New Orleans House Project

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Mid-week Rainbows

Today has been designated Rainbow Scrap Challenge progress day - an opportunity for those participating in this year's RSC and RSC Sampler to share their scrappy rainbow progress.

Happily for me, my design wall has been empty for the past few days, so it was easy to pin up my various RSC projects and contemplate where my creative vision may be taking me.

First up, 6 nine patch blocks in rainbow colors.  These blocks finish at 6 inches.  I believe this will be an ongoing RSC project for at least another year, as it will take lots more blocks to make a quilt!

Other RSC participants inspired me to try my hand at maverick or liberated stars.  I'm still getting comfortable with improvisational piecing, but I'm glad I gave these a try.  I'm picturing these set with string pieced blocks in the alternate squares.  This will definitely require more creative playtime!

Sixteen patch blocks are one of my favorite scrap busters.  When I started the RSC this year, I only planned to make the 16 patch blocks, but several months into the challenge I decided I wanted to make these into scrap jar stars.   I didn't use any specific pattern, just made up my own components to fit.  I only recently started assembling the entire star block (the green and yellow blocks above), but I have the HST flying geese components prepared for the other colors.

When I pinned all of the RSC Sampler blocks on the wall, I was just trying to display them for the photograph.  I had been thinking of arranging them in a medallion setting after being inspired by one of the quilts from Barbara Brackman's Grandmother's Choice BOW.  However, looking at the photograph, it's kind of fun seeing them all together without any special setting style.  I'll wait until year is over before I make a decision on this one.

The only block I originally planned to make for this year's RSC was the Carpenter's Wheel.  I've wanted to make a Carpenter's Wheel quilt since my earliest days as a quilter, and I figured the RSC was a great excuse to play with color and piecing at the same time.  Using HSTs for the diamond shapes makes these blocks fairly easy to assemble.  I haven't decided how I will set all the blocks at the end of the year - more creative playtime needed!

That concludes my Rainbow Sampler update.  I'll be linking up with other Rainbow Scrappers over at Angela's blog - I'm sure there will be all kinds of scrappy inspiration!