Saturday, September 14, 2019

Purple is Percolating

Purple is the RSC colour for September, one we all knew was coming. What two colours make purple? Why, red and blue of course. So the first project in my purple post is is mainly red and blue. I finished the flimsy for Brady's football quilt!


You may have seen it on Instagram last week. You know that feeling when you find the perfect quilt pattern for someone, and you gather some potential fabrics? It's a rush.

And then it sits for some time, because of other life and/or quilt requirements. And then! When you do pull it out and get it to the flimsy stage, and know that the finish is imminent? An even bigger rush. Yeah, it's a great feeling and I have it. However, I do not have enough of the backing I'd bought (a football Minky) so I will have to pop in to my favourite LQS in Leamington, which is the town just down the road from me. Haven't been in a while, so it's time. They have a terrific room, yes a small but entire room, of Minky.


Here is his quilt on the design wall. You get a glimpse of the chaos in the room where I currently sew. Yep those are mugs from one of the three dismantled IKEA kitchen cabinets and yes there is my cedar chest and there are not one, but two Singers in cabinets beside and in front of the chest...and that's just the one wall! It's been a long haul and it'a ways to go yet with this renovation. Anyhow, because I don't have access to the full ceiling to floor height of my design wall, some of his quilt was laid out on the cedar chest/mugs bin! It will be 60X75".


Now before I get into the RSC projects of which there are currently four... FOUR! I was doing only one this year! Ah, put it down to inspiration, aka squirrels. Anyhow before those four updates, just a little reminder that this is the last weekend you can get Pocketful of Sunshine for a mere $2,


or the Oh, the Places You'll Go! pattern at 25% off, (nine people have this in their basket, six have Pocketful! Hope you don't wait too long like I did last weekend at bluprint - affiliate link - and lose out on the good deal...)
or the Beothuk Star pattern for just $5. No coupons required.
I played a bit in EQ8 with Beothuk Star because I know it would make a terrific Baby's First Christmas quilt, or a quilt for a baby born near Christmas.

Aren't these both wonderful? I have some mint and aqua Christmas fabrics (Kate Spain I believe) that will be perfect, so in case I'm gone again for a while, you know what I'm doing...

So, what was I doing this past week?
1. Arrows Quilt
This was the original RSC quilt for this year.
Each block, you may have noticed, or not, goes from the light shade to the darkest. There are purples here from probably 20 years ago (the mountains one for the lower left arrow shaft, a Jean Wells print I used in a bargello quilt, and the short light purple shaft it runs into, one from Dayna's first quilt I made her) to a couple of months ago (the dark purple long arrow shaft in the upper right, one from the Lilacs quilt I made in memory of my mum, and the middle arrow point, a batik from this year's Island Batik fabrics).

I love combining new and old fabrics, and perhaps even more so, love the memories held within each of the fabrics in scrap quilts.

The little squares on point I created by sewing back together the cut off triangles that make the arrow points since I have to make them this way because I'm using scraps. This past week I caught up on sewing all the HSTs into the little 3" unfinished blocks so I could play with a layout for this mini rainbow quilt that has spun off from the Arrows. I have 27 of these, 9 months' worth. Doesn't make for a good quilt layout: 9 X 3 blocks? 3 X 9? So here's what I've come up with:

I'll put sashing strips between. It would be about 15" by 18"-ish depending on whether I did do a border around the four edges. Maybe a mini, maybe a bag front, maybe a table mat... Of course I could do a 9 rows by 3 high mini which would be 7.5 X 22.5" with no sashing or borders... So they are neatly stacked on our chest of drawers that is in the room where I currently sew.

Back to project #1, the Arrows quilt. I played with the final layout. I need 20 arrow blocks, and I have 18, so I need to make two more. Ta-da! Here is the mystery solved:
First "what will it look like?" layout
OR
Final plan
I need ten plain squares to fill in. Isn't it an awesome design? It's from a McCall's Quick Quilts August/September 2018. Hers was all greens, and done by strip piecing (much faster). So the two more blocks I need, one of which will go in the lower right corner and the other under the purple arrows, I'm thinking I will graduate from brown to grey to black in the three arrows. Any other thoughts are much appreciated.

Project #3 from the RSC challenge that is an ongoing squirrel, are my scrap boxes. I sewed some more panels for the purple box between making my purple arrow blocks and square on point blocks.

Here is the front and the back panel for the box with one side panel started. You can also see the pile of squares on pint here.

Outtake:
"This is going to be a box for ME, right, Sandra?"
Yeah, no, Bella.

And finally Project #4 started somewhere in May, the Tiny Tuesday blocks.

Two came out within five days because Angela was evacuated due to Dorian. Storm at Sea is paper-pieced. I'll just say 45 pieces are in that 5" unfinished block, egad. Those are all Island Batik scraps from 2018. They are fantastic to sew with when making such insanely tiny pieces. So crisp. No fraying to speak of. Incidentally, there are only 25 in the Lantern one. I used the same plain white batik for the background, scraps from Cheerio!

All of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects can be found at soscrappy. Well, not the squares on point one, but the other three.

Coming up on the blog:
Bear Paw baby quilt for Island Batik
Imaginary Friends post
(I know I've been pretty quiet this past month, just recharging I guess.)

Linking up
so scrappy
Confessions of a Fabric Addict (you know I am whooping about one finished flimsy and another almost at that stage!)

19 comments:

  1. My goodness you have been busy! Lots of squirrels in your neighborhood, lol. Loving all of your projects, especially finishing up the football quilt. What fun!

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  2. So much scrappy deliciousness on your post today! I think your mind works in the same way as mine does, and I totally relate to the "rush" you can experience when everything comes together!

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  3. Oh, another fun post to read, from Brady's quilt to the patterns to Bella's sweet face, and all the beautiful blocks inbetween! You might be all disrupted with renovation going on, but you are definitely quilting your way through it! Love the Beothuk versions; I'll be waiting to see your finished top soon ;-) Oh, and I found fabric that was seriously, completely me. I'll be posting that soon!

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  4. I always think..why don't I blog? Oh yeah. I can blog or I can sew! You do both and I so appreciate your creativity. I love all the RSC blocks and the way you are organizing them. I can't throw scraps away but sometimes it is frustrating holding on to them. The football quilt is great. Brady will love it. Hopefully some day your remodeling will be finished.

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  5. So many fun projects! I see some fabrics I have in my stash =) Those arrows are awesome! I can't wait to see how it turns out.

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  6. Big grin on my face now that you've shown the arrow quilt layout. So dynamic!! And of course I'm loving the tiny on point rainbow square scraps. Just the cutest :)

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  7. That's a lot of sewing...and squirrels. (No, I don't have ANY squirrels in my sewing room...no...none!) I'd be tempted to try to put those little bonus squares from "lost" corners into the arrows quilt, perhaps in the alternate blocks as a pop of color? But they're cute on their own, too, and I have no doubt you'll make something amazing with them!

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  8. 45 pieces in the SaS?! Wow, I had not even counted! All of your purples look great, and I especially the rainbow of leftover triangles made into squares. Brady's quilt is wonderful - I know he is going to love it!

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  9. Well, I finished those two purple tiny Tuesday blocks, but not without a lot of mumbling and seam ripping. Brady is gonna love that quilt.
    Pat

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  10. Hi Sandra! You have been quiet lately . . . I thought it was traveling fun. LOVE how Brady's football quilt is coming together. He is going to love the heck out of it! I also adore the arrow project - very interesting and can't wait to see where it ends up. ~smile~ Roseanne

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  11. You are one busy lady! Brady's football quilt is awesome! He is going to be over the moon when he gets it. Has he seen a preview yet?

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  12. Oh, I love the arrows quilt! It's going to be quite lovely. And your Storm at Sea looks fantastic! Your points turned out great. Love the lantern, too, of course.

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  13. Tiny pieces, guess the paper way made it all fit so perfectly.Lovely arrows, and Brady, he will LOVE this.The chaos will eventually get erased, and all will be a lot easier. I know, our mess has almost all gone, we are having windows and sills painted, just outside, and starting the spare bedroom inside next week maybe. At least I can shut one door and keep the dust contained.

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  14. Brady is going to love his quilt! Love the arrows quilt! Paper piecing and small pieces seem to go hand in hand, yours look good.

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  15. Brady's quilt is so awesome...and I am sure he will think so. Those tiny blocks - are tiny - not sure I would have the patience! I do love seeing sweet Bella - what a beauty. Oh, and the arrow quilt and more Beothuk - perfect!

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  16. I love those arrows!!! Such a neat pattern.

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  17. Another great post Sandra. I love that you have so many RSC projects on the go (like minds!) and if I sat back and squinted I could see that Brady's quilt was definitely purple! That's a great design. Oh and I love the arrows too.

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  18. Brady's quilt is coming along beautifully. Does he know he's getting a new one? Love your RSC blocks, those arrows are going to make another fun quilt.

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