Second Chance

It's the last Saturday in February and time to put the brown and pink scraps away.  As I was doing a bit of a tidy up I spotted 1.5 inch strips of brown.  I must have cut them for sashing in another quilt and tucked them into a small bag of brown bits.  Although I had made the Patience Corner blocks for the RSC Column Quilt I wasn't happy with them;  they had no spark.  Here was an opportunity to use up some strips, clear them out of my scraps and add some spark to the column. 


Just look at the difference!  New column on the left, original on the right!  Now the column looks like it belongs in the quilt.  What a difference! Changing out the outer corners for a brighter pink  gave the blocks some life.  I'm so glad I took the time to remake the column. 

I'm off to a workshop - mystery quilt this Saturday so may be connecting to RSC a little late.  I'm looking forward to a day of quilting with friends - fun, laughs and great food!

Chocolate delights

Last week I tried a few variations with the brown and pink but I just didn't like the way it played so after much arranging and rearranging on the design wall, I ended up with the very first arrangement I tired.  Sometimes it just doesn't pay to change things up.  So here are my first two columns for the RSC quilt this year.

The columns are pretty long and the last block in each is cut off but you can see how I finally decided to arrange the brown and pink.

These cute little bags got finished this week too.

The brown and pink one is a perfect size for toting my rotary cutter, pins, seam ripper, marking tools, and scissors to workshops.  The blue one matches this cute little pad with pockets also perfect for taking along to workshops.  Several of the guild members have these pads that keep tools handy and save time looking for scissors on the workshop tables.  I always wanted to make one and, well, the time was just right this week.

I made the pad for my Elna.  It's a bit large for the Singer but I didn't want to take the Elna out of the desk.  The sewing notions fabrics that I picked up years ago were perfect.

My final project this week involved taking apart a canvas bag and doing some curved piecing using the bag as a foundation and then sewing it back together. 

 Every woman needs a little animal in her life.  Here's mine.  A great size when books and magazines have to be returned to the library or to take along to the store and avoid paying for bags.
Stop by SoScrappy and check out the other brown and pink quilty goodies.

Sweet February

Wonder why whenever I sit to work on my brown and pink blocks this month I have a craving for chocolate or strawberries or raspberries.  Could it be the colour of the month?  Could it be the start of the Lenten season?  Possibly a bit of both.  Last week I thought of reversing the brown and pink to see how that would look in the columns quilt.

 

 Here's how the column would look if the pink was the 2.5 inch squares and the (chocolate) brown was the strip.  You get a meandering brown strip running down the column.












And here's what you get if you alternate the brown square and pink square blocks.  I think I prefer the pink centres and the meandering
  brown chain.  Back to the sewing machine to finish the blocks for the column now that I know what to do.  Hopping over to SoScrappy to check out all the scrumptious brown offerings this week.




 

Solution Found

After looking at the Scrappy Mountains on Bonnie Hunter's blog I decided on a few changes to my quilt top.  First, I removed the bottom row of mountains; then added a thin neutral sashing and finally a 2.5 inch border of scrappy bits left over.  Here's the finished flimsy:

The afternoon sun was streaming in the window yesterday. The colours don't read true but it gives a good idea of the finish.  This measures 0.75 inches narrower than suggested and 0.5 inches shorter but I think it's close enough not to be noticed.  The binding will be the same neutral as the sashing so frame the border.  I think it will be nice.

When I was looking at Bonnie's mountains I notice she did not match the upslope and downslope of the mountains as I did.  She made hers even scrappier by mixing things up.  I think this may have helped me with some of the yellow patches.  I could have spread them out through the quilt a little more.  I'll have to make another and give that a try.

Almost Done!

Yeah!  I'm so excited.  My friend, Mary, finished quilting the 2015 RSC quilt.  Here's just a teaser -

I have beautiful feathers circling each of the star blocks and each star centre is quilted differently.  I have to trim the extra backing and batting and put on the binding then photograph the finished quilt but I have to say I just love, love, love the quilting.

During the week I finished a 4 x 9 layout of the scrappy mountains but now have a dilemma.  Our guild has set specific sizes for the Comfort Quilt projects and the 4 x 9 layout falls short of the size requirements.  Have you ever seen this quilt with borders?  I would have to add a 3 inch border to the sides and a 1.5" border top and bottom to bring it up to the  size for a comfort quilt.  I think this would be awkward looking.  Should I add the border or just submit the top as is? 

 

Brown and pink for February - Teddy bears and roses or as Angela referred to the selection baby lambs.  I made a few 6 inch blocks using the colours.

What about the floral for the rectangles and the brown for the squares?  Would that work? Could I work out a pattern for the next column?  ( I think this is the block she has selected for February but  I haven't checked the blog for a few days .) 

I'm late today but I'm linking up with SoScrappy and stopping by to see what others have been up to this week.

 

January Check In

Well  I finally buckled down and got caught up with the 2016 RSC.  Here are my blue Twinklers - a little out of focus. It's been a while since I did some block photography.

While I had the blue scraps out I looked for strips that were between 9 and 10 inches wide.  These were cut into 8.5" squares and paired with some floral fabrics from the  guild's Community Outreach stash. 

The result some lovely scrappy mountains.  I had to add some brown mountains so I'd have enough for a comfort quilt.  There are a few more blocks cut and waiting to be put together.  Maybe later today?

At the last guild meeting I took home a few blocks and was challenged to see what I could do with them.  Some blocks were donated as the block of the month and others were put together from precut block kits ( They're the ones with the grey fabric.) 

Isn't that disappearing four patch an interesting block?

I'll be linking up with Angela at Soscrappy and checking to see how everyone rounded out their January Blues.




I'm Back....

It's good to be back to my regular self.  Three weeks ago I got the pneumonia vaccine and it took two weeks to recover from it.  The ads on TV say one of the side effects may be that motion is restricted.  Well ... they neglected to say that the restricted motion also means pain, the inability to dress or perform regular daily functions that involve moving your arm.  At any rate, it was a very uncomfortable two weeks but I'm finally back at my machine and doing a little sewing.

I pieced my boxy stars quilt

I just realized that I didn't take a final photo with the borders sewn on.  This one just shows the final audition. 

I am almost finished with the borders on the RSC sew along.  Just one final round to go in the border.  I did try it out on my bed to see how it would look.

 

None of the quilts I had fit my new mattress but I think this one will.  I always wondered why they called some of the duvets "queen/double".  Well it turns out the new mattresses are so tall that even though it's only a double bed size, you need a queen size comforter, blanket, quilt, etc.  to get the width and length to cover the extra pillow on the mattress. 

I belong to a small group of quilters trying their hand at being a little more creative.  The November challenge was to select 5 interesting fabrics and a collection of items that could be used as embellishments and put them into a brown paper bag.  We then selected a bag and had a month to create a mini quilt which would be gifted  to the owner of the bag.  Earlier this week we met for a Christmas get together and revealed the finished minis.  There were a few members who were out of country and couldn't be there to share so a few pieces are missing.

 

 

To get back into the swing of things again, I started a little sew along with Sheryl at Temecula Quilt Co..  Here are the four little blocks I've made so far.

They are so cute - finishing at 2.5". 
Now I think I'll hop over to soscrappy and see what other scrappy quilters have been doing.