My Personal Rainbow Scrap Challenge

In July, I was to work on my Stars in Blue quilt. Nine blocks were made and abandoned in 2016. I played with a few ideas most of the month to finish this quilt. Someone commented that I should add stars in my sashing. (thanks for the inspiration, Gayle. Always helpful. 🧡) So I played with more stars. 

I made two testers, took some pictures and played on the computer. 

I came up with these options.

option 1

option 2

option 3

I didn't bother to photograph all 9 blocks, so it will look different when done but it gives me an idea of what to expect. I'm not too keen on option 3. One Ohio Star block is missing to make this pattern. It will be done this weekend. So, what do you say? 

Last week, I show you this picture. 

When I took it down from the design wall, I realized it isn't flying the right way. 

It will need a session with the seam ripper. Haha! Blooper! 

The cleaning of the sewing room continues. I discovered where the bonus HSTs from the first tulip blocks were hiding. I quickly turned them into shoo-fly! 

With all the cleaning and cutting I didn't get to play with Shoreline. Depending on August's colour for the RSC, I might continue to work on it. 

That's all I have for now. Take care everyone and have a great one! 

;^) 

Joining
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Denise at For the Love of Geese
Pat at Life in a Scrapatch

Rotary Cutter Workout

Obviously, with a title like that, you probably deduced that I didn't sew much this week and you are right.

Friends give me bags of scraps every now and again. I don't always have time to put all the scraps away. They end up in corners or on any flat surfaces including the floor. It's time to get rid of all those bags. 

I made such a mess!

So I ironed and cut, and ironed and cut most of the week. I did empty a few bags already but there's still more to do. It's tedious but I know after it will be so much easier to use those scraps. 🙄

😶

😏   Actually, the real reason I'm going through bags of scraps is that I am hunting for black fabrics. 😝 I want to work on Shoreline some more. All I have found so far is solid black and a little piece of black leaf. Cute but not enough. 

Also found some lovely reds that I can use in Shoreline. Absolutely love the one on the left. 

I found the bonus HSTs from the car seat mat I made for a friend. Since my kitchen is grey and yellow, maybe I could do something with these for the table. 

Anywho! This isn't the black I need, so I went shopping. 

Also bought some neutral because I always run out of those and they were on sale. I got half yards of some white and cream too. On my way back home, I had to stop at the thrift store. 

I mean what's a trip in town if you don't stop at the thrift store? 

And I got the best thing EVER! Look! 

A one-thousand pieces puzzle of lovely quilts made by the one and only Bonnie K. Hunter. AWEsome!! It was dirt-cheap too. Yay me! 

Anywho! I did make some masks this week, and more are to come.  We are slowly going back to "normal" and back to the office in late August, so I will need more masks as I don't want to have the same one all day long. 

This morning, I did manage to finish the navy blue block for RSC. 

Yep! Still sewing HSTs. Haha! 

Have a great day everyone! 

;^)

Joining
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Denise at For the Love of Geese
Pat at Life in a Scrapatch

Plums and Lilac

The RSC colour of the month is blue but since I have all the blue tulips I need for my quilt and since I didn't have a chance to sew the purple tulips last month, I played with purple this week.

Hopefully, these pictures will look purple on your monitor. It's not easy to photograph purple.  

This was the hardest one to photograph. The left side looked black in most pictures. It is very dark like eggplant purple. 

This is the lilac one. I couldn't do any better than that, sorry. 

This one is a surprise. I forgot I had this gorgeous fabric (on the left) from gifted bags a while back. So this one is half lilac half plum. I love it. 

And of course, some tiny Shoo Fly blocks. 

The blue scrap basket is beside my cutting table, like a baseball player waiting on the bench, hoping for some action. Maybe this weekend. 

That's it for now. 

Well, okay. Just one more picture, just because he's so cute. Raven is 6 months old. 

Take care everyone. 

;^) 

Joining
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Denise at For the Love of Geese
Pat at Life in a Scrapatch

From 16 to 42

Although that sounds like my waistline history (lol), it's actually how many Framed 9-Patch blocks I now have compared to what I started with at the beginning of June. 

I couldn't just leave the Framed 9-Patch alone. Isn't this a great print? Found at the bottom of a gifted bag, I had to work with it. 

There were so few blocks missing that I continued sewing them and got them all done. 

Number 7 is the print I love. Number 6 is a very thin fabric. Not sure I will use it but that's a decision for next year. 

Number 8 is 

Orange! Aren't you surprised!! Haha. 

It will be a 6 X 7 layout, whenever I decide to put the top together, which could be next year's challenge. I enlisted the help of a little mug rug as that thin blue fabric kept flying off. Yes, it's that thin. Starting to regret my choice. It's too bad because it looks great. Anywho! It has all gone back into the drawer and out came my personal RSC for July. 

This month's challenge is to make more Stars in Blue blocks, as written on my list of UFOs RSC back in January. It's a variant of Ohio Star. 

A few rules must be followed to make this star. It has to be Blue. (Duh!) It has to have red or orange, and the middle square needs to be orange, red, or a print with those colours. 

I don't remember why I started making these blocks back in 2016 and even less why the rules. I remember there was no pattern, I just measured it in my mind and did a test block. One or two were assembled whenever I found fabric that would work in this block. There are now 9 blocks. Am I continuing this? Do I still love it? Honestly, I'm not excited about it as I was before. 

Maybe three more blocks and sashing will bring it up to a good size. What do you think? (sorry for the dark photo.)

During Zoom meetings at work, I finished sewing the binding on last week's tiny projects. 

A tool review: I spotted this eraser in the craft section in a dollar store. It's rubber but not like erasers' rubber. It's hard, stiff, not pliable. I remember a pair of boots had soles made with this stuff. I thought it might work on my cutting board to "erase" lint. Why are you looking at me that way? No, I am not crazy, only my ideas are crazy, lol. 

I usually use a scrap of batting to remove the lint from my cutting board. I have to rub a lot and in little circles. 

It doesn't clean well and doesn't get every lint out of the board but it picks up after itself. Please notice the black threads at the bottom left of the picture. 

Now the new product.  

Of course, I had to cut some more fabric in order to get the board "dirty" again. Same little black thread. Same scrap of fabric peeking at the top of the picture. 

It doesn't pick up after itself but it sure knows how to clean. I swept the mat as I would a broom across the floor, to accomplish this. For a mere dollar, I am very happy with my purchase. Just saying!

Meanwhile, Shoreline is growing.  

While cutting fabric for the tool review, this gorgeous print came to view and I couldn't help myself. I just had to make another Framed 9-Patch. 

Isn't it great? I could have cut the fabric differently in order to get the wave in a constant flow but ... whatever. Now we all know what's going to happen to the thin blue block. Haha. 

What? Are you asking about the little block on top? Oh, I blame Pat (Life in a Scrapatch) for that one. See what she did here. It finishes at 6 inches with lots of little bits of scraps all over, how could I not try one? But I am not getting on that wagon. 🤨🙄🤣

I believe this is all I have for now. 

Take care all. 

;^)

Joining
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Denise at For the Love of Geese
Pat at Life in a Scrapatch

I Can Work with Black Again.

Angela announced the colour for July to be blue, as well as dark neutral, grey, and black. I am so happy! I get to play with black again. Ever since I received a squishy envelope, I've been itching to play with Shoreline again. But first, let's see how I did during this bad week. 

I continued working on the Framed 9-Patch quilt and did four more. They were my personal RSC / UFO challenge for June.  

Seafoam Green was helpful once again. Yay! Also did blue, grey, and darks for this month's RSC before I knew what the colour of July was. Awesome! 

I celebrated my birthday (yep, they said that a Covid lockdown was not an excuse not to get older) and I went shopping with my youngest son. Stores are slowly opening here and I enjoyed a few hours in thrift stores. I adore thrift stores! I found these flannels, in MY favourite colours! They couldn't have screamed my name better than that. There's a yard in both. 

Then, my sewing sessions were interrupted. You see, we have a urinal and it broke. It kept gushing water when my youngest flushed it. Needless to say, there was water everywhere, seeping through the floor down to the basement by the time we got this thing under control again. Guess which room is under the bathroom? Yes, my sewing room! There was a lot of fabric soaked. It kept me busy.   

The next day, it did it again. With my youngest one, again! The poor boy doesn't want to come close to it anymore, haha. We were better prepared so the damages were minimal this time. DH will dismantle it and ship it to the dump. I don't want this thing in my house anymore. 

Anywho! It got me looking at my sewing room and realize that I have a lot of projects on my sewing table, so much so that I am running out of tables. It's time to Spring clean my workplace. 

I have the habit of throwing little bits of scraps in bins when I cut fabrics. It was time to sort them out. 

First container, done. 

Second container, done. 

Look at all the scraps I regained! (I did this while working from home, waiting for work to come in through emails. It was a slow week. My laptop is in the upper right corner.) 

Then, Canada had a birthday too. Happy Canada Day! Hope you had a great one! 🍁

Anywho! I won't bore you with every single container of scraps that I cleaned suffice to say there are six fewer containers on flat surfaces. Ha! 

I found some treasures in there, like these cute fabrics. It is a rich brown paired with green and light baby blue. 

They were a project's squared-off end I'm sure, as they were sewn side by side. I unpicked and sewn them on top of the other to make this little mug rug. I had the checked one in the middle then decided against it. 

Sewn the three pieces left of this fabric living on my worktable to make the backing. It's blue and brown-ish. It'll work fine. 

It is now ready for quilting. Quick project and fewer scraps. 

Then, another container is slowly getting emptied as I worked on finishing this tiny little one. 

You think you have seen this SuperNova Star before? Yes and no, as this one has HSTs of only 1 inch finished. The first one finished at 1.25 inches. Such a BIG difference, haha. 

While working on the Supernova, my leader-ender were some more HSTs (surprised?) and I got one block done. This is HST Quilt #2. The green block is my visual reminder on how to sew the block.  

I did a blue one because Angela had announced the colour for July by that time. 

Another one is well underway. Picture was taken in the early morning light as it was too dark last night when I closed the sewing shop. 

As soon as I'm done with SuperNova, I'm heading back to Shoreline, a Judy Martin design, because I received a squishy envelope, remember?

My friend at Amity Quilter has sent me some black scraps. I received her envelope a while back but couldn't work with it as I wanted to finish working on the Framed 9-Patch first. They aren't finished but Angela said black so ... I can work with black again! These fabrics are just what I needed for Shoreline. 

Some will go into other projects as they are too lively for Shoreline, but aren't they gorgeous? Love them all!! The tablecloth is orange so these pictures are washed out. Sorry. BTW the tablecloth is another little treasure I found at the thrift store. It's great linen, as the good old stuff kind of linen. Yeah! 

These scraps are just perfect. I'll be able to make many blocks with these beauties. Thanks again, Pat! I am so grateful and I am so in love with your scraps. 🥰

I have more to show (a tool review, personal RS Challenge for July, tulips) but it will wait for another post as this one is turning into a documentary length. Haha. 

Take care. Enjoy life! 

;^) 

Joining
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Denise at For the Love of Geese
Pat at Life in a Scrapatch