Purple Peaks

When I made the Quilt for Teacher with Fire Monkey in the spring, the pattern created some cut-off triangles of a good size.  I saved them and sewed them together into HSTs knowing I would have enough for a small new project.  The teacher quilt had 60 blocks, so I made 4 extra HSTs to give myself 64 and therefore an 8 x 8 layout.

 
Obviously with HSTs there are a lot of layout options.  I decided that a simple peaks & valleys layout would look good.  For the quilting I followed the peaks & valleys on both sides.

For the back I used a piece of minky or similar that someone gave me back in Project Linus days.  It's fairly small but so is this quilt, so it worked.  You can see the back a bit through the white sections of the quilt but I decided that I didn't care.  This will be a donation quilt to the local children's hospital and I doubt a kid will be upset that they can see the birdie on the other side.

I conveniently finished this during purple month with Angela at So Scrappy.  It's not my regular Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks, but it is made of scraps and it is purple, so, win!

Aqua: Rainbow Scrap Challenge

March's color in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge hosted by Angela of So Scrappy is aqua.  I didn't have a lot of aqua strings, but I did find enough to make 3 scrappy log cabin blocks.

I have now made it through the first quarter of the year keeping up with Rainbow Scrap challenge!  That hasn't happened in a few years for me--let's hope I can keep it up!

Orange: Rainbow Scrap Challenge

My goal for the 2020 Rainbow Scrap Challenge, hosted by Angela of So Scrappy, is to use my strings. I chose a loose log cabin block and am letting my strings dictate how many to make of each color.

I started by making five blocks.  Thing is, I realized fairly far into the process that I didn't have enough for five, so I chopped one of them up and used it to supplement the others.  I'm trimming these to 8 1/2" unfinished.  So that's why there some of the center white & black polka dot fabric on the edges of two of these.  I don't think it matters, but we'll see at the end of the year when I'm assembling the final project.

Green: Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Last year, I didn't keep up very well with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge hosted by Angela at So Scrappy.  And by "not very well" I mean "only made it for one month."  In 2018, I picked two patterns.  After the first month, it became clear very quickly that two were too many to work on, so I kept up with the car blocks and set the kitties aside for the next year.  Last January, I was all ready to break out the kitties.  I made the blocks in January's color, meaning I now had kittens in two colors.  And then I didn't get back to the cats for the rest of the year.

So this marks my third year making kittens in January's color.  Maybe I can finally break the curse and get past January?  The pattern is Smitten Kitten by Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts.

I've decided that I'm just going to add yellow and purple to the cats I already have and that should give me enough blocks plus a good variety of colors.  So if I wanted to actually do the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I would need an additional project.

My bucket of strings is overflowing, so strings seemed like a great place to start.  I decided that log cabins would be the best use of the variety of lengths and widths in the string bucket.  I cut a black & white polka dot fabric into 2 1/2" squares to create a unified center in all the blocks.  Then I just went to town, log cabin style!  They are odd log cabins since each string is a different width.  I started with 5 blocks and when it became clear that I would have strings left over, I made 3 more.  When I got to more than 12 1/2" on each side, I stopped and trimmed.

I'm just going to let each color dictate how many I make and will figure out what to do with them when I'm done. I also decided that I would use as many of the strings of each color as reasonably practical, and then get rid of the leftovers with no regrets.  That felt surprisingly freeing!  I'm looking forward to an empty string bin at the end of the year!

Damaged Butterflies: A Quilt Repair

In 2016, I used some of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge butterfly blocks to make a baby quilt for a close friend's second child.    I called it Bright Butterflies, and it's young owner is known as Lady Bug.

Bright Butterflies

Early in the summer, I got a call from Lady Bug's mom, Kate. They had just returned from a week-long vacation and it seemed their dog missed his family and did some damage to a few textiles in the house, including Bright Butterflies.

When I finally got to see it in person, it actually wasn't as bad as I expected. The chewed areas were all toward the edges.

Kate was hoping I could just trim away the chewed parts and re-bind it.  And I could have, but it would have looked weird.  I told her a lot depended on how much she cared about *this* quilt, and if it needed to stay intact. We discussed various salvaging options, and ultimately I convinced her that I could turn the six unharmed butterflies into smaller objects and I would happily make a new quilt for Lady Bug. 

I wanted to do a series of doll quilts but Kate didn't think Lady Bug needed more than one doll quilt.  So two butterflies became a doll quilt.

I mentioned in the original Bright Butterflies post that Kate loves scrap quilts and she & I have traded scraps many times over the years.  I used several fabrics that came form her in the scrappy butterflies, including scraps from a quilt her grandmother made without realizing that's where the scraps came from!  It was especially important that the aqua butterfly be saved, since that's where the grandmother's scraps were.  Fortunately, that was not an area that got chewed.  I turned the aqua and dark purple butterflies into a wall hanging with a hanging sleeve, per request.  And the original label was not damaged!  I was able to unpick the stitches and move it to the back of the wall hanging (no photo of that part).

That left two more butterflies, and Kate suggested a small pillow.  She said Lady Bug liked things like that.  Perfect!  Pink butterfly on one side, yellow on the other.

My son loved the pillow and now wants me to make him one.  I don't have any more salvaged butterflies, but I do have a butterfly die for my accuquilt!  It will make a great rainy day project with him some time this fall.

I finished these projects over the 4th of July weekend but only recently got them photographed and returned to Lady Bug.  I completed her replacement quilt yesterday and will work on getting that photographed, written up, and gifted soon.  I'm glad that the damage wasn't extensive and that Lady Bug will still get to use her baby quilt, even if it's now in different forms. 

Red Kittens

For this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I'm making Smitten Kitten by Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts.  I have a fun litter of red kitties all ready for January!

Yes, I know one kitty is actually white.  But she has red dots and hearts and I don't think there is a white/light neutral month this year, so I'm counting her as red!

Bumper2Bumper

Most fun traffic jam I've ever seen! 

The pattern is Bumper2Bumper by Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts.  There are two different block sizes; this is the smaller.  The pattern calls for 7 rows of cars but I left out one row to add in the "beep beep!"  I used my Accuquilt alphabet die for the letters, but note that Lorna also has a pattern for traditionally pieced alphabet letters. 

This was my Rainbow Scrap Challenge block/project for 2018.  Rainbow Scrap Challenge is hosted by Anglea of So Scrappy and is one of my favorite annual challenges.  You pick whatever project/block you want to make.  Every month, there is a featured color and you make however many blocks you want (or even a whole quilt!) in that color.  The idea is that at the end of the year, you have a quilt's worth of blocks in rainbow colors.  It's super casual and there are no real deadlines, just lots of fun and encouragement.  This is my third year participating.  For the first time, I didn't put my blocks in rainbow order but mixed them up, and for this pattern I think that worked better.  This is my second year using one of Lorna's patterns for RSC and I will use one of hers next year, too!

The background is Kona Sky, the wheels are Kona Indigo and the lug nuts are Kona Medium Gray.  The cars themselves are scraps.  Since it's a scrappy quilt I used a scrappy binding, picking out solid colors that has good contrast to the sky.  I am pleased to have used up 5 different leftover bindings!

I found the most perfect fleece backing in my closet.  I love to back my quilts, especially my donation quilts, with fleece.  I do not use bating, just the top and the fleece.  It's soft, it makes a great weight quilt, and honestly it's cheaper than buying batting for all the donation quilts I make.  I've been told that the kids really like the soft fabric and that makes sense; my son does, too!  This one I'm pretty sure came from my friend Snow who gave me several larger cuts of fleece she wasn't going to use.  The problem is, with the really light background fabric, you can occasionally see parts of the darker cars showing through on the front.  It's not really noticeable and I decided that the perfect (and fun!) backing mattered more than an occasional glimpse in *just* the right light, so I used it anyway.  And I'm glad I did! This will be going to my local Project Linus chapter and imagine having fun cars on BOTH sides of your quilt!

Bumper2Bumper was #15 on my list of Q4 goals for the globally-hosted Finish Along.  It was also my One Monthly Goal (OMG) for the monthly goal-setting link-up hosted by Patty of Elm Street Quilts (goal setter #70). And since I've been working on it for all of 2018, it was a UFO that is now finished, so I'll link up with Tish for her next UFO busting party.

Rainbow Elephant Parade

2017 was my second year doing the Rainbow Scrap Challenge hosted by Angela of So Scrappy.  I picked Elephant Parade, a pattern by Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts that she did as a quilt along, and she keeps her quilt along patterns up and available.  For each color, I made 2 adult elephants and 3 baby elephants.

The backing fabric is Kona Fog.  The elephants are from scraps, obviously.  Each month, I alternated the direction I made the elephants.  This means that went put in rainbow order, it ended up much more random, but I'm okay with that.  If you are wondering why there are 4 rows facing left and only two rows facing right, there was originally a pink row as well.  But I felt it made the quilt too long, so I turned the pink elephants into their own project called Elephants in the Garden, finished earlier this year.

This is a baby gift for two of my wonderful friends from college who just had their second baby, a lovely young lady named Cassandra.  The back is a Lucy Cousins print that I bought years ago.  (Lucy Cousins is a children's author & illustrator, she writes the Maisy books.)  I had to piece a bit as I was just a little short.  I am sorry now that I used the drab pale yellow fabric and didn't look for something brighter; that pale bit in the upper corner looks so out of place. I do love the rainbow back for a rainbow quilt!

Since it was a scrappy rainbow, I decided to use scrappy binding.  I love being able to use up spools of binding!  I used eight scraps and seven of those how now been completely used up.  Yay!  I went through my bin of binding leftovers and picked out all the solid colors. Then I picked out a nice bright variety and pieced them together.  This is what my spool looked like before I attached it to the quilt:

This is #4 on my list of Q4 goals for the globally-hosted Finish Along.  It's on also on the list of projects that qualify for my PhD (Projects Half Done) with Gail of Quilting Gail.  I'll also be linking up with Tish's Adventures in Wonderland during her next UFO linky party. 

Elephants in the Garden

For the 2017 Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I chose the Elephant Parade pattern by Lorna from Sew Fresh Quilts.  When I was putting the top together, I realized that if I used all 7 rows, it would be huge.  So since pink isn't technically in the rainbow spectrum, I took out the pink row, put the pink elephant family together a different way, and added a floral stripe.  So now I present Elephants in the Garden.

The background for the elephants is Kona Fog.  The floral stripe came from my mom; she had a ton of it and I think was going to use if for curtains at some point?  Then she changed her mind and passed the fabric on to me.  The elephants are of course scraps.  Here is a close-up of the pink elephant family:

I used crosshatch quilting with a pink variegated thread.  It is backed with bright pink fleece.

Elephants was #11 on my list of Q2 goals for the globally hosted finish along.  Elephants is also on my list of projects to earn my PhD (projects half done) with Quilting Gail.  Elephants has now become two projects; this one, and the originally planned rainbow elephant parade.  Rainbow elephant parade is coming; it is layered and ready for quilting and will be given as a baby gift to a child expected in September.

 

Purple Cars, Green Cars

I've been trying to get caught up on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.  I picked two patterns this year.  This one is Bumper 2 Bumper by Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts.  Here are my purple cars:

And here are my green cars:

You can see that I was not particular about type or shade of green!  These were supposed to be half right-facing but I made a mistake.  Having all of these face left meant the least amount of unpicking--sold!  The original pattern calls for more cars facing right than left so I am just going to switch the ratio.  No one will know!  (Well, I guess you know, but you don't care, right?)

And here are all the blocks I have so far this year:

I'm looking forward to adding some yellow cars in April!

Blue Cars

For 2018's Rainbow Scrap Challenge I chose two different patterns.  Both are by Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts.  I am making both Bumper 2 Bumper and Smitten Kitten.  I now have 4 car blocks ready for Bumper 2 Bumper. These are January's blocks when the color was light/medium blue. I had some trouble with the tires because I cut the pieces to the wrong size.  Now that I've caught the mistake, I should have an easier time with future blocks.

I'm still working on the Smitten Kitten blocks from January. Hopefully I'll get caught up soon.  I hate that I'm behind so early in the year.  But the great thing about Rainbow Scrap Challenge is that are no real deadlines!

Blue Elephants

Blue was July's color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and I'm a little behind.  I just finished my blue family of elephants for my Elephant Parade, pattern by Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts.

The blue gingham elephant is my favorite, though it looks gray in the picture.

I had already decided that I am only using bright colors, so instead of doing light neutrals, the August color, I will get a jump on turning each elephant family into a row.

Yellow Elephants

At the end of May, I started wondering what June's color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge might be.  I guessed yellow.  And come June 1st, it really was yellow!

Yellow Elephant Family

The patterns are the small and the large elephants from the Elephant Parade quilt along by Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts.  For each color, I'm making 2 large and 3 small elephants.  By the end of the year, I'll have a rainbow elephant parade!

Darth Vader Butterfly

In 2016, I chose a scrappy butterfly block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  During the year, I made 16 butterflies.  Fifteen of those butterflies went into quilts.  The 16th is now a completed mini quilt.  It measures 16 1/2" by 11 1/2".

This was actually the first butterfly block I made and it is my favorite.  The main reason is that I love the Darth Vader face that is in one of the butterfly wings.  I just think the idea of Darth Vader in a butterfly is hilarious.  It makes me happy.  I'm glad to add it to my wall of mini quilts in my office at work.

I looked up butterfly species to see if I could find some ideas of how to name this so it sounded like a real scientific butterfly name, but so many of them are straight-forward that I decided the simple "Darth Vader Butterfly" was the way to go.

This was made with scraps and Kona Prussia as the binding.

The first completed quilt with this block was a baby quilt for Lady Bug, a family friend.  Nine butterflies went in to this quilt.

The second completed quilt was donated to Project Linus and was named Butterflies in the Sky.  Six butterflies went into this quilt.

Turning the last butterfly into a mini quilt was goal #10 on my list of Q2 goals for the globally hosted Finish Along.

Red Elephants

I love the Rainbow Scrap Challenge hosted by Angela of So Scrappy.  This year, I picked elephant blocks.  I am using both the small and the large elephants from the Elephant Parade quilt along by Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts.  Even though the Elephant Parade quilt along was a few years ago, Lorna keeps the pattern up and available.

I'm making 2 large and 3 small elephants in each color.  March's color is red.

Red Elephant Family

Updated to include a picture after I added eyes!

Red Elephant Family that can now see where it is going

The original pattern calls for elephants facing both left and right, but the diagrams are only for the elephants facing left.  I did the first group (purple) facing left and figured I should alternate. Understanding spatially how to reverse things is not my strong suit.  I was really proud of myself, because I only messed up and had to re-do one element, and it was right at the end.  (The elephant with the maroon stars: I got his trunk wrong.  I had to piece together tiny remnants to have enough to do it over!)