Pink Palaces {RSC October 2017 + IB Giveaway}

I did technically get three pink blocks done for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge done in October! These three pink blocks bring my house block total to 42.

Originally I had planned to make 48 blocks, I realized that butting all of the blocks right up next to each other might look a little odd so I think I am done making blocks for this top. My plan is to put sashing in between the rows of houses to make each row of houses look like they each are on their own road.

I realized that I never had an Island Batik giveaway in October, so that's on the agenda for today as well! Up for grabs is 20 2.5 inch strips from the Northern Woods Collection along with a 1/4 yard cut of one of the brown prints! I used the other half of the strips in my Faceted Friendship Star quilt.

Want to win? Any comment on this post is entered to win and I'll pick a winner on Tuesday!

Our winner is Dianne from Little Penguin Quilts!

Sharing at Finished or not Friday, Scrap Happy Saturday, and Oh Scrap!

Tangerine Trail {RSC September 2017}

This weekend was a "Sew-in weekend" for me (other than my normal weekend chores) since my husband had to work both days. I have lots of progress to show you this week, including a finished quilt (!!!) on Friday AND a giveaway.

The first thing I worked on this weekend was my Rainbow Scrap Challenge project. I had actually cut out the "sidings" for my orange houses all the way back in July when I needed to use orange strips in my Stash Bee blocks. I still needed to cut the rest of the blocks. I've gotten to the point where I've memorized the cutting directions!

Here are my three orange blocks:

This brings my block total up to 38! I think that I will need to go back through and make one more block in each color to bring my total up to 48 for a 72" x 96" twin sized quilt. Next month is our last month with a color theme for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and it will be pink, I think, since we haven't made pink blocks yet.

I'm also excited to share about a finish that I had a little part in! My sister's best friend from birth is getting married in November and my mom, sister, and I worked furiously in secret to make blocks for a quilt! Amanda did all of the cutting, we each sewed about one-third of the blocks (I did the darker green ones!), and my mom quilted it. The pattern is Ombre Gems by Quilty Love.

Have a wonderful day!

Sharing at Oh Scrap, Linky Tuesday, and Scrap Happy Saturday!

Ivory Drive {RSC August 2017}

I'm back from retreat! It was a wonderful and relaxing time and I can't wait to share more about it tomorrow! But for today, I wanted to share my August Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks that I actually finished on Saturday before leaving for the airport!

Our August color was lights - whites, off-whites, creams, greys, etc. - so I picked three fabrics to make my houses. The left is an old Denyse Schmidt print, the middle is from the backing of my Clover Sunshine quilt, and the right fabric is from Allison Harris's Wallflowers line.

These went together well and I pulled green and blue fabrics (my biggest scrap piles!) for the windows and doors for each.

I made sure that the diagonal strips in the last house are all going in the same direction, which is what I usually try to do with directional fabrics for these houses. I did the same with the green windows in the grey house too!

These three bring up my house total to 35! Just a few more and I'll be ready to start putting the top together. My goal is 42 or 48 for a twin sized quilt.

Happy Thursday! Sharing at Scrap Happy Saturday and Oh Scrap!

Cobalt Court {RSC July 2017}

Another month with more houses added to my subdivision!

I had originally cut out the pieces and parts for three blue houses, but then realized that I had already used on of the fabrics to make a house block when I first started making these blocks. I decided to just make two blocks this month instead, and I'll make another blue one if I end up needing an extra block or two.

Since we're more than halfway through the RSC for 2017, here are all of my house blocks together. There are 32 blocks so far, 10 of which I made prior to this year, the remaining 22 I have made this year.

If I make 42 or 48 blocks, I would have a twin sized quilt without any sashing or borders. We still have the following colors yet to do for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge: orange, pink, black/brown, and whites/creams/tans.

Sharing at Scrap Happy Saturday and Oh Scrap!

Kelly Parkway and Goldenrod Terrace {RSC May and June}

I have finally caught up for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for May and June! May was our month for green and June is our month for yellow.

I made three blocks in each color:

One of the slightly difficult things with my green May blocks is that I had to make sure that the grass green in each block had enough contrast from the green of the house. I think I accomplished that well and only had to switch out the grass on one block.

As of right now, I have 30 blocks (hidden somewhere in my stash!) I might need to locate some additional brown for the roof fabric. I should have enough sky blue fabrics for at least two to three months' worth of blocks. My goal is to have 42 blocks for a 6x7 block arrangement, so I only have 12 more blocks to make over the next 5 months!

Sharing at Scrap Happy Saturday and Oh Scrap!

Piebald Passage {RSC 2017}

It's been awhile since I posted about my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks -- mainly because I haven't made any until this week!

When I made my March blocks, I had used up all of my sky blue fabrics and didn't manage to remember to get more until my mom actually brought me four fat quarters when she came to visit last week! Hopefully they'll last for a good chunk of the remaining months.

In April I was all set to make more blocks, and spent about half of a Sunday afternoon going through my multi-colored fabrics, ironing, and cutting all of the house sections for six blocks and then finally made them this week.

A few of these houses used direction prints and I did a good job while I was cutting to make sure that the pieces would all go in the correct direction (at least, if I remembered to sew them correctly!). Normally I've only been making two of three house blocks in the monthly themed color, but I was surprised by the number of different fabrics that I had that fit the multicolored bill.

I am hoping to catch up with my May green blocks over the holiday weekend! I should have lots of time to sew on Monday. :)

Sharing at Scrap Happy Saturday and Oh Scrap!

Scarlet Street {RSC 2017}

I managed to squeak in three red house blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month. I spent a whole evening just ironing the fabrics and cutting out all of the red pieces for my blocks.

I found just enough solid light blue fabric in my stash to make these three blocks. I tried to use some older scraps for my windows, doors, and grass.

I think I'm actually out of light blue sky fabrics now. I will have to add a little to my stash to keep making blocks. :)

Sharing at Scrap Happy Saturday and Oh Scrap!

Don't forget to join the Christine's Kitchen QAL and share your progress on Instagram to win prizes!

Lilac Lane and Teal Court {RSC 2017}

I got a little bit behind on making my Happy House blocks for my RSC block this year and I finally sat down and got caught up on both purple for January and teal for February.

While I'm still using fabric from my scrap bins for these blocks, they do require slightly larger pieces for my "siding" fabrics, so I actually had to search to find pieces big enough to make a whole house block with my purple fabrics. This is the current state of my purple scrap pile (with iron for scale):

I could fit that into a snack sized zipper bag, ladies. There is hope for the scrap laden and maybe I could get another pile reduced like that over the next year. I had slightly less trouble with picking teal fabrics for houses, but still found that I had mostly small pieces.

I ended up with two purple houses on Lilac Lane and three houses on Teal Court:

One of the reasons I had set this WIP aside is that it requires quite a bit of blue and brown for the sky and the roofs. I had enough scrap for one brown roof and then pulled an older brown fabric from my stash (actually used in this quilt). I found a light blue fabric in my "big scraps" scrap box and used essentially the whole piece to make these five blocks. I'm going to have to either dig deeper into my stash or buy some additional sky blue fabric going forward.

For the doors and windows, I picked fabrics that coordinated and contrasted with my siding fabrics. These pieces each are 2.5 inches wide or tall, so I cut them from my leftover jelly roll strip stash.

Now to wait and see what color Angie picks for March!

Sharing at Needle and Thread Thursday, Scrap Happy Saturday, and Oh Scrap!

Scrappy and Happy {RSC 2017 Plans}

Today is the day to share our plans for our projects for the 2017 edition of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) hosted by Angie at SoScrappy!

Rather than starting a whole new project this year, I am planning to use my WIPs as my RSC projects. I have two projects that will be my main focus:

1. Happy Houses

This is a project on my current WIP list that I haven't worked on in a while. These are Lori Holt houses from an older Quiltmaker magazine and I want to try to make at least one Happy House each month. These do require light blue for the sky and brown for the roofs, so I may need to use yardage (especially of the blue) to continue with these blocks.

2, Top Spin Leaders and Enders

My leader and ender project has made a lot of progress! I'll continue to work on this project all the time (since it is a leaders and enders project!) but I plan to work on it slightly more during the purple, pink, and green months -- including January!

Additionally, I'll be trying to work on whatever other scrappy WIPs that I have that happen to be the colors of the month in addition to my scrappy Stash Bee blocks each month. Purple actually happens to be the color I seem to have the least of currently -- I traded scraps with a friend last year and sent her mainly purple scraps for an all-purple quilt and a good portion of the remaining purple scraps were cut into squares for my Top Spin quilt. 

Sharing at Scrap Happy Saturday and Oh Scrap!

Lately...catching up!

The rough thing about working two jobs and trying to keep up with this blog hasn't been the loss of sewing time (for the most part) but has been the loss of good picture taking hours due to being gone during all the good hours!

I finally got some sewing and picture taking time in yesterday so I'm here to share some updates!

My scrappy neighborhood has grown from five houses to ten!

The bad news is that I've exhausted my light blue fabrics, that is, at least those with pieces big enough to make a whole house. I'm not quite sure what this says about me as a quilter.

I've also been starting to get my January 2015 Stash Bee blocks in the mail! I made the four little blocks you see in the upper right and left hand corners and I think I will need to make a few more small stars as well once I get the rest of the blocks from my hive mates.

I'm very happy with all of the blocks overall! Lots of light blue so far (go figure!) and some beautiful blues!

I also have finished the top of my Wishes Quilt!

I loved being able to use lots of scraps for the border! I have about a fat quarter left of each fabric, so I am trying to figure out if I can use the fabric to make a scrappy backing for this quilt.

Don't forget to nominate your favorite blocks for our QCQAL round 2! Check out more information about the QCQAL here!

Today both Park Ranger Husband and I are on snow day so I'll hopefully be getting some more sewing time in today! (After I clean the kitchen...maybe.)

Happy Sewing!

Linking up with Fabric Tuesday and Linky Tuesday!

WIP Wednesday: Pumpkin Carving and House Building

Not real pumpkins though.

The last time I posted about my October wall hanging it looked like this...

...and I managed to get all of the fusible applique pieces put on this week!

Now I need to get myself to Joann to buy some orange and yellow thread. That's not something a quilter says often. "I need to buy orange thread!"

I also have been making a little happy house here and there from scraps and now have a 5 house neighborhood! (Pattern is from Quiltmaker magazine!)

I've run out of this blue and grey fabric that I have been using for the sky at this point, but I found a solid blue fat quarter in my stash that I think will look good with these ones.

I think my favorite one thus far is the teal one in the center of the bottom row. I managed to fussy cut all of the pieces so that the stripes all go in the same direction -- so fancy!

If you haven't signed up for the 2015 round of the Stash Bee yet, there is still time to do so! Click here to access the sign up link!

Linking up with WIP Wednesday! Click over to see what everyone else is working on this week.

Bits and Pieces

Park Ranger Husband and I went up to Gettysburg and hiked about 2.5 miles. Go us! We're really trying to get our fitness on. He also bought me a Civil War Quilt book!

Do you think this means that he wants me to make him another Civil War quilt? We already have two -- one that I made, and the one my mom made us as a wedding gift (which I don't think I've ever blogged about!)

We also stopped by an AMAZING farm stand on our way home. I am most excited about making some stellar ribs with the apple butter BBQ sauce.

I have been doing a little bit of sewing that I can actually show you now. I have the base for my October wall hanging all put together:

Most of the yellow and orange on black floral print will end up behind the pumpkin. Hopefully this week I can start getting the pumpkin and border decorations (maybe little bats!) attached with fusible web while we watch TV tonight and tomorrow. I decided to skip from February to October so that I can actually use this one once we get back from my sister's wedding! Now to just buy another magnetic wall quilt hanger...

My scrap stash is still out of control, despite starting making my monthly wall hangings, participating in the Stash Bee and the Sew Pieceful Bee, I still have a pile of fabric just sitting on the floor. Oops. So I started making a few of the Lori Holt house blocks in the most recent issue of Quiltmaker. 

These are so cute and fun and I am very excited to make more! It'll be a little "dream house" quilt.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday!