Rainbow Farmer's Wife Quilt {Finished}

In 2016, my Rainbow Scrap Challenge project was to make blocks every month for a Farmer's Wife quilt. I made about a dozen blocks in each color over the course of the year and finished up the top at the end of last year. I used foundation piecing rather than hand piecing and templates.

The top was twin sized and I had it pantograph quilted with a loopy design once I finally decided on and purchased fabric for the backing. I picked it up in Michigan over Christmas with my also-quilted Gathering quilt (hopefully also being finished soon!). 

I trimmed the quilt and saved the big chunks of backing for the binding. I decided to hand stitch the binding to the back since we have spent a lot of time watching movies lately! 

Here it is all finished and ready for snuggling!

The backing and binding are a Michael Miller Chevron print. I wanted some sort of print for the backing, but also wanted something that wouldn't detract from the quite busy top. I thought this print was a good choice and I was very happy to have enough of it to use for the binding as well.

I think that the simple quilting motif is a great choice for this quilt.

Quilt stats:

Name: Rainbow Farmer's Wife

Pattern: Farmer's Wife Sampler

Size: 70 x 90 inches

Quilting: "Raindrops" pantograph

Started: January 2016

Finished: January 2018

Sharing at Finish it up Friday and Scrap Happy Saturday!

Ps. We now have a Honey, Bunny, and Doll FACEBOOK GROUP! Join in to see an early preview of our upcoming quilt along!

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!

April Stash Bee Blocks

This month in the Stash Bee our Queen Bee is Rhonda who requested high contrast scrappy log cabin blocks. She plans to slice each block in half diagonally and then combine the halves with other halves to make even scrappier blocks. It'll be interesting to see how it all comes together!

I sorted all of my scrap bag into pieces that I thought were usable for centers and log rings and got to work! I found that I had to use yardage (or at least, larger scraps) for the outermost rings of the blocks, but I still made a sizable dent in my scrap bag! I made four blocks because they were so much fun!

All of my blocks are larger than she requested by an inch or so -- that way she can trim them down as she chooses.

This also most definitely counts as scrap progress for multi-colored fabrics for April in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge! I was able to make a sizable dent in my bag full of small scraps and strings narrower than 2 inches wide and used quite a few multi colored fabrics in these blocks. Any scrap busting-progress is worth celebrating in my book.

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

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!

Bee Blocks {February 2017}

This month Carmit asked for improv log cabin blocks a la Sunday Morning Quilts to add to a stash of blocks that she has already collected. She gave us a list of how many blocks in each color that she was looking for and we picked which colors we would be making.

She thought I was a little nuts when I told her that I would make three blocks -- one green, one light blue, and one indigo. I was totally serious!

I did make three blocks and I had a lot of fun making them (and used up a ton of scrap!)

I added a few logs to each white center from my string scraps and then added a few pieced logs here and there as I continued to add to the blocks. For the outermost strips, I added slightly wider strips (2.5 - 3 inches wide rather than 1.5 - 2 inches wide) so that Carmit can trim each block down to her desired size.

These were a really quick and easy block to make and I loved using up so much scrap!

Have a happy weekend! Sharing at 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!

Rainbow Farmer's Wife {End of RSC 2016}

It is fitting that today is the last day of 2016, and I just finished the quilt top of my 2016 Rainbow Scrap Challenge project, my scrappy 1920s Farmer's Wife. Before Christmas, I showed my rows partially completed, and I trimmed up the quilt top last night!

Here's my finished top before I trimmed it:

At 67 x 88, it just barely fits into my kitchen. This is a pretty decent twin size, so I don't plan on adding a border. I don't know if I want to quilt this one myself or not, but my goal was to get the top done before the end of the year, and I accomplished that! Hooray!

Last night I got the top trimmed and here it is "in the wild" aka on the dead grass of our apartment complex, which just has to do for the time being.

I was pleasantly surprised by two things in putting this quilt top together. First, I was impressed with how well the colors end up blending from one another in the quilt. I think it helps that I didn't just do lines of each color - I tried to "interlock" each color with the next to make the color changes less abrupt.

Second, I am wildly happy with how nicely all of the different prints, and styles of prints, are playing together. there are a few larger scale prints that stick out more than the rest, but overall, I don't find it to be too busy nor too gaudy. I think the simple grey setting is a huge factor in keeping it from being too much.

Sharing at the last Scrap Happy Saturday of the year! Hopefully by next Saturday I'll have my plan for the RSC 2017!

Happy New Year to you and yours!

Farmer's Wife {In Rows}

The first thing I've been working on from my December WIP-busting list is my Farmer's Wife quilt that I have been working on as a part of the 2016 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

I decided to lay out my blocks in a rainbow ombre fashion (that's the best way that I can describe it!) starting with brown at the upper left corner, then progressing through orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, purple, red, and finally pink in the lower right corner.

Originally, I had planned to use my neutral sashing and triangle fabric with cornerstones, but ultimately decided against it because it was going to be a lot more work. Sure, it would definitely look neat-o, but I think the blocks will "float" more without cornerstones.

I decided to use 1 inch finished sashing for this quilt since the blocks are 6 inches finished. I worked on two rows at a time to get the blocks, sashing strips, and setting triangles into rows.

My goal today is to get the top all together and figure out if it needs borders or not. Sharing at Scrap Happy Saturday!

Scrappy Farmer's Wife {111 blocks}

I have finally finished all of my scrappy Farmer's Wife blocks as part of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for 2016!

Here are my last two individual blocks:

#105 - Wild Goose Chase, #111 - Wrench

I went ahead and laid out all of my blocks. I am very excited to start working on laying them all out in the on-point setting (as in the original pattern, since I did make all 111 blocks!)

I breathed a big sigh of relief upon finishing that last block -- it is so good to have all of them done! I am going to say that I will not be doing another round of 6 inch blocks next year for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge right now!

Sharing at Scrap Happy Saturday and Oh Scrap!

Almost There {Farmer's Wife}

I've been finishing up the last handful of Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for my Farmer's Wife quilt. Since last I posted, I finished six more blocks in various colors. I only have two more blocks to go until I am completely finished! Hooray!

Here are my blocks:

#104 - Wild Geese, #106 - Wild Rose and Square, #107 - Windblown Square

#108 - Windmill, #109 - Windows, #110 - Wood Lily

These blocks will blend well with the blocks that I already made. I have to make the Wild Goose Chase and Wrench (Churn Dash) blocks and then I will be done! Next week I will have a full shot of all of my blocks and start working on setting and sashing my blocks. Hooray!

Sharing at Scrap Happy Saturday and Oh Scrap!

Lemon Zest {RSC October 2016}

I have now completed all of my yellow Farmer's Wife blocks! Hooray!

#92- Streak of Lightning, #96 - Tulip, #97 - Waste Not

#98 - Waterwheel, #99 - WCTU

My favorite out of this bunch is definitely the Waste Not block. I even used fabric left over from my most recent Moda Bake Shop Quilt as the background.

Here's my whole collection of yellow blocks:

I was worried about a few of these being rather light, but I think in the grand scheme of the whole quilt they will work nicely.

I have also managed to complete 4 of the last 12 blocks that need to be made. I decided to make 1-2 more blocks in each color. Thus far I have made a blue, a brown, a purple, and an orange.

#100 - Weathervane, #101 - Wedding Ring

#102 - Whirlpool, #103 - Whirlwind

I have been going through some of my "newer" scraps to make these blocks so that they won't repeat too much from the previous group of colored blocks. I had a little mishap with my brown Wedding Ring block and had to sub in some solid brown after I ran out of my brown print. It's a little more subtle in person than it is in the picture, so I can live with it.

I only have eight more blocks to go until I am done with all 111 blocks! Wow! Doing this as part of the rainbow scrap challenge has been a great choice to manage the blocks and not get overwhelmed in making them, so if you are looking for a project for next year's RSC, I would recommend the Farmer's Wife blocks!

Don't forget to click on over to this post to enter to win a fat quarter bundle of Kitchen Love!

Sharing at Scrap Happy Saturday!

Daffodil {RSC 2016}

This month is our last month for making blocks in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge -- the next two months are for top-making and quilting. October is yellow with orange accents. These two colors happen to be the colors I think that I have the least of.

It seems like there are a lot of basket-style blocks this month! I apologize if some of the blocks are hard to see -- not a ton of contrast in some of these blocks.

#89 - Steps to the Altar, #90 - Storm Signal, #91 - Strawberry Basket

#93 - Swallow, #94 - Tall Pine Tree, #95 - Temperance Tree

I had to scrap my #92 - Streak of Lightning block because I messed up and didn't have enough of the fabrics I wanted to use to complete it! Whoops.

I think my favorite out of these six is the Temperance Tree block -- I used a fun yellow and teal bird print that I just had a little bit of. It ended up being perfect for this block!

Five more yellow blocks to go, then I have 12 to make in a variety of colors to get to the final tally of 111 blocks.

Sharing at Scrap Happy Saturday and Fabric Tuesday!

Peppermint {RSC 2016}

It might be the start of a new month in the RSC but I just finished up all of my September blocks!

#85 - Square Dance, #86 - Squash Blossom

#87 - Star Gardener, #88 - Star of Hope

For Star Gardener, I picked out the small pieces of my scraps and used a whole bunch of them up. Some of the colors repeat once, but many are only used once!

Here are all of my September red blocks:

These are some of my favorites so far! Sharing at Scrap Happy Saturday and Building Blocks Tuesday!

Roses {RSC September}

After another busy weekend last week, I'm finally back with more red Farmer's Wife blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I was able to complete 6 blocks over the last two weeks! Hooray!

#79 Silver Lane, #80 Single Wedding Star, #81 Snowball

#82 Spider Legs, #83 Spider Web, #84 Spool

While I didn't end up using a ton of yellow as accents in these blocks, I did try to use lots of different shades of red in the different blocks. I was also able to find quite a few red and white prints to use as well.

Four more blocks to make this month, and then I'll have 88 out of 111 blocks completed! Since I skipped August, I will need to make a few extra blocks at the end to catch up (I originally planned to do 11 blocks a month for 10 months) and I think I will try to make blocks that "blend" between my already made blocks for when I put it all together.

Sharing at Scrap Happy Saturday!