2020 Monthly Color Challenge: "Blocks in a Box"

 I have an exciting finish to announce: my 2020 Monthly Color Challenge blocks, from a free Block of the Month offered by Jen of Patterns by Jen, have been successfully assembled into a FINISHED QUILT!

 

I tell my family that any quilt for me is a 3-year endeavor, so to start and complete a quilt in the same calendar year is truly a feat.  Of course, as one of the select bloggers for 2020, I had access to all the block patterns last January. So I was able to piece my top and get it to a longarm quilter in October.  And sewed the binding down the last week in December. Done feels so good!

(c)2021 rainbows. bunnies. cupcakes.

 

The setting here I call "blocks in a box", because it can be used to make a larger quilt out of any collection of blocks of the same size. It looks tricky, giving the blocks the appearance of an on-point setting, without the need for piecing rows on the diagonal.

 

Since I knew this was the setting I would be using, I made some alterations as I was sewing the monthly blocks.  A prime example is April's purple block, where I made the outer block corners from the same mottled purple batik that would form its "on point" frame.

In all, I used ten fabrics to "frame" the 12 monthly color challenge blocks (the flamingo print was used for three of them); seven fabrics were used along the "border" of the quilt, although four of these are repeat fabrics from elsewhere in the quilt (the border looks like setting triangles, but is constructed differently).

 

If you'd like a copy of a simplified set of instructions to sew up this quilt setting, please leave a comment here on the blog, or email me from my profile. Caution: the instructions are simplified because the version I wrote about only uses two colors of background fabric, as seen in this sampler quilt.  I have every intention of writing fuller instructions, just haven't gotten there yet. (Free instructions available until February 28, 2021.)

Blocks in a Box setting in 2 solid colors

Now, back to the Quilt Show! Our Monthly Color Challenge designer/hostess Jen has created a lovely setting for these sampler blocks that uses fabrics from each month in a kind of pixelated sashing/border treatment. If you've been sewing along, you can link up with Jen's Quilt Show, and see everyone else's progress in one place.

And go check out some of 2020's participating bloggers for their final shares.

Joanne - Everyone Deserves a Quilt

Fawn - Quilty Creations by Fawn

Roseanne - Home Sewn by Us

Sarah - Sew Joy Creations

Alla - Rainbows Bunnies Cupcakes (you are here!)

Wendy - Pieceful Thoughts

Anja - Anja Quilts

 

Who is sewing along with Monthly Color Challenge for 2021? I haven't decided yet what Block of the Month I will pick up for this year... and I'm always open to suggestions!

1930's Scrap Quilt finish

I'm happy with posting all these finished projects!  This quilt *may* have been done in 2016--it was certainly well used over the course of this year.

 Last appeared on the blog in June 2016; I had just finished piecing the back at retreat and dropped it off at the long-arm quilter.

Jayne is such a wonderful quilter!  This is the 3rd quilt she's done for me, and I don't think I said much more than, "Please do something in line with the nature of the 1930's timeframe."  She created an amazing border treatment of feathers and waves in the scrappy-cream negative space.

I didn't really love my pieced back, but the quilting really improved its likabiliity.  And has not diminished my using the quilt this year.  It's one of my favorites for napping on the couch.

Successful scrap quilt!  Made from someone else's cast-off scraps, even.  And made entirely from stash, including using up all of a 20+ year old piece of background fabric.

Thanks for a great 2017!  More completed projects need to show up on the blog, and more in-process reporting should happen as the backlog of the unblogged gets sorted through in 2018.

See you next year.

Leftover Minky

A scrap project inserted itself in my February ToDo list--and it's so cute!

A blogging acquaintance alerted me to this project: a triangular neck pillow.  (Free pattern and instructions at the link.) The theme is scrapbusting; this adorable pillow could be made from some unusual scraps.  Yay!

I had some Minky leftover from a couple projects: a fluffy lap blanket and a full-size bed blanket that I made for a Christmas present.  What does one do with long, narrow lengths of fluffy goodness?

Well, it turns out that the pattern pieces perfectly fit what I got had. Even the Echino prints used on one of the three sides were scraps--although I haven't yet made the bag I originally cut out of their yardage. Finally, the lengths of ribbon and twill tape used as handles were also from stash.


Such a win!

And what will happen to these soft, scraptastic pillows?  Well, it just so happens that I have a red eye cross-country flight coming up. And I didn't own a travel pillow... until now.

I'll be sure and report back on how it works out for me.

Sneaky Scraps

Scraps can be pesky--always underfoot, multiplying with abandon (despite your best efforts to eradicate them), mocking you from the safety of their bins and baskets.

One particularly intrepid band of scraps found its way under my sewing machine's needle this past week and demanded I stitch them up.  Cheeky bastards!

These particular scraps were given to me by my stitch-n-bitch friend Pam, after she completed a 1930's quilt for her daughter.  I spent some mental energy in January coming up with a plan for sewing them together, but put them aside as a project for later.

Apparently, *later* is now.

Love those 1930's prints. Sigh.

Made 25 simple 16-patch blocks.  Woop, zoop, sloop!

And, since Monday is vacuuming day and the rugs are all clean, I hadta lay out a few of them to see how they might look with a stash fabric in alternating blocks.

Hard to see, but the stash fabric is actually a very light, small-scale yellow stripe.  Since the only thing I made from it was a couple of baby bibs (and my youngest child is now 22), I'd say it has been in my stash long enough.

Mmmhmm, those sneaky scraps have done it: blindfolded me and made me start another quilt.


What am I to do?  I am helpless in the face of such a coordinated assault...


Linking up with Oh Scrap! hosted each week by Cynthia over at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.

Check out some of the inspired scrap-work that's going on over there!

Ugly Fabric Hides Again

My last sewing act before moving away from Oregon was to make a block for the Ugly Fabric Block Challenge.  This challenge is held every year at Something to Crow About, to celebrate April Fool's Day. The staff picks out a fabric they deem "ugly", and customers are given a free square of the fabric with which to create a 12" block.

2013 Uglies -- sashed and sewn together

I have participated the past 2 years. Challenge blocks get hung up in the shop. Hoppers on the Quilter's Safari shop hop vote on their favorite.  The winner gets pretty fabric from the shop, and all the blocks get sewn together into a charity quilt.

2014

2013

 

Why does "ugly" = browns?

This year, a Hunter's Star pattern caught my eye (on someone's blog--sorry I didn't keep track of it).  An online pattern search led to directions for a 12" block--which included both a template version and a paper-pieced version (yay!) 

Thank you to Marcia Hohn at the Quilter's Cache for her many many FREE patterns.

Hunter's Star is a dark/light contrasting block. I let the ugly fabric form one of the dark choices, and dove into my scraps for 7 other fabrics.  I used some pretty bold patterns (cringe--would they play together well?) but tried to balance with low-volume.  This has/has not worked out for me in the past.  I am a risk-taker, for sure.

What do you think?  Did I manage to create a block that was not-so-ugly?

And how might you have used this brown-and-pansy-purple fabric?

Waving "Hello!"

Border for the Ocean Waves wallhanging is done!

I am *in love* with this pattern.  I loved it when I only had the center complete, and I love it more now that it has a wacky, creative border on it.  I am even thinking about ways to quilt it so that my love par-tay will continue.

My border choice was this jewel-tone aqua batik that I have had in my stash for awhile.  But I didn't have enough of it to do a full border.  And, since the center portion was all scrappy, I was most definitely not going to go out and buy yardage for this task.  My friend (and LQS owner) Kennette said that I didn't want plain borders anyway--I wanted to keep the motion of the center panel of the quilt alive.



So here is my border solution:

continuing the piecing into a few selected portions of the border

adding a dark accent fabric in one corner

adding a light accent fabric in the opposite corner

showcasing a larger portion of the waves print

In the end, I used almost every last scrap of that batik.  Woot!  I am a genius--a thrifty, scrap-happy, not-gonna-take-no-for-an-answer genius.

Yeah, pretty darn pleased with myself.  Linking up with Thank Goodness It's Finished(!) Friday


hosted this week by Izzy at Dizzy Quilts.  Head on over and celebrate some finishes!

Bargello Center Complete

about 36" square, sans border

If I glance back at my goals list for the quarter, item ONE was to finish piecing the scrappy bargello wallhanging.  I'm going to call that goal done, even though the flimsy doesn't yet have a border.

Project reminder: pattern is "Ocean Waves" from the book Twist-and-Turn Bargello Quilts, by Eileen Wright.


I worked on this project like a woman possessed.  I had dreams about how best to manage the tail amounts of fabric scrap I was using up.  My brain put its background processes on a loop of "what's the next step? when can I duck out to the sewing cave and get just a tiny bit more done? how long will that next spot take me? should I go on, or just stop after that row there?"

Yep, that was definitely my ADD brain at work there.  

Pretty proud of my use of scraps, although I really don't seem to have made that much of a dent in my blue scrap bin.  My favorite scrap used?

Lighthouse scrap: all gone!

This lighthouse print.  I only had one strip of it, 22" long and just the right width of 1-1/2".  And it ended up looking so nice next to the wave print!

My obsession with using such small scraps meant that I had to change fabrics mid-stream quite a bit.  There was much fussing and futzing, and some light cursing involved.  But I think I actually relish such stuff; it's the proper balance of minute detail and creative problem-solving, with the added benefit of allowing me to be over-the-top thrifty.

Here's how the change-of-fabric shows up in the finished project: as a fresh pattern in the transition between stair-steps.

 My next bit of scrap-using wizardry is to somehow make a border out of fabric that I don't actually have enough of, but really really want to use.  Umm, yeah.  Stay tuned on that front...

It's WIP Wednesday, so I'm linking up with the fabulous Lee and folk at Freshly Pieced.  So much inspiration!  (That could easily have been where I first got the crazed idea to start this scrappy bargello in the first place--I know it was somebody's blog post that lured me down the rabbit hole.)

Scrappy Bargello

Couldn't help myself: I saw a project on someone's blog, went and got the book, and started cutting.  I am on my way into a new quilt.  (What is it about finishing--or even almost finishing--a quilt that gets me to start something else?  Don't I still have a closet full of WIPs and UFOs?)

 

Can't remember whose recent blog post featured a bargello quilt, but I managed to get the designer's name: Eileen Wright.

I am making the wall-hanging size of Ocean Waves, a basic bargello (at least among this book's designs).

Auditions of blue scraps: 20 fabrics needed

Subtle differences due to sizes of the scraps

And I am doing it in scraps.  Crazy me.  But I am bound and determined to make a dent in my blue scrap bin.


So, the scrappy nature of my endeavor has made the strip piecing a bit more complicated.  But it's all good--I am totally enjoying the process, even though I'm sure it will take me five ten times as long as using width-of-fabric strips would.


I know me: I can complexify anything.

Four rows in and looking mighty fine.

This is my New FO project for June, so I'll be linking up with Barbara at Cat Patches come the end of the month.

Meanwhile, it's Wednesday!  I might as well check out WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.  Give some love to all those crazy souls who just keep a-startin and a-sewin on endless fabric projects.