Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Rainbow scrap challenge


This year for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC), I'm trying some different blocks. First up are crumbs or slabs. Anything goes with these, just stitch similarly sized pieces together and trim to a nice, neat final square. Very satisfying! I had a LOT of little pieces of red for January, and ended up with nine 8.5" square crumb blocks. This is really mindless sewing and great to use as leaders/enders. I have a few chunks of yellow pieced together for Febuary, too.
 

These blocks are a pretty simple rail fence variety. Three strips cut at 2.5" x 8.5" and two at 1.5" x 8.5". For RSC, I decided to cut the larger strips in the monthly color, with the skinny accent strips in the adjacent hue on the color wheel. So for yellow, some blocks have orange accents, and some have yellow-green accents.


Here are the red blocks from January, with purple or orange accents. I'm hoping that the resulting quilt will have a really nice transition from color to color. So far it's really striking to me how those accent strips really change the look of the blocks. And it really burns through my stash of strings!


For my more elaborate RSC block, I've decided to do Bonnie Hunter's Scrap Crystals. The background will be dark blue for each block, and the star points will be the monthly color. The star centers will be one third of the way around the color wheel. So for yellow, blue is the center color. Light blue allows some contract with the background.


Here is the red star points block, with yellow as the center color. I'll end up cutting from two colors each month instead of just the one RSC color, but that's OK.



I'm glad that yellow was chosen for February because I already had my yellow scraps pulled out. The block lotto for the Sunshine Online Guild calls for blue and yellow block in January. I had a few orphans lingering from other projects and was able to add borders to bring them all up to 12.5". These are leftover blocks from two different mystery QALs.



In other scrap news, I received this super fun stack of fabric from Cynthia of Quilting is More Fun Than Housework. It's all fish and fishing themed: trout, fishing poles and hats, water, etc. She was ready to pass it along to someone in exchange for some aqua scraps, so it worked out nicely for both of us. I have a small collection of other angling fabrics, and I'll use them to make a wheelchair quilt or two. Thanks, Cynthia!

15 comments:

  1. Loving your well thought out color theory. Everything is coming together nicely.

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  2. lots of different blocks. I always mean to try the crumb blocks (or improv type). All your blocks are lovely and a clever way of using up pieces....
    Hugz

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  3. I always enjoy seeing what you are working on. You have some bright, cheerful blocks and projects. Those Bonnie Hunter blocks are really pretty!

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  4. Wow! You have some GREAT plans in the works. I'm looking forward to seeing your collection at the end of the year! You really have wonderful color sense. Where do you get all these ideas?

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  5. Jealous of all your scrap piecing time!

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  6. Your red and yellow blocks are looking great. I particularly like your plans for the Scrap Crystals block from Bonnie Hunter. Glad to see you back to blogging again....

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  7. You never cease to amaze me with your well thought out scrappy creations. Very nice! I’m sure you’ll make a wonderful wheelchair quilt with those new fishing fabrics. They’ll be perfect for a manly quilt.

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  8. You have so many great block ideas! I especially love the Scrap Crystals blocks - they will make a wonderful quilt!

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  9. I like what you're doing here with the blocks for RSC, adding the next colour for the current month to a few of the previous month's blocks.

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  10. You've got some bright and fun RSC projects going for this year. I really like the Bonnie Hunter blocks.

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  11. You seem to be happily sewing along, Louise! Lots of fun blocks going on here. The blue and yellow block is especially wow!!!

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  12. Super blocks! I love working with crumbs too. And just today I read Bonnie Hunters’s post of teaching Scrap Crystals in Texas. I have all her books and that quilt has always been on my radar. But now I think it’s moved way up the list. Yours are so beautiful with a dark blue background!

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  13. What wonderful ideas to pep up RSC blocks, Louise! I've struggled with RSC this year, so I'm looking at these for inspiration.

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  14. Your RSC Scrap Crystal blocks are gorgeous (and who better to get Cynthia's fish fabric than YOU!!)

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  15. SO many fun projects. Love the thought you put into the star blocks!

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