'm excited to put these together now.  (I take back my dread from earlier in the post, though I'm sure it will creep up again...all those blocks that may or may not be quite the right size...uh oh...)

Tomorrow I am going to the AQS quilt show with my sister-in-law and then I think out to dinner with at least her and both of my brothers.  Maybe more.  My other brother (the one whose wife I will not be going to the show with) smashed the end of his finger the other day and broke it.  My parents are out of town for a few weeks and I think my mom is worried.  So I guess I'm on big sister duty to check on him.  (I am worried about him, but he's a pretty tough cookie!)

Anyways, I may find something to set these with - thinking something dark grey maybe, but I'm not sure.  There are a lot of shades of grey and black and white in there.  Yes, shades of black.  You know what I'm talking about.  So we'll see if anything inspires me.  If not, one of the local quilt shops is moving a few towns south of here and she's having a good sale until she moves.  Maybe there?  Or, you know, at the local quilt shop that's been here forever and isn't going anywhere...

In other news, I did fix the quilt from my last post that was sewn wrong.  I'll share that in an upcoming post...even if it waits until its UFO month because I forget about it some...

Time to go relax a little so I can get a good night sleep for the big show tomorrow!  I've already heard it's pretty awesome and am looking forward to the vendors with things my local shops don't carry (you can only cram so much into the space, but the one that isn't moving is sure trying to get it ALL in there!) and new ideas and inspiration and family too!

Happy quilting,

Katie

red done and a Christmas squirrel (fail)

After my last post, I did make time each morning before heading in to work (one day at 2pm, the other at noon), to get into my sewing room.  I was determined to get the rainbow blocks completed for this month so I could sew with my friends on Saturday guilt-free.

I made it!  But one of these blocks...

What else did I make?

#63

meow

#64

dog park

#65

skylight

(41 pieces, mostly template-cut, this one took more than two hours to cut and sew!)

#66

storefront

(oh, jeez, those red dots aren't straight...go figure...I was so close to done, I guess I missed that...)

So there you have it!  All the reds are done.

I have just the oranges left - 9 blocks - and then I can start putting the whole quilt together.

A few of you are asking about this pattern. I haven't mentioned it in a while, so it's from the book Patchwork City by Elizabeth Hartman.  I am doing the quilt in the rainbow, bright colorway.  The blocks are all oddball and modern, often template pieced, but fun.  Mostly.  And we'll call this a skillbuilder...

Once these were done, I was free to chase my Christmas Squirrel.

Earlier this year (or maybe it was late last year?), I decided to make a quilt for my hubby's aunt.  (It can be seen here - scroll down a ways!)  I bought fabrics without any actual pattern planned, so I just bought 2 yards (I think) of four prints and about 4 yards of a "background" and brought them home.  (Also I bought the backing.)

I didn't use nearly as much as I thought I might, so now what?

I'm not particularly fond of the fabrics (neither is my longarm), but then I found the 12 Days of Christmas quilt along and blog hop.

Well that looks like fun.

So yesterday I packed up my stuff, including my newly purchased Tri-Recs rulers, for the project, to sew with friends.

Guess what?

I don't have enough of the fabrics to use just one red and just one green.

So let's do some math and see if I can use both - careful placement so it looks good.

Oh, I think that will work.

Start cutting.

Crap.

That will not work.

Have a little mini-temper tantrum (most of it inside my head) and go do something else.

The guild has made a bunch of quilt tops and then the gal organizing it, well, I don't know.  So they're tops.  So a few members decided to tie some of them.  They're for charity and I feel bad I'm not longarming any of them, but honestly?  No one asked.  The whole project went from gung-ho, talk about it every meeting, send out e-mails to *poof* gone.  It worked out well, though, because I helped tie the quilt they were working on that day.  And I was the tallest one there, with a good back to boot, so I did the laying over the table to get the very center ties done.

And by the time that was done, I was able to refocus my efforts.  (I am still angry I couldn't do what I wanted, but knowing I bought Christmas fabric at Christmas time, I also knew I wasn't going to easily get any more!)

I decided to just use those squares I'd already cut and cut a few more and make what I hope will be a 64" x 64" four-patch quilt for charity.  It probably won't go to the auction or sale at the church like the original plan had intended, but it will go somewhere and keep someone warm.  Just where is to be determined.  (Any suggestions?!)

My pieces...I did have to cut a few more green, as my math was (yet again) wrong, but I at least had enough there.  (I still have a little left of each of these - enough for about 18 more squares each if I need it!)

And then I got busy sewing.  4-patches go quickly and so long as I was paying attention to what direction I was sewing things, I should be able to do this without much design floor use...

By the time everyone was packing up to go, I had a bunch of smaller sections together!  (I also had a pretty fun time with the few quilting friends to made it to the sew-in.)

I haven't counted these to be sure I have enough to make the quilt as big as I expect (math was failing me terribly yesterday and I just didn't want to find out yet another place it had happened!), but I'm sure whatever I end up with will be large enough.

(But it does look kinda busy in this photo...uh oh!)

I have chores mostly done for today and the hubby won't be home from work (it's his weekend on the rotation) for a few more hours, so I'm going to go work on these and maybe I'll have a top by the end of the day?

(Then what?!?!  I have tomorrow off too!!!)

But first, I'd like to share a photo with you.  Of Gabby.  Who is trying very hard to earn the middle name "No" like her big sister, Emma.

She plays our piano (not just walking across it, but sits on the bench and pokes at keys), but I haven't caught her at it long enough to get a photo or video, but today, when I was tidying up the kitchen, I turned around to find her doing this:

I had just washed the placemats the food plates and water bowls go on and refilled the freshly washed water bowl.  In the past few days, I'd come into the kitchen to find a puddle around the water bowl.  I just assumed either scaredy cat Skitter or rowdy cat Gabby had been tearing through the doorway you see there on the right and knocked into it.

Nope.

Gabby is "drinking."  She fishes around in there with one paw or another, makes a huge mess, but does lick the water off her paws every so often.  In the meantime, she's making a big puddle on the floor.  (I have a video, but am not sure how to get it off my phone and onto my blog and I want to sew, so that's a project for another day!)

Oh Gabby.

You are lucky you are so doggone cute or you'd be an outside cat by now.  (Not really.)

It's like she knows what is naughty and pushes the limits.

I thought Emma-No was bad.

The bar has been raised.

And now it's time to go mop up another puddle (probably) and then sew!

Happy quilting,

Katie

turquoise done!

Two posts in two days?  I know!  But my work schedule has me pretty busy the remainder of the weekend, plus the hubby doesn't work this weekend, so I'm pretty sure this is my last chunk of time to blog about monthly goals and finishes!

So let's look at my progress on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

I was up to block #53 in my last post regarding these crazy Patchwork City blocks.  I had a few days off earlier in the week and, though I dreaded making these blocks (AGAIN this month), I got busy.  I turned on some music and told myself that once I got started, it would be easier.

It was.

#54

karaoke

#55

cornerstone

#56

stadium

#57

restaurant

I got them all done in one day!  It even took less time than I thought it would!  (But I also thought I had five remaining, so was pleasantly surprised when I found I had only four.)

Let's see the whole turquoise set together!

When I see them all together, no matter the color, at the end of the month, I know I'm going to love this quilt.  I still have to decide what color I will use for sashing, but we'll cross that bridge when the red and orange blocks (9 each) are completed.

This project has been an adventure, to say the least.  The good news?  My template techniques are getting better!  I'm still no fan and will not actively seek out patterns using them, but at least feel more confident if I choose to use them in the future.

Yesterday I got a little sewing done on Swoon.  The blocks are in rows, so it's just a matter of connecting the rows with sashing and adding the outer border.  Those long seams, though...  Today I'll get a little more done and, if I finish here soon enough, might have a squirrel top by the time I have to head back into work for another long, closing shift.  (But the $$ will fund Patchwork City sashing and Swoon backing, right?!)

And I feel like this post needs a cat photo...

It's gonna be a scorcher out today, so this looks like a good thing to do.  Unfortunately, I don't think the ironing board will support my weight quite as well as Emma's!

Happy quilting,

Katie

pink!

With two online challenges each month, I have my "assignments" and I try to get those done before starting anything else.  This month the UFO challenge announced the one quilt I didn't want to work on.  But I did.  I started it first and got it to a point I'm happy with, so then moved onto my Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  (I'll share more about the UFO in another post.)

This month it's pink.

I feel like I don't have a lot of pink, but really what a I have is a mish-mash of pink shades (tones?).  Some paler, some brighter, some dustier.  So not a lot of any one pink family, but that's okay for this challenge - at least what I'm doing with it.  Each block stands on its own, so I can make good use of the varied shades.

But by the time I got to the pinks, I had another idea brewing.  An extra quilt that wanted to be made.  This was probably a good thing, as it pushed me to power through the Patchwork City blocks.  I'm still struggling with these each month, but I only have 27 to go (three more colors!), so I'm definitely well past halfway.

Let's see the blocks!

#40

donut shop

#41

crosswalk

#42

intercom

#43

half sandwich

(this one is a little off and will require a little fudging when I assemble the whole quilt)

(I should have used the templates...)

#44

rec center

#45

onramp

#46

zoo train

#47

brewery

(this one needs a little trim on the sides, as I cut those strips too wide, but no worries!)

#48

carpool

I got all of these done in just three days!  They all take so much time - planning, making templates, cutting, pinning, pressing...and one at a time...but for the most part, I'm happy with the results and can now put my pinks back in the closet to age some more.  (Instead of letting them hang out on my cutting table, looking messy if not a little girly-pretty!)

Want to see them all together?  (Plus a few tiny stars made as leader-enders, of course.)

As you can see, there is a great variety of pink shades in there, but I'm confident it will all work out in the end.  I tried to keep the shades matching within each block, but beyond that, I didn't worry.

So what was my newest project?

Well...

I think it was my mom that gave me a wonderful fat quarter bundle of kitty fabrics.  But what to do?  (Part of me didn't want to cut up the kitties!)  Here are the fabrics:

I wasn't even trying to plan another project.  I promise.  But a few days ago...

SWOON and kitty fabrics!!!!!!!!!!

It just jumped into my head.  I swear.  I figured the pink blocks would take forever again this month.

So I pulled out the bundle - I remembered purple and grey, but wasn't sure if it was a full bundle or what other colors were in there.  I pulled out my Swoon pattern, too.  I had the required 18 fat quarters, so I just needed a background fabric.

The trouble with getting a little of a whole line of fabrics?  The fabrics that could be used as backgrounds or blenders are all in there.  The trouble with needing all 18 fat quarters?  There's nothing to designate as a background fabric or color.

But I had a gift certificate for a sorta-local quilt shop, so off I went with my bundle, confident I could find something.  Leaning towards a grey, but keeping my mind open.

I found this early, but forced myself to look around the shop entirely to be sure.  There was a pink that would have matched well enough, but do I really what that much pink?  I'm really not a girly-girl...  So this grey came home with me.

And the reason I pushed myself to get all the pink blocks done in two days?  (Not just to have them done, but that's a nice deal once they are done.)  My guild's sewing weekend is this weekend.  I didn't want to drag my pinks and everything to the sew-in, but this project would be great.  (Of course, starting something new with very careful cutting requirements and no room for error might not have been a good choice, but - spoiler alert - it worked out!)

So I cut carefully the color fabrics.  And then I cut and cut and cut background fabrics (might as well get it all done while I have it out, right?) and finally got to sew.

This block seems to have 1000 pieces and the instructions, once you get past the very specific cutting diagram, aren't too detailed.  It's all okay, though, there were photos.

By the end of the day, with a short break for lunch and another, longer, break to take a friend to get her car repaired, I had the first block done!

This is probably one of the least contrast-y blocks (and it looks more washed out here than in real life), but I LOOOOOOVE it!  This is a huge block, though - 24" finished!  So the pieces you start with are large, too.  But that's okay.  Fewer blocks!  More room to fudge if things aren't exact.

I can't wait to work on more, but this morning has been dedicated to chores and blogging and soon I'll be picking up the friend who is still minus her car to go to a quilt show about 30 minutes from home.  So maybe not much sewing today, but we'll see.  It's a grey, rainy day, so at least I don't expect the hubby will be asking me to go fishing!

(And here's to hoping nothing needs to come home with me from the show.  My "retired' budget isn't quite as robust as my "working" budget...)

Happy quilting,

Katie

yellow and rainbow cats

I finished the yellow blocks for the rainbow scrap challenge this week!

#35

kiosk

#36

parking meters

#37

bookstore

#38

look both ways

#39

auditorium

Many of these used non-template construction, so they went much faster than some of the other color blocks.  But that last one...yikes!  Tiny, skinny, pointy pieces.  It came together okay, but I wish I hadn't cut the sciencey fabric upside down - if I'd paid a little more attention...but I didn't catch it until it was sewn and I wasn't un-sewing those tiny pointy pieces and doing it again!

Let's see them all together!

With all of these finished, I was free to find other projects.  In my last post, I'd mentioned about the cats for Emma's Plan.  I said I was going to make a few.  And then said I'd probably fail at restraining myself...

I started out thinking I'd make 30 cats.  That's enough for one quilt.  Maybe I'd even sew it together?  But then I started pulling fabrics and extra colors kept jumping into my piles.  I couldn't sew them all (they protested, though) and ended up with 40 fabrics.

I have no self control.

I had a chunk of white grunge left over from this month's UFO, so I thought that would be perfect.  I thought I had enough.

So I started cutting...

And then I started sewing...

And then math.  Failed.  I didn't have enough white.  I had to buy an extra quarter yard, but since I'd bought it locally, it wasn't hard to get more.  But it just made me angry.  Also, I cut some pieces wrong, so maybe I would have had enough if I hadn't done that.  (Probably not.)

So I have the cats mostly done and was hoping to mail them out today, but nope.  They're not done.

With this at a standstill, I decided to see what I could shake out of my stash for the hockey team quilts.  Would you believe I have NO gold?  The blocks should be greens, gold, black and white.  I managed to find some fabric that was kinda goldish tan and used that.  I made just four blocks and a friend also made four, so when I get the cats done, I'll pack everything up and head to the post office for just one trip.

Then I pulled a few more fabrics for another project that I'll share later...but I'll share the fabric pull!

(they look a little washed out in the photo, but the sun was shining yesterday and I'm not complaining!)

Today I spent most of my day sewing with my quilt guild.  Usually I only get to go on Saturdays and feel I'm missing so much.  It was fun to sew with them today and know I get to go back tomorrow!  We have a large stash of donated fabric (some nice, some not so nice) and a group has been working on cutting it into kits for a specific quilt.  A member found this quilt, called "Twist and Shout!" on Pinterest and shared it with us.  (This one has me a little worried the way it's shared on a blog, but it's a pretty slick way to get blocks on point...)  One of the tops:

These went together fairly well.  We had a few issues with getting strips sewn together correctly, due to a lacking design floor/wall, but it's a pretty nice pattern and, as you can see, turns into a nice size quilt even without borders.

We'll be back again tomorrow, sewing more!  They cut 17 kits and we finished tops 4 completely and have at least two more ready for slicing and dicing, plus about five more in progress.

And now back to the laundry...

Happy quilting!

Katie