Another finish for 2015

It's so exciting to check off another finish for the year. This is my RSC14 (Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2014) project with it's swirly backing and scrappy binding.

The pattern is one of Eleanor Burns' from her book El's Kitchen. She calls it Pigtail and it's a variation of a traditional snail's trail block. Instead of the 4-patch center in the snail's trail, this block has a center square with 5 rounds of triangle sections.

Her instructions - as usual - were explicit and because they are sewn slightly over-sized and then squared up, the blocks are very accurate.

The gals at The Pin Cushion quilted it for me and I pulled leftover binding sections from my stash for the binding. And yes - I do have a small drawer full of left-over binding pieces just waiting for the right quilt.  So basically my binding was free, and all ready to use after connecting the sections.

Retreat sewing

Heartland Quilt Guild held a "Let it Snow" retreat on Friday night and all day Saturday.  I was only able to attend on Saturday, but that time allowed me to get a couple of big tasks checked off my list. First, I got all 36 pigtail blocks sewn together into a flimsy. 

After adding the last 2 rows I laid it out and realized that I had goofed and didn't have the white sections meeting. So I "un-sewed" those rows and fixed the problem.  And I cut enough strips to make another 10 blocks for my Trip Around the World. 

I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday at: http://www.patchworktimes.com/ 

RSC14 - month 11

This month's RSC14 color is light blue and my blocks are finished. The photo is horrible as they look wrinkled and dull, but that is only because I need a better place to take photos other than my family room floor.

Now, I need to decide on the color for December, because that has been left up to us to decide.  I have some lavender fabrics pulled and some light brown ones, but can't decide if I want another lighter color or something bolder, like coral. We have a good balance of light and dark so far (red/pink, light and dark green, light and dark blue). Decisions, decisions.

Orange RSC14

My orange blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge are complete.  These definitely help warm up the color scheme for the pigtail quilt I'm making.  The warm and cool colors are pretty well balanced now and we still have 4 months to go.  What colors will be next I wonder?

Design Wall Monday - More Green

I don't always follow directions closely enough but sometimes we get a chance to correct our mistakes.  Earlier in the year we had green as the color of the month for RSC14 and I made a dark, a medium, and a bright green block.  Our instructions were to stick to the darker greens.  This month we are doing bright and light greens.

So on Sunday I dug into my stash and made one dark and 2 bright green pigtail blocks for my RSC14 challenge.  So now I have 3 dark and 3 bright/light ones for my quilt, which also has blue, red, purple, pink, aqua, and yellow.  We know there will be orange coming up, but the final 3 colors are still a mystery.

I'll be linking to Judy's Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.  Check out everyone else's projects for this week.

RSC14 - passing halfway

We're 7 months into the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and I'm really pleased that I've kept up so far. Each month I've made 3 blocks (12.5") - Pigtails by Eleanor Burns.  The light wasn't the best here but I laid them out to see the impact so far.  And the cat didn't even try to rearrange them like he usually does. He just supervised. 

Yellow pigtail blocks

I had about an hour this afternoon to sew and decided to finish my yellow RSC14 (Rainbow Scrap Challenge) blocks. Each month I'm making 3 pigtail blocks using the color assigned to us. I had one of my three yellow blocks already done.  This yellow really brightens up the pink, blue, green, purple, and aqua blocks already in the group.

This last yellow fabric has words on it - so cute. 

RSC14 - June is yellow

The June color is yellow/gold for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Yellow will really brighten up this set of blocks so I'm excited about this color. So here is yellow #1 with it's colorful dots.  It just shouts SUMMER!!!

But the downside is that I don't have much yellow in my stash. I dug around and found 4 pieces of yellow fabric and they all have dots on them.  I'm also going to use a golden yellow, tone-on-tone dot. But I may need to find a fat quarter with some other yellow print for that 3rd block so that I don't have all 3 yellow blocks with dots.

Design Wall Monday - RSC14 is green

I have a very boring collection of greens in my stash, leaning toward lime green or batiks or Christmas fabrics and none of those were what I was looking for exactly. However, I did find enough of 3 greens to make my Pigtail blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC14).  Check out lots of other Monday morning Design Walls at Patchwork Times.

3 purple Pig Tails on my design wall

The background really is a crisp white, although the sunshine on my deck made it look a bit lavender. These Pig Tail blocks are for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC14) project hosted by So Scrappy, and this month marks 1/3 of the way done.  So I have 12 blocks (blue, aqua, purple, pink).  I've linked to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times. Check out what others have added to their design walls lately.

RSC14 - March

The color for March RSC14 is teal or aqua - pretty much anything in between blue and green. Well, my stash is full of true blue and true green, but I really had to dig for these in-between colors.

I had 2 of the 3 Pigtail blocks made on Saturday before I got sick. So I finished the last one after work Thursday, along with the extra pink one and extra blue one.  I've decided to make 3 of each color instead of 2 so that I end up with a full sized quilt when I'm done.  Can't wait to add even more colors to the mix in the coming months. They look a little "washed out" in the early evening light here.

Design Wall Monday - RSC14

On my design wall today are more Pigtail blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC14). February's color is pink and my stash had lots of pink to choose from.  This block is from Eleanor Burns book El's Kitchen and turns out perfectly every time. She has you square up the block after each "round" and every step has a picture of what it should look like.

So far I've made 2 blue (January) and 2 pink (February).  My original plan had been to just make 2 each month, but I may add another one in some of the colors so that my quilt can be larger without adding borders. I think this one will look better without borders.  

I've linked up to Design Wall Monday at PatchworkTimes. 

2 challenges in 1

My snowman mini quilt is finished and sitting on the fireplace hearth. This project satisfied 2 January challenges - a blue project for RSC14 and the snowman challenge by Cindy. 

Last week at the Sew Vintage Club, Cindy gave us a white square of fabric and challenged us to make a snowball block for a snowman. I liked my little snowman face so much that I dug out some blue frosty scraps and added enough borders to finish up 12".  I had some snowflake buttons in my button drawer, and I added just a little hand quilting for texture. 

I already made some blocks for RSC14, but now I have another blue project as well. And that is really the point of RSC14 in my opinion - to use a specific color.

RSC14 another blue block

I dug through my blue scraps and found this gorgeous blue floral that was left over from a French Braid quilt a couple of years ago.  So, now I have 2 blue Pig Tail blocks finished for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  One January goal is done!

RSC14

I love color which is probably one of the reasons I enjoy quilting so much and get such pleasure from seeing other people's quilting ideas.  Last year I watched several bloggers following SoScrappy and her Rainbow Scrap Challenge and this year I'm joining in (RSC14). Every month she selects a color and the challenge is to make something using that color.  January 2014 is blue and I'm going to use RSC14 like a BOM so that at the end of the year I've made enough blocks for a quilt.  

I've selected the Pig's Tail block from Eleanor Burns' book El's Kitchen.  It's a 12" block made from 2 colors (also called Snail's Trail) and I'll keep the background in nice safe white. I'm going to try to do 2 blocks each month in the designated color. That should create a decent sized rainbow quilt.  Here is my first January block.