Saturday, June 18, 2022

I've Got the Blues and I'm Happy About it!

Bright blue is this month's colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge with Angela at soscrappy, and that is just fine, because blue is my favourite colour and it makes me happy! I've finished both of my ongoing  RSC projects for this month. The first one is my hot air balloons.

Aren't they just the best? I didn't make a forest green one for May because I want a bright and lime green one since this quilt is likely headed to a toddler I happen to know.

There is the bright blue one. It has a few darker blues, but the contrast is pleasing. You can find the pattern for this block, which is actually a mini quilt with one balloon block in Kelly Young's most recent book, Scrappy Improv Quilting. It has a total of 22 quilt projects within it! That is a really good value for money in my books. (ha! pun not originally intended)

The second ongoing project is making string placemats. Oh, do I have strings, especially in blues and greens. As with the forest and sage greens, I made two placemats.


The backing is leftover from my Auntie Norma's quilt, and one piece of the binding is also from the back of her quilt, a long piece trimmed off when squaring up the quilted quilt. The rest of the binding is pulled out of my leftover binding baggie. What a wonderful feeling when I didn't cut any binding, just sewed pieces together until I had enough for both placemats.!

My blues string box is still chock full, so I plan to make myself a string placemat to go with my red, pink, turquoise and yellow ones.

I had a recent finish that is also bright (with some dark) blues. I made the throw in my recently-released pattern Pop Star:

You can read about the quilt, which I named Crystal Constellations because of the star design, the stars in the turquoise fabric, and the silver metallic bling in the fabrics, by clicking the link. For those of you who quilted along with me, be sure to link up your flimsy OR finished quilt here by the 22nd!

You can purchase a copy of the pattern, which has both throw and baby quilt sizes, in my Etsy shop, SandraJaneQuilts.

With the pressure off to getting the throw done, as well as the baby quilt for my most recent pattern, A Roll of the Dice, I feel lighter! I plan to work on some of my PHD projects, a quilt using 'Drift' an Art Gallery Fabrics line by Angela Walters from a few years back, quilting my 150 Canadian Women quilt, (it's the one and only flimsy waiting!) and get to work writing up my Rainbow House Block quilt pattern. But first, my own blue placemat, right?!

If you thought there was a pretty dark spot in lower left corner of the placemats photo, you were right!
Those paws! He often lies like this.

Linking up

13 comments:

  1. I love those hot air balloon blocks! What fun to turn them into a rainbow quilt for a toddler. That's one of Kelly's quilts from her book that's on my list to make. Love your placemats, too - perfect use for strings!

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  2. Hot air balloons, what a great block! Hello doggy, resting there with crossed paws.

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  3. The hot air balloons are so fun for the RSC blocks. I love the placemats, too. Lovely to see who that dark blob was on the porch. Hooray to feeling lighter. My plan is to do week 1 of the QAL this week. Have to see if the on/off button gives me enough control when I sew - no foot pedal yet!

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  4. LOVE those hot air balloons, Sandra (and the strippy placemats, too!!)

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  5. Love your hot air balloons & I've seen others do the RSChallenge, but haven't thought about, though I do have a lot of scraps. I must also get stuck into some PHDs too. Loved seeing the pooch.(smile). Take care & hugs.

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  6. Those paws have it hands down! The balloon quilt is going to be adorable!

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  7. Hi Sandra! It seems like forever since I've seen someone photobombing your photos. I'm so glad to see they're still around, behaving, and loving life. They make me happy! As do your hot air balloons! OMG - could they BE any cuter?! Nope, not possible. I can just feel in your words that you are more relaxed. Pattern writing isn't supposed to make you stressed. You're good at it, you have great ideas to share, and it all comes together nicely. I think these are self-imposed deadlines, right? Stop it, if that's the case. Here's the plan: April, 2023 is going to come. You're going to have a QAL for the Famous Canadian. You have 6 months to decide what you want to focus on (by the end of the year); you have one month to pick out fabric; another month to sew and quilt it. That's March 1 - you create a button and start promoting. If it's a new pattern then during that initial six-month window, you have to write and get it proofread. You GOT THIS. Just ask me - I'll remind you. {{Hugs}} ~smile~ Roseanne
    P.S. I love the placemats, too. I love blue!

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  8. All the blue looks wonderful, and I think it makes a lot of us happy to work with and see others work with as well. The balloon quilt is so fun and it's nice that you already have a recipient in mind so that you can make it just right!

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  9. Love your hot air balloons! And the quilting on your pop star is fantastic!

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  10. Love those hot air balloon’s, the pretty placemats and another chance to enjoy the incredible quilting on Crystal Constellations. 😉

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  11. A great use of your blues Sandra. I do love your balloons - they are going to make such a cool toddler quilt.

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  12. Isn't each quiltmaker's love of color interesting? I mean... I've often asked a room full of quilters (when I've taught classes) what their favorite color is, or what color was the first quilt they'd made. Always, the #1 answer is blue. I think it's because it's a moderate color - not too intense, not too subtle. Blue isn't my #1 color, but I sure appreciate seeing what you're doing with yours... using them to their best effect. Very well done!

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  13. The balloon blocks are amazing. I love the separation strips in them too. A little bling! I saw quite a few of your Popstar quilters along the blogs. Great job on putting that one out. I sure love that dark blob in the lower left corner of the placemat photo! Hahaha! Sweet dog with his crossed paws.

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