Scrap Happy Saturday Links

Post your link here to any of your scraphappy project.  We are running out of blue days on the calendar, so try to use up the last of your scraps. 

Officially Done

Cerulean Blue is officially done after having the binding sewn down.  I am officially done after having my husband out of town for three days.  He is back now though, and I have a three day weekend coming up to recover from the busyness. 

I spent the afternoon happily turning fabric scraps into Swiss cheese.  There were a bunch of deconstructed shirts lurking in the bin with the usual scraps and several new GO dies still in wrappers. I focused on the blue of course, so you'll see more of these scraps soon enough. 

My goal is to have the laundry room cleared out in time for the new dryer to arrive. I am HOPING that we have a new dryer by time the weekend ends.  Otherwise I'll start going door to door to borrow dryers.  I've got two friends lined up who will be happy to lend me some dryer space in case we run out of underwear before the new appliances arrive.

Slowly

I'm slowly taming the blue scrap jar. As I was digging through, I found lots of bits and pieces that were big enough to turn into squares and triangles for other ongoing projects.  I fished those out and spent part of the afternoon yesterday cutting them down.  Most of the remaining strings and crumbs have been sewn together.  Those got ironed this afternoon and grouped by size.  It is a slow process, but it is starting to look a little less chaotic.  Maybe by tomorrow I'll be ready to start squaring up some more finished string blocks. 
Kurt came home last night with news that one of his good friends from work had some bad news about his wife's cancer.  She has already been through a round of chemo and radiation and was given an 85% chance of full recovery.  Unfortunately the treatment didn't work and the cancer has advanced.  I offered to make a quilt (it's what I do) and had him look up the ribbon color for colon cancer.  It is blue.  Having a variety of blue projects to choose from, I pulled him in to the studio and we decided on one of my blue scrap patterns from the Rainbow Challenge.  That one has obviously moved up on the priority list.  I think I'll rearrange the order of projects for scrappy Saturday and finish the top off this weekend.  The good news is that I used up ALL my 2.5 inch squares and had to go to the strips to cut some more.  Step by step I'm taming the scraps. 

Final Foto of Freddie

I couldn't finish Freddie without getting an official parting photo.  He was much more cooperative than his twin sister.  The blocks were all happy to lie flat and I found thread colors that came closer to matching. I just need to cut out the binding and all will be well. 

This was my favorite of all of the blocks. It is called Mosaic Star and it is from Grandma's Best Full Sized Quilt Patterns. I made it on February 19th. I love having a blog so that I can go back and find out things like that. I would love to make a whole quilt of just this block.
While going back and looking for the block name I realized that I had posted the wrong button in my margin.  I had made one with 2010 as the year by mistake. It is fixed now and I'm off to figure out how to make that cool html "grab this button" code.  Also, for the person who asked where I got my cool looking "antique" jars, I found them at Wal-mart last Wednesday.  They are large cracker jars and I had to go back twice to get enough for the whole rainbow.  I know, things are pretty fancy around here.  This afternoon I'm going to get out my scraps and start playing so I'll be ready with lots of brilliant ideas on January 1.  I'll be revealing the new color on or around the first of each month, though I've already let it be known that January is going to be blue.  Now I'll see if I can figure out how to make everything on my blog blue!

Second Christmas Twin

I just pulled Freddie off the frame.  He is the second of my fraternal Christmas twin quilts.  I worked on him in bits and bursts all day.  You know the routine, cut out a border, unload the dishwasher, pin it on, start the laundry.  Ryan had a friend over from the Lego team and they worked on Robots.  Sydney had her last day of basketball and Anna played with a friend.  In the afternoon, the neighborhood kids all started the typical ringing of the doorbell and cruising of the block to see who could play.  The number of kids is one of the things we love about where we live.  This evening we were invited over for cake and punch by another set of neighbors.  It's been a very nice day, and finishing of my last Christmas quilt was the perfect end.  It looks like tomorrow will be all about binding.
I haven't been able to get near my computer all day (who new I would be fighting for screen time with my 9 year old).  It looks like there are lots of new names for the scrap challenge.  If your name isn't coming up on the list yet, it is because you are coming up as no reply.  I can start a no reply list, but the one I have going so far is a list of links that go back to blogs.  Of course you don't have to have a blog to play along, but an e-mail I can reply back to would be good. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Update 2

I am so excited about all the people jumping in to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge! I wanted to take care of a few housekeeping things before we get started in 2011.

1. I have a list of colors for each month of the year. Would people like to know now so that they can plan or wait to be surprised at the beginning of each new month?

2. I have a list of patterns, ideas and plans which I will to release on a regular basis. I am thinking of posting scrap related inspirations on Saturdays and calling it Scraphappy Saturday. Or maybe Superscrappy Saturday. Some weeks I'll put together a tutorial, and sometimes I'll just post photo or a link to something that has already been done. In any case, you are welcome to use as much or as little of what I post as you like. Feel free to use a different color or a different idea. Remember, no quilt police, no rules, no worries.

3. Please check my list and make sure your name links back to your blog (if you have one). This will help other people visit and see what you are up to. Let me know if you would like to be referred to as something else or if you'd rather not be listed at all.  I hope I haven't left anyone off (gasp), so if you seem to be missing from the list, please let me know.  I'll fix it ASAP!

4. Make sure I have some way to get in touch with you. If you don't have a blog, an e-mail will work. I am getting a few comments that show up as no reply. So Sue P. and Just one More thing, I got your responses but can't reply back to you. 

5. Although I didn't figure out how to do the nifty html blog button thing, several people have let me know that they just copied the picture and then linked it back to the original post.  So if you are joining in, feel free to save the photo and then link back to this post: http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/2010/12/rainbow-scrap-challenge.html.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Update

People are starting to sign up for The Rainbow Scrap Challenge! I'm sitting down tonight to figure out how to make a "button" that you can put on your blog that will link back to the challenge instructions. I've seen it on other peoples blogs, surely I can figure out how to do it. I'm working through ideas and collecting thoughts about different ways to use scraps. I'd like to post a new idea every week that involves that month's color of scraps. Please make sure if you join in that I have some way to contact you. Most comments have links back to blogs or e-mails, but Heather who doesn't save her scraps (gasp!) came back as no reply.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Now is the time that people to start making plans for the new year.  In honor of fresh starts, I am organizing a challenge to encourage people to use their scraps.  One color theme will be presented each month along with some ideas for using scraps in fun and new ways.  I am inviting anyone who would like to play along to try these ideas or some of your own.

The plan is simple: comment to let me know that you want to participate in the challenge and I will start a list in the side margin.  Each month will bring a new color or theme along with some ideas on how to use scraps.   At the end of the month, let me know what you have made. I will put up a Mr. Linky box so everyone can come by and see your scrap creations. 

Already participating in another challenge?  Not a problem, feel free to deviate from my colors.  Don't have any scraps of a particular color?  Of course you may substitute and change things up to your hearts content.  No rules, no quilt police, no worries. The goal is simple, to use more scraps by focusing on a single color each month and using it to try out different scrap friendly projects. You can work on a series of small projects or create individual blocks to go together into a single quilt at the end of the year.  The choice is yours.

How do you get started?  Go find some scraps.  Collect them together and start sorting.  We'll be using a particular color or combination each month, so the easiest way to start is to separate some of your scraps by color.  Don't feel like you need to overhaul your whole scrap organization system, just collect together a nice little assortment.  Put it in a bowl or a bag or a jar.  January is going to be blue, so you can start by looking at your scrap basket, box or tub and pulling out some blue.  Crumbs, strings, strips, leftovers, it's all good.  Just find something blue. Then leave me a comment and I will start making my list and checking it twice.  I'll even figure out how to make a nifty button that links back to my sight.  I think I can, I think I can.

No Self Control

So much for my thought of putting the new Accuquilt dies away until Christmas.  While sorting though the string drawer looking for neutrals I spent a little time sorting the different colors of scraps.  Because there was too much blue to fit into the blue jar, I "needed" to use some up.  The string scraps were the perfect size to try out the new 60 degree diamond die.  One of the new project I'm thinking about starting next year is a monochromatic scrap challenge.  One color each month with a scrap related project of some sort.  I'm still in the planning stages, but I'm thinking blue for January, red for February and green for March.  I don't think I can come up with enough colors, so maybe a few months can be combination months; green and red for December, red white and blue for July.  Like I said, it's still in the thinking stages.  It might be a fun way to use up some scraps.   So while mulling this over, I tried out a blue crumb star.