Scrappy Rainbow Wrap-Up for 2023

The last Saturday of 2023 means that it is time to look back at my different projects for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This was my 11th year of participating in the RSC, and I am so grateful for the encouragement and inspiration every week from the other quilters. Thanks so much to Angela at soscrappy for continuing to host our link-ups. 

My RSC projects for 2023 were a mix of new projects plus a few that carried over from previous years. That combination of new and old will also continue into 2024. For this wrap-up post, I'm going to start with the projects that were new this year, then work back through the older ones.

16-Patch Stars was the first project to be shared in 2023. I made two blocks each month, then in October all twenty blocks were joined together into this bright and cheery quilt top.

16-Patch Stars, 48.5" x 60.5"

Jabberwocky was another of my new RSC projects for 2023. It is a Judy Martin pattern from The Block Book. I believe the book is out of print, but available at a variety of on-line sources. I made three blocks each month, ending up with a total of 28 (I must have made one extra at some point.) Here are some of the blocks as I was auditioning sashing/border fabrics. I hope to get them assembled into a quilt top in January.

Jabberwocky blocks

Another new project for 2023 was the 2023 Table Scraps Challenge at The Joyful Quilter. Each month we used the RSC color of the month along with assigned letters for inspiration to make something from our scraps. I focused on making placemats, most of them from strips and strings, but some from orphan blocks and leftover pieced units. the placemats are being donated to Meals on Wheels through our quilt guild.

Table Scraps Challenge placemats

My last new RSC project for the year started in a class I took in June, A Maze Zing with Candace Hassan. The original pattern produced blocks that finish at 16" x 24", but I scaled mine down a bit to 13.5" x 19.5". I'm planning to turn these into placemats eventually, plus I will continue making more of them in other RSC colors throughout 2024.

A Maze Zing blocks

I have one finished quilt from 2023 that was inspired by our color of the month in April, which was purple. I had been making little 3" 9-patches from purple squares sent to me in 2017 by Jennifer who blogs at Life"s Little Adventures. I combined the 9P blocks with half-square triangles for a small quilt top. That went together with an earlier purple quilt top of 4-patch blocks to make a reversible quilt I named Pretty in Purple.

Pretty in Purple (front) 36" x 48"

Pretty in Purple (back)

My last RSC project for 2023 is one that was started in 2022, the Rail Fence blocks. Each month I made 30-40 blocks in the color of the month. I ended up with over 300 blocks total and used most of them to make two small quilt tops.

Rail Fence Rainbows, 39" x 48"

Rail Fence Zigzag, 39" x 41.25"

It's not my largest output for a year of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, but I'm happy with what got done. I'm hoping to finish more rainbow quilts next year. It's time for me to figure out my new piecing projects for the year ahead.

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. 

Happy quilting everyone!

Julie in GA