Pre-Carnival Fun

You may have heard New Orleans is in the midst of a Carnival celebration.  The week preceding Fat Tuesday, or Mardi Gras, is filled with merriment of all kinds.  It can be a whirlwind of fun or a pain in the behind, depending on your perspective!  Dear Husband and I tend to avoid most Carnival-related activities and escape to our camp until the craziness is over.

The day before Mardi Gras has become an integral part of the celebration.  Lundi Gras (Fat Monday) marks the arrival of the King of Carnival - Rex - who proclaims a day of frivolity and masking for Fat Tuesday.  Me - I just take another day of vacation and hope for Spring-like weather at the camp!

The Spring-like weather was in short supply today, but that didn't decrease my enjoyment of Lundi Gras.  I dug out a long-term project that resides at the camp and had some merriment playing with purple and gold strings.  It was perfect for Carnival, as purple and gold (along with green) are the official colors of Mardi Gras.

It turned out most of my purple fabric stash was also at the camp.  I think my purple string stash was getting low, so I took the stash to add new strings.  Somehow my plans were waylaid by other projects.

Many of the pieces were less than fat eighth size, so I did some strip and string cutting.  Now the purple strings are replenished AND I have some new strips for my scrap collection.

Here's the ongoing string project - spiderweb blocks in purple and gold.  I'm a long way from being anywhere near close to completing this project, so I think I will try to focus on it for the next few months whenever I am at the camp.

Pink Epilogue

It's a new month and a new color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but I wasn't quite finished playing with pink, the February RSC color.

I began this small quilt back in June and since it's pink, I thought now would be a good time to finish.  The fabrics are from a well-aged Robyn Pandolph collection.  I had to piece imaginatively to complete the outer border, but I'm happy with the finish.  Now to get ready for some hand quilting!

Angela added one last pink Rainbow Sampler block to round out the month.  I really wanted to make this basket block, so I kept the pink scraps out for one more day.  The basket was easy to construct and I hand appliqued the handle. 

It makes a nice addition to the other sampler blocks for the month!

The RSC color for March is teal, and I'm sure there will be lots of inspiration from all the Rainbow Scrappers over at Angela's blog.

Pink Wheel Keep On Turning

Pink wheel keep on turnin'

Proud Mary keep on burnin'

Rollin', rolllin', rollin on the river!

I hope you will forgive my word play this morning, but that song kept running through my head as I assembled the rows for my pink Carpenter's Wheel block!

I stitched the final rows together this morning, and went outside (yay - we have sun today!) for some al fresco photographs.  Pink was a great Rainbow Scrap Challenge choice for February - it really helped fight the winter doldrums!

Pink and Blue enjoying a few moments of sunshine.  Seeing these two together makes me happy, as I think I finally have the block construction process fine tuned.

Some additional pink fabrics were sliced and diced this week for the Rainbow Scrap Sampler.  

And I created some architectural elements to go with my 16 patch blocks.  Many scraps were put to good use!

As always on Saturdays, I'm linking up with the other Rainbow Scrappers over at Angela's blog.  See you there!

Civil War Tribute Rekindled

I'm happy to say my enthusiasm for a dormant Civil War BOM project has been rekindled!

I started working on this Civil War Tribute BOM by Homestead Hearth in 2011- fabrics by Judie Rothermel for Marcus Fabrics.  Of course, other projects came along and pushed it to the back burner.

I vowed to get the project re-started this month, and I had a little outside inspiration to help me get motivated.  A Civil War photography exhibit opened this month at the New Orleans Museum of Art and I had the opportunity to view the collection this past weekend. 

The exhibit was a little overwhelming - I may have to go back just to absorb more of the images.  It was wonderful to see many of the well-known Civil War photographic images in person, but what was really moving were all the small, individual portraits of soldiers and/or their loved ones.  I spent a lot of time examining the pictures for details of daily life, especially the clothing and fabric!

So I'm currently up to block 6 out of 12 in the project.  The fabrics look kind of muddy when photographed, but in person they are full of wonderful details.  It helps that quilt historians like Barbara Brackman have helped educate us all on the history of fabric dyeing and textile printing.

One drawback to this project is that although it is called a "block of the month", in reality, the pattern calls for multiple versions of most of the blocks!

I still need to make 3 more versions each of the two blocks on the far right.  The finished quilt will measure 110"x112"; I'm not sure I have a place for a quilt that large.  I may be dreaming up some way to make two quilts from all these blocks!

More Pink Scraps

Not a lot of pink scrappy playtime this week as I was focused on another project.  Some of these blocks were made earlier in the month, but I didn't have the opportunity to post them until today.

Four Corners and Broken Dishes, two of the Rainbow Sampler blocks for February. I really got a kick out of doing the Broken Dishes block with some batik scraps - I could see doing an entire quilt of batik Broken Dishes!

Two pink 16 patch blocks.  I'll be accumulating 16 patches over the year and assembling them with secondary blocks for lots of scrappy fun.

Ditto with the liberated/maverick star blocks.  Just enjoying making them for now and I'll come up with a plan at the end of the year.

My goal for today is to assemble a pink Carpenter's Wheel.  I have the HSTs already cut and organized, so it's just a matter of stitching and admiring.

On the other hand, I've already seen a bunch of wonderful pink inspiration over at Angela's blog - it will be hard to stay focused when my fingers are wanting to play with new creative ideas!

Playtime in Pink

We decided to make an impromptu visit to our camp this morning.  I didn't have any Rainbow Scrap projects organized to take with me, so I just grabbed bags of scrappy pink strips and stashed them in my carryall.  It was still chilly and cloudy when we arrived at the camp, so I got to spend some time playing with pink scraps.

First up, I found some pink 2 inch HST blocks hiding in my collection of crumbs.  I had to make a few additional squares to create a block, but it was quick work using 2 inch strips and the Easy Angle ruler.  This resulted in a 6 inch block (finished), so it will work in with the other Rainbow Sampler blocks.

My next inspiration was just to make some 9 patch blocks with different color variations.  These were all made from 2 1/2 inch strips/squares, so they'll also fit in the Rainbow Sampler.

Happy to see these "low volume" scraps used up!

This block could've been constructed with all squares, but since I had strips, I used that technique.  For a 6 inch block (finished), use five 2 1/2 inch blocks and two 2 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch strips.  

More pink playtime can be found at Angela's blog, where the other Rainbow Scrap Challenge participants are showing off their inspiration!

Slow Sunday Stitching: It's All in the Game!

It's the best of both worlds today - Slow Sunday Stitching meets the Annual American Football Extravaganza!  I've got my projects ready so I can keep my hands occupied while I watch that heady mix of gridiron gladiators and commercial advertising (tongue firmly in cheek here).

I do enjoy American football and I'll be rooting for hometown boy Peyton Manning, but the hype and extravagance surrounding the game are just way too over the top for me.  On the other hand, the plan to sit and stitch throughout the game is a pretty good one!

I was inspired to try my hand at making spool pin doilies a few weeks ago.  Spool pin doilies are fun accessories for antique and vintage sewing machines:  they sit at the bottom of the spool pin and help keep the spool of thread from unspooling too fast.  Bonnie Hunter posted a pattern contributed by one of her readers (left) and I found another pattern at Rose Prairie Quilts and Farm.  I hadn't touched a crochet hook in years, but the technique came back pretty quickly once I started.  I used perle cotton, but I thought my crochet hook was a little too large and wanted to try a smaller size hook.

I finally remembered to pick up some smaller crochet hooks when I went to Hancock Fabrics today.  Those are 1.60 mm and 1.70 mm hooks!  I don't know if this will work, but I'm going to try it.  Making the doilies is actually fun - they work up quickly and the crochet motions are very soothing.  If anyone knows of any other spool pin doily patterns, please let me know!

Just in case the spool pin doilies are not working out, I have my old hand-stitching stand-by.  Yet another quilt binding to hand stitch.  This quilt was begun during the Rainbow Scrap Challenge of 2012.  More rainbow scrappiness was added in 2013.  Once the binding is stitched (and label attached), it will fly off to my sister-in-law.  I'll do a complete reveal when the hand stitching is complete.

It makes me very happy to have good reason to link up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching today.  I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else is slow stitching today!

Carpenter's Wheel Deux & Pink Playtime

Another week with a fair amount of creative playtime, but very little blogging.  I feel a little guilty about not blogging more during the week, but in my defense I work via computer all day.  By evening I often have computer overload and don't even want to read blogs and personal email!  I must do more to get blogs pre-written over the weekend, but in the meantime, I always enjoy Saturday because there's time for quilts AND blogging!

My project this week was to create another Carpenter's Wheel block using HSTs.  I wanted the block to be scrappy, so it took a little planning to get the right combination of fabrics in the half-square triangles.  I wrote down my steps as I went, but what I really need is a schematic to keep all the different HST combos straight.  I'm very pleased with the result and will be using this process to make additional Carpenter's Wheel blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I used 2 1/2" strips and the Easy Angle ruler; the block finishes at 16".

Just for comparison, here are the two Carpenter's Wheel blocks together.  The top version uses diamonds and requires lots of separate seams for all the set-in squares (aka Y seams).  The bottom version uses half-square triangles (HSTs) to create the illusion of diamonds.  Both techniques require careful cutting and precise piecing.  I found the HST version to be more streamlined, i.e. rotary cutter and sewing machine friendly!

I also took advantage of the last days of the month to create a few more blue RSC blocks.  On top, another 16 patch, as I had the cut squares on hand and 16 patches are such great pattern builders.  Center - another liberated star block; not quite as wonky as I'd like, but still a great scrap-buster.  Bottom:  the last Rainbow Sampler block for January, a 36 patch.

Getting a head start on February, I couldn't resist trying the first Rainbow Sampler block for February:  Baby Nines.  Baby Nines is right, those 9 patch blocks are made with 1" strips!  It was a fun challenge, but I don't think I want to make any more.  The aggravation is not so much in using small pieces, but in having to be accurate.  Crumb piecing and wonky log cabins with small pieces are a little easier, because accuracy is not part of the equation!

I've pulled out the pink crumbs and some small, folded scraps, but I don't have a lot of pink scraps to draw on this month.  That's OK, there's lots of pink fabric in the stash, so I guess I'll be making scraps this month!

There will be lots more pink inspiration from the other Rainbow Scrappers, so please join me in stopping by Angela's blog to see what everyone is up to!

A Big Batch of Blue

I'm pretending it's late on Saturday evening as I write this post.  I was just too tired to actually write it last night, so I'm playing catch-up this morning.  All in all, it was a good week for the blues...blue scraps, that is!

I indulged in more creative playtime this week, and came away with a smaller wonky star block.  The four patch center works great for using up additional scraps, but allows for a down-sized block.

Size comparison:  the bottom block was made with 3" squares to accommodate a crumb-pieced center.  I found the finished 9" block to be too large, so I scaled down to 2" squares for a 6" finished block.  I've got another idea for crumb blocks, so all the crumbs will still get used - eventually!

More creative playtime!  Angela posted the instructions for a 54-40 or Fight block for the Rainbow Scrap Sampler.  The instructions call for using the Tri-Recs ruler, a tool I owned, but had never used.  That ruler is now one of my favorites, and I can't wait to try some more blocks constructed in this manner.

Another of this week's Rainbow Sampler blocks.  I changed the orientation of the fabrics to feature the blue & white print that looks like transferware plates.

Another RSC Sampler block:  Happy Squares.  Indeed!

Blue sampler blocks to date.  It's been fun keeping up with these blocks - most of them seldom take more than an hour to complete, so it's not difficult to finish one in the evening before end of the day fatigue really sets in!

Here is the reason I didn't get my RSC post written on Saturday.  I was determined to finish piecing my first Carpenter's Wheel block - my challenge to myself for this year's RSC.  This version of Carpenter's Wheel uses diamonds and machine piecing.  The finished block is 18 inches.  The drawback is the diamonds are pieced one seam at a time, essentially using the machine in the same manner as hand-piecing.  Slightly faster than hand-piecing, but tedious!  I'm sure if I kept playing with the process, I'd come up with ways to speed things up, but I don't think I'm going to keep playing with this process.

My plan for this week is to try making the CW block using HSTs.  There are lots of instructions to be found online; Quilter's Cache has a good example.  

I enjoy hand-piecing a great deal, but I don't really want to hand-piece 12 of these blocks.  Maybe I'll make just one giant block, but probably not as part of the RSC.

Anyway, there's no lack of inspiration when it comes to fabric and quilt blocks.  I'm going to go link up with the other Rainbow Scrap Challenge stitchers at SoScrappy, so do check out their inspiration as well!

Wrangling the Blues

It's Saturday, and that means it's time to talk about Rainbow Scrap progress!

Angela posted two blocks this week for the Rainbow Sampler:  Tic Tac Toe (left) and Monkey Wrench.  Or Churn Dash, the name I usually associate with this block.  Churn Dash is one of my favorite quilt blocks; I could easily get carried away and decide to make an entire Churn Dash rainbow quilt!  I must resist....I must resist...

I have a huge collection of 2" square scraps, so it was a no-brainer to make a 16 patch block.  The 16 patch is a great scrap-buster and building block for a variety of quilts, so I'll keep adding these in all the rainbow colors.

I was inspired to try my first wonky star this week.  There are lots of names for this technique: Liberated Stars (Gwen Marston) or Maverick Starts (Bonnie Hunter), and just as many tutorials.  My star has a crumb-pieced center and I used triangle shaped scraps for the star points.  Everything in this block came from the crumb jar or scrap bin, so I'm a happy camper.  

This will finish as a 9 inch block.  I think I'd be happier with a slightly smaller size block, but I thought the crumb center needed to be at least 3 inches to avoid too many seams and teeny-tiny pieces.  Maybe my next attempt will have a 4 patch center instead of crumbs.

Last but not least, I have been working on marking the sewing lines for the Carpenter's Wheel block.  Even though the pieces for the block are rotary cut, it's necessary to mark the intersecting seam lines to assist in sewing the dreaded "Y" seams.  I want to try to have the block all pieced by next Saturday; then I'll have a better idea of how the whole process will work.

There's lots more blue scrappy goodness to be seen at today's Rainbow Scrap Challenge link up, so I hope you'll check out the inspiration there!