Saturday, October 31, 2015

Getting Into Green

October certainly flew by this year, and the remaining months are sure to be even busier. It felt good to get my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks in brown done a little early, but it left me floundering for something to work on at the end of the month. 

 I never did work on a brown UFO this month, so last week I pulled out a project from a class I took 5 years ago. These Shooting Stars blocks finish at 14" before the triangles around the outside are added. I have the pieces cut and partially stitched for two more blocks, but haven't decided what I want to use them for. I love the block pattern, but don't want to keep making more until I decide where they are headed. When I finish those two additional blocks, they will probably all end up right back in the same box as before

Because I was fairly certain that our RSC color for November was going to be light/bright green, I went ahead and started stitching my lighter green circle appliques. These will be the last blocks to be made for this quilt, and I am going to miss having my circles to sew on the train--time to find another little handwork project for next year. 

I have also started cutting away the background behind the circles. Thanks to everyone last week for your input on whether or not to trim. I decided to go ahead and trim all the blocks so they are consistent. Because I plan this quilt to be a wallhanging, I am not so worried about the stability with the background cut away. Boy, do I wish I had been trimming them as I made the blocks! That job gets tedious very quickly, and I have 120 or more blocks still to go. Then they all need to be squared off to 4-1/2" before I can start joining them together. Can't wait to get this quilt assembled!

I needed to take all the circle blocks off my design wall to put up another project, and I wanted to make it as easy as possible to get them all back in the same arrangement. I don't remember where I saw this idea, probably on someone's blog. I took each row down and stacked the blocks in order on a paper plate. The plates are labelled with the row number and also indicate which blocks are missing (those are the blocks still needing to be stitched.) I hope this helps when I am ready to put all the blocks back up on the wall.


Be sure to check out all of the wonderful scrappy projects at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge every Saturday and at Oh Scrap! over at Quilting is more fun than Housework on Sunday. 

Julie in GA
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

13 comments:

  1. LA PaylorOctober 31, 2015 at 10:01 AM

    well, dish me up a set... these are just so dynamic

    ReplyDelete
  2. QuiltdivajulieOctober 31, 2015 at 10:09 AM

    Love the paper plate idea - easy to stack without getting things totally mixed up!

    ReplyDelete
  3. gayleOctober 31, 2015 at 12:03 PM

    Thanks for sharing the paper plate idea! Very useful.
    Love your circles, and looking forward to the finished quilt!

    ReplyDelete
  4. ValerieOctober 31, 2015 at 4:16 PM

    I have enjoyed your circle blocks all year. I recently purchased the book and hope to make this quilt next year. Can't wait to see yours when it is finished. You have such a great variety of fabrics.

    ReplyDelete
  5. PaulaB quiltsOctober 31, 2015 at 5:30 PM

    Those shooting stars are terrific and large, will make quilt memorable. The lime green is really going to spark things up. Keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete
  6. KateOctober 31, 2015 at 5:42 PM

    Those star blocks would make a cute mini. I love your circle blocks. Those are only 4.5"? Wow that's a lot of small blocks to trim and then stitch!

    ReplyDelete
  7. AngieOctober 31, 2015 at 10:29 PM

    The lime green circles may be my favorite yet!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Nell's QuiltsOctober 31, 2015 at 10:44 PM

    Can you believe you're into the last colour for that dramatic quilt. Great idea using the paper plates to keep everything organized.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Magpie SueNovember 1, 2015 at 1:26 AM

    I know what you mean about making a block or two and then putting them back in the box because you don't yet know what you want to do with them. I have a whole drawer filled with blocks like that!

    I've been saving the cardboard squares that are used to stabilize wall calendars in their packaging. I have enough now to use them to keep blocks sorted and stacked much the way you're using paper plates. (Most of the blocks I make are bigger than your little circles!)

    ReplyDelete
  10. scraphappyNovember 1, 2015 at 11:09 AM

    You are getting so close to being done! Definitely time to start pondering next year's project while you finish up on this one. Looking forward to seeing a finished quilt come together very soon.

    ReplyDelete
  11. CathyNovember 1, 2015 at 3:17 PM

    Oh...I thought the blocks were a lot bigger but now that I see them on paper plates I can see they aren't as large as I imagined. Whatever the size they sure are a lot of fun.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The Joyful QuilterNovember 2, 2015 at 3:38 PM

    Hmm... this will be a tough act to follow. Good luck choosing your next handwork project!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. SheilaNovember 4, 2015 at 6:38 PM

    Wow! Awesome blocks!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...