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Saturday, October 29, 2016

ScrapHappy Saturday -- Halloween Edition


I hope you are all having a great fall.  For the US, Monday is Halloween.  Though our kids are getting too old to trick or treat, they are still looking forward to the festivities. Before that though, it is the weekend of the all school musical.  Just a few weeks delayed due to the hurricane.  Ryan is in the chorus and Anna is on the tech crew.  

Sunday, October 16, 2016

Row By Row - October

 This month we will be making a 9 inch block.  Huge, right!?  It is made from 4 HST units along with a wide (2.5) inch sashing strip in two directions.  I'll be using an easy angle ruler to make the HST units, but you can use the favorite method of your choice.  Each HST is 4 inches unfinished.  Therefore if you are making them from squares cut in half or sewn on either side of a drawn line, then the squares should be cut 4 and 3/8 inches.  Honestly, I would probably use 4.5 inch squares and trim them us a tiny bit at the end, but there are so many ways to make HST units.  Choose your favorite.
 Using the easy angle ruler method, I cut 4 inch strips of fabric in light orange and background along with 2.5 inch strips of dark orange for the sashing strips.
 The sashing strips then need to be cut again into 2 4 inch strips and one 9.5 inch strip per block.
 Stack the background and light orange fabric right sides together and use the easy angle ruler to cut 4 HST units.
 Here are all the pieces ready to go:
4 HST units
2 rectangles 2.5 by 4 inches
1 rectangle 2.5 inches by 9.5 inches
 Sew the HST units along the hypotenuse, trim dog ears and press with the seams going toward the orange.
 The HST units will form the corners of the block.  Arrange them so that the orange corners face the center of the block.  Use the photo for reference.  Use the darker sashing strips to separate the corner blocks.
Sew one HST to either side of each short sashing strip.  Press toward the darker fabric.  Finally, one of these pieced subunits onto either side of the long sashing strip.  Normally I would press toward the dark again, but for ease of assembly of the final blocks into a row, you should press away from the dark and toward the pieced subunits.
For the large quilt you should make 8 of these blocks, and for the smaller version you should make 6.  This is the last block of the sampler.  Next step -- assembly of the rows!

Stepping Back



I've been procrastinating.  Part of it is that I'm not in much a quilting mode lately.  But part of it is that I just wasn't sure that I liked where this quilt was headed.  When I planned it last year, the goal was to minimize the use of background fabric and focus on color.  There are three blocks though, that have a significant amount of background fabric, and they seem to all be clustered together.  I think that spreading them out by rearranging the rows might help things out.  I also think that the original block that I had planned needs to have more background pattern.
This was my original block plan.  I'm thinking now though, that it is too busy.  I'm working on a simpler version though, one that has some background fabric.  If I spread out the four rows with predominant background fabric, I think that will balance things better.  
Here's my fabric, and my original plan.
This is the new block I'm going to use instead.  It is a variation of a hopscotch block, or a variation of a shoofly.  I'm not sure if it has a name.  I'll work on the tutorial as soon as LAX is over (DH out of town again).  For now though, the corner units are 4 inch half square triangles, and the cross units are from  2.5 inch strips.  More to come.  

Saturday, October 15, 2016

ScrapHappy Saturday - Crazy Lazy Days

Hurricanes sure do upset the schedule.  After all the running around in preparation and then anxious waiting followed by putting the pieces back together, it all takes a lot of time.  So even though it is the 15th, I still haven't finished the tutorial for the October block or posted the fabric giveaway for the month.  Let me start by opening up the entry for the last fabric draw of the month.  Next, I'll head off and make the very last sampler block of the year so that we can all start the finishing process.  Just leave a comment on this post with the name of the next quilt you plan to finish and I will draw for a winner after the weekend.  Until then, be sure to share your progress with us all using mister linky below.

Saturday, October 8, 2016

ScrapHappy Saturday

It is getting to the time of year when we all start to think about what we can finish up this year to make us feel better about all the new projects we will want to start next year.  November and December are finishing off months here at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Hopefully so finishes are in your future.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Waiting on the Storm

We are prepared and waiting for the storm to arrive.  Fortunately, we live far enough from the ocean that we are not in an evacuation zone, and so we have decided to settle in and wait it out.  So far so good!  It should be arriving in the wee hours of the morning, so until then I will enjoy having power and lights and air conditioning.  After tomorrow.... hard to say.
I will go ahead and schedule the linky party, just in case.  Because honestly, you just never know.  Hard to imagine, looking out the windows right now, that 145 mile an hour winds could be here this time tomorrow.


Saturday, October 1, 2016

ScrapHappy Saturday - Sunrise on a New Month


A new month begins as a new sun rises in the morning.  This is going to be a bright and happy month.  
Orange and yellow are the colors for October.  Don't be scared.  A little bit of sunshine makes any rainbow quilt happier.