A 2023 RSC finish!

 I finished my 'Button Up' 2023 RSC quilt! After finishing, it took awhile to get some photos as the weather here was not cooperating. The weather finally cleared enough to have a photo shoot. I headed out to a local park! It was still a bit chilly so there were not many kids around.

 The RSC (Rainbow Scrap Challenge) is made over a year, following the color of the month announced over @So Scrappy blog hosted by Angela. I have been following along for many years choosing 1 or more blocks to make. 

This year I paired down to only one block (button), however, I made 4 each month in the monthly color. 

Angela announces 10 colors, January - October leaving November and December to finish up. I generally add 2 more colors to round out to 12 which makes for a 3x4 grid layout. 

The button block was inspired by some fabric in my stash that I inherited from my mom's stash. It is the perfect backing for a rainbow of buttons.

It is a bit hard to see but those tiny rainbow shapes are little buttons. So cute!

The button blocks were all made from scraps from my scrap bins.

This quilt was machine pieced and machine FMQ with rambling loopy loops. 

I had enough left of the backing fabric to also use for the binding.

Finished size is about 42.5" x 55.5"

So what's next? I need to decide what to make for next year's RSC! TBD -  I have some time to work on that!

Linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SoScrappy, Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? @Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Linky Party @Patchwork & Quilts, Wednesday Wait Loss @The Inquiring Quilter, Design Wall Monday @Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
'Tis the season to be jolly...It is a busy time and besides decorating the house, baking and visiting the tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree, I've been busy with some Christmas crafting. 

Beautiful barn quilt square found at the tree farm.

Skate and elf boot felt ornaments made from craftymonkies tutorial.

Gnome/Santa's made at our girlfriends craft day!

Gingerbread boy and girl made for the grands!

Ornament making has been a tradition in my family for many years! I love making and decorating our tree with homemade ornaments!

Progress has been made

 First, I realized that I never posted the finished quilt Oh Say Can You Sew. I posted process photos here and here , but not the finished quilt which I completed in September. We took it on vacation to Colorado to take photos! Hope you enjoy! 

I also have been working on a very special quilt for the oldest niece of my colleague and friend. Two years ago, my friend's sister died suddenly leaving behind her 3 kids, husband, parents and siblings. It has been very hard especially on the kids. 

 Shortly after I heard the news, I offered to make a quilt for each of the kids from their mom's clothes. Understandably, it took over year before they were ready to sort through her clothes. My friend asked if I was still willing to make a quilt from her sister's clothes. Of coarse I'm was willing to make 3 (or more.) 

I wanted to make something that would show off the fabrics with big pieces. I found the pattern Metamorphsis by Lo & Behold Stitchery which seemed perfect. As I was waiting for the pattern to arrive, I started deconstructing the clothes I picked out for the 1st quilt. 

I worked on piecing the butterfly blocks between our travels and babysitting time with the grandkids. Soon the flimsy was ready!

Then the quilting... I quilted 7 diamonds along the body, then I auditioned several possible patterns to quilt in the wings, choosing a star template I had and placed it so that one point was centered on the body and filled the rest of the wing.

For the background, I FMQ a loopy meander adding butterflies on occasion. 

Introducing 'A Quilt for Sylvie' 

I was able to visit my old school to deliver this quilt and visit with my friends. I love retirement but I do miss teaching!

Today I am still hopeful that I will be able to start the quilting on my RSC - Buttons quilt. I sandwiched and basted it yesterday!

Linking to Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? @Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Link Party @ Patchwork & Quilts, Wednesday Wait Loss @The Inquiring Quilter, and Design Wall Monday@Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

It's been awhile...

 My last post was back in August! My how the time flys! We traveled some in September and October to Colorado and Door County, Wisconsin. We did some hiking and watched the colors change. Not peak as it seems the colors were slow to change this year.

The beautiful yellows of the aspen trees in CO

The yellows and oranges of the maples in WI

In quilting news, I finished my Green Acres quilt from the #30daysofimprovqal  After all the blocks were finished, it was composition week where you finalize your layout using several options. This year I decided to scatter each weeks blocks throughout the quilt, adding additional pieces and scraps as need to fit. 

Sorry for the poor quality photo

Once I stitched all the blocks together, I auditioned greens from my stash for the borders and found green backing and binding fabrics in my stash. 

Sandwiched and quilted between trips, it is finally finished! 

Finished size approx 42" square.

Introducing Green Acres!

October is the last month for a new color in the RSC - neutrals. I need 2 more colors to round out to 12 button colors for a 3x4 layout. I chose to make peach and gray buttons to add to the collection.

I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SoScrappy.

Last Saturday, I took another quilting class, Organic Shapes, through the #craftymonkies platform on IG. The instructor was @Carolina_Oneto and she was terrific! She talked about colors and shapes. She taught her techniques and how to make variations. I loved this class! Here is my finished quilt. 

I had my husband built a frame for it and I followed this tutorial to stretch it around the frame. 

I ironed 1/2" around the outside edge to make it easier when tacking to the back.

I used tacks to secure the quilt to the back.

(my husband's staple gun wasn't available and I didn't want to wait)

I quilted several concentric circles and added some big stitch hand quilting in the shapes. 

Here are some detail shots of the quilting

Finished size 13.5" x 18"

I am linking to Midweek Makers, Off the Wall Fridays, Finished or Not Friday, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop, Patchwork and Quilts, Friday Foto Fun, My Quilt Infatuation, Wednesday Wait Loss, Design Wall Monday

I'll leave you with a few photos of the local colors this week 

So Beautiful!

I'm back and so soon 😜

 I'm back again with more updates of what's been happening. Since I didn't want to overwhelm my last post, I decided to split it in 2 so here is part 2.

August's color of the month for the RSC is yellow! Since I was on vacation for the first 2 weeks of August, I got started with my yellow button blocks this past week. 

I can't wait to see all these buttons together as I now have quite the stack of button blocks! I'm linking to Scrap Happy Saturday @SO Scrappy

This is the 3rd year that I have participated in the #30daysofimprovqal hosted by @shannonfraserdesigns and Amanda @broadclothstudio. The QAL started on July 30th and we are in the 4th week. Again, I was on vacation for the first 2 weeks but caught up by doing all 3 prompts in one week - stripes, L shapes, and triangles! This week was curves! 

As you can see, this year I am sewing only from my green scrap bin. I will probably make a few more blocks as we arrange and rearrange in Composition Week next week. 

Before my vacation, I pulled out a UFO that I started last year called 'Oh Say Can You Sew' on Facebook. The original quilt pattern called for 1152 - 1 1/2" HST. 

That is where I stopped and put the project bin away.  

After pulling that bin out again, I decided to cut down the size of the finished quilt so I would need to make fewer HSTs to finish. I would only need 648. The quilt will still be a nice size laid out in a 5x7 grid. 

Here is a peek at my current progress. I have all the blocks finished and I'm working on piecing the sashing. All fabrics are from my stash or scraps. 

I think that I can see the light at the end of this tunnel. It is rare for me to put away a quilt that I have started for as long as this one sat. Do you have projects that you give up on? Do you eventually finish them? 

It's been a while...

 Summer has been crazy busy - regular summer busy and our new retirement busy - which includes travel! 

In my last post, I showed the quilt I made for a wedding gift to a very special couple. We have known the bride since she was born and her parents even longer! I asked for help naming the quilt as I was having difficulty coming up with a name that worked for me. After reading many suggestions, both here and social media, as well as asking my daughters, I came up with the perfect name (in my opinion). I finally named it 'Love Grows'! Here is a picture taken on top of Mt Washington!

It was so windy! This is the best of several attempts but it was fun trying! 

(more pictures here.)

The finished size is 63" x 73". 

Also in previous posts, I showed you the process of designing and piecing a baby quilt for another special couple. I have also know mama since birth and her parents longer. Our youngest daughter was raised with these 2 girls! Since I was going to miss the baby shower (due to retirement travel), I desperately tried to get this finished before leaving. I managed to finished everything except hand stitching the binding so it came with so I could finish during the car ride. Here are pictures taken on Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. 

I quilted this with several different thread colors. I stitched spirals in the sun and straight line rays. The mountains have straight lines following the peaks and the trees are quilted with triangles. The finished size is 36" x 42". 

I'm linking to Off the Wall Friday @ Creations-Quilts, Art, Whatever, Finished or Not Friday @Alycia Quilts, Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop @Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Wednesday Wait Loss @the inquiring quilter

I also brought some EPP tumblers on our car trip and I managed to finish the last 36 as well as start randomly sewing them together in rows of 10. 

I'm not sure what the layout will be but at least I got a start on some rows. I can always make them longer. I have 300 tumblers.

My final project for the car ride was to work on an old UFO from my cross stitch days. I was inspired to pull this project out when I saw Annie's @Annie's Musings, cross stitch project that she recently started again. I drew up this pattern from a picture I took after we put on the addition to our house! I got bored with it while filling in the sky/background and I haven't worked on it in years!

This is what it looked/looks like!

Before

After

I have put in a few more rows since being home! Maybe this will get finished after all! I still have all the details/outlines to do after the background is done!

PROGRESS!

I will leave the rest of the updates for another post as this has gotten quite long. if you are interested in my vacation pictures you can see them on my instagram or facebook accounts.  Thanks if you have read to the end!