RSC Saturday

I finally decided to take out my RSC blocks to get a picture of them all together - minus the last blue one that is actually cut out but not sewn yet.  I like the block but I'm not happy with all my color choices.  On the other hand, I'm not buying any fabric for these so, I shouldn't complain. 

It currently looks a little heavy on the red/pink blocks but should balance out over the next few months. We still have orange and purple and probably a few more colors.  It looks to me that my turquoises aren't all bright enough.  I may make a couple more blocks at the end of the year to balance what I have and make sure I have enough blocks for the quilt I'll finally make from these. I only made 2 of the turquoise ones and one actually looks green although it is teal.  (3rd column, 3rd row.) 

Here's a quick peak at where we spent part of this week. 

We spent our 49th anniversary in Norfolk enjoying the sights.  I'll share some more pictures next week.  It was a fun couple of days and I was surprised how much there was to do in Norfolk. 

Now, I'm ready to finish my last blue RSC block and get on to some other blocks I've cut out. Check out the two Linky parties below.  I'm sure you'll see some fabulous quilts and more ideas than you can use! 

Finished (or Not) Friday

Scrap Happy Saturday

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

A Forgotten Finish

Can you believe it?  I thought I had shared this finished quilt a few weeks ago but, nope.  I didn't share this one. The pattern is called Bright Boxes and used to be on Pattern Jam. I couldn't find it there today. 

I made the blocks as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge a couple of years ago.  It took me over a year to decide on the border as I didn't like the pattern's border. Here's my version of Bright Boxes. 

I'm not sure why I only made 9 colored blocks. In the center block I used one of each of the colors. 

I used a white So Fine thread and Classic Stipple for the quilting design.  

Do you recognize this backing?  I used it on another quilt that you can see here.  If you hang out with me you'll be seeing it again at least once over the next few weeks. I will still have enough left over fabric to do another smaller quilt.  I probably will use it on this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge is done.  

Check out that binding too!  I gathered bits and pieces of bright strips to make the binding.
 
Here's a final look at Bright Boxes.  I used 3.5" squares for the boxes and for border I used 3.5" unfinished half square triangles. Unfortunately, I like this quilt so much I really don't want to give it away.  I'm sure this one will be passed on to a charity soon. 

I'm going to link up with several Linky parties over the next few days.  Hopefully I'll remember to actually link up!  (I'm really early for a change.) 

Finished or Not Friday

Beauties Pageant

Scrap Happy Saturday

A note about my pictures.  Several weeks ago we took the quilt down to Nags Head with us planning some gorgeous beach pictures.  It didn't happen. The first day was beautiful and sunny but we had things to do so the quilt didn't come out until the next day.  Then the wind was blowing like crazy and it poured rain all day too.  So our lovely new couch in the beach house served as the backdrop for the photos.  Not the beach but maybe a little beach feel? 

Happy Quilting All!  Bonnie 

RSC and Table Scraps Challenge

Are you a fan of RSC, Rainbow Scrap Challenge?  I seem to participate every other year or so. Although I spend some time nearly every day in my studio I am not a particularly fast planner or doer when it comes to making quilts and such.  So some years I'm all about finishing projects or working on things I want to do.  But some years I like to add the RSC as a form of using more scraps. Instead of doing several different block sets each month, I've joined Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter. Ok, yes I did start one new block set with January's pink that I plan to continue.  

But first up is my Table Scraps Challenge runner.  I realize I don't have a lot of pink but did have some fat quarters I really like.  I have a couple of table runner books and books I know have table runners in them.  Plus, I have files of quilt pictures on my computer.  I looked at all of them until I chose Fusion from The Trendy Table by Heather Peterson of Anka's Treasures. (Wow! I just realized she's written two more Trendy Tables books.) 

I decided I wasn't going to use just pink so I selected a light grey allover design and Navy Kona solid. I was going to make it smaller to fit my dining room table. I got to cutting.  Have I mentioned I don't always read directions completely? First, I had to figured out the right size and quantity to cut my pieces. Then I had to sew them the right way. (Really? Why?) Which led me to having to rip frequently.  Oh yes, there was a whole post recently on Jack the Ripper.  This table runner was helped by my friend Jack. I digress.  

Stitching in the ditch. 

After the top was pieced I used my Bernina to quilt it. Yes, I do have a long arm but I only had a small backing and I wanted to do specific things around the design.  I was pleasantly surprised that I could still quilt on the domestic machine.  It's a whole different way of doing when you compare a domestic machine to a long arm.  I remembered how to push the fabric around. First up stitching in the ditch.  Next I did a bit of stippling. (That was a bit harder than the SID.) Then I got out my trusty 1" painter's tape to mark some straight line stitching. As I got going on these steps I realized it was imperative to think about where I was going so I didn't have a bunch of starts and stops.  

Straight line quilting done with 1" painter's tape markings.

Because the straight lines went off the edge of the table runner, I was able to run my stitching off and then make a turn and stitch in the excess until batting until I wanted to make a turn and stitch the next straight line area. That made it much easier as long as I thought about stitching before starting.  And yes, my pointer finger was tracing the lines to make sure I figured out what to do before the machine did its work. 

The final stitching was a curve in the pink pieces.  Again, I thought about the best way to do it to eliminate starts and stops.  Having the navy separating parts of the quilt meant I did have quite a few beginnings and endings.  I did not stitch in the navy at all.  I used a bendable ruler to create a pleasing curve and then drew it on a piece of lightweight cardboard.  I cut it out and had two shapes I could play with.  I used it to draw a line on the pink pieces to give some motion to the quilting. 

As I was quilting I was pondering the binding.  I had enough grey or navy to do it.  I probably had enough of one of the light pinks to use as a binding too.  But after consulting with my quilting buddy Sharon, we both liked the idea of the navy. (Thank goodness I had enough for it and another quilt I wanted to bind with it!) 

I don't often hand stitch binding down any more.  Most of my quilts are donated.  The last thing a recipient wants is the binding to fall apart so I normally sew both sides on the machine.  But this was small and I was willing to spend the time to hand finish it.  I LOVE the backing fabric.  I've owned it for years and have used little bits and pieces but I thought it worked well with the front.It looks mostly cranberry but it has a bit of pink within the paisleys. And if I want, I can flip the runner and use that side for a while.  

Here are some glamour shots --- 

My first Table Scraps challenge is complete.  I enjoyed working with pink and some friends.  I love the backing fabric that might be flipped to use sometimes. All of these fabrics came from stash so I'm tickled with that too.  I am happy I can still push fabric around under my domestic machine and have some decent results. The best thing I can say is I really enjoyed this challenge.  

Lest you think I didn't really start blocks, here are the two pink star blocks I did.  I specifically made them to test a block I'm putting with the t shirt quilt but I decided a bunch of different Friendship Star blocks in a rainbow of colors would make a nice quilt eventually.  I think I need to make a few more.

I'm linking up with Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts, Beauties Pageant 114 at From Bolt to Beauty, Scrap Happy Saturday at Superscrappy, and Table Scraps Runner/Topper Challenge at The Joyful Quilter.  Enjoy seeing what people are doing, especially with pink around the Internet.  Monday starts a new color -- bright shiny yellow.  Angela mentioned it in her post today.

Happy Quilting All! Bonnie 

Color Challenge Blocks

I've caught up on my Color Challenge Blocks!  Earlier this week I made the green and the purple one. 

Here's what all of them look like together. 

Hum, I wonder if I might need to put a sashing between them? 

I'll audition them together and sashed once I get them all made.  Wild colors and yet they do go together... well, except maybe the green... it's more yellow green.  I'll withhold judgement until later.  

I also finished putting together the fabric for a mystery quilt I will be doing with the guild in June.  I have had the focus fabric for ages. I found the burgundy Moda Marble in the stash too.  There was a blue-green fab in the stash that I was willing to use but I didn't think I would have had enough.  So I got the blue and gold fabric at the quilt show at the beginning of the month.  No luck on having enough fabric in my stash to use as the background so I picked the beige at the quilt store Tuesday night when I went to the embroidery class. 

Bubbles, my Bernina workhorse, was left for a spa week.  Hopefully only a week.  I've stitched almost 2 1/2 million stitches with her since I got her in February or so of 2012.  I was surprised to see that almost 1/3 of those stitches were on the embroidery side.  I guess I have been using the embroidery unit a lot! 

Take a peak at other Color Challenge blogs by going over to SOScrappy.  

Happy Quilting All! 

Stashbusting Report -- January

It was a great month for fabric usage.  I finished a UFO and the wallhanging I started in a class at the beginning of the month.  Here are the final results for the month.

2014	Fabric In Month	Fabric in Year	Fabric Out Month	Fabric Out Year	Total In or Out Year
December	4.25	4.25	11.375	11.375	6.125

I've decided to participate in SOScrappy's Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2014.  I've seen folks blogging about this annual challenge for what seemed like years.  So, I decided at the beginning of January to actually jump in.  Except, I didn't get to it until January 31 about 4pm.  Talk about last minute!  I'm not planning on making tons of blocks in a particular color.  I'm thinking more like one block each month.  

I started looking on Quilter's Cache for a block that I could make in all the different colors.  I didn't look all that far before I came to Annie's Choice. Ok that will work, but wait, there's more. I also thought this would be a great chance to try out my Sizzix Big Shot and the triangle die.  I rewrote the directions to come out at 8" finished so I could use the 2" finished triangle die.  It worked really well cutting up to 4 pieces of fabric at a time.  I was using 2.5" strips so I didn't pile on the up to 8 fabrics I should be able to cut with the device.  Here's some pics: 

What you are looking at is the cutting plate (clear), the die (black), the fabric (white) and the top cutting plate.  You can see the impressions left from cutting hearts for my Valentine's day cards. 

You put the "sandwich" on the machine platform until it can be cranked through. The machine is pretty darn heavy (which is why I bought it with Amazon Prime rather than a different retailer.) Once the die engages you put one hand on the top to stabilize and the other cranks. Voila! You have triangles -- see them to the right back of the Big Shot?  And, there is a pink heart there too.  One reason I got the Big Shot rather than the Accu Cutter Go is the ability to use it to emboss paper, cut paper and cut fabric.  And, I have to say, it worked great. I will warn you if you are interested in it, this half triangle die is labeled 2.5" finished size and it isn't.  I'm not sure if all the quilting dies are labeled wrong, at least from a quilters standpoint but it is something to think about.  

Annie's Choice 8" fin. 

I just checked at SOS Scrappy and February's color is Pink.  Fun as I know I have some great pinks I can use.  I have set aside a half yard or so of my background fabric.  I thought it might unify the blocks using one background.  Hum, can I get the next block done before the last day of February?  I sure hope so.  

You can visit other color challenge blogs by going to SOS Scrappy.  I'll be linking to it also.  Hum, how do folks have pink already done when she just announced it?  Pretty speedy folks.

I have a fairly long list of things to get done today and most of them are quilting.  Now I can mark off post a blog!  

Happy Quilting All.