2024 Wrap Up

It didn't feel like I had much time to sew in 2024. Starting graduate school has been a lot, and work has been busy. The usual things seem to take up a lot of time. There were hurricanes and trips to the mountains. If you had asked, I would have said I finished a couple of quilts. That is why it is good to take a look back and get an overview of the year. I did more than I thought! I did more finishing of what I started last year, but if that means that this year I will finish off what I started last year again, then that isn't a bad cycle to follow. When I retire then I will be able to have more quality sewing time, but I am still managing to squeeze in enough for now. I used Canva to make a photo collage for this year. So much cuter than what I could have come up with on my own. 

1. Hen and Chicks - Rainbow Scrap Challenge Quilt for 2024 (flimsy)
2. Plus blocks - leaders and enders (flimsy)
3. Chaos tiny nine patch
4. Dancing Blue Crumbs
5. Carpenter Star - RSC22
6. Postage Stamps
7. Diamonds
8. Wonky Stars
9. Blackford's Beauty - RSC22

Last ScrapHappy Saturday of 2024

 

I sewed binding on this tiny chaos quilt on the drive here. The front is tiny nine patches leftover from another quilt. For a while I was entirely obsessed with tiny little nine patches made from one inch strips. They still keep turning up in my scrap bins from time to time. 

Here is the back, just randomly leftover green blocks from the orphan bin. I think that I love it even more than the front. Even the batting is pieced together from leftovers! I squeaked out this chaos quilt in just in time to count as a finish for 2024. 

Just three days until the beginning of RSC25! I think that I have settled on a simplified lattice layout for my new leaders and enders project. I very much wanted to use what I have on hand. So the 2.5 inch squares are always ready and waiting. I don't keep 3.5 inch squares on hand, but I will come up with those from either crumb fabric or existing scraps. Honestly, 3.5 is a reasonable size of squares to collect, I just usually focus on smaller bits. 

How are your 2024 wrap up plans coming along? I hope that you have cleared some mental and physical space for RSC25 projects! Feel free to share your plans for next year or your finishes from last year. Next week will be week 1 of the new year and PINK will be the color. 

Merry Christmas!

I got an email from Stephanie a few days ago saying she had used Chat GPT to make logos and had asked it to try making a logo for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2025. What a brilliant idea! I found some time this afternoon and started playing with the idea.  What do you think so far? It will only do 2 images in a 24 hour period, so I copied the image and started tweaking it in google slides.  I might try canva next, it makes some pretty images.  Until then, pink will be the color of January this year, so please go and see if you have any of those scraps hiding in your bin.  I know I do! It will feel good to work on getting them tamed and into some blocks.

We are in the mountains for a few day, but I found some time before we left to quilt up a flimsy that had spent quite a while hanging over the edge of the quilting frame. The front is leftover tiny nine patches and the back is leftover random green blocks from the orphan bin. I got about two rows into the quilting before realizing that my tension was way off and I had eyelashes on the back. So I undid all of that and started over with freehand Baptist fans. I got most of the binding hand sewn in the car before it was my turn to drive. I might finish up the last little bit sitting here by the fire this afternoon. 

I also got the border finished up on Hen & Chicks and pieced a backing. So that can be the next up on the frame as soon as we are back in Florida again. I am out of batting, so I will either have to piece together leftovers or go shopping. There are worse things than shopping I suppose. 

Ryan and Sydney went out with us to hunt up a Christmas tree yesterday. We scouted up the side of the mountain in the area we lovingly call, "the upper 7." Most of what was up there was way too big to sacrifice, so we went with this scraggly little portion of a tree instead that was hiding behind the shed. We don't have much for ornaments up here, but we found some baked clay that the kids turned into decorations last Christmas. Anna just got here today, so we are having festivities tomorrow so that we can celebrate together. 

After that Kurt and I went down to work on clearing out a fallen tree down by the lower driveway. Now that the greenery has died down, it is much easier to see all the random stuff that is buried back there. We found a big old pile of twigs that looked like a beaver damn. Kurt did a bit of research and thinks that it is the home of wood rats which are also known as pack rats. Behind it is a big stone wall. We might clear out the pack rat house to get a better view of the rocks. There are lots of rock walls hidden around here. All part of the fun when you are in the mountains I suppose.  
Here is the smaller version of the logo

Even tinier logo

 

ScrapHappy Saturday - December Wrap Up

So this didn't end up being my most productive year ever. It started out great. Then I decided to go back to graduate school and that took up my extra time. Also work, but mostly graduate school. I did get some sewing done though, and it is important to remember that fabric is patient. It was such a nice change to find sewing time last weekend. I played with some ideas for a new leader and ender project now that the plus blocks are done. I got a comment last week with the name of the inspiration quilt. It is Scrappy Lattice by Bonjour Quilts. The sashings are all the same but the blocks sizes are different. I like the idea of using the squares that I already have cut. Since I haven't cut the lattices yet, that would be the easier measurement to vary. I could easily replace the four patch with a single larger square as well. No final decision yet, but getting there!

I auditioned some sashing strips for the NC State T-shirt quilt and got a vote on where to go next from the customer. So that is ready to move forward. 

I got a calming border onto the Hen & Chick blocks and kept sewing random 2 inch squares together for that. I still need some more squares! That will keep my leaders and enders moving forward until I settle on a new plan. 

What end of the year wrap up do you have going on? Misterlinky is below. Please share your 2024 odds and ends or your new plans and schemes for 2025. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Hatching new plans

December is for finishing and January is for starting. I am feeling motivated to finish some projects to make room for something new next year. So first with the finishing. This is my Hen & Chick Sampler which needs a good pressing and some borders. I've started sewing 2 inch squares together for that. I think that a 2 inch calming strip surrounded by 2 inch squares and then something to hold it all together. After that, my leaders and enders project for the  last couple of years was plus blocks. I am sure that I have enough of those for a nice large sized quilt. The hexies are so close that I can taste it. Sadly, the second half of this year just got hectic and sewing time has taken a big hit. This too shall pass. There is a cycle to all things. I am sure there is another saying I could use, but you get the idea....

That leads us to ideas for next year. I screenshotted this off of Instagram as an inspiration photo. I am not thinking of exactly this, but something similar. If I take 2.5 inch blocks and tic-tac toe them like this, then I could alternate them with larger squares framed out in a similar way. I think that I will play with that idea. I am thinking that what is here must be on a larger scale. The sashing strips on the split blocks need to be twice as wide as the ones on the combined block, right? Maybe I need to doodle some things to make a plan. If I use a solid block then all the sashing strips could be the same which would make it easier to do these as my new leaders and enders project. I will keep you posted on this if it works. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - December is for Wrap Up

So many projects in progress and so little time to sew! I know it isn't only me that starts the year with the best of intentions. There is always another year though and fabric is patient. My poor plus blocks are starting to fall off of the wall in neglect. These have been my patient leaders and enders this year. 

The hexies really are getting close! I got the top and bottom borders on and started to even out the edges on the side. Maybe some black half hexies on the outside? 

I have one more assignment to submit to finish off the last of my graduate school classes for the term. Then I will have a little bit of open space in my schedule. Work is fairly calm at the moment. There is a lull that is actually quite a nice change of pace. 

How is your December shaping up so far? Misterlinky is below. I hope that all is well.

 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Post Thanksgiving Nap

It has been a busy but excellent Thanksgiving holiday on the road visiting family. That has meant plenty of time in the car sewing hexies. The bottom and top borders are done! I think I will spend the trip home rounding it all out with another row of dark hexies to frame the whole thing up. I added some extra light hexies to straighten up the sides, it is all getting very close to being done! I hope that you are starting to think about which projects you can finish up before the new year to make room for something new. I know a lot of you will be partaking in Bonnie's anual mystery quilt. I have not partaken in several years, but it will still be fun to follow along and watch all the beautiful creations emerge while I try to get a few flimsies accross the finish line. Misterlinky is below. Please share your progress with us all.

ScrapHappy Saturday

 Happy almost Thanksgiving! Until very recently, we still worked most of the week before the Thanksgiving holiday. We have a new schedule though, and have an entire week off!  How lovely is that?  There will be quite a bit of hexie sewing in my future as we drive to gather the kids from college. I am SEW close to having the final borders done for my long term hexie diamond project. Like all hexie quilts, I just have to figure out how to complete the edges to make them non hexagonal.  Wish me luck! How are your RSC projects coming together as the year starts to wind down?  The linky tool is below. Please share your holiday sewing plans with us all. For those who don't have a holiday this week, share your regular sewing plans with us instead. Any sewing plans at all are festive and fun. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Putting the Pieces Together

There are no official colors in November and December at the the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Hopefully you have a collection of blocks to put together. Perhaps you have a bit of catching up to do. Soon there should be a finished quilt or two ready to be born. I have the blocks for Hen and Chicks patiently waiting for a bit of free time. I keep saying that the busy part of my job is going to be over soon. I think that might be accurate right now as applications are in, the fair is over and I might enjoy a bit of calm. 

How are your projects starting to come together? I hope that your block collections are coming together nicely Misterlinky is below, please share with us all.

ScrapHappy Saturday - On the Road Again

I am in Ohio today for Uncle Bob's Family Memorial Service. I got here via DC where I went for the National Blue Ribbon Schools ceremony. Monday is veterans day, so I will have a day in the mountains before heading back home again. I did bring hexies to sew on he go though, so I will have at least a bit of time to stitch. I hope that your scraps are coming together nicely.

ScrapHappy Saturday - Lights and Tunnels

Sailing last weekend was lovely! We don't usually get sunsets here, just the rises, so it was such a fun change to watch the sun sink down into the ocean. 

The sailboat was adorable though rustic. Kurt did all the work of prepping and shopping because he is remarkable and I have been a crazy lady lately. Things will settle down very soon. 

I think I can see the light! Yesterday was the career fair and I should be able to go back to normal work hours for while. Hurray for having some time off. Just one more busy week with the trip to DC for our Blue Ribbon celebration I hope flying to DC the day after the election isn't  bad idea. 

I got up bright and early to turn in a paper about multimodal teaching methods. It is a beautiful thing! Mostly though, it is done and I will settle in to relax with some hexies for a bit of sewing time. So sorry about the late start again today. I truly do hope to get back into some sewing routine soon. I am sure that you are all sewing enough to make up for my neglect.

Here is Kurt who was one of our career day speakers. Isn't he cute? His topic was "Space Domain Awareness, What We Don't Know Could Hurt Us". He said the kids had great questions and seemed interested in what he had to say, he brought one of the new grads from his office as well. We had a #1 New York Times bestselling author, our Florida state congressional representative, doctors and lawyers and engineers a plenty.  50 speakers and 1000 student schedules and food and logistics, it was all a lot so I am happy that it is done so that I can sleep again at night. I think that sewing some and binging some Netflix is a great plan for the rest of the day. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Sewing Drought

 And so the lack of sewing time will continue for at least a few more weeks. The big career day is next Friday and then I am off to DC to celebrate our Blue Ribbon award. We had planned to take a long weekend after that to spend some time in Virginia, but Kurt's uncle Bob passed away and so we will go straight from DC to Ohio for his memorial. After all of that though, there should be a period of calm.  I say that with hope in my voice. This weekend though, we are camping on a sailboat in the keys and I can't wait to do nothing for a few days. It will be good for me to breath for a few minutes right now. I hope you are having lots of sewing progress to share with everyone.  

ScrapHappy Saturday - Post Hurricane

I made it back safe after the hurricane and spent a busy week getting caught back up again. I say that as if things are going to be calm after we get back to normal. It is  just a busy time. Busy with all sorts of fun though, so I will not complain. I still need to move all the patio furniture back outside after the hurricane.  Then I will finally be ready to get some use out of that new chair. 

The power was out for four days while we were evacuated, so that led to a massive cleanout of the fridge. Kurt just got back last night, which means I didn't do a lot of restocking yet. How are your final few blocks coming together? I am looking forward to seeing other people be productive even if I haven't been busy in the sewing room lately. 

ScrapHappy Saturday - Retreat

We are enjoying a long weekend in the mountains far away from the hurricane. The power is back on at home, but internet isn't up quite yet. There was no damage to our place which is on the east coast, well away from where Milton entered the state. That gave him plenty of time to simmer down a bit. 

Apples are ripe here and the kids picked a few which need to be peeled and turned into some apple pie filling and applesauce. I keep thinking that we should try some apple cider, but that needs a machine to do on a large scale. Our attempts at homemade wine have been hit or miss so far, but we will keep trying until something works.  

The cat has been hanging out on a quilt next to a window as cats love to do. There are birds and squirrels to spy upon. I am also enjoying some time relaxing, though there is a fallen tree just calling my name that is ready to turned into some firewood.

Hurricane Update

School was cancelled for three days due to hurricane Milton. Given that Monday was already a teacher workday, we decided to evacuate to the mountains. We are enjoying beautiful fall weather and doing some puttering jobs around the property.

Anna and her fiancé Jordan are both here with us. They are still under a boil water alert in Blacksburg after Helene. What an eventful few weeks! They brought the cat with them, and she loves being at the cabin. We have picked some apples and this afternoon will attempt to can some apple pie filling. 
 

The power was out for most of yesterday back at home. I think that the internet is still down, but there isn't any visible damage. Milton exited in the north end of our county. We live in a very long skinny county, so it never ended up getting too close to where we live. There was some beach erosion of course, and some isolated damage from tornadoes, but far from the worst case scenario that it could have been. Jordan grew up in Bradenton, very near where the storm came in to Florida. Still, the fact that it came in south of Tampa was lucky, it could have been so much worse. 

I told Kurt as we were packing up to leave that he should make sure that I didn't forget to bring my sewing. Of course we both forgot and my hexies are hanging out at home. I have plenty of school work to keep me busy, but it sure would have been nice to stitch away at hexies while in transit.  I hope that everyone else is safe and dry. I will remember to post scraphappy Saturday first thing tomorrow. Hopefully Kurt will do a better job and helping me remember this time. 

ScrapHappy Saturday

Can you believe that it is almost the end of the year? October is the time to start thinking about how you can make a plan to finish some things up before the end of the year. You can add more dark blocks to your collection if you weren't able to use up a good number last month. This was my choice as I focused on black last month and brown this month. If you are not feeling quite so happy about walking on the dark side, then this is a chance to delve into the low volume and light basket. If none of those options appeal to you, then you can look back at your block collections and figure out what you need to use up or add to your stacks to lead to a finished quilt in the next couple of months. My sewing time will be scarce this month. I have three graduate classes and one of them seems like a lot. There is also the career exploration fair coming up on November 1 which is a big thing that I need to put together. It is also the most busy time of year for college applications, which has me sitting down with so many seniors every day and really feeling like I am helping them get all the parts past the finish line. And breath! 

 I did get my new chair delivered yesterday.  Look how comfy it is going to be. I can't wait to settle in and sew some hexies this afternoon.  Just one more paper to write first for my research class.  This one looks pretty straight forward compared to the monstrosity that was my curriculum paper.  It is done now and I am moving on. Did I mention that the thing in the gulf just turned into a real storm? I hope it doesn't take us out of school on Wednesday, that is our PSAT which is a big deal for my students. We were pretty lucky on this coast last time, but Tampa is not going to be in good shape if the forecasts turn out to be accurate.  

Hen & Chicks October Block 4 - Forty

Block number 40. The last one! This one is fittingly called forty, it is made of four "T"s.  

Actually, it is made of flying geese, but the arrangement forms the letter T in each corner. Use your favorite method 4 HST units. You know that I used the Easy Angle ruler, but the chart has measurements for the square method. I am using flip and sew triangles for the flying geese again this time. Not what I would do for a larger size block, but it does make the math easy. 

Draw a line on the diagonal of each small brown square. Place it right sides together on one end of each background rectangle. 

Sew on the drawn line, flip and press before trimming away the extra fabric beneath. 

Repeat on the other end of each background rectangle for a total of 8 flying geese units. 

Sew the geese into pairs, both facing in the same direction.  Press the seams away from the point of the top goose.  

Arrange the geese pairs along the edge and point the white goose bodies toward the center square. Go ahead and double check so that you don't sew the whole block together wrong like I did.  (Unsewing is so much less fun than sewing!). 

You don't really see the serifs on the Ts until it all comes together. I suggest a fabric with a nice strong contrast to get the full effect.  That's it. Our last block. Done!

Congratulations!!!!

 

Hen & Chicks October Block 3 Tower's of Camelot

I loved the inverted star look of this block. Then I accidentally rotated the QST units in the smaller version and all of the sudden it was a diamond. The smallest changes in fabric placement and value can make such an impact in the final look of the block. I am not sure if I am going to remake the second block or not. I kind of like it!

Go ahead and use your favorite method to make 8 HST units. I know, 8 is a lot. Half of them will turn into QST units and the other half will remain. You will also need 5 background squares and 4 small grey squares. I should mention that I did not choose the most fabric efficient methods in block assembly here, but it sure was easy

You will use the small grey squares to snowball all 4 corners of one of the background squares. The other background squares get a diagonal line, and then are placed right sides together with 4 of the HST units. Make sure the seam and the line are perpendicular to one another.  

Sew on the drawn line and then flip open your square to reveal a quarter square triangle. Press and trim away the extra fabric beneath. I know this creates some waste, but it is simpler than doing the math for the two at a time method and then having seams running in different directions on different blocks. 

Pay special attention to the orientation of the units here. I speak from experience, as I have two different blocks based on a simple rotation that I didn't even notice until after the block was sashed and hanging on the design wall.  

Here is your finished block. I really do enjoy this one, it is subtle, but effective.  

Hen & Chicks October Block 2 - Dandy

 

Yet another star block. This one is easy to assemble with sew and flip triangles and corner triangles frame the block nicely. 

Use the method of your choice to make HST units. Everything else is just a square. I used a light gray for the corners and a darker gray for the star points. The center square can be dark or light gray. 

Draw a line along the diagonal of each small gray square and place in one corner of each background square. Flip, trim and you have one star point. 

Repeat the same procedure for the adjacent corner. Viola, two star points!

You will have 4 star point blocks along with 4 HST units and a center square of your choice. 

Put them together with the star points all touching your center square and the HST blocks in the outer corners forming a frame. 

Sew as a nine patch and press away from the star points.