New Orleans House Project

Saturday, March 7, 2015

RSC 15: Inspired by Yellow

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge color for March is yellow - hurray! Indicative of sunshine, the color yellow is a perfect inspiration for these last dreary days of winter!
I had a ready stash of 2 1/2 inch strips and squares, so making some 9 patch blocks went quickly.  I need 4 more blocks to meet my monthly goal, but I want to make some new yellow scraps before I assemble more blocks.

The 9 patch blocks are going to make a fun quilt, but they're kind of boring to blog about every week.  The yellow scraps were calling out to me for more creative playtime, so I decided to try a block that has been on my quilting bucket list for a few years.
Barbara Brackman's Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns identifies this block as Sugar Bowl.  How could I not want to make this block?  Louisiana is one of the largest producers of sugarcane and refined sugar in the United States.  Etienne de Bore', a planter of French descent, developed the first method for refining granulated sugar at his plantation which is now the site of New Orleans' Audubon Park.  And every New Year's Day for the past 75 years New Orleans has hosted the Sugar Bowl, a college football championship game.

The block was simple enough to construct using 2 1/2 inch strips, 4 1/2 inch strips and the Easy Angle ruler.  It can be made in a variety of sizes, but I chose an 8 inch finished block.  Now I need to decide if I want to keep making these in the RSC monthly colors (reminiscent of Depression glass?) or make some more yellow examples and maybe add some appliqued flowers to herald Spring?  

While I'm thinking about that, I'll be over at Angela's Soscrappy blog, enjoying more sunny yellow inspiration!