Scrippity scrappity

Pink is the color o' the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and I've finished my three RSC projects for May. Even though I don't particularly like pink, and don't sew with it very much, I still had plenty of pink scraps to choose from. How does that happen? My four pink string blocks are above.

Next are my two pink spiral blocks from the book Cozy Modern Quilts by Kim Schaefer. The pattern is "Maze Madness" and there are blocks with the accent color on the outside of the block and ones with the neutral on the outside. (This book was my first exposure to modern quilting and I fell in love. Not that it's the best book, but just the idea of bold color and geometric design in quilts? Yes, please!)

My clowder of lurid cats has grown by two. I use the RSC color in the background and the color wheel opposite for the cats. The green cat of cat fabrics is very meta.

My muse: grey cat on blue background.

Most of these little projects were completed just before we had a guest aboard this week. I knew I would be dismantling my studio to turn it back into the guest stateroom, so I didn't want to tackle anything large. Much as I hate to stop sewing, it's a good exercise to completely clean up the creative mess a couple of times a year.

I unearthed a bag of Asian-inspired scraps during the process, and decided to stitch up these simple blocks. Just a rectangle with two scrappy neutral strips on opposite edges.

When set with the blocks alternating, a basket weave design emerges. This is a modification of a free pattern called Colorworks, which calls for 4.5" x 6.5" rectangles. I had lots of 6" scraps, so I cut my pieces 4" x 6" instead. I'll add a scrappy neutral border to it at some point which will complete those dangling edge blocks.

I also found my bag of non-quilting cotton scraps: flannels, piques, and corduroys. I don't have room to collect a real stash of these fabrics, so I've decided not to buy any more of them and am trying to just use them up. 

The last bits and bobs in the bag got cut into strings and stitched up into QAYG blocks directly onto batting scraps. There was just enough for two pillow shams, and they were finished in time for our guest to use them. Score!

For the pillow backs, I used more of my decorator-weight blue dinosaur fabric. The pattern almost matches in the middle. Our guest, who has two young children at home, commented that she liked how the pillows have a kid side and an adult side. (And yes, she very much enjoyed her short tropical vacation away from her kids. Her husband is a pilot so she can fly for free, and having friends who just happened to be on their boat in the Turks and Caicos worked out very nicely!)

And finally, I pulled and cut up my fabrics for Tish's Fire Burst mystery QAL. I'm making the 32"x32" baby size and have enough of the navy blue left over to perhaps add a few borders. That blue and white fabric is covered with sweet line drawings of little birds.

The flannel and Asian scraps are all used up, the pink scrap bag shrank a tiny bit, and the QAL pieces fit nicely in a new bag. We enjoyed having our lovely guest aboard for three days and now I'm setting the studio up again. Life is good!