ScrapHappy Yellow Begins

 

And so begins a new month at Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I was happy to make enough progress with aqua to not feel bad putting it away to make room for the yellow and gold parade.  It is utterly a coincidence that the colors of the Uranian Flag are yellow and blue, but I plan to lean into that this month.  I am thinking a nice blue string block with a yellow Dresden Plate would be a fun idea to play with.  I will keep you posted of course!  I had just gotten to the point where all the yellow was out and starting to get organized when Anna decided to come home from college early for this weekends trip to Rhode Island which was a replacement for last weekends trip to Rhode Island which was cancelled due to snow.  She is there now, with her dad and I am getting regular updates on all the news.  Sydney is in Orlando at another science fair.  I drove her over last night for the set-up and she insisted that she was perfectly capable of driving herself there today.  She is also reporting in regularly with status updates. 

So far her board is set up and she is ready for judging to start at 9.  Notice the colors on her board, they represent the pigments that she extracted to construct dye-sensitized solar cells.  

So other than keeping tabs on everyone else, it should be a calm weekend to sew.   I found a nice stack of yellow HST unit all ready for the Carpenter's Star block.   I might try another version with a blue center star.  This is a huge block and would make a nice table topper on its own.

I hope that you are all looking forward to digging into yellow for March.   Misterlnky is below, please share your projects and plans with us all.  

Day 3 of 2022

 I guess I will keep counting days until I get too busy to post on a day and loose track.  Most likely when school starts again on Thursday.   Not looking forward to the Covid fueled mess that is going to be.  We have no authority to mandate vaccines, masks, testing or quarantines.   With no way to fight back, it will just be a matter of watching it work through the students and staff.  I pray that no-one else will die before it is done.   

The sunrise this morning looked like an egg, sunny side up.  It was hazy and drizzling.  Almost before it had cleared the horizon, the sun was behind clouds for the rest of the morning.   

The afternoon turned beautiful though.  Here is my friend Linda who retired this year.  Look how relaxed and refreshed she looks!   We had a nice long beach walk at low tide and caught up on all the gossip.  

I am spending my last few days of vacation working through and inventorying of WIPs, UFOs, PIGs and orphans. 

Bins 1 though 4 are my designated Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects for this year.   That is one for each week of the month.   

1. Courthouse Steps from 1.5 inch strips
2. Blackford's Beauty from 2 inch strips and squares
3. 2.5 inch HST units now designated for Carpenter's Stars
4. tiny paper pieced log cabin blocks are ongoing

Here is the plan for the Carpenter Star blocks.  It is my third try for the HST units I've started.   I saw this post at Sane, Crazy, Crumby Quilting and was inspired.     

5 is my only official WIP that isn't part of the RSC.  It is aqua churn dash blocks meant for Ryan's bed which he took with him to college.   I might turn it into something smaller instead.   Bin 6 is a collection of pieces for a double wedding ring quilt that I started cutting with an Accuquilt die that I haven't gotten out since the move.  I might try to make space to set that up and focus on starting some collections of fabric pieces ready to sew.   Bin 7 isn't a UFO at all but a collection of 10.5 inch squares to use for quilt backs.    

Bins 8 and 9 are also not quilts but collections of blocks from 2.5 and 2 inch squares. 

Pulling out the bin of 2 inch squares inspired me to take stock of the Irish Chain blocks that were leftover from an earlier quilt and should be enough to start the next one.   I don't often make the same pattern again, but I think this will be my third iteration of this quilt.   

That just leaves this one drawer of orphans.  Thanks to a bit of organization and sorting, it is able to close again.  Most of these are extras from trying out new patterns or writing tutorials.   I will try to focus on turning these into smaller quilted projects.  Quite a few potholders, placemats and table toppers could easily come out of this bin.   That will allow me to participate in the Table Scraps Challenge with The Joyful Quilter who is always such a great cheerleader for RSC.   

If you are also on an organizational quest, Stephanie has been kind enough to make tracking sheets for us again this year.  They are available in editable as well as PDF formats.  Feel free to make a digital copy or print one out as you track your own RSC22 projects. This can be especially helpful if you are carrying over projects from last year that only need certain colors.   

Tracking Sheet in editable form

Tracking Sheet in PDF printable form

I will also add the links to the RSC22 page as well as next weeks linky party to make sure everyone gets a chance to see them.   

Day 2 of 2022

 I won't keep counting days forever, but it does feel good to try to accomplish something each day of the new year.   

Accomplishment number 1 for the day, watching the sun come up over the horizon.   Kurt is driving our son Ryan back to college today, and our oldest daughter left to be back and celebrate the new year with her friends.  That just leaves the youngest daughter and I to putter around the house today.   I'm collecting some things for Goodwill and doing some tidying.   With the windows open to a beautiful ocean breeze, it is quite pleasant.   We took down the tree yesterday, which left everything feeling so open and clear.   

The RSC color for January is red, so I might start to play with some red scraps today as well.  

Accomplishment number two is getting this quilt top ready to sew together.  The 16 patch blocks were leaders and enders from many years ago. They were all mixed up with the monochromatic nine patches made from 2 inch squares that I seem to use for so many quilts.   I thought about tossing these out, but started to play on graph paper and came up with this arrangement using groupings of four.  Each group of 4 with 2 inch sashing strip works out to 14 inches.  Big blocks make quilts quickly, so it seemed worth making just a few more to finish off a top.   The lattice and cornerstones are two different rainbow dotted whites and so I found the only piece of dotted fabric with enough for the border.  It just happened to be orange, and so a happy quilt is ready to be turned into a flimsy.   

Next on the list are the last two applique baskets to this quilt that was also started long ago.   I was afraid that I didn't have any of the dotted background fabrics on hand anymore, but was able to find enough to get the last two blocks prepped and ready for some slow stitching.   I can't decide whether these need a lattice and cornerstones treatment, it is trickier with an on point setting, but the baskets seem to need a little space to breath.     

 

I think I will take some time to breath as well and check out Slow Stitching Sunday and Oh Scrap!